haswtch
04-21-2004, 01:11 PM
I thought this was a remarkable job of reporting:
You're lying about me, sex offender tells Kirwan
By Ben Montgomery
Times Herald-Record
bmontgomery@th-record.com
Newburgh – "One more word and you're out of here," state Assemblyman Tom Kirwan was shouting in his office yesterday morning as the TV cameras rolled and the reporters scribbled in their notebooks.
"If we need to get the cops to get you out, we will."
Horace Judson, a man convicted of raping a woman nearly 30 years ago, leaned forward.
"You don't need to threaten me with the police, sir," he shot back.
"Well," Kirwan said, "not another word."
The words would come later, loud and fierce. But it was still Kirwan's turn.
The whole thing started simply enough: The tough-talking cop-turned-state-assemblyman called a news conference to slam the state for dumping parolees in Newburgh and for stalling on assigning a risk level to sex offenders convicted before Megan's Law took effect in 1996. He used Horace Judson as an example. He didn't know Horace Judson would show up. Kirwan said Judson broke into a college dorm in Brooklyn in 1976 and raped and sodomized a female at knife-point. Now Judson lives in a tidy apartment complex across the street from Mount Saint Mary College. Kirwan called him a monster.
He said people should know that their neighbor was a rapist.
"This is just insane that this could happen," Kirwan said, "and there's no way that people can know about this."
ALTHOUGH JUDSON'S name is listed on the state's sex offender registry, one cannot learn through the Internet or the state's 800-number the risk he may pose to the community. That's because a federal judge ruled that the state's way of evaluating the risk level of sex offenders was unlawful. Since that ruling in 1998, the state has not held one hearing to make final determinations of the risk levels of 7,900 sex offenders.
Laura Ahearn, executive director of Parents for Meagan's Law, said the information gap has already likely caused at least one death.
"[Department of Criminal Justice Services] was supposed to take care of those hearings, and they didn't," she said.
She said Faye Cohn of Schenectady combed the state's sex offender registry when she became suspicious of her estranged boyfriend. The woman was unable to find information on the man on the state registry before he stabbed her to death two months ago. That's only one example, she said, and "there must be many more."
Ahearn said the delay is a money issue.
"If you figured that 5,000 of them would want to have hearings, that's going to cost millions of dollars," she said.
Division of Criminal Justice Services spokesman Scott Steinhardt said Gov. George Pataki and the state Senate favor making information on all sex offenders available on the Internet, "but the Assembly has repeatedly shot it down."
Regardless, Kirwan said it's time to establish a way to assign sex offenders a risk level so the public has access to the threat they pose.
"Why haven't we complied with this order?" Kirwan asked. "There are monsters in our midst, the police know they are monsters but they cannot tell us because of this ruling." Judson, Kirwan said, is one of them. He lives near a college.
THE BIBLE ON the kitchen table in Horace Judson's apartment was open to II Corinthians. He had highlighted a passage: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.
The 54-year-old who found a wife and God in jail said he has not been in trouble since he was released from prison in 1990. He has a cozy living room, a big-screen TV, a shiny Ford Explorer and he worked hard for all of it, he said.
"He's been a clean-cut guy as far as I know," said the Rev. Eula Mae Turner Brock, a local pastor who has known Judson for 20 years. "I think he's a pretty decent guy."
And the rape? Judson's bottom lip trembles when he's asked about it.
He said it stemmed from a domestic dispute he had with a single mother of two who lived in the East New York section of Brooklyn in the 1970s, Judson told the Record Saturday morning. The former Black Panther member said he stole her welfare check and moved in with another woman in South Carolina.
When he got back to Brooklyn, the woman was mad. Judson was drunk. They fought. She accused him of rape. He was convicted of rape, sodomy and burglary and served 13 years. He's been free for the past 14 years.
He said it had nothing to do with a college student and did not occur in or near a college dormitory.
"230 New Lots Avenue, I think it was," he said. "Nowhere near a college."
Though he's lived in relative obscurity since his release from prison in 1990, he says he knew all this would come out some day, even if his sins are nearly 30 years old. He didn't know it would happen the way it did.
WHEN THE media questions stopped coming in Kirwan's office yesterday, it was Judson's turn.
"Do you know that what you're putting out to the public is false?" Judson said, his voice rising. "You're lying."
Kirwan stood by his information, but wouldn't give up the source. Kirwan stood up. Judson walked forward. Eyes got big and spit flew as reporters scribbled on their pads and held their microphones closer.
"If you raped and sodomized a woman, I don't give a goddamn where it was!" shouted Kirwan. "You shouldn't be living anywhere near a college campus."
The exchanges continued. Judson said the accusations made him feel persecuted.
"I see," Judson said as he stepped backward out the door, "A white politician's gonna slander me to elevate his career."
The reporters followed Judson to the parking lot. Kirwan fiddled with his belt buckle.
Provisions of Megan's Law began when law took effect
Megan's Law allows the state to release different amounts of information on sex offenders to the public depending on what risk level the sex offenders have been assigned. Risk levels are assigned based on the likelihood a sex offender will commit another offense. Police can release a considerable amount of information on Level 3 offenders – those deemed most dangerous – but can release little information on Level 1 offenders.
Because of a ruling by Federal District Court Judge Denny Chin, the state is prohibited from releasing the names and addresses of 7,900 sex offenders who were convicted before Jan. 21, 1996, when Megan's Law went into effect. The ruling does not affect anyone convicted after Jan. 21, 1996.
City seeks injunction against parolee dumping
A day after nearly 100 people protested the placing of sex offenders in Newburgh, state Assemblyman Tom Kirwan said he's lending his support to the city in seeking an injunction to stop the state Division of Parole and the Orange County's Department of Social Services from placing paroled sex offenders in Newburgh.
"Should the city's corporation counsel have a problem with this action, attorney Michael Mazzariello has agreed to file an injunction [for free]," Kirwan said.
The city's corporation counsel is working on the injunction.
You're lying about me, sex offender tells Kirwan
By Ben Montgomery
Times Herald-Record
bmontgomery@th-record.com
Newburgh – "One more word and you're out of here," state Assemblyman Tom Kirwan was shouting in his office yesterday morning as the TV cameras rolled and the reporters scribbled in their notebooks.
"If we need to get the cops to get you out, we will."
Horace Judson, a man convicted of raping a woman nearly 30 years ago, leaned forward.
"You don't need to threaten me with the police, sir," he shot back.
"Well," Kirwan said, "not another word."
The words would come later, loud and fierce. But it was still Kirwan's turn.
The whole thing started simply enough: The tough-talking cop-turned-state-assemblyman called a news conference to slam the state for dumping parolees in Newburgh and for stalling on assigning a risk level to sex offenders convicted before Megan's Law took effect in 1996. He used Horace Judson as an example. He didn't know Horace Judson would show up. Kirwan said Judson broke into a college dorm in Brooklyn in 1976 and raped and sodomized a female at knife-point. Now Judson lives in a tidy apartment complex across the street from Mount Saint Mary College. Kirwan called him a monster.
He said people should know that their neighbor was a rapist.
"This is just insane that this could happen," Kirwan said, "and there's no way that people can know about this."
ALTHOUGH JUDSON'S name is listed on the state's sex offender registry, one cannot learn through the Internet or the state's 800-number the risk he may pose to the community. That's because a federal judge ruled that the state's way of evaluating the risk level of sex offenders was unlawful. Since that ruling in 1998, the state has not held one hearing to make final determinations of the risk levels of 7,900 sex offenders.
Laura Ahearn, executive director of Parents for Meagan's Law, said the information gap has already likely caused at least one death.
"[Department of Criminal Justice Services] was supposed to take care of those hearings, and they didn't," she said.
She said Faye Cohn of Schenectady combed the state's sex offender registry when she became suspicious of her estranged boyfriend. The woman was unable to find information on the man on the state registry before he stabbed her to death two months ago. That's only one example, she said, and "there must be many more."
Ahearn said the delay is a money issue.
"If you figured that 5,000 of them would want to have hearings, that's going to cost millions of dollars," she said.
Division of Criminal Justice Services spokesman Scott Steinhardt said Gov. George Pataki and the state Senate favor making information on all sex offenders available on the Internet, "but the Assembly has repeatedly shot it down."
Regardless, Kirwan said it's time to establish a way to assign sex offenders a risk level so the public has access to the threat they pose.
"Why haven't we complied with this order?" Kirwan asked. "There are monsters in our midst, the police know they are monsters but they cannot tell us because of this ruling." Judson, Kirwan said, is one of them. He lives near a college.
THE BIBLE ON the kitchen table in Horace Judson's apartment was open to II Corinthians. He had highlighted a passage: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.
The 54-year-old who found a wife and God in jail said he has not been in trouble since he was released from prison in 1990. He has a cozy living room, a big-screen TV, a shiny Ford Explorer and he worked hard for all of it, he said.
"He's been a clean-cut guy as far as I know," said the Rev. Eula Mae Turner Brock, a local pastor who has known Judson for 20 years. "I think he's a pretty decent guy."
And the rape? Judson's bottom lip trembles when he's asked about it.
He said it stemmed from a domestic dispute he had with a single mother of two who lived in the East New York section of Brooklyn in the 1970s, Judson told the Record Saturday morning. The former Black Panther member said he stole her welfare check and moved in with another woman in South Carolina.
When he got back to Brooklyn, the woman was mad. Judson was drunk. They fought. She accused him of rape. He was convicted of rape, sodomy and burglary and served 13 years. He's been free for the past 14 years.
He said it had nothing to do with a college student and did not occur in or near a college dormitory.
"230 New Lots Avenue, I think it was," he said. "Nowhere near a college."
Though he's lived in relative obscurity since his release from prison in 1990, he says he knew all this would come out some day, even if his sins are nearly 30 years old. He didn't know it would happen the way it did.
WHEN THE media questions stopped coming in Kirwan's office yesterday, it was Judson's turn.
"Do you know that what you're putting out to the public is false?" Judson said, his voice rising. "You're lying."
Kirwan stood by his information, but wouldn't give up the source. Kirwan stood up. Judson walked forward. Eyes got big and spit flew as reporters scribbled on their pads and held their microphones closer.
"If you raped and sodomized a woman, I don't give a goddamn where it was!" shouted Kirwan. "You shouldn't be living anywhere near a college campus."
The exchanges continued. Judson said the accusations made him feel persecuted.
"I see," Judson said as he stepped backward out the door, "A white politician's gonna slander me to elevate his career."
The reporters followed Judson to the parking lot. Kirwan fiddled with his belt buckle.
Provisions of Megan's Law began when law took effect
Megan's Law allows the state to release different amounts of information on sex offenders to the public depending on what risk level the sex offenders have been assigned. Risk levels are assigned based on the likelihood a sex offender will commit another offense. Police can release a considerable amount of information on Level 3 offenders – those deemed most dangerous – but can release little information on Level 1 offenders.
Because of a ruling by Federal District Court Judge Denny Chin, the state is prohibited from releasing the names and addresses of 7,900 sex offenders who were convicted before Jan. 21, 1996, when Megan's Law went into effect. The ruling does not affect anyone convicted after Jan. 21, 1996.
City seeks injunction against parolee dumping
A day after nearly 100 people protested the placing of sex offenders in Newburgh, state Assemblyman Tom Kirwan said he's lending his support to the city in seeking an injunction to stop the state Division of Parole and the Orange County's Department of Social Services from placing paroled sex offenders in Newburgh.
"Should the city's corporation counsel have a problem with this action, attorney Michael Mazzariello has agreed to file an injunction [for free]," Kirwan said.
The city's corporation counsel is working on the injunction.