Litchfield Independent Review - Standoff leads to arrest - Comments

Some of the questions posted

Kristin Holtz — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 08:46:13 -0500

Some of the questions posted by readers are addressed in the Independent Review's March 20 print edition story, "Sex offender heads to court after standoff." In the story, Meeker County Sheriff's Department addresses reasons why the department could not notify the public, including data privacy laws and an ongoing investigation. Click here to go to the story: http://www.independentreview.net/sex-offender-heads-court-after-standoff...

Kristin Holtz is a staff writer with the Independent Review.

Sapperion, first I want

LoriM — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 08:27:15 -0500

Sapperion, first I want toTHANK YOU for serving this country!!! We will stand watch here while you are protecting and serving during your deployment!!!!

I have the utmost respect for law enforcement and the jobs they do everyday to protect us!!! It is the dirtballs in the department that give others a bad name. Hopefully soon those scumbags will be gone and will be replaced with others who work with integrity!! I have a BA in Criminal Justice and understand how screwed up our judicial system is which is one reason that I have a real bad taste in my mouth for the judges in this county and the scumbags in the department.

I believe that our police department is doing the best they can with what they have and I have the utmost respect for them. I don't blame them for not alerting us to the fact that their was a sex offender on the loose. I blame the COUNTY Sheriff's Department as much as I blame the judicial system that released that offender. The Sherrif's Department is supposed to serve and protect the COUNTY and the judicial system needs to start thinking about protecting the communiites that they release these offenders into!!

With that being said, I would rather be warned about the missing sex offender than not know at all!!! Common sense tells me to explain to my kids about creeps like this and stranger danger anyway, but the knowledge that an offender was in the area would have been appreciated. Knowing that this creep was right next door really hit a nerve with me. Let's hope they lock him back up for many years!!!!

well they do micro chip our

Civil Srevant — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 01:17:01 -0500

well they do micro chip our animals at the vets office if you want it However I dont think that would ever fly with the public. They would fear that our children would be next and the goverenment would track our where abouts and blah, blah ,blah,but if it were used to track criminals well I bet that could be a good way to. Just a simple injection just under the skin and out comes a micro chip with identifying info incripted on it to track them by.I would make sure it was done in a very private place so it would really hurt if one were to attempt to remove it! much like a form of birth controll once used.I agree with randay91 and lorim. To bad sapperion looks like you have been out voted here and besides your off protecting another country not watching your nieghborhood we are!!The fact is we should have been notified. law enforcement failed the public in this way.I believe if not for the public envolvment this county could be in worse trouble, our law enforcement isnt to be trusted in my opinion and no one can change my mind about that.I dont trust them for very valid reasons so there fore they cant be trusted with preforming thier duty's to the public. Just wait until the FBI makes that announcement has everyone forgot already that the county is under investigation? And the possibility's of "why" I have heard all kinds of skuttlebutt and most are pointing fingers right to that office.Keep us protected? I dont think so. I would rather trust my nieghbors thank you.

One of the best forms of

randay91 — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:33:00 -0500

One of the best forms of resources for the police is to notify the public. Police cannot be everywere all the time, if we can give out Amber Alerts when a child goes missing across the US then we certainly should be able to give out Molerster on the Run alerts everytime a registered sex offender goes missing! It is that simple, they can focus on where the offender is going next and they can use the public to find them! This is type of public involvement has been around for years, its called COP (Community Orriented Policing) which means that the police agencies utilize the communities inhabitants to fight crime, however not all communities utilize this, our's sure does not, we consider the smalling things like DARE programs COP. In Litchfield where we have one of the manmy large Meth problems in the state we do not have community awareness programs not educational programs, and this state does not recognize the nation wide Red Ribbon Week. Why is this. We do not have a drug court established here either as far as I know, diversion programs yes but not actual drug courts. And we should.
I've often wanted to start a community watch program, but never got an answer back from anyone in office downtown telling me how to go about starting one.

The best thing we can do as a community is care, and speak out. Without people who speak out reformation would never happen in this country!

I agree. Generally speaking

randay91 — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:20:17 -0500

I agree. Generally speaking a shorter "leash" should be kept on registered sex offenders.
(I has to say that I am a Criminal Justice Student about to graduate is September and being one I have to say that it is true that Americans Crime Prevention programs are in need of serious overhauling, it is a known fact.) I wonder often why they do not make registerd sex offenders wear ankle bracelets so they do not loose track of them so often!! Think of the revenue this would bring in! It would not be a violation of the constitutioin either, as the criminal has already been convicted. It can be a form of condtion of release based on the offenders criminal act. I'm not talking petty offenders but rapists and child molesters, absolutly! Otherwise I think that chemical castration should be mandatory!

The scarier thing is that

LoriM — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:42:25 -0500

The scarier thing is that the Wisconsin law enforcement/DOC should have been aware that this offender had friends in Litchfield so that they could have looked here. Had the law enforcement center put out a poster of this man I could have let them know that I had seen him several times at the house next door. We have new neighbors that moved in last fall who we do not know. This offender visited them several times and I believe was also hiding out there within days before his arrest. I have children as well as this neighbor. I do not know how long this neighbor has known this creep but he would have been picked up last fall if I had known he was a missing offender!! That to me is scary, he was right smack dab in the center of Litchfield, just blocks from St. Philips school and with bus stops all over the area as well as neighborhood children! I hope this creep stays locked up for a very very long time!!!

Your right, we should depend

sapperion — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:36:39 -0500

Your right, we should depend on our neighbors and also help in protecting them. I am currently deployed and my neighbors are also my family, each day we protect each other, and at home i wouldn't have it any other way. And yes all of those flyers are printed... And they are at anyones disposal, they don't need the internet, if they truly want to seek out these offenders they can simply go to the Police station and ask for the full list of missing offenders. I am not degrading anyone all I am saying is there is a reason why you don't see most of these flyers and they are not alerting you of every missing offender. For the Police to do there job they have to focus on profiles made up of these offenders, if they waste there time exhausting resources to make sure the whole state knows every little detail about these people then they wont be able to focus on where this offender will be next "Atleast not as well as they could if they devoted more attention to alerting the Key communitys and familys" If you or Randay, or any other citizen would like to join the hunt then go for it. I am glad you would like to go the extra mile to get them off the street. But why worrry about the one offender mising from Cloquet Mn, who's probable areas to run to is Canada or North Dakota "This is fictional i have no idea if there is a missing offender from Cloquet" As sad as it is that these people are out there messing with our familys, you have to realise that you can't save everyone and that you should be more focused on waiting for the offenders that will effect your Neighborhoods and Communitys. And I assure you that if the Police don't think they can handle it they will post it to the public, but at the same time you need to look at it form their eyes. Say they did release that this guy was in Meeker county and that they knew he was. Do you think the Shotgun wielding offender would of stayed around long enough to get caught, or would he have moved on to a place that they may not beable to find him.

Either way, it isn't allways the best interest to overload the general public with information that in all reality isn't pertinent to them and there community. Like I said earlier I am sure the circumstances would have been different if they had reason to believe that this guy would have ran to Litchfield from Wisconsin, but obviously he broke the profile and the police found out and acted fast so they could catch him.

so nice to see you speak so

Civil Srevant — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 04:23:07 -0500

so nice to see you speak so positivly about your nieghbors.Can they depend upon you to be as caring?Remember "you" are thier nieghbor as well.Maybe thats a problem in your nieghborhood alone?I have lived in Los Angleles Ca, Oklahoma city Ok, Portland Or, &Indianapolis Ind.and in Mn for almost 23 yrs. I have traveled to many places in the world and I can tell you that many people I have had contact with would prove you wrong!To place so little confidence in man kind is unimaginable. Obviosly not all of man kind can be trusted or we wouldnt be haveing this discussion . Then dosnt it stand to reason we should be kind to our nieghbors,get to know them,thier,children and so forth.Watch out for each other?Instead of all the pettyness of your dog pottied on my lawn?I say yes then start printing those 3000 flyers the rest of us will have to depend on them because you claim your nieghbors could care less unless it is happening in your nieghborhood!Many different nieghborhoods make the very existance of our community. Not all citizens have access to on-line. I do know there is the library.

Well ok then, If we are to

sapperion — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 01:14:10 -0500

Well ok then, If we are to benotified of all of the offenders missing then i suppose you should prepare your mind for the 3000 plus in Minnesota alone, be ready for all the possible areas "that probably won't be Meeker", Pictures, Possible targets, and Behaviors of these offenders to be sent out. After you have recieved information for all of them, lets see how much you care of remember about it. I would rather stick to the current method where they only alert the people that could possibly be in there path, and if you need more go to the Dru Sjodean National Offender site and start plugging in search areas on a daily basis. That way you can make it as big or as small of a search area you want and you can keep track of all the offenders in that area. But for the rest of the public who doesn't think they can handle the load of 3000+ offenders "not including all the states around us" that have gone missing, we'll just stick with the current laws.

But I am glad you put so much faith in thinking people would actually care that much, being from Litchfield and living in a larger city, I can honestly say that where I live now people probably wouldnt care unless if it directly effected there neighborhood.

Thank you randay91 and I am

Civil Srevant — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:36:31 -0500

Thank you randay91 and I am sorry for what may have occured with your son lets hope if it did he will never remember! I dont think some of those negative posters have suffered and know the pain of something this vile occurring to them. I get tired of all the excuses of why law enforcment dosnt due things properly. It isnt thier choice of how the law works just to follow the rules but if it's too much paperwork well then they do what they want!TOO BAD!We all face thiings with in our jobs that call for things we maynot consider important but do them anyways.Because it our jobs, that's what they "pay" us for. Our law enforcement is "no different". I get tired of hearing "but they put thier life on the line" so, they chose to be in the proffesion they are in, knowing full well of the job description and pay.If all those are tired of hearing negative things about our law enfocement then stop electing and hiring unexceptale people.Stop letting them get away with these very types of things!And then praise them for doing thier jobs? I dont get it?Know wonder they do what they want,if they keep the citizen unaware , then who are we to know the difference and we are expected to trust them? Wake up! Pay attention! Our children are our most precious assets and if we as citizens let our law enforcement to become lax and run things as if it was "thier own business" then I dont forsee anything good occurring for our nation and our childrens futures.I mean look what is occurring in meeker right now! When the investigation is exposed and people find out why they(fbi) were summoned here in the first place and what they let us citizens know, just might, no it WILL make you all think twice about what you might of thought of law enforcement to begin with. Then we will all be back posting away in shock!Not you or myself. Why? because randay91 you and I are realist!Thank you for being a good citizen.

I cannot help but bring

randay91 — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 23:17:37 -0500

I cannot help but bring something else up here. Approximatly 4 years 2 months and 15 days ago, unknowing I let my neighbor down stairs watch my birthday boy (1 year old baby boy) for 5 minutes. He was a nice man, and he had a pregnant wife, who I had known for 4 months. I was baking a cake and preparing for the guests to arrive, this man and his wife was among my guests, so when it came time to check my cake they said, leave him here he'll be fine and you can get the party ready we'll play with him. Rich needs to get us eto babies anyway as she rubbed her big bellie. Five minutes later Rich walked up my stairs and my 1 year old baby boy was screaming! Rich said his diaper is falling off I think he needs you. So I took him changed his diaper and later that day we had a party for my baby. Rich was so good with the boys playign with them wrestleing around with them. Entertained them, seemed to keep going into the room where my nephews were. I though he's gonna make such a great daddy! Who would ever of though what would happen next to shatter my life and the trust that I had for people in this small toen.

The next day! Jill Gahns a at the time employee for the Litchfield Independant Review who I know very well saw me at SA gas station. She ran to my car upset talking about a child molester and did I know that this guy was MY NEIGHBOR!!!!!!!!!!! Frantic I went home and called the police department and no one would tell me whether or not this was true! The I called the MN DOC and then I found out it was true this man served 6 years in the MN DOC for molesting a six year old boy. He was a level 2 sex offender! Required to register! I went hysterical. MN law states that me as a resident should have been notified because a. he lived in my building (this was according to the MN DOC gentelman I talked to in St. Paul b. I worked in a childcare center, my director was never notified as by law, and c. when I asked our former sherif why he said he did not in his words and I quote want "A big production!"

When I got off the phone I cried and I cried because I will never know if this man touched my son that one time I left him alone with him. And to make it worse this guy was the prime suspect and held on peliminary charges in the Jacob Wetherly case! He was let go because his boss vouched that he was at work at the time of the abduction, even though the children said he was the man matching the suspect! Fact! Contact the Jacob Wetherly foundation if you want to see these facts!

The police should of warned me and the day care center I worked at! And they did not! I should of made a huge as hell stink but I did not. This man lived downstairs until my landlords evicted him when I told them and provided them with a certified letter of verification from a man at the MN DOC that contained his conviction records. My landlords cared more about my sons protection and safety then the police at that point! I thank them and they know who they are...thank you guys!

one should always be given

Civil Srevant — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 14:17:38 -0500

one should always be given the option to be involved or "pay attention" as you say. I dont believe you are giving your community members a fair shake here when it comes to thier ability to think for themselves. I thinks thats an insult to them.Many I believe would not"panic", why are underestimating thier ability's? That is not up to you to controll."No Point" I think our loved ones are point enough!We citizens live in Mn. I would expect "yes" we should have been notified. Wisc.and other states "should do the same within it's self". Im not saying for law enforcement to notify EVERY reported person although a "child preditor" is every parents concern! This is the problem. No one is saying in anyway that the law enforcement didnt do "thier job"in capturing this criminal.Citizens want the same respect as what those officers expect from us. I only posted "Megans Law' to be a good citizen and help with community education. So what gives with all of the negativity?

Realist commenting.... Here

sapperion — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 12:43:53 -0500

Realist commenting....
Here is a coment for you then, If the Police and related agency's or press decided to report every bulletin, BOLO, or Wanted Criminal posting to the public, how many people do you think would actually pay attention. The Fact is the reason why nobody in Meeker County knew about this guy being "At Large" is he was from Wisconsin the probability of him picking Litchfield out of all the possible areas he could have moved to would be considered extremely low. Sex Offenders go off the radar ALL the time, In Minnesota alone out of the 14,000+ sexoffenders there is only an estimated 80% compliance rate for registering.

If they released Statewide, or even TriState bulletins to the mass public for all of these Offenders there would be Chaos, Paranoia would strike every parent and single women out there and the police would have a lot more to deal with then just hunting out the offender.

Now I agree if there was anyone in the community of Meeker County that has a history with this guy, or is a profiled target of this guy then they should have probably been told, but there is no point to warning EVERYONE in the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan that this guy disapeered.

Either way he was put away and it was done by letting the RIGHT people know. And that too me is superb.

If you would like to know how Minnesota deals with there Offenders this site seems to be a good source.
http://www.klaaskids.org/st-minn.htm

it's all of you rather than

Civil Srevant — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 04:16:21 -0500

it's all of you rather than myself or randay91 being asinine ,hatefull , ignorant and biased. we were just expressing the truth, it also seems we are the only reallist commenting.Why is it if someone posts something that is thier opinion that others dont agree with they have the right (1st amendment dosnt apply here read user agreement) to bully, be abusive and degrade and tell you to move when one has already "served his country", owns thier homes and pay thier" tax's" on the very services we are legally "entitled" to, and get to "vote" for, and have an "opinion" about and is a legal citizen of the United States ?Once again this is a "democratic" country not a" policed one". "WORD". get educated before you spew your words of wisdom. For now I will consider all of those comments "moot".

1. I have never froze from fear nor will I ever
2. crapped myself since ive been tolit trained
3. gotten shot or have gotten any one shot but am a experianced sharp shooter
4. no I dont like the way things are ran here but thats Ok for now they are going to change shortley.And No I wont leave.
5. Kenya? apparentley your not worldley , in words you may understand"traveled on many occasions outside the U.S."

If the public would have been notified we as parents would have watched out more dilagentaly for the preditor, for our children, your children,grandchildren, the schools,local business's would have been on alert and so on, The Law enforcement isnt the "only ones" who protect us or our children its the "community as a whole". try giving the citizens some credit here law enforcement isnt the almighty saviors by themselves. That is very obvious! What would you have said if a child abduction did occur and no notice was given ? I bet you would sing a whole different tune! By no one knowing in no way helped stop him from harming anyone or for law enforcement to arrest him.

People put themselves at risk every day when they get into thier car and drive to work. many family's hope they arrive home safley after earning a hard days pay to support them. To them I say thank you ! To law enforcement I say pick up your check on payday. I owe you nothing more . Do all of you expect others who pay you to give thanks as well? I think we do everytime are tax's get raised!

The fact of the matter is; A notice was issued for"child preditor at large" by law the public should have been notified. for those interested in knowing how many preditors do live in your area go to "MEGAN"S LAW.COM" .

by the way I can afford a

Civil Srevant — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 00:43:14 -0600

by the way I can afford a ticket to Kenya but already have tickets to go to Rio ,Brazil but thanks anyways . You can go check it out first and let me know where the 5 star hotels are I wouldnt stay in anything less! Education rocks ! BS walks.Climb down off your high horse and get real!

Standoff leads to arrest

Kristin Holtz — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 10:21:11 -0600

A 27-year-old Litchfield man was arrested Tuesday after barricading himself in a residence with a shotgun.

The Meeker County Sheriff’s Department were issuing a warrant for Thomas Warren Pitts’ arrest around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at 22244 640th Avenue, Litchfield, when Pitts barricaded himself in the house with a 20-gauge shotgun, according to a Meeker County Sheriff’s Department release.