Posted on 04/22/2005 9:42:50 PM PDT by Former Military Chick
Residents in a Ocala neighborhood could face charges after a convicted sex offender apparently committed suicide in despair over signs labeling him a "child rapist" posted in his neighborhood, according to Local 6 News.
Clovis Ivan Claxton, 38, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a child in Washington in 1991, had lived at 3230 SE. 45 Street in Ocala for about two years.
Tuesday, Claxton noticed bright yellow, laminated signs displaying his picture, date of birth, address and the words "child rapist" hanging on power poles in his neighborhood. A county commissioner proposed posting such information in the community but Sheriff Ed Dean rejected the idea.
After seeing the signs, Claxton called the sheriff's office and said that he felt "extremely scared and feels that people in the neighborhood are now out to possibly hurt him."
"Once he made these type statements our deputies took this man into custody under the Baker Act law and transported him to a local mental health facility for evaluation," Marion County Sheriff's Capt. Denis Strow said. "He was later released."
Tuesday morning, Claxton's parents found him dead of an apparent overdose with one of the child rapist flyers by his side.
Jane Claxton blames County Commissioner Randy Harris, who proposed the flyers, for her son's death, according to a report.
"Just don't get on the bandwagon," she said. "There's going to be other (deaths) if Randy Harris has his way. He hasn't been in trouble for 18 years, and he's branded for life."
Harris said sex offenders need to take responsibility for their actions.
"I don't blame his death to the signs," he said, adding he was undeterred in his quest to alert people to sex offenders living in their neighborhoods.
Dean said it is an example that police work should be left to authorities.
"We need to keep calm, do the right thing," Dean said. "Not go overboard with it. Protect our children. Use all of the resources we can but not stir a community up to a frenzy."
Claxton's death follows the high-profile arrests of sex offenders in the separate killings of two Florida girls less than seven weeks apart. State lawmakers have responded by passing a bill to require lifetime supervision of some child sex offenders.
State law allows for flyers to be printed and distributed, Local 6 News reported. But, altering the signs or flyers is against the law.
Claxton's address had been added to the top of the flyer along with the words "child rapist."
"It is a violation of the law," Strow said. "And should we find who perpretrated it, I'm sure it is a case that would be reviewed by the state's attorney office to see if they wish to pursue it."
The person responsible for the flyers faces up to 1 year in jail.
The sheriff's office is investigating and an autopsy was scheduled for Friday.
Marion County is located northwest of Orlando and has more than 600 registered sex offenders.
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.
It is my personal belief that those that molest or rape children should be judged by those that have been raped or molested as children. There is no such thing as REHAB for these pedophiles and if he was mentally ill, he should have been left in an institution. I'm sorry he took his life, but I'm tired of people caring more about the victimizer than the victims.
And so am I!
I think we should give them a fair trial, take them to the gallows, and shoot them before the noose tightens...but only inflict enough pain to make them suffer, not die.
I hate it when victims have less rights than the perps...but then, God is a Great Equalizer, and all things are revealed in the Refiners Fire...
The sex offenders may "get away with it" on earth, but in Heaven, there is no such thing as "a little guilty' not even when "no one knows." God ALWAYS knows. And he balances the Books!
Do you think God could transform a sex offender?
I had not linked that to his death in that way, if this is an actual theory being tossed about it might have some validity.
He could have just felt so enclosed the only choice to leave this world. There are still many facts missing.
Thanks for the comment.
Hey, if the law said lock him up for the rest of his life I would gladly support it.
The thing is and well I do it to, we offer what we would want and frankly not acknowledging that it is the state legislature, elected officials to make changes.
Because if in fact he was brought to justice, was found guilty, was sentenced, served his sentence and kept his nose clean, isn't that at least some what of a success story? I say that given what we know and the fact that if we want them to be incarcerated for life then let start doing something and not just talking about what we would have liked.
Thanks so much for the comment.
Thank you, and then of course they were justified. I wonder, if all the signs were causing him distress that he not stay with a family member. All though if anyone and I MEAN ANYONE were to picket my home, put signs up, stand on my property they would have a meeting with me and my S and W if you know what I mean.
However, I would notify the cops. Of course that would be if I were in trouble with the law and I am not but I would fight back as much as they gave within the law.
He sounds sadly fragile. I really hope as the news comes out that we are missing some more recent facts that would make the community become so outspoken on this one convicted sex offender.
Thanks as always for your helpful comment.
Oh, my goodness, what a wonderfully eloquent and insightful comment, a true joy to read this early Saturday morning.
You said what I have been feeling and attempting to say.
Thank you, really from the bottom of my heart.
I cannot even imagine how difficult it is to work with those behind bars but if they are allowed folks like you then some might find a way to rebuild their lives once they leave the prison/jail.
I love my pets, and I always enjoy reading about the inmates who are working with the dog program to help train for service, or just for placement. That is a good way to find out what a person is really all about and it makes the hardest criminal melt and in the end 2 lives have been changed.
I would certainly help with any grass roots effort to have all offences available to all, it should be if the court procedures were not closed. It would be work but then as you said, "we could understand there are appropriate ways to approach such matters with others in public."
"Both are legal offenses.
What's wrong, don't you want your neighbors to know that you might kill them by driving too fast?
I say let the people decide. I would have a couple tickets and I live a few blocks from a school, so why shouldn't parents know?"
There is a significant difference between a sexual predator deliberately targeting children and some guy in a hurry to get to work, who presses the speed limit and gets caught.
I think they should have their foreheads tattooed so the kids could see them coming...
The defense of a perverted, lowlife, scumbag POS child molesting, baby-raping sexual predator is not, under any circumstances, eloquent and insightful.
The mindset of a sexual predator is radically different from a bank robber or a murderer or a major drug pusher or any of your run-of-the-mill criminal idiots that prey on society because they are too damned lazy to attempt to function within the mores of society.
The sexual predator will not reform, nor will they repent their crimes.
A sexual predator has been what he/she is long before they are caught for the first time.
It is my opinion, but based upon much experience gained from supervising investigations into their crimes, that for every one detected sexual predation crime, the predator has at least three that he/she has not been caught at or that has not been detected.
There may a redemption for the bank robber, the drug pusher, even the murderer, but there is no redemption other than the fires of hell for a sexual predator.
The antics of a sexual predator are not just criminal, they are monstrous and abhorently evil.
The criminal mind is a weak mind in the first place, but the sexual predator mind is devious beyond compare to that of a idiot that decides to stick a gun in someone's face for their wallet or that enters an establishment to take something by force.
We should not suffer a sexual predator in our midst. Period.
Once the sexual predator has crossed that line, he/she should always be identifed as such.
THEY DO NOT CHANGE, THEY WILL NEVER CHANGE.
Well if raping a child warrants the posting of flyers in Florida - we should have the Kennedy compound in Florida surrounded - Teddy Kennedy and Chris Dodd are well known for having sex with underage girls, as well as the nephew who raped the 14 year old babysitter (oops, I'm sorry - the Kennedys loved their women - including the two they killed).
But there are some boys getting charged with with sex offenses that are 18 and their girlfriend is under 18. I know of one right now, the girl was a runaway at 15, the boy was ignorant and vulnerable trying to help, the 15 year old girl was a slut, and parents when they found their "precious" daughter, pressed charges. The 18 year old is being charged with a sex offense.
If he is convicted, he wiil stay labeled a sex offender for the rest of his life!!
Teach your 18 year old boys to stay far away from under 18 girls, and from my experience some of them are the predators!!!!
I have to agree with you.
This concerns me.
If I understood the offense in 91, I could better gauge the situation.
However, he obviously felt real shame and humiliation about what he did. I'm bothered by this.
The biggest threats to children are the sickos that are allowed to live in the home with the children - the ones their debased mothers drag home from the bars or assorted drug orgies.
They don't murder the children and get national attention. They just molest them, beat them, and other horrifying things.
That's where children are most at danger.
And yet, if you speed and get into an accident, my insurance rates will go up to cover your recklessness.
I'd go a step further, though.
I think every time a cop is called to a house, that should be public information and printed in the newspaper.
It's a matter of people's reckless personal lives sucking up my tax dollars.
One less pervert is a blessing.
"After seeing the signs, Claxton called the sheriff's office and said that he felt "extremely scared and feels that people in the neighborhood are now out to possibly hurt him." "
Well, now you know how PARENTS feel when they have a PERVERT like YOU in the neighborhood. They FEAR for their innocent kids.
"Claxton's mother told authorities that her son had attempted to commit suicide before by taking several different pills. Investigators won't officially declare it a suicide until autopsy results come back."
Sounds like he was bound to do himself in. I don't blame the people for shaming him and alerting other parents of a pervert living there. NO sympathy for the devil here. NONE!
I am dismayed when FReepers give politicians and the flunkies that ran goverment a pass. They do it all the time.
Here is an example of pissing on the symptom and ignoring disease.
Public shame of a past crime leads to suicide. Sounds okay to me.
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