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- Members of Protect Our Children distribute fliers to Largo residents.
View the flier and portions of Barrineau’s criminal file: Barrineau
by Kevin Gillick
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