\u201cMy only crime, your honor, is that I have become old and forgetful,\u201d he told Circuit Judge Robert Hodges that day.<\/p>\n
Brown is currently serving a three-plus-year sentence. He took his case to a jury, and the sentence is in line with state guidelines. While mental impairment can stand as grounds for a judge to grant a more lenient sentence than the guidelines recommend, Hodges pointed to circumstances in Brown\u2019s case that, in the judge\u2019s eyes, suggested the excuse didn\u2019t make that cut.<\/p>\n
The diagnosis came after Brown\u2019s arrest and after he self-reported memory loss to his doctor, for example. Hodges also pointed out that Brown\u2019s memory issues didn\u2019t seem to affect his ability to run Solid Rock Foundation of Marion County, a nonprofit that served men transitioning out of custody. The seriousness of Brown\u2019s underlying crimes, too, make adherence to reporting requirements particularly important, according to the line of reasoning Hodges voiced in June.<\/p>\n
(Brown has long maintained his innocence on a sex-related convictions, following arrests in Texas in 1985 and in Florida in 2001, both of which involved young girls.)<\/p>\n
His case stands as an example of the sorts of challenges that legally designated sexual offenders and sexual predators can face as they reach their 70s, 80s and 90s in a state that calls for lifetime reporting requirements. Advocates who work with sex offenders throughout Florida say they\u2019re familiar with cases like Brown\u2019s, in which dementia of Alzheimer\u2019s disease affects an offender\u2019s ability to comply with requirements.<\/p>\n
Jim Broderick, president and CEO of Florida Justice Transitions, a Clearwater-based nonprofit, recalled an offender, several years ago, who ran into trouble during a grocery trip when he unintentionally left an electronic monitoring system on the roof of his car.<\/p>\n
That man, Broderick said, was similarly in the early stages of dementia.<\/p>\n
Broderick and other advocates also point to complications that arise when an offender needs to enter assisted living or a nursing home. These facilities often do not, or cannot, accept them.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery often it\u2019s not that these facilities do not want to provide services,\u201d said Gail Colletta, president of the Florida Action Committee, a nonprofit based in Lake Monroe that supports and advocates for sex offenders and their families. \u201cThey are located in places that don\u2019t meet residency restrictions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis population is growing every single day,\u201d said Ted Rodarm, executive director of Matthew 25 Ministries, referencing the state\u2019s aging population. \u201cThis is only going to get worse until we get some change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Florida counts more than 1,100 individuals on its registry who are older than 80, according to Colletta. Her breakdown also covers an additional 3,600-plus who are older than 70. In Marion County, Lt. Michelle Wissinger, commander of the Sexual Offender\/Predator Unit within the Marion County Sheriff\u2019s Office, said that 74 of the approximately 870 offenders and predators the agency tracks are 70 or older.<\/p>\n
Advocates said it\u2019s reasonable to assume those number will increase as populations continue to age in Florida and in the United States.<\/p>\n
Rodarm, for example, said he sees this trend through his work at City of Refuge, a community in Pahokee that provides housing exclusively to sex offenders. Matthew 25 Ministries runs the community. City of Refuge does not provide medical care for its residents, but Rodarm said several are in their 70s, 80 and even 90s.<\/p>\n
At Sex Offender Housing of Florida, a 55-plus community for sex offenders outside of Orlando, Lori Nassofer said she, too, sees steady demand from an aging population.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir needs are going to increase exponentially,\u201d Colletta said of elderly sex offenders. \u201cWe don\u2019t have provisions for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Consider residency restrictions, for example. Florida law mandates that a registered sex offender cannot live within 1,000 feet of a school, child care facility, park or playground. While that complicates housing options for an offender of any age, it can particularly limit an elderly or infirm offender who\u2019s trying to enter an assisted living or nursing home facility.<\/p>\n
Nassofer said she has seen this play out. She recalled contacting a nursing home about a resident and learning that, while the nursing home\u2019s policies would allow the man to live there, the building sat too close to a school to accept him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat difference does it make if he\u2019s near a school?\u201d Nassofer asked, pointing out that patients with dementia or Alzheimer\u2019s disease often live in locked facilities anyway. \u201cHe can\u2019t do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colletta echoed the frustration.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019m at the point where I need a nursing home,\u201d she said, speaking hypothetically, \u201cI\u2019m not a threat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Underscoring the point is a recent case out of Boynton Beach. In September, the family of a nursing home resident, Jack Ehrhart, pushed back against threats to arrest Ehrhart for violating a residency ordinance. The nursing home sits closer to a preschool than the ordinance allows.<\/p>\n
Courthouse News Service identified Earhart as having end-stage Alzheimer\u2019s disease. The former gynecologist\u2019s conviction dates back to the mid-1980s, when patients complained that he touched them sexually.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t get them in nursing homes,\u201d Broderick said of the offenders he\u2019s worked with through Florida Justice Transitions, which provides support and transitional housing to offenders. \u201cI\u2019ve had very limited success, but they\u2019re not really good quality nursing homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a challenge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
If, or when, a registered sex offender cannot find care through an assisted living or nursing home, advocates said there are no good answers. Rodarm said the burden of caring for them likely falls to the family members.<\/p>\n
Wissinger and Detective Tasha Nix, who also works in Sexual Offender\/Predator Unit at the Sheriff\u2019s Office, said they\u2019ve seen family members step in to ensure that the offender registers on time in some cases. In others they said they make can accommodations \u2014 if an offender were bedridden, for example.<\/p>\n
They said that, in their experience, an elderly offender is no more likely to abscond, or fail to register, than anyone else.<\/p>\n
In Marion County, where advocates around the state could not point to any specific resources, it\u2019s unclear what options, if any, are available to elderly sex offenders. Jennifer Martinez, executive director of Marion Senior Services, said her organization does not have experience catering to their specific needs, but that it does not discriminate against them.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
From Colletta\u2019s perspective, the most effective solution to the challenges that elderly sex offenders face is to eliminate the registry altogether. She and other advocates suggested that the registry appeals more to politicians and to the public more than it serves any public safety purpose.<\/p>\n
Recidivism among sex offenders is statistically lower than recidivism among those convicted of other crimes. Colletta puts the rate at 13 percent for sex offenders who commit another sex-related crime. (For comparison, the Public Policy Institute of Marion County reported in 2014 that 79.4 percent of inmates at the Marion County Jail were repeat offenders.)<\/p>\n
And, obviously, the registry offers no warning to the public if someone is a first-time offender.<\/p>\n
Short of eliminating the registry, Colletta suggested several measures that the Legislature could take to ease what she cast as unnecessary burdens on elderly sex offenders.<\/p>\n
She called for the elimination of residency restrictions, for one, painting them as a particularly ineffective element of registry requirements. Or, she suggested, the state could enact residency exceptions for facilities that provide treatment or care.<\/p>\n
While that would address situations like Earhart\u2019s in Boynton Beach, she pointed out that this measure, too, could more easily allow offenders to enter residential substance abuse or rehabilitation programs.<\/p>\n
Colletta also suggested the offenders in Florida need a path toward attrition, or natural removal from the registry.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese men in their 70s 80s or 90s \u2014 they\u2019re no longer a threat,\u201d Rodarm said. \u201cThey\u2019re still being punished for a crime where they\u2019ve already paid their debt to society. It\u2019s in nobody\u2019s best interest to keep them in custody.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s in line with Ruthanna Smith\u2019s line of thinking. Smith is a friend of Brown, the Marion County defendant, whom she knew through her church. Smith said she had been helping Brown work on an application for clemency through the governor before his arrest; afterward, she sat in on his trial and sentencing hearing.<\/p>\n
To Smith, it was particularly upsetting to hear attorneys dredge up details of a 35-year-old conviction, for which Brown has already served a sentence. Smith said she doesn\u2019t understand the logic in incarcerating someone she knows as a committed church member.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy would the state of Florida want to punish someone for being old and forgetful?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n
The challenge of elderly sex offenders<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By the time deputies arrested Thomas Bernard Brown for failing to register as a sexual predator, he had built up a 10-year record of consistent registration in Marion County. That\u2019s 42 check-ins, as his attorneys and his friends pointed out at a sentencing hearing in June. When it came to No. 43, Brown, 72, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":239,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sex-offender-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/239"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2074"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2075,"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2074\/revisions\/2075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}