There are worse things in life

What do these men have in common?



Kenneth Stone


Corey Saunders


David Flavell

Before I answer that question, I'd like to go back a moment to the petition we talked about HERE. Alex Marbury and Paul Shannon want to reform sex offender laws. I'm sure you'll recall. Some of the things they called for was abolishment of age of consent laws and requiring children to be responsible for their own abuse. They also want to abolish the death penalty and life sentences. They want to abolish the sex offender registry and ban you from knowing if your neighbor is a convicted child molester under great penalties to you if you should find out. But they also want to abolish civil commitments. Because after all they've served their time. Haven't they? And according to Alex and Paul these changes are the only things that will keep people safe from sexual offenders.

Alex and Paul recently sponsored a rally to gain support for releasing violent sexual predators deemed at high risk to re-offend from their civil commitments. We didn't talk about this rally, because, well we wanted to see how it would go without our commentary. And one of the main speakers Tom Madison of SoClear Media Productions didn't want anyone to find out, which is comical really when you think about it. Have a rally to gain support but only let those who already support you know about it. Chalk one up for The Anti's.

If these people had a valid counter-argument for our opinions they would have WANTED us drawing attention to it. Nor would Alex and Paul make statements such as this

"Because a previous demonstraton in Ohio by sex offenders and their families was harrassed by bigots, you should be prepared for this possibility."

"Ask any friends you tell about this to keep the time and place of the rally confidential."

Hmmmm, harassment which consists of writing counter opinions and peacefully counter demonstrating. Seems to me these guys are flat out un-American. Not to mention whiney victim cryers. If we speak out about their rhetoric that makes us vigilantes. But of course we already knew this wasn't the brightest of the bright, eh? It's just merely another form of blame gaming which goes hand in hand with their distinct brand of mental illness.

Nevertheless, the rally went as planned. Very few people attended of course, mainly those who had a loved one confined at Coalinga State Hospital for violent sexual predators. And we didn't even have to hijack this rally for it to be an utter failure. Hey! Our strategy proved once again to be right on.

One of the attendees said that her loved one was confined there due to a sexual offense he committed while on parole for another sexual offense but then stated "He's no different than any other criminal, he's served his time". That's an example of an enabling apologist in denial.

These guys want out. They've tried lots of ways. They've held hunger strikes, seemingly oblivious to the obvious continued mentality of using manipulation as a tool. They refuse to accept treatment and they call the hospital a 'concentration camp'. I don't know about you, but if they want to hold a hunger strike I say more power to them. I'll put my support behind that, sure. Who do they think they are? What kind of sexual offenders would say "If you don't let me outta here I'm gonna quit eating"? My opinion is that it's the type of sex offenders who should be civilly committed to the Coalinga State Hospital for sexually violent offenders at a danger to re-offend. But, that's me.

Tom Madison disagrees however. From KMPH

But registered sex offender Tom Madison says, he doesn't think the extra treatment is worth the sex offender's time or the taxpayer's dollars.

"They simply want to get on with their lives, but the fear and hysteria is in the stratosphere today," said Madison.

Rather than talk about the predators that society is currently safe from - those being held at Coalinga. I think we should talk about violent sexual predators who were released from prison "after serving their time" - and despite evidence that they were still dangerous and likely to re-offend - were NOT civilly committed as requested. Let's talk about 3 of those. Released by the same judge. Judge Moses.

First up we have Corey Saunders, with previous convictions for rape of a child with force and assault and battery of a child, Judge Moses didn't believe the evidence that he was at a high risk of re-offending. No, he said, Corey hadn't re-offended in 7 years. Ignoring the fact that he was in prison during those 7 years. Corey raped a 6 year old boy in the library shortly after release.

Then we have David Flavell, who "had been arrested and convicted on a variety of sex offenses between 1996 and 2003, including masturbating in public, threatening children and brutally beating and attempting to rape a woman in Methuen. That 1996 attack took place just hours after he’d been arrested for masturbating in a department store." Judge Moses refused to commit him, he didn't believe he was dangerous. No, not David. He was arrested in January for peering into a womens restroom stall. "Flavell was carrying a backpack with three pairs of work gloves, a ski mask and a roll of duct tape and had put a magazine rack outside the ladies room to make it appear it was out of service"

How about the latest case of irresponsibility committed by Judge Moses. Kenneth Stone "In separate incidents in 1989, 1991 and 1995, Stone was convicted of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or older and in May of 1991 and again in October of 1991 he was convicted of assault with intent to rape." Now in February, after Judge Moses ruled he was fit to be returned to society, Stone has been arrested for raping a man......less than three weeks after the Judge let him go free.

The issue

At issue is a state statute which allows the district attorney to petition to have sex offenders who’ve completed their criminal sentences declared sexually dangerous and civilly committed much the way a person deemed a danger to himself or others may be committed to a psychiatric hospital.

ABC Channel 6 news did an investigative report on Moses on Feb. 7, in which reporter Jim Hummel analyzed 42 sexually dangerous person petitions in Bristol County in the past seven years. Of those, judges granted the petitions half the time, Hummel reported.

Moses was the only judge who released every offender who came before him, a total of six, including Stone, Saunders and Flavell

THOSE are men who should have been civilly committed. Those are men just like those in Coalinga Hospital that Tom Madison feels we don't deserve protection from because

• A. It's not fair to the offender
• B. It costs too much money
  

Funny thing about that is, the only people complaining about how much it costs are sex offenders. Those of us who aren't sex offenders - 99.8% of the population....are more than willing to pay the price. Although, if they want to argue COST, I'd be more than happy to lobby for the death penalty for child molesters. Conviction.....appeal.....execution. That would certainly solve the problem of sexually violent deranged individuals. It'll save us money and they can't re-offend! I suppose one might say

"There are worse things in life than being on a sex offender registry"

or perhaps they might say

"There are worse things in life than being confined in Coalinga State Hospital for the sexually violent predator"

That logic is good enough for me because after all Jan Kruska says:

"While sexual abuse is despicable there are indeed things that are much worse in life"

Graphics courtesy of Jacey