Archive for February, 2011

View the flier and portions of Barrineau’s criminal file: Barrineau

Cliff Barrineau lucked out.  In 1995, a judge in Osceola County sentenced him to “Time Served”. The gavel sounded one month prior to the enactment of  Florida’s sex offender registration law.  As a result, the 40 year-old is not listed among other rapists and molesters on the state’s registry.

Restrictions applied to sentenced sex felons do not apply to Barrineau. He can live and work wherever he pleases, and police are not required to tell anyone.

The owner of the home day care, three doors down, is not so lucky.  Her frantic phone call received minutes after a flier was placed on her door, posed the question heard repeatedly on February, 22: “What can we do about him?”

The young couple who live next door to Barrineau asked the same question. A volunteer from Protect Our Children approached the open door and told the little girl to get her mommy. When the woman came close, the man held up the black and white notice and her face became grave. Sweeping the child backward toward the T.V. set, she summoned her husband.  In the failing light of a crisp, late winter day, three adults stood on a porch in Largo Florida, speaking in hushed tones:  “Yes, he sexually assaulted an eleven year-old girl…Yes, he lives next door..No, the police can’t make him leave…”

The father begins to grind his teeth and cut sideways glances at the house next door as the volunteer shows him Barrineau’s original charges. The messenger flips the pages showing eight counts of sexual abuse including two referencing  the rape of a child under twelve – capital felonies punishable by life in prison.  Next, he shows the sentencing order, followed by the plea bargain which dropped everything but a single offense. Finally, he jabs his finger near the bottom of the last page, showing Barrineau’s business registration at his 15th Avenue address.

“You can keep your eye on your child…” the man said, “… and let your neighbors know”  They nodd slowly as he moves off through the neighborhood.

He joins others winding through yards where little houses squat under massive Live Oaks. They flow around the houses where ancient garages have become two family homes and chicken coops have been converted into duplexes. They jam the fliers into gaps between rickety screen doors and their peeling frames. They pin them under flower pots and roll them into tubes to be wedged behind pull handles.

Just as the street lights shudder to life,  they climb back into the car.  Nearly two hundred fliers have been distributed.

The car creeps past groups of women in the street - some wave, others stare.  A tall, neatly dressed man stands in a driveway translating the flier aloud for a young woman with a baby in her arms.

The volunteers assemble at a fast food restaurant, where they rejoin the others who were dispatched to other locations.

They talk  about the people at the ballet school where Barrineau was hired to edit a video of a children’s recital.  They describe the reaction of the security man at the Synagogue where Barrineau performed as a mime for a childrens mitzva.

There will be enough talk to last the entire three hours of the return trip to Brevard County.  “You can keep an eye on your child and let others know…”

View the superb coverage of Ciff Barrineau’s involvement with school children, by News Channel 8′s  Mark Douglas: http://video.tbo.com/search?media=video&sort=date&q=barrineau

A sex offender is on the move and police are revising policies after an uproar at a Titusville condominium  complex. 

Residents at the Village Square Condominiums on Harrison Street,  called Protect Our Children February 8th, asking for information about Stephen Ervin: a registered sex offender living in the West Titusville community. 

That evening, a volunteer with the advocacy group appeared at the Village Square clubhouse  prior to the monthly meeting of the resident’s association.  Attendees were handed packets containing copies of Ervin’s criminal record, including details of two sexual assaults he committed against young girls.

A small group formed on the sidewalk, flipping wide-eyed through the papers.  Residents said Ervin (53) had been working as a handy-man, doing minor repairs and painting.  They said children live at the complex, which has more than one hundred units.

Ervin was released from prison in March 2010.  He was convicted of  raping a nine year-old girl in 1987 and assaulting a thirteen year-old in 1997.  Court records show he has been arrested five times for violating his probation. He served the balance of his most recent sentence in prison, and is not under supervision.

State law requires Ervin to register as a sex offender and abide by local laws restricting his residency.  Homeowners noted that a day-care facility was located on nearby Barna Avenue. 

Brevard County sex offender ordinances prohibit offenders from living within one-thousand feet of such a business.  An  investigator with Protect Our Children verified the comment, and found Kindercare, a commercial facility for children under twelve, appeared to be too close to Ervin’s residence, to comply with county law. Police were notified by telephone. 

Agents with the Sheriff’s Sex Offender Registration and Tracking unit used a computer mapping system to guage the distance between Ervin’s residence and Kindercare.  They said the distance was just over seven hundred feet…about three hundred feet short of being legal. 

The revelation caused a flurry of activity later that week between Brevard Sheriffs and the Titusville Police. Titusville has no ordinance of its own regarding sex offenders, relying on the Sheriff’s Office to cover most of the duties involving registration and tracking.  Officers in the North Brevard city verify the addresses listed by offenders when they register. They use a special “One-On-One” deployment, in which a single officer is assigned to each offender in the city. 

The Village Square affair exposed a deficiency in the system: ” One hour after we got a call from Lieutenant Todd Goodyear, we had a new policy.” said Titusville P.D. Assistant Chief, John Lau. “We realize that our people need to check the vicinity around the offender for places where children congregate.”

Goodyear heads up Sheriff Parker’s S.O.R.T. team – a group of sex crimes specialists assigned exclusively to policing sex criminals.  He worked with Titusville Police to close the gap in their monitoring procedures.

Brevard County law prohibits registered offenders from living within one thousand feet of schools, day-care facilities, parks and playgrounds.

Lau said the new policy will go in to effect immediately.   He said the  procedure requires officers to use mapping software as well as the city’s own business permit records, to assure compliance.  Police will also canvass the area around the offender’s home in order to check for child-oriented locations.

Ervin is relocating to an residence on Mt Vernon Drive, in Titusville. His registered address is due to change on February 17th.