Good News: Kids Stay Free. Bad News: 24 Sex Offenders Live There.
EVANSVILLE — Their options limited by state law and circumstance, local parole officers are housing six recently paroled sex offenders at an Evansville motel, bringing the total number of sex offenders staying there to 24.
The Indiana Sex and Violent Offender Registry last week listed 24 sex offenders at Woodcreek Inn & Suites, including a handful who are not on parole. Also included are paroled offenders who began living at Woodcreek through the motel’s long-standing arrangement with the Indiana Department of Correction’s Evansville Parole Office, but who are now paying for their own lodging.
The department is paying for the lodging of six of the offenders, who sign agreements to repay the money after a transition period.
The payback provision didn’t work very well last year, however. The Correction Department reports $191,158 was spent on the program statewide in 2011, but only about $300 was repaid.
The arrangement between Woodcreek and the local parole office is one of 15 such pacts statewide, all but two involving motels. It is the only one in the local parole office’s 10-county jurisdiction, which includes Vanderburgh, Warrick, Posey and Gibson counties.
Eleven of the 24 registered sex offenders at Woodcreek committed their crimes outside of Vanderburgh County, including one whose crime was committed in another state. It isn’t known if that offender has ties to the Evansville area.
Woodcreek Inn & Suites is located at 2530 Highway 41 North, just north of the intersection of U.S. 41 and East Diamond Avenue. A man who identified himself as the property’s general manager declined to comment and forbade the Courier & Press to speak to residents on-site.
Vanderburgh County Assessor’s Office records indicate the property is owned by Yerolemos LLC, which gives the motel’s address as its own. George Yerolemou, identified by the motel’s switchboard as its owner and confirmed by the Correction Department as its contact, did not respond to telephone messages left by a reporter.
According to local parole officers, the arrangement with Woodcreek is a solution of last resort for parolees who are hemmed in by state law and the Indiana Parole Board’s tough residency restrictions for sex offenders.
John Markham, assistant director of parole, described the predicament of a newly paroled sex offender who lacks resources to live in compliance.
“‘I can’t go back to where I was living before my conviction because I live close to a park,'” Markham said. “‘I can’t go with a family member, my mother, because she lives across cater-cornered, within 1,000 feet, of a school or playground or day care center.
“‘So my parole officer says to me, ‘Any other ideas? Any friends or whatever else?’ No, they’ve got young children in the house.”
The parole board’s Stipulations for Sex Offenders are uncompromising.
“You must not reside, visit or be within 1,000 feet of public parks with playgrounds, pools, rides, and/or nature trails; schools, day care centers, public swimming pools, public beaches, theaters, or any other place where children can reasonably be expected to congregate,” states stipulation No. 5.
With that language, Markham said, it is virtually inevitable that registered sex offenders will live together. (continue reading)