VISTA: State officials remove sex offenders from group home
Neighbors complained; Eight were on parole
By GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer | ∞
VISTA ---- State prison officials said Wednesday that they have removed seven sex offenders from a single-family home on Lado de Loma Drive, after discovering that eight living there were on parole.
The home had drawn the ire of several neighbors and stirred debate over unlicensed group homes in Vista.
Last month, four Vista residents complained to the City Council, saying too many sex offenders were living at the home. The four also criticized city leaders for not doing enough to control group homes in their hilly neighborhood off South Santa Fe Drive, not far from the Vista Village shopping center.
City officials said they had no authority over the home or over other group homes in the city.
However, on Wednesday, Gordon Hinkle, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections, said the state had forced all but one parolee at the house to move out.
Hinkle said the state doesn't allow more than one paroled sex offender to live in a single-family home unless the home gets a license to provide special drug treatment and counseling services. The Lado de Loma home had no such license, he said.
A ninth registered sex offender was also living at the home, officials said, but was not on parole.
Lewis McMahan, who manages the home, described it last week as a sober-living facility. Before the state action, he said that nine men were living at the house and that it provided a service to the community because they were in a monitored situation, rather than out on the streets.
McMahan said Wednesday that the North County Times, in researching the story, had managed to drive the sex offenders into hiding.
"Now we've got a bunch of sex offenders living in the bushes ---- good job," McMahan said.
Hinkle said state officials had sent the parolees to new residences.
McMahan said Wednesday that only one sex offender remained at the home.
The state Megan's Law Web site said Wednesday that four offenders were living there. Last week, the site listed six offenders living at the house, with convictions ranging from "rape by force" and "continual sexual abuse of a child," to lesser offenses.
Vista sheriff's Detective Margaret Barone, who monitors sex offenders in the city, said last week there had been no problems at the Lado de Loma house and that the men living there had been cooperative with both law enforcement and neighbors.
However, several neighbors recently complained to the City Council about the home and about the larger issue of group homes in Vista.
Group homes can serve a wide range of populations ---- from troubled teens to battered women to recovering drug addicts ---- and sometimes cause consternation among nearby residents who worry about how the facilities will affect their quality of life and property values.
Licensed group homes can have up to six people living in them at a time, but all group homes don't have to be licensed, said Vista Assistant City Manager Patrick Johnson.
Owners of unlicensed homes can house as many people as they want ---- if those residents are not on parole ---- as long as they don't violate health and safety codes, said Johnson and Barone, the detective.
Betty Gilroy, one of the residents who addressed the City Council, said she has been asking the city for a year about the Lado de Loma house and other group homes in the city.
She said she supported the idea of people rehabilitating themselves, but was afraid to let her 16-year-old daughter walk alone in their Lado de Loma neighborhood with so many sex offenders living nearby.
Another neighbor, Chris Meier, said he also worried about his children and the property value of his home diminishing if he disclosed to potential buyers that numerous sex offenders lived nearby.
And Robert Meyerholz, who also lives nearby, said he felt uncomfortable when his grandchildren visited him. Meyerholz also said he wasn't thrilled to hear that McMahan was generating $2,800 a month in rent on what was originally a 1,900-square-foot home before being remodeled to accommodate more people.
McMahan said last week that he had allowed two of the men at the home to live there for free, and charged the other seven men $400 a month. Still, McMahan said he was not earning much of a profit on the house after his lease and utilities were subtracted.
"Some of them don't pay anything," he said. "I'm lucky if I break even on that place. I'm just a concerned citizen."
Two weeks ago, a man at the house who identified himself as Tom said the residents had a good relationship with their neighbors and didn't want trouble.
"I don't want anyone to be worried," he said. "This is a very good group of men here who are dealing with a very difficult situation. The neighbors here have been extremely good to us. We haven't had any problems with anyone."
McMahan said before the move that he was worried that the community would persecute him and the men in the home for no reason.
He said a similar home in Escondido was forced out of business because of public panic. McMahan said that he had visited with neighbors and Neighborhood Watch groups to reassure them.
"This house is more than 2,000 feet from any school, churches, parks ... the property is well maintained and all curfews are adhered to," he said. "They're under a monitored situation. It's pretty much like being in lockdown."
Barone said she understood public concern, but said homes like the one on Lado de Loma Drive help communities and law enforcement monitor sexual offenders.
"The best way I can say it is, these are registered sex offenders that you know about," she said. "There are quite a few that you don't know about who live in your neighborhood because they haven't been caught yet, or you're not aware of them."
Meanwhile, Hinkle said that state officials were looking for other homes with more than six parolees living under the same roof.
"We don't know of any other locations," he said, "but we are double-checking."
Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 901-4067 or gconaughton@nctimes.com.
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Landscaper wrote on May 8, 2008 5:39 AM:Good, I hope the bushes are far away from North County. Why does Vista have so many 'halfway' homes anyway? There are so many concentrate near Escondido/SantaFe the halfway effect is lost.
The Truth wrote on May 8, 2008 6:28 AM:Cuz thats North Counties' ghetto, haven't you noticed that half the businesses advertise in spanish? It's an area where we embrace our section 8 and illegals, and say please procreate at our expense, which has then led to front lawns littered with broken down cars and recycled furniture, thus driving to the prices down to an East County-esque price range range. Making it viable for group housing, and endless gangs........
John wrote on May 8, 2008 6:41 AM:The sex offenders displaced by the NC Times should relocate to living AT the "North County Times". If they are going to get them uprooted, then the least they can do, is provide their own address as their next residence! This would not be a problem if sex offenders were NOT RELEASED FROM PRISON to begin with! (I doubt the NC Times will print this!).
No way.. wrote on May 8, 2008 6:46 AM:No way would I want to move into a neighborhood where they house a whole group of sex offenders together.PARENTS: Protect your children because it seems like there is more and sex crimes involving children!
angry wrote on May 8, 2008 6:49 AM:Let's face it people, sex offenders are here to stay. Maybe if we worked a little harder on trying to help them instead of chase them away things would get better. We knew where these men lived, now they are on the streets. Let's watch our own children instead of putting them in the hands of the government. If you're afraid of your child to walk past an offenders home then walk with them!!!
Artsyrat wrote on May 8, 2008 7:44 AM:I live in the neighborhood where this house is. There's more to this story than just this house of sex offenders. At one point in our area of about 1/4 mile or so there lived 16 sex offenders and five group homes. One of the group homes holds nearly 30 residents who are either on probation, parole or struggeling with drug or alcohol issues and only one of the five houses was licensed!
I applaud my neighbors for speaking out. We have been very patient with all of this, not causing any kind of frustration for these sex offenders or group homes. But we have rights too and also we pursued this in a peaceful and legal manner. This is about Crime Prevention, we're not waiting around till someone slips up and harms a neighbor.
These people have broken the law at some point and are now reaping what they have sown. We, on the other hand have not broken the law and we should not have to fear for our safety for the sake of feeling sorry for these guys who can't find a place to live.
I sincerely thank Detective Barone and also Mayor Vance and Vista City Council for helping to resolve this. We truly appreciate it.
As for the guys in the house and the owner of the sex offender property, we will continue to respect their right to live in peace but will always have a watching eye open. We don't want any trouble from them and we don't want to cause any trouble. Keep the law and follow the rules for sex offender housing.
SO SAD wrote on May 8, 2008 8:26 AM:Lets all face it Vista is a dumping ground! The city leaders do not make law enforcement a priority. They need to pay for more Sheriff Deputies, stop approving more low income properties and clean up this city. I have lived here for 30 years and it has been very sad to see the decline in our quality of life in Vista. Maybe if we had some city leaders that really wanted to fix these problems instead of catering to all the homeless, illegal imigrants, and criminals in this town we could make this a desirable place to live again.
OMG wrote on May 8, 2008 9:44 AM:I live on Lado de Loma and was not even aware that there was a home like that there.... Hope there not in my bushes!
We are thinking about moving!!!
To OMG wrote on May 8, 2008 10:17 AM:I can't tell you what to do in regards to moving because of this sex offender house. I can say, listen to Detective Barone, she is correct is saying that it's not the registered sex offenders that we need to worry about, it's the perverts out there that are not registered and we don't know where they are living.
I too live in the neighborhood and can assure you that we are aware of the crime in our area, including the sex offenders. If you decide to stay where you're at it might be a good decision to join a neighborhood watch group or start your own group right there by your house.
We decided to go to the officials with this problem because it was getting out of control, landlords and property owners taking advantage of our neighborhood and violating the law.
NIMBY wrote on May 8, 2008 10:26 AM:Help them? Like they help themselves to their victims?
Hurry up with the redevelopment area, flush it out and start over with value added zoning laws.
Thank You wrote on May 8, 2008 12:20 PM:Thank you to the Slum lords aka landlords!!!!! Im Sickened!
Vista resident wrote on May 8, 2008 12:43 PM:Since the city is not responsible for unlicensed group homes, who is? what's the sense in getting a license? who even knows how many are out there? we think we might have one on our street that just started up, this is crazy. I've lived in Vista for 9 years and have seen it get worse and worse on the corner of Escondido and So. Santa Fe, the only people that have rights are the law breakers.
Artsyrat wrote on May 8, 2008 2:36 PM:To Vista Resident;
Isn't it wierd? If you do the right thing and get a license then you're limited to housing six people, required to follow a set standard for a licensed group home. If you don't want to get a license then you can house as many as you want and you don't have that group home standard to regulate you and it's still legal! It's crazy!!
The definition of a family unit is another trip up. In Vista there is not any ordinance to regulate how many people can live in a single family dwelling. When I asked the code compliance about it they said the state does not have a set definition for what a family is so anyone in Vista is considered a family if you want them to be.
awareness wrote on May 8, 2008 4:36 PM:on Dr Phil last month, they did a show about Long Beach having 200 sex offenders living within a ONE MILE radius, in various group homes. The landlords collected so many hundreds of dollars for each tenant from the State. crazy. None of the neighbors knew!! ***I see very young ( like 2nd graders) walking home from school ALONE each day on Melrose- C'MON parents!! There's no way they can walk with a buddy or YOU? anyone!?
shelley wrote on May 8, 2008 5:10 PM:Maybe the reason these landlords rent to these people is because the state pays them $1000.0 per month per offender in addition to rent. This is a big problem in Long Beach as well.
Dr Phil did a show on this problem. When I wrote to the Gov. and asked if this was true I got no response. When I wrote about my concerns with the cuts to education I got a response that was 3 pages long.
Good for the people who do not want them in there area. I don't blame them.
I still wonder why the state can pay for this but yet wants to put thousands of good hard working people out of work with budget cuts in education. Take the money you give them and invest it in our kids. They deserve it.
Maybe the NCT should do a story on this.
And You Know It wrote on May 8, 2008 7:59 PM:Lewis McMahon describes being afraid people would "persecute" him & the wretched, putrid, loathsome, disgusting men he rents to for NO REASON? Is he serious? Why would anyone care that these men had a roof over their heads or were "registered" to an address? Like that has ever stopped a sick, vile human piece of trash from offending again. Everyone that claims they would rather know "where" they are living than roaming the streets or their neighborhoods, obviously don't have a whole houseful living next door. I don't care if they are homeless, maybe then they would get a taste of true misery that they inflict on their victims. Wouldn't it be better if they LOOKED like the repulsive, physically detestable men they are? That way, no respectable people would allow them to infiltrate their lives and allow them the chance to perform their evil again.
Lewis Landlord Scum wrote on May 8, 2008 9:39 PM:The man that rents to these men says they are supervised.....then why was it not a registered home..Mr. McMahon??? Who's supervising it? Yeah right!!!
The state pays money to these men to live somewhere....and it's men like Lewis who take advantage of that money to his pocket...and make our neighborhood unsafe.....I fear for the safety of my children.
Why City wrote on May 8, 2008 9:48 PM:Why do you put us off when we come to you months ago about these problems? You say you don't know which are group homes if they're not registered......well we told the city on more than one occasion about the ones that weren't registered....and they shrugged us off. We finally go to the City Council and make our complaints legally documented, and now you choose to do something. I want the city to make an amendment for the amount of adults who can live in a single family home. The other citys have them....why not Vista? I'm glad our voices were finally heard, and believe me we will keep on top of it! And I won't feel bad about embarassing the city, when they ignore our concerns.
Mary wrote on May 8, 2008 9:53 PM:Thank You neighbors for speaking out. It does not take 100 people to make a difference,it takes a strong few and persistence. WOW!
I got an idea wrote on May 9, 2008 6:19 AM:I say we place a tattoo right on these offenders NOSE!!
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