Sex offenders' home prompts neighborhood alert
CORNELIUS, Ore. - Three convicted sex offenders have moved from the state hospital to a group home in a residential neighborhood in Cornelius and Washington County Sheriff Rob Gordon was so concerned that he sent his deputies door-to-door to let people know.
Connell House, a residential treatment center, is located on North 29th Avenue next to families and children. On Friday, deputies canvassed the neighborhood to notify residents.
The group home represents an ongoing shift in the way the state treats sex offenders. Sheriffs and police chiefs throughout the state issued a position statement this month against the state's efforts to transition criminals from the state hospital to community-based treatment facilities. Associations representing the two groups accused the Psychiatric Security Review Board (PSRB) of "initiating their plan in virtual silence."
Janet Schmidt runs a daycare in her home down the street from the Connell House. She told KATU News she did not know who lived in the home until deputies handed her a flyer. As children played next to her, she said the notice concerns her.
"These kids are like my kids, and that they let people like this in the neighborhood is frightening," Schmidt said.
Gordon said the state moved the three sex offenders from the state hospital to a home in Cornelius without any input from residents or local law enforcement.
"If you are going to make policy decisions to put those people in a residential community, you have to go overboard and get the community involved," Gordon said. "None of that happened in this case, and I think it's in the wrong neighborhood - wrong people. It's a recipe for disaster and it's waiting to happen."
The sheriff said he was first alerted about the home by a district attorney who complained about one of the three offenders in particular, 44-year-old Matthew John Shipley.
"He ran across a 3-year-old girl and he forcibly kidnapped and raped her in front of her brother and friends," Gordon said, adding the incident happened outside a convenience store in Tualatin that is similar to the store currently located right next to the Connell House.
Two other offenders live in the home as well - 32-year-old Jerry Allan Farstad and 41-year-old Harold Cox, who is also known as Harold Austin Aven. Gordon said he considers all three to be extremely dangerous and not fully rehabilitated.
Janet Schmidt said she will continue to closely monitor the kids in her care, but knowing these three are so close hits home in a personal, painful way.
"The reason I started doing daycare is because my children were molested," she said. "So when I advertised for doing daycare, I advertised this is a safe place to come. And now, this (group home) is in the neighborhood."
As a mother of two victims and the caretaker of several, Schmidt said she feels blindsided.
"Why did we have to find out about this after the sheriff came out?" she asked. "Why weren't we sent letters out before it happened?"
On Friday evening, KATU News reached Mary Claire Buckley, executive director of the Psychiatric Security Review Board (PSRB). She said the state never intended to operate the group home in secrecy and received the approval needed from city and mental health authorities to operate the facility on 29th Avenue.
Buckley said the Oregon Legislature has allowed additional funds that allow the Department of Human Services to develop residential facilities for criminals who have maximized the therapy opportunities available to them at the Oregon State Hospital. The PSRB makes its decisions regarding whether offenders should receive conditional release rights through a comprehensive process that includes intensive evaluations from trained professionals.
She said the board is not legally obligated to notify the public about group homes like the Connell House because there are less than five offenders living there. Buckley said there are many similar facilities around the state that are secured with a fenced perimeter. Offenders are not allowed to leave on their own, but they are also not tracked by GPS.
Buckley cites the state's low recidivism rate as one rationale for allowing conditional release. She said the state has funded group homes since 1978. In the past, advocacy groups have sued the state for keeping people institutionalized for too long, so more resources are being developed to help offenders transition into community-based rehabilitation programs.
"We hope to see more," Buckley said.
Gordon said he understands the need to treat criminals, but he believes some serious sex offenders cannot be fully rehabilitated or trusted.
"These are not people that are ready to go, ready to be released. These are people that should be confined for decades yet," he said, pointing out the Connell House specializes in psychiatric treatment more than security. "These people need a lot of supervision and it should be secured supervision."
Gordon said there is a bigger issue that transcends the Connell House in Cornelius.
"In the next two years I suspect there's more homes in the works like this one. Is it a good policy decision for the state of Oregon? That's the matter up for debate," he said.
The Washington County Sheriff's Office plans to hold a public meeting on the Connell House at their office in Hillsboro on Thursday, Jan. 3, 2008 at 6 p.m.