YMCAs begin to screen for sex offenders - Boston Globe

The YMCA of Greater Boston has begun screening all current and prospective members and guests against the state’s registered sex offender list, banning access to those classified as Level 2 or Level 3 offenders — those at moderate or high risk of reoffending.

The measure, which took effect yesterday, follows the recommendation of a statewide YMCA task force created to improve safety at the community centers after a former girls basketball coach at the Melrose YMCA, which is run independently of the Greater Boston organization, was arrested in early 2009 and pleaded guilty last summer to sexually assaulting girls at the club.

The incident “raised our own level of expectations to see what we can do to further minimize the risk for our members,’’ said Kelley Rice, spokeswoman for YMCA of Greater Boston, the largest Y organization in Massachusetts. It has 13 branches — nine in Boston and one each in Needham, Waltham, Reading, and Woburn.

Guests and members will be screened through the Y’s standard application process. Software will check applicant names for matches in the state sex offender registry. Rice said the system may at times be a “minor inconvenience’’ for patrons but should not cause significant delays.

Brad McDermott, a spokesman for YMCA of USA, the national resource organization that councils the independently run Ys, said such policies are a growing trend at Ys nationally, especially as technology has allowed screening to be done more efficiently.

“The safety and well-being of kids in our care has been and always will be our priority,’’ he said.

Massachusetts and Rhode Island Ys that don’t already screen for sex offenders are expected to implement similar policies in the coming months, Y officials said. That will allow for consistency as most, if not all, Ys in the two states participate in a program allowing members to use other Y facilities for free.

In Massachusetts, the Melrose Y; the Greater Lynn Ys in Peabody, Saugus, and Lynn; and the Hockomock Area Ys in North Attleborough, Franklin, Mansfield, and Foxborough already screen for sex offenders. YMCA Southcoast, with branches in New Bedford, Fall River, Mattapoisett, Wareham, Rochester, and Dartmouth, is pursuing a policy.

The Melrose Y began banning potential members and guests who are registered sex offenders even before the former coach was arrested, said executive director Diana Brennan.

“At Ys, there’s a unique mix of both adults and children . . . so doing this screening is so important for our members,’’ she said by phone. “It’s all the more important given what had happened.’’

Neither Brennan nor Bruce Macdonald, chief executive of the Greater Lynn Y, which began overseeing the Melrose branch earlier this year, knew when the policy took effect. Within the past year, around two or three new members in Melrose have been found to be registered sex offenders and subsequently banned, Macdonald said.

Some are concerned that the screenings add an unfair burden for those who have completed their sentences and already face barriers as they try to reintegrate into society. The Boston-based Reform Sex Offender Laws campaign says that such steps can further ostracize sex offenders, making them more susceptible to poverty, homelessness, depression, and substance abuse.

In Massachusetts, information on Level 1 sex offenders, considered at low risk of reoffending, is not public. According to the state database, there are 253 Level 2 and 245 Level 3 offenders in Boston.

Matt Rocheleau can be reached at mjrochele@gmail.com.

© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.

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Mass. court to hear appeal in mom-daughter slaying - Boston Globe

BOSTON—After Joanne Presti and her 12-year-old daughter were found dead in January 2004, police interviewed the fathers of Presti's three children, her landlord and other people she knew.

Police didn't begin to consider Michael Bizanowicz, a convicted child rapist who lived off-and-on just down the street with Presti's close friend, until they developed film discovered at Presti's house and found an image of Bizanowicz.

Bizanowicz was later convicted of raping Presti and stabbing Presti and her daughter, Alyssa, to death.

In an appeal filed with the state's highest court, Bizanowicz argues, among other things, that police never thoroughly investigated the killings and should have looked more carefully at Presti's landlord as a suspect.

The Supreme Judicial Court is scheduled to hear arguments in the appeal Friday.

Bizanowicz served prison time after a conviction for drugging and raping a Lawrence boy and had been classified as a Level 3 sex offender, considered the most dangerous and the most likely to re-offend. But his neighbors in Woburn, including Presti, had no idea about his past.

Under state law, Bizanowicz was required to register as a sex offender at his primary residence in Lowell. But he was not required to register in Woburn, where he sometimes stayed with his girlfriend, Bobbi Jo Miller, Presti's close friend.

After the murders, Presti's family pushed for changes they believe could have alerted her about Bizanowicz's history as a sex offender. The state Legislature later passed a law that requires sex offenders to list secondary addresses, defined as a places they live for 14 or more days in any given year.

In his appeal, Bizanowicz argues the trial judge should have allowed his lawyer to present evidence that Presti was having an affair with her landlord, Harinder Singh, and that police did not thoroughly investigate him as a suspect. The judge rejected the defense's request.

"Mr. Bizanowicz should have been permitted to show that police were informed that Mr. Singh and (Presti) were having a relationship that could have provided motive for Mr. Singh to commit the offenses," Bizanowicz's appellate attorney, Jeffrey L. Baler, wrote in a legal brief filed with the Supreme Judicial Court.

Baler declined to comment on the appeal.

A spokeswoman for Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone also declined to comment.

In their legal brief, prosecutors said Bizanowicz's lawyer was allowed to present evidence at the trial that police had interviewed Singh and searched his basement. They said the judge was correct in ruling the defense couldn't question witnesses about what kind of relationship Presti had with Singh.

Singh told police he had a simple landlord-tenant relationship with Presti, and he reiterated that recently when asked about Bizanowicz's claim that he'd had an affair with Presti.

"That's totally not true. Her kids and my kids loved playing together," Singh said in a brief telephone interview.

"There was not an affair, nothing at all, it is totally wrong," he said.

Presti and her daughter were found on Jan. 7, 2004, after Miller didn't see Presti for several days and became concerned. Miller called Presti's parents, who discovered the bodies. Joanne Presti's 2-year-old son was found in his crib, dehydrated and hungry, but unharmed.

Police began investigating Bizanowicz after they developed film found in Presti's house and noticed him in a photo taken eight months earlier at a first birthday party for Miller's baby's. Bizanowicz was the baby's father.

DNA profiles from sperm found on Presti were matched to Bizanowicz's DNA. Police also found a suicide note written by Bizanowicz and a rope in his truck that matched fibers found on Presti's wrists.

Bizanowicz initially told police he knew Presti through his girlfriend, Miller, and had only been in her home a year earlier to hook up her cable television. He later claimed he had had consensual sex with Presti several days before the killings.

© Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Mountain Home man arrested for failure to register as sex offender - Baxter Bulletin

A Mountain Home man was arrested Thursday morning on a charge of failing to register as sex off-ender.

On Tuesday, the sheriff's office was notified by the Arkansas Crime Information Center that Christopher Quaile had moved from Groton, N.Y., to Baxter County, according to a Baxter County Sheriff's Office news release. An investigation revealed that the sex offender had failed to notify and register with the sheriff's office. The suspect, who is an over-the-road truck driver, was contacted by cell phone and told to report.

Quaile, 29, who lives at 255 Century Park Terrace, turned himself into the Baxter County Sheriff's Office and fulfilled his registration requirements, according to the release. He was convicted in October 1999 of second-degree sexual abuse involving a 12 year-old female. He will be ordered to complete state sex offender evaluation requirements, authorities said. Quaile was booked into the Baxter County Detention Center with $15,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear in Baxter County Circuit Court on Jan. 6.

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