Alright, I’ll do that. Thanks. 
I love my online life, I swear. I love it that people WILL tell you what they think, for better and worse. And 'round these parts, people generally make sense (plus they can SPELL!) ;)
Yeah, agreed. If he moves somewhere else, I’m sure there will be another overprotective mom giving him the stink eye and trying to get him to move. And I don’t think it’s realistic to say that he can’t live anywhere near kids. There are always going to be kids SOMEwhere.
Exactly. I don’t know why people think this means anything. There could be several sex offenders, tax cheats, software pirates, embezzlers, etc. in your neighborhood that you don’t even know about. Because they haven’t been caught.
There’s a registered sex offender in my neighborhood, about three houses down. A number of kids live on our street, but we generally are out with our kids at all times. There really isn’t any reason to be paranoid. The person served their time so I do not see a reason to perpetuate their punishment. I just have to be a smart parent and keep out a watchful eye - which I would do whether I knew their was a sex offender on my block or not.
I’d be much more worried about the other neighbors that fire guns all weekend. Never know where a stray bullet might go!
Yeah…it’s kind of surreal that the OP is posting about a sex offender who’s targeted an adult woman in the past, and has posted a lot of other threads making it clear she worries about her kids…and yet this gets mentioned without any concern.
No, renters do.
Just like any disease, it’s the one you don’t know about that will get you. You’re watching the guy who has a history unrelated to the demographic you’re worried about and ignoring everyone.
Let me just add one more vote to “leave the guy alone” advice. If he starts causing trouble–and not just minding his own business, I’m talking real trouble here–then your best bet is to contact the police.
But playing armchair psychologist for a sec, when you mentioned that your sister was nearly robbed and that your father-in-law had stage IV cancer, I get a sense that his moving in was just the last straw.
Ignore him, and he’ll almost assuredly ignore you.
I don’t know if people realize it, but “Sexual Battery” is rape. Some states call it one thing, some call it the other. It’s not a lesser form of rape. In this case, it is rape with violence/force. Nowhere does it say it was his 40-year-old girlfriend, just that the victim was 40 years old. I’m with the OP on this. Joey P. has very good advice. Find out what exactly he has done, so you’ll know what you’re dealing with. I don’t think you’re overreacting at all. There is a reason neighbors are notified when violent sex offenders move into the neighborhood. Some do reoffend. Read the case file and talk to his parole officer. If it seems like something that is unlikely to happen again, you’ll know. If not, don’t try to annoy him. Track down the landlord. He might be responsive.
I sympathise with Fessie but like the other posters don’t believe you can or should do much. It may have been one off.
On the other hand you could play Barry Manilow records.
I would agree with getting more info.
You have no idea what the “real” story is - were he and the woman both alcoholics and drunk at the time? Not that that would be an excuse, but might explain the situation. Maybe he is in AA now. Was it an ex-girlfriend or wife with a grudge and a good lawyer? There are always two sides to a story, and just because he is now a registered sex offender, doesn’t necessarily mean he is/was on the rampage for any woman he could/can find off the street.
You may be right, and this guy could be a sleezeball - but until you know for sure, I would cut the guy some slack and just not invite him over for late night drinks.
Isn’t that like always flying with a bomb in your suitcase, because the odds of there being TWO bombs on the plane are astronomically low?
I am feeling all sorts of uncomfortable with this whole conversation.
It was one case, not known where, or what were the facts surrounding it - yet considering tactics to make life miserable for the poor guy.
I’m an Ivy-League grad, with a full-time faculty position at a local community college, My (unmarried) partner is an educated technical consultant with a good steady job. We don’t have children or host loud parties. We clean up around our unit, including sweeping, shoveling, planting, mulching, etc.
So, it’s nice to know that no matter how hard we work to fit in or what we do to take care of our unit, someone will think we’re scum because we rent instead of own.
I appreciate the education. Thanks for the contempt.
As other has stated, 40 yr old rapist =/= pedo.
More importantly, given that the majority of sexual violence is perpetrated by friends or family members, you’re wasting your time and giving yourself a false sense of security by focusing on “stranger danger”.
I try not to judge, but unfortunately where we lived before moving to Connecticut the residence backing up to our house was a rental [the only one on the block] and there was a succession of scum that moved in. Randomly - first year they threw ‘BBQs’ and invited a couple friends over pretty much 3 or 4 times a week the entire summer. We got tired of guys barfing over the fence into our yard and pissing into the yard through a broken board section [that we kept asking their landlord to repair. It wasnt our fence]. Second year there were 3 renters. The first got busted for making meth, The second punched out the neighbor on the other side when he asked them to stop repairing a jacked up truck in their yard at 3 in the morning [you know the eternal rev rev rev sput sput rev rev VROOM sput sounds…] and got arrested for assault. THe third guy was sneaking over and running a hose from our outside tap to wash his cars three or four times a week, water his yard, and ran it into his house for some unknown reason. I finally had to walk out and threaten him to get him to stop, which didn’t work so we simply cut off the water to our outside tap and installed a pair of very large dogs in the yard.
I have no problem with apartment units. When I lived in the slums of 13th Bay st in Norfolk [and back in the 80s, it was a slum] we had bikers, whores and other assorted scum sprinkled with sailors and other people that didn’t make a lot of money. Other than the bikers tendencies to play target practice with the transformers and whatever, and the occasional drunk we didn’t have problems like that. Nobody stole my water or other utilities, nobody threatened me or punched me out, and oddly enough, people mowed lawns and repaired motorcycles and cars at reasonable times. They acted worlds better than the scum that rented the single family detatched house in Craddock [an historic district in Portsmouth. First planned military housing community in the US. It was actually a fairly nice place to live. We were in what would have been officer housing.]
Trust me, you can move wherever but someone is going to be around who’s an “undesirable” type. I live in an extremely well-to-do suburb (I’m a heathen renter, but the housing bubble is what drove these property values down), and I just looked it up - three registered sex offenders living in my ZIP code, two classified as “sexual predators” (Illinois categorizes them as using violence, attacks on children, or repeated sexual assault offenses), and one of the three lives about 2-3 blocks away.
It really, really sucks that this guy moved in right next to you, and I’m sorry you have to deal with this. However, consider that this is someone whose past you know about, so at least you know to be wary.
Now you’re leaping to conclusions - I know a little bit about most of my neighbors. Know that we have a bunch of professors and artists living back in these old houses with the tall trees. And some college kids, who are remarkably well-behaved.
Plus one family with a tragic past - the mom sustained a brain injury and she doesn’t always make sense. Her sons, age 8 and 11, get into a fair amount of trouble in school for small mischief, but they’re really good with our kids so we let them play. With supervision. We’re hoping that success with us will bring more successes for those boys.
I know a dozen of my neighbors reasonably well, and another dozen well enough to wave and smile and chat a bit when the weather’s nice and people are out walking their dogs.
And I don’t like the target practice guy, but the law protects his behavior. I’ve inquired. I think there’s about an acre of woods and a row of houses between his house and ours, but the noise carries.
Oh – and we rented FOREVER. My husband has a Ph.D. but we just couldn’t afford to buy until I was 41 yrs old. No, I’m not biased against renters. I have many, many good friends who rent homes and apartments.
I don’t know where the OP lives, but the above is a far too broad generalization.
Some states use “sexual battery” to refer to a number of sexual assault crimes and divide them up by category, i.e. first degree, second degree. Some states use “sexual battery” to mean unwanted groping, and call rape “rape.”
I lived in one quiet suburban neighborhood for 5 years without knowing that the guy across the street was molesting his young daughter. Word got around at the time of his conviction and sentencing. He was a police officer.
By the way, bullets can easily fly across an acre’s distance, especially if someone’s using a high-powered rifle. I’d be more worried about Mr. Target Practice than someone with a single rape conviction.
And the horseflies attracted to fresh manure are not going to distinguish between his house and yours when looking for fresh, uh, targets of opportunity.
Then steer clear of him. If he is violent, you really don’t want to be top of his revenge list as “that bitch who deserves it.” Far better you don’t attract his attention at all than attract it negatively.