- 14 Sep 2006 15:04
#968038
Efforts to address this kind of violence must be driven by a social justice agenda that addresses Multiculturalism.
Source
Iowa tried to cage suspect as a sex predator
Keith Owens Parker was arrested three times prior to telling police on Aug. 6 that he had raped and murdered a prostitute.
By JEFF ECKHOFF
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
COPYRIGHT 2006, DES MOINES REGISTER AND TRIBUNE COMPANY
August 28, 2006
A Des Moines man who told police he raped and murdered a prostitute earlier this month was released from prison about three years earlier, records show, after Iowa authorities dropped efforts to confine him indefinitely as a dangerous sexual predator.
Keith Owens Parker, 48, remains jailed on a charge of first-degree murder in connection with the death of Georgina Kimble, 37.
"That outrages me," said Sandra Moreland, Kimble's mother. "I believe in rehabilitation. But there's a difference between rehabilitating them and knowing you can't rehabilitate them. ... The laws in this state are messed up."
Court documents say Parker walked into the Polk County Jail in the early morning hours of Aug. 6 and told authorities he had just raped and stabbed a prostitute in his Des Moines apartment. Des Moines police had not previously disclosed the alleged rape, but Parker's comments are paraphrased in a search warrant seeking, among other things, to take a sample of his DNA.
Iowa records show Parker was arrested in 1997 on a sex-related battery charge in Florida and was jailed twice in Iowa for sex-related assaults in the 1980s. Parker's criminal history prompted Iowa authorities in 2003, when Parker was on the verge of being released from prison, to attempt to confine him indefinitely for treatment as a dangerous sex offender.
But authorities dropped that effort in February 2004, saying Parker's interview with a state-paid psychologist had convinced lawyers that they no longer had enough evidence to keep Parker confined.
Iowa law requires the state to prove that a suspected predator has some sort of mental disorder and is more likely than not to commit another sex crime if released. Those found to be dangerous following a civil trial are sent to a treatment program run by the Iowa Department of Human Services. The program, at the Cherokee Mental Health Institute, has 62 patients.
"In this particular case, after the expert met with the respondent, he no longer was able to express to a reasonable degree of medical certainty that (Parker) was more likely than not" to commit more sexual violence, said Assistant Iowa Attorney General Andrew Prosser.
"We rely on our experts," Prosser said. "The system is not designed to - and it's an absolute certainty that it's not allowed to - capture every single person who will ever commit a sexually violent offense. It just can't do it."
Details of Parker's Florida arrest were not available last week, other than that it involved the involuntary sexual battery of an adult woman.
Court records show Parker was arrested for his first Iowa sexual assault in July 1981, after he choked a Des Moines woman into unconsciousness and raped her at a 19th Street home.
Parker was convicted of second-degree sexual abuse and sentenced to 25 years in state prison. But he ultimately was paroled in early 1988.
Records show Parker lived at a Des Moines apartment for roughly two months before he asked to borrow a neighbor's phone. Documents say Parker then paid the woman's 11-year-old son $4 to take out the garbage. Once the boy left, Parker grabbed the woman by the throat.
Polk County prosecutors ultimately charged Parker with assault with intent to commit sexual abuse. Documents say he choked and hit the woman "while he was removing her clothes by force, and all this time he was telling her he just got out of prison for rape."
Court records show Parker had the woman almost entirely undressed before her son returned. Parker fled when the boy knocked on the door.
Parker ultimately pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges totaling another 10 years in prison, on top of additional time for violating his parole. He was released from prison in August 2003 and won total freedom the following February, after state prosecutors dropped the sexual predator lawsuit.
Attempts to reach Caton Roberts, the psychologist who interviewed Parker, were unsuccessful. A spokesman for the attorney general's office said state lawyers could not release details from Roberts' report because it is required to be confidential by law.
According to the attorney general's office, Iowa has filed 124 petitions to confine people for involuntary treatment since the sexual predator law took effect in 1996. The law requires a series of initial, paper-only reviews before the legal documents are filed. But suspected predators all must be interviewed in person before the cases go to court.
State officials say 28 of the 124 petitions, or roughly 23 percent, have been dismissed because psychologists changed their opinions following the in-depth reviews.
Parker is scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 7 in Polk County on the charge of Kimble's murder.
Kimble is the sister of Melissa Hasley, who her mother says also was involved in prostitution before disappearing following a Des Moines party in October 2002.
Family members still have no idea what happened to her.
- By Tainari88
- By Rancid
- By Unthinking Majority