Posted on 11/21/2003 11:09:41 AM PST by Hillary's Lovely Legs
November 4, 2003 — ABC7'S I-Team has found mistakes in police records that may be giving some registered sex offenders, a free pass and some residents a false sense of security.
ABC7 Video Clip: Watch Chuck's Report Illinois Sex Offender Information
If you are convicted of rape, child molesting or other sex crimes in Illinois, you must register with your local police department every year for ten years, provide a current address, and be photographed.
Thousands of sex offenders' pictures and personal data are available on internet sites operated by Chicago, suburban, county and state police. But the I-Team has uncovered flawed files. That means when you check for sex offenders in your neighborhood, you may find pictures and addresses of the wrong people.
"I'm very angry. He ruined my family. He ruined my family." At age13, this Chicago woman was assaulted by her stepfather, a man named Marco Polo. He is misidentified on the Illinois' State Police Sex Offender Registry.
"That is not him. That is not him."
Polo's records were among 18,000 examined by the ABC7 I-Team. We found countless flawed files, listing wrong names and addresses, wrong pictures. Some photos are virtually unrecognizable, and one man is even wearing an obvious disguise.
"It gives people a false sense of safety and it gives people a sense that authorities are sort of affectively managing this population that victims and advocates and the general assembly have said they want monitored," said Polly Poskin, Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Violence.
"That is really messed up," said Elenna Stafford, whose stepfather/attacker was listed by the wrong race, wrong name, wrong address, and even the wrong photo.
Our investigation found Marco Polo at the beginning of a circle of confusion where police have his identity mixed up with three other sex offenders. That means the public doesn't know who is who.
On the Illinois State Police website, Marco Polo's picture appeared under the name of a much younger, black male Lemar Jones.
Goudie: "Ever hear of somebody named Lemar Jones? Stafford: No. Goudie: Take a look at this picture here. Stafford: That's him, but the date of birth, that's Marco Polo, that's Marco Polo, that's my stepfather but that's not his information."
Lemar Jones isn't white, as depicted on the Illinois State Police website, nor does he live on the South Side as listed in the Chicago Police Department's website. Lemar Jones is black and the I-Team found him living 400 miles north of Chicago in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Goudie: Mr. Jones, Chuck Goudie Jones: What is it you want?
Jones and his wife are working as Minneapolis park district youth counselors, a job from which he has now been fired for not disclosing that he was a convicted felon in Illinois.
Goudie: When did that case happen sir? How long ago? Jones: 1992. Goudie: How long has it actually been since you lived in Chicago? Jones: Nine years Goudie: You're still listed as living on South Ashland. Jones: I can't understand that. I been here nine years.
Goudie: How is it that a white man could be depicted next to your name and... Jones: Let me tell you something. I was clerk in Cook County for seven and a half years and I've seen some foul ups that you wouldn't even believe.
Illinois State Police misidentified Jones as Marco Polo and also mistakenly ID'd him as another man in the circle of confusion: Dirk Griden, a 35-year-old convicted sex offender from the West Side of Chicago.
Griden's Illinois State Police file is also flawed. It has his picture wrongly identified as a 200-pound, 66-year old white male, Raymond Dubrock of the far south suburbs.
Goudie: You're not Raymond Dubrock? Man: Nope. Goudie: You don't live in Sauk Village? Man: Never been there and don't know where it is.
This is Sauk Village. The real Raymond Dubrock lives in a quiet, middle class neighborhood where young children play in front yards. This is 66-year-old sex offender Raymond Dubrock, the fourth man in the circle of confusion.
Goudie: Was it a girl? Dubrock: Yes. Goudie: Under 18? Dubrock: Yes. Goudie: A relative? Dubrock: No. A neighbor…
On the Illinois State Police website, Raymond Dubrock is also identified by the wrong name, Marco Polo, where our circle of confusion began.
Goudie: "You recognize that man there? Dubrock: No. Goudie: Ever seen him before? Dubrock: No. Goudie: Why is his picture here? Dubrock: No Idea."
So where is the sex offender called Marco Polo, Stafford's stepfather who was convicted of assaulting her at age 13, who the Chicago Police Dept. website claims lives on West 21st Street?
The I-Team found Polo in central Mexico, where he claims to have lived for several years.
"How can something like that happen?" asks Stafford.
"They are put in manually by individuals. Unfortunately inaccuracies as such as incorrect photos with names occur and the input from the state or one of the other agencies. Obviously this is something that we are trying to correct because obviously we don't want to put incorrect information on the internet," said Sgt. Vidal Vasquez, sex registration commander.
After registering sex offenders, Chicago police and other local departments transmit the information and photos to the state police. Apparently that is where some names and faces are mixed-up and put incorrectly on the state website.
Sgt. Lincoln Hampton: Yea it does defeat it.
State police say they do nothing to check the accuracy of sex offender information from local police.
"Basically we assume, and I know that it is wrong to assume. The thing about it is, that the system is set up so that we have to depend on the local agency to verify the information and make sure that it is correct. They send it to us and we have to assume at that point that the information is correct and we put it into the system," said Sgt. Hampton.
"It makes me wonder if the information is incorrect in the computer...He could have possibly been doing this to someone else," said Stafford.
The Chicago and Illinois sex offender registries carry disclaimers that police are not responsible for errors in information. Critics say that if the lists aren't accurate then what good are they?
The I-Team probe continues Wednesday night at 10:00 p.m.: A sex offender marries his victim and then puts on a disguise, he says to protect her from public shame. How the system is shielding sex offenders who don't want the world to know what they did.
Still wondering...............sigh
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