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any lawyers / law enforcement ppl who can help RE family watchdog info -- what is CSC 2nd degree?
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Anonymous
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Okay so DH and I were thinking of putting an offer on a house. We LOVE the house, the price is right, and it's a short sale in fantastic condition so our agent thinks we should put in an offer. The problem is, I just entered the address on family watchdog and turned up a sexual offender one block away. If it were rape or a crime against a child, it might be a no-brainer -- paranoid or not, I would veto the home. Nonetheless, I turned up this guy and he was convicted in 1997 of CSC - Second Degree. I have searched online and cannot find any info about what second degree CSC means, exactly. There was no info about where he was convicted, and the only thing I could find online was information about michigan. My husband thinks that there are sex offenders everywhere and one could move in next door to us even if we did find a place with no offenders there currently. Still, the thought of this dude a block away is pretty chilling to me. If I veto the house, he won't balk, but I want to make sure I'm not being ridiculous. I actually searched our current address and there were two sexual offenders within 4 blocks of us, but at least their crimes seemed better defined.
So first, does anyone know what this means or what kind of crimes it could include? Second, if you saw someone with this sort of problem on your street, would it automatically be grounds for rejecting the house? Thanks for any help you all can offer. |
Anonymous
| Update -- my husband found slightly more info on the WDC sexual offenders website, which stated that the conviction occured in Michigan. But still no info about exactly what the crime was. The victim's age was 14, though and was "not a stranger." What in the world do people do with this info once they have it? |
Anonymous
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I am not a lawyer, but I was able to find this. (I am obsessed with goggle)
http://kalamazoo-michigan-attorney.com/criminal-sexual-conduct/molestation/ 2nd degree criminal sexual conduct. |
Anonymous
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Definition of these things totally depends on the jurisdiction where he was convicted. Can you get any information on that?
But, I agree with your husband. |
Anonymous
This wouldn't be automatic grounds for rejecting a house. I find it better to know who to warn the children to stay away from, and for us to know who to keep an eye on. The thing is, most pedophiles are not caught and convicted for years, so you really never know if the person next door is one or not. |
Anonymous
| From the article it looks like it could be anything from a 14 year old boy touching his 13 years old girlfriend sexually, to a relative molesting a child. Can you find out the age of the offender and that would tell you how old he was when this happened-- that would play a huge role in my mind of determining whether or not I would buy the house. |
Anonymous
| I did the same research before we bought our house and our area came up clean. I won't give you the full monty, but I strongly suspect our next door neighbor of having pedophile tendencies-no conviction on that specifically but he does have a criminal background. I am not afraid of him and my children will NEVER be alone with this guy. So, I have to agree with your husband. |
Anonymous
thank you for all of the quick responses. So we found the same definitions online that someone posted above, and feel like we have even more questions. Because we can't find any specific information for what he did. The fact that the victim was 14 and "not a stranger" is both distressing and reassuring. Reassuring in that it seems to have been a crime of opportunity -- and seems to imply that he befriended the victim or maybe it was even an incest situation (so horrifying to even have to fathom people doing these things). So as a PP pointed out, obviously we would most CERTAINLY tell our children to stay away from this man. At the same time, do I feel comfortable when my kid is 11 and playing out in the fenced in back yard with that sort of person living a block away? Because of course we can really just speculate as to what happened. It is obviously good to have this information, but at the same time, like I said, what do you do with the info once you have it? And PP who mentioned that most pedophiles have not been caught -- you're so correct. So we could worry ourselves into a frenzy over the ones that are reported while failing to realize the unapprehended perv next door or something. Tough to know what to do. The dude is 63 now, too. Not sure if that's a factor that makes him less threatening. I sure wish it were 83...Again, hard to know what to do with this info. |
Anonymous
He is 63 years old now. The conviction was in 1997, so that would have made him 52 at the time, right? His victim was 14. No further info available, except that the victim was not a stranger and there was penetration involved (as defined by the statute, I think). Ugh. |
Anonymous
| From the definitions I saw, second degree means that there was no penetration. Penetration makes is first degree. |
Anonymous
This is OP. I think the definitions online are really confusing. But the ones that I saw said that 1st degree meant penetration. 2nd degree meant just contact. 3rd degree meant penetration but with some other mitigating factor (such as victim was 13, but convict was only a few years older). It also seems to cover things like a molester taking advantage of someone mentally incompetent or a mental health carergiver taking advantage of a patient. The reason I'm mentioning 3rd degree is that DH found info on him on the michigan sexual abusers listing the same conviction, but they called it 3rd degree, not second. I'm starting to feel reassured that this is a creepy dude that probably molested his neice or nephew or something. Not that this makes his CRIME any better, but it doesn't seem AS likely that they'd be able to victimize my kid. Still, it's no fun wondering what the creep down the street did to get on the sex offenders list. Wish one could just get access to the court records... And I hate to say that, because normally I think privacy is a very important thing. But I want to know what this dude did, if for no other reason than so i can decide for myslef how scary he is to have on the street... |
Anonymous
| Another thing to consider. I know this will sound crass, but we have a sex offender in our development, so I know it can affect the home values in the area. It has affected home values in the couple of blocks around where he lives. The guy could certainly move, so I'm not suggesting you veto the house for that reason. It's just a factor to consider. |
Anonymous
Agree with this. Didn't consider home values, that's good to know. I grew up in a neighborhood with a known child molester. We were repeatedly warned to stay away from him and his house. It was OK, and I never heard about anyone else getting hurt by this guy. So I wouldn't necessarily veto the house based on this, either, especially since kids rarely play unsupervised these days. |
Anonymous
| Have you tried calling the local police dept in the area of the house and/or the local police in Michigan to get clarification on the charges? |
Anonymous
| If he is in your general area vs. your block on your street it makes a huge difference. Also think about how densely populated the area is, that makes a difference as well. For me it would not be a deal breaker but something I would discuss with my children at length... especially as they become more independent when they are in 4th grade + and want to bike to friends houses etc. |