Community Watch

Ex-Mitt Romney aide, College Republican head, busted on sex offender charges

the raw story
Michael Roston and Nick Juliano
Published: Friday January 25, 2008

A former aide to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney who also played a leadership role in Iowa's College Republicans was arrested by Des Moines-area police earlier in the week on outstanding warrants related to his status as a convicted sex offender.
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Matthew Joseph Elliott, aged 26, and identified in numerous accounts as Matt Elliott, was arrested on Jan. 21 for outstanding warrants relating to his registered sex offender status, according to the Polk County government website. The Iowa registry of sex offenders also shows that he was convicted of exploiting a minor and given a "low" risk assessment.

The website Truth Caucus and an additional source independently confirmed to RAW STORY that Elliott was the same individual described in a Feb. 2006 account in the Washington Post. He briefly joined the Iowa presidential campaign staff of Governor Mitt Romney before leaving to run for a seat in the Iowa state legislature.

Additionally, Elliott was a leading College Republican in Iowa while attending Drake University, where he served as student body president. Elliott also served as director of the Iowa Republicans' Legislative Majority Fund.

Iowa state records show he was convicted on the sex charges in October 2006, months after leaving the Romney campaign.

West Des Moines police arrested Elliott while they were investigating the death of 7-month-old Alexis Gilbert, according to KCCI8-TV, found dead in her family's home where Elliott was staying. Elliott has been questioned, but not charged in relation to her death, which has been ruled a homicide. Gilbert's mother, Kristina, is 16 years of age, and her family has refused to explain Elliott's relationship to the family, according to the Des Moines Register.

Reached for comment by the the Boston Herald on Friday, Romney's campaign argued that Elliott was never affiliated the campaign, only with Romney's Commonwealth PAC.

Community Watch comments:

Take a look at his charges here

New York's Sex Offender Registry Audited by State Comptroller DiNapoli

CONTACT: Press Office  (518) 474-4015
FOR RELEASE:  Immediately  January 15, 2008

DiNapoli: Sex Offender Registration Effective,
But Improvements Needed

The Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) is generally providing effective oversight of the state’s sex offender registration program but needs to improve how it communicates with local enforcement when sex offenders fail to confirm their addresses, according to an audit released today by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

“The purpose of the Sex Offender Registration Act is to inform and protect the public,” DiNapoli said. “DCJS is taking its responsibilities for the program seriously, but there are still areas that need immediate improvement. The goal is perfection; no sex offender should be overlooked.”

Under the Act, any person who is convicted of sex offenses is required to register with DCJS as a sex offender when he or she is released from incarceration. Registered offenders are classified by the court based on the risk of re-offense. There are three levels: Level 1 (low risk), Level 2 (moderate risk) or Level 3 (high risk), and additional designations, such as sexual predator or sexually violent offender, may also be noted by the court. Offenders remain in the Sex Offender Registry (SOR) for 20 years to life, depending on their level of risk. As of July 2006, there were 23,456 registered sex offenders in the State.

The audit, which examined the period of January 2004 through November 2006, found that DCJS had established a good process with the Division of Correctional Services to register offenders released from incarceration and had complied with its responsibilities under the Act. There were some major areas identified for improvement including:

Poor Follow Up with Law Enforcement if Offenders Fail to Confirm Address. Each year, DCJS is required to reach out to offenders and confirm their address. Auditors found that DCJS notified local law enforcement officials of offenders who failed to verify their addresses as required, but DCJS did not require the local law enforcement agencies to notify them of the results. Some local agencies did not respond to DCJS even when they had located the offender. Two of the individuals who have failed to respond were Level 3 offenders.

Inaccurate Driver’s License Information. Information in the SOR was not always accurate or up-to-date. For instance, auditors found that 54 of 200 randomly selected records contained inaccurate driver’s license information. The license numbers listed actually belonged to another person, not the offenders. Other key information that was missing or inaccurate in the SOR included photographs of offenders, unmatched alias, distinctive markings and addresses.

Auditors made 11 recommendations to improve how data is stored and collected, and expand efforts to increase awareness about the program. DCJS agreed with most of the recommendations and has taken steps to address the majority of them.

Community Watch comments:

These are common issues in all state sex offender registries - insufficient funding, no accountability to follow up, and incorrect data.  The audit was officially responded to and nothing will change.  We would like to see DiNapoli do some follow up in 6 months to ensure everything is fixed - but, that will not happen - just as the police will not follow up on sex offender and predator addresses.

Parents not told that school is next door to sex offender treatment center

Questionable Neighbors
Chris Woodard
KTTC TV

ROCHESTER, MN -- About the last place most of us would ever expect to find a school, is right next to a treatment center for sex offenders.

That's exactly where a group of kids in Rochester are hitting the books everyday and some parents are upset, saying they had no idea.

It was about two weeks ago when the first complaints came in from parents, some saying they had just found out in December that their kids were going to school right next store to this treatment facility.

They were upset because for almost three months, every day they dropped off their young kids between the ages of 3 and 12, they say without the school ever telling them what was right next store.

It is a location born out of need for the Rochester Art and Science Academy.

With no building left to call home and school just a few days away they came to the Rochester Olmsted Planning Department and asked for permission to set up shop at this North Rochester location.

Rochester Olmsted Planning director Phil Wheeler says, "They are both in the B-1 district which allows churches, schools and so on."

Parents say the school is for young kids ages three to 12, but also a part of that district and right next store is the Safety Center, a day treatment program for the disabled including sex offenders. It's a neighbor some parents say they had no idea was there even though the school's founders admit to us they were told shortly after the school opened.

Doug Lambert says, "We always feel the more information that is out there the better and I guess I would disagree with the contention that any Olmsted county personnel ever indicated that they should not share that information with parents."

Now some parents who have contacted us but don't want to be identified say they feel deceived and are considering pulling their children from the school. They say they don't think it's safe to have their kids attending class next to these offenders.

Lambert says, "The service the safety center provides really goes towards keeping the community safer, not endangering anybody in the community."

One of the school's founders tells us they have taken some precautions anyway, putting up a fence behind the building, adding a new security system and having a security guard on hand at all times. but for some parents, it's too little too late.

We made several attempts to get someone from the school to speak to us on camera in the last few days and after speaking on the phone they agreed today, only to not return any more phone calls.

People with the corrections department stressed that any sex offenders at the treatment facility would normally be out in the community anyway on supervised release and say they gave the school all of that information a few months ago when they first heard they were moving in.

Community Watch Comments:
Awareness keeps kids safe, not ignorance.  Interesting, the school's mission statement is "Educating students through an academically rigorous curriculum with an emphasis on global citizenship, physical agility and well being, in a safe, caring, and nurturing environment."

Sex offenders at state center in Washington getting porn

Sex offenders at state center getting porn

By Jonathan Martin
Seattle Times staff reporter

The state's treatment center on McNeil Island for its most predatory sex offenders is surrounded by concertina wire and security cameras. Mail and visitors are searched, and the staff can't even bring iPods to work.

But that hasn't kept some men held at the Special Commitment Center (SCC) from getting their hands on thousands of images of child pornography.

In the past two years, at least four of the 267 residents have been charged with possessing illegal pornography, and officials there are investigating several others. The latest case emerged just before Christmas, when the FBI arrested a 49-year-old child molester who had computer CDs full of graphic child pornography stashed in his room.

Managers of the SCC say they don't know how the material is getting in. The most recent arrest has prompted at least one personnel investigation, though no one has been disciplined.

However it's happening, the managers agree with law-enforcement leaders that it's unacceptable. All of the men have proven, sexually violent urges and must undergo treatment before they can ever be released into society.

"They've got a serious problem with contraband in that institution," said David Hackett, King County's lead prosecutor for sex-predator cases. "You don't want to send a sex predator down there to look at child porn."

But it's not as easy as it might seem to crack down.

Though the residents don't have Internet access, they are allowed computers, partly because the courts have consistently ruled that the treatment facility can't be run like a prison.

Henry Richards, the superintendent of the SCC, said banning computers, though under consideration, could "cut the tether to the rest of the world" for men who may one day return to society.

"One of the things we can't do is treat this group like they are correctional inmates," Richards said. "The presumption is they have every right as any citizen of the state, except for issues that must be constrained to run the treatment program."

Stashes of child porn

On Dec. 21, FBI agents went to the SCC and arrested resident John Michael Obert after the staff, acting on a tip, found compact discs encoded with pornographic images of children.

Obert has been charged in U.S. District Court with possession of child pornography and could serve at least 10 years in prison if convicted. Pending trial, he is being held at the federal detention center in SeaTac.

It wasn't a new situation at the SCC. Three other residents have been convicted of possessing child pornography since 2006, including David J. Lewis, who was sentenced to a year in jail just a few months before the FBI arrested Obert. Another resident, Richard E. Jackson, 39, was convicted in 2006 of storing at least 760 sexual images of nude children, including some involving bestiality, on his computer and on discs, according to Pierce County court records.

And for Obert, it was his second alleged offense at the SCC, and part of a history of such behavior.

Obert arrived at the SCC in 2004 after serving prison time for child molestation and failing to register as a sex offender. While in prison, he was caught with hidden magazine pictures of children that he had altered to be pornographic.

After he got out of prison, he was caught taking photos of young children at local swimming pools, and King County prosecutors filed to have him committed to the SCC.

In August 2006, SCC staff found 11 CDs in Obert's room with images of nude girls and of sexual acts between children and adults. He was charged in Pierce County Superior Court with possessing child pornography.

So when the latest images were found last month, prosecutors pressed federal charges. The 2006 case will be combined with the new case.

"It's unexplainable," said Michael Danko, one of Obert's former defense lawyers. "He's subject to scrutiny all the time, and yet he does it again."

"Not a punitive facility"

In 1990, Washington was the first state in the nation to use mental-health commitment laws to detain sex offenders after they had finished their prison terms. Since then, 18 other states have followed.

Because the SCC is legally a mental hospital, critics have been constantly challenging it as too much like a prison. For 13 years, until last year, the federal courts oversaw the operations. So far, no SCC resident has graduated to full, unconditional release.

The SCC staff does random searches as well as responding to tips from other residents, said Richards, the SCC superintendent. The staff also censors magazines for images that could be sexually arousing to residents, depending on each man's particular proclivities.

But residents' computers have been most troublesome. In 2006, Richards briefly banned all new personal computers and also outlawed certain wireless video games because they could potentially tap into private wireless networks on McNeil Island.

Residents can buy a stripped-down PC, as long as it doesn't have CD burners or USB ports that could accommodate small "thumb" drives.

Richards acknowledges that residents can be very resourceful in hiding pornographic images.

John Phillips, a Seattle attorney who has challenged the constitutionality of the SCC, agrees that the institution has the right to search computers and mail, but only if the staff has reasonable suspicions that there is contraband to find.

"This is not a punitive facility," he said. "It's a treatment program."

But in Hackett's opinion, the "pendulum has swung too far" toward the rights of residents, and the recent infiltration of child porn is proof.

"There are obvious institutional reasons to control things like compact discs coming into the institution," he said.

Richards doesn't disagree. But he said the most severe solution — banning all use of computers by residents — would require the state to prove that computers are a "pervasive, serious threat." And it would penalize those residents who are following the rules, he said.

"I'd rather not be in the Big Brother business," said Richards. "We're in the treatment business."

Community Watch comments:

"I'd rather not be in the Big Brother business," said Richards. "We're in the treatment business."

Seems there is a lot of confusion in the State of Washington - let me help: You are in the confinement business and you are supposed to be in the Big Brother business when you confine dangerous criminals.