[wolf]

This is actually a re-post from elsewhere, but I wanted it to get more airplay, so to speak.

A few days ago, I got some news ... good or bad or indifferent, I'm not sure yet, although I'm leaning towards indifferent.

Someone I know recently got out of jail. I would occasionally check the State Department of Corrections Inmate Locator to see if he was still in the Big House. It was pretty easy to keep track of where he was, including the name of the State Correctional Institution he was placed in.

Interestingly, I can still keep track of where he is.

He's a registered sex offender on the Megan's Law Database.

That's where the "indifferent" part comes in.

I already know a lot of people on the database, but that's primarily because of work. They are not really people I know, you know?

I found out about his release because another mutual friend caught a piece of a news story about his home being vandalized. I have not seen the story. For some reason, it hasn't been posted to the station's website, and no other news services picked up the story, not as yet, anyway.

Sylvester Stallone being at the link got immediate coverage. This story, much like his conviction, has already faded into the background. We suspected that family money somehow kept the stories about the trial and conviction out of the media. It must have been family money that kept the house all these years..

He was an acquaintance, not a friend. My circle of friends knew that there was something about how he referred to the "Rent-a-Kids," children of his neighbors whom he spent a lot of time watching, taking to amusement parks, and other things that families are too busy to do these days. He was that strange, kindly, child-like bachellor who went out of his way to have an incredible Halloween display including a computer photo album rotating pictures of the kids in their costumes from last year. The parents dug the pics, while the kids got to explore the interior of the haunted house, and, apparently, other things that are scarier than Halloween ghosts and goblins.

We all knew what was going on, and even went so far as to warn someone not to leave her son unattended with him. She didn't take us seriously. She probably "got" it around the time her son had to testify at the trial as the lead witness for the prosecution.

The guy worked for a very major corporation in the area that had an active school outreach program. Guess who's picture was in the Annual Report (for the year of his arrest, incidentally) showing off his rapport with a cluster of young boys? Guess which year of the Annual Report has now disappeared from the corporate library?

An informal poll of his coworkers yielded many "I expected this sooner or later," but only one "I just hope it's not true."

I know he can't really change. There is no "rehabilitation" for sexual predators. I expect that his parole includes the usual requirements, no contact with kids, no hanging around parks and playgrounds, and probably no computer access. Whether or not that one sticks will be the interesting piece ... does the state have the right to restrict you from your means of livelihood? I don't remember whether he was a hardware or software guy. He was certainly geeky enough for either.

I'm really not sure how I feel about this guy being back in the community.

I especially don't know how I'll react if he shows up at some event I go to.