Sex Offender Watch: A Map of Homes to Keep on Your Radar this Halloween
There are 18 registered sex offenders listed as living in Downers Grove, according to the Illinois Sex Offender Registry. See what else we discovered about them.
View Downers Grove Sex Offenders in a larger map
Patch wants to help Downers Grove-area parents keep their kids safe this fall. With Halloween and trick-or-treating only a month away, we are providing information about registered sex offenders in the area.
In general, the laws center on sex offenders registering in person each year the local police department. They must do so for a required 10-year registration period, unless they are separately required to register for life. Offenders are prohibited from living within 500 feet of a school, daycare center, youth center or other facility that caters to children younger than 18 years old.
Sex Offenders in Your Neighborhood
A search of the Illinois Sex Offender Registry links 18 registered sex offenders with Downers Grove addresses. Some of those registered may be outside of the village’s boundaries and have Downers Grove postal addresses.
Two offenders are listed as homeless and therefore not posted on the map. Daniel P. Bashaw, 31, was convicted of aggravated criminal sex abuse of a 13-year-old when he was 30. Jeromey S. Ratliff, 30, was convicted of sexual exploitation of a child with a sex act. The victim was 16 years old and Raliff was 30 at the time of the offense.
Yelton Cales, 33, is listed with a Downers Grove address, but is currently being held in the Illinois Department of Corrections. He was convicted of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. The victim was 16 years old and Cales was 26 at the time of the offense.
How the Map Works
The map is interactive, meaning you can zoom in, zoom out, or move it around to see all the plotted points.
Floating your cursor over one of the markers will give you the name of the sex offender and his address. Double clicking on the marker will give you more information about the specific charge.
The yellow markers represent sex offenders who are not listed as sexual predators. The remaining red pins are those who are labeled as sexual predators in the registry.
The term refers to anyone convicted after July 1, 1999 of certain violations in the Criminal Code of 1961. Sexual predators are required to register for their entire lives.
Who Needs to Register?
Persons convicted of misdemeanor or felony sex crimes involving children under age 18 as well as adult victims are required to register their addresses with the local law enforcement agency in the communities where they reside once a year, under the Illinois Sex Offender Registration Act. The same rules apply to out-of-state sex offenders who move to or work in Illinois, as well as out-of-state students attending a state college or university.
The Illinois State Police maintain a detailed Sex Offender Registry of all of the state's registered sex offenders that is available to the public. There, citizens can look up and find the registered sex offenders living in their own communities. Local police departments throughout the state feed information about the individual sex offenders registered in their jurisdictions to the state database.
Similar requirements for registration are also in effect for sex crimes committed against adults — especially adults with disabilities.
A sex offender must register annually in person at the local police department for the duration of the required 10-year registration period.
In addition, registered sex offenders are prohibited from residing within 500 feet of a school, daycare center, youth center or other facility catering to children under age 18.
Rules for Halloween
In July 2005, a new state law was passed barring registered sex offenders from participating in any holiday event involving children, including Halloween. This same law also prohibits sex offenders from dressing as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.
During Halloween, sex offenders are not allowed to distribute candy to children; however, the law does give leeway to sex offenders who are parents or legal guardians of children under age 18 living in the home. While those sex offenders are still barred from handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, other household members can participate in Halloween activities.
To avoid violating the law, registered sex offenders often are advised by police to keep porch lights turned off to avoid attracting children on Halloween and to not answer the door. Registered sex offenders also are prohibited from leaving the house dressed in costumes.
Local Editor Carrie Frillman contributed to this report.
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There are plenty of ways to keep up on Downers Grove news:
IL Citizen
3:40 pm on Thursday, September 27, 2012
When it comes to RSOs, I guess it doesn't matter what the law really says or that reporters check facts before publishing their stories. Under current law, only RSOs on probation or parole are banned from participating in Halloween & other holiday events (such as dressing up as Santa). However, beginning in 2013 ALL registered child sex offenders will be banned from participating in holiday events involving children.
In regard to RSOs listed as "sexual predators," this again could benefit from the reporter doing a little homework while writing their story. In IL, being labeled as a "sexual predator" does not automatically mean the offender is any more dangerous than any other RSO. The "sexual predator" classification is solely based on offense. Even a non-violent, no-contact, 1st-time offense can label someone as a "sexual predator." Because so many offenses are listed under the "sexual predator" category, over 50% of all RSOs in IL are classified as "sexual predators."
I would like to see what else the Patch "discovered" about the RSOs in town, such as how many are family men just trying to make a life for themselves by finding work & a home for their families only to be under the microscope every day of the year, especially near Halloween. Or the then 18-yo senor in high school who was dating a junior just shy of 17 who is still paying the price 10+ years later. Why not dig a little deeper and write a story about them? Or is that not headline grabbing enough?
Tony Cesare
4:54 pm on Thursday, September 27, 2012
If you go to the Sex Offender Registry database and click on any of the cases in Downers Grove, you can read detailed description of the crime, as well as how old the offender was and how old the victim. I didn't see a single case where '18-yo senor in high school who was dating a junior just shy of 17 who is still paying the price 10+ years later-and I highly doubt many such cases exist. I did see a case where the offender was 61 and his victim 7, and another where the offender was 30 and the victim 13...
Personally I find your attempt at creating sympathy for "RSOs in town, such as how many are family men just trying to make a life for themselves by finding work & a home for their families.." to be disturbing and sick. These criminals deserve to be outcast, not profiled for a feature story.
Mary Kennedy
2:30 pm on Thursday, November 1, 2012
For the most part I agree with you. These people are under suspision everyday, albiet they have served their time or on parole, etc. This is the only class of criminals that are required to register although murders and drug dealers after their sentence and /or out of parole can live their lives without registering. I'd like to know where they live too then! Timed served and all. They repeat offend as well.
Tony, it's not disturbing or sick at all to want people to do their homework. Casting a wide net without knowing the full story is not benifical. Some of RSO are in that situation and all are NOT dangerous. I see this as a blame one, blame all law, and not really looking at the individual situations.
Now grated, I look at the list and don't bring my children to the house. By law they have to sign they won't answer the door, etc.
Just my two cents.
Tony Cesare
3:26 pm on Thursday, November 1, 2012
@Mary
The absolutely horrific nature of these kinds of crimes are what makes the 'wide net' necessary. No community, individual or branch of law enforcement has the responsibility to discern the level of 'heinous' for each individual act.
I appreciate your POV. My opinion? When it comes to RSO's I embrace the blame one, blame all approach.
Rudy101
11:47 pm on Thursday, September 27, 2012
No government is allowed to pass laws that restrict the citizens from the community without a hearing, by legislative fiat and applied ex-post facto.
It is that simple.
That registry is not an informational too, but a tool to systematically banish from the community, both physically and socially by legislative fiat.
The sex offender registry lacks due process of law.
No law has to be followed that is passed ex-post facto, does not allow for any recourses, and is applied by legislative fiat.
I am sorry about your registry, but that registry violates basic and fundamental tentes of human rights law.
That being the case, that registry, as a matter of law, isnt't being followed.
stef
12:19 pm on Saturday, September 29, 2012
I am for promoting this information to the public. Perhaps future predators will take that into account before they violate a child. A don't care about how small or 'minor' the violation against a child was - it is illegal and I want to know about it to keep my daughter far away from them.
Joseph O'Shaughnessy
12:47 pm on Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Here's what is true, aside from the fact that anyone who doesn't want someone to speak his mind is, technically, closer to a Fascist than an American. We have freedom of speech and I am here do defend it in any way necessary.
But...having said that, courts make decisions, and that is the best thing we have right now. We could improve it. But, because recitivism is a problem among sexual predators, and because we are talking about our children...courts, if they err, do so on the side of safety.
I wish there were a better way and perhaps we should find a way to classify crimes of this kind more accurately so that mistaken offenders are not ostracized.
The problem is that the crime is so unspeakably horrific that it is one in which we will probably always come down on the side of the safety of the child. Until science can demonstrate that there is a "cure" for sexual predation, I don't see what other choice we have, even if it is a choice that most of us do not like because it violates a lot of what we consider also very important, our right to privacy.
We consider ourselves Christians, most of you do, and there is a principal of forgiveness, restitution and hope for change inherent in the laws we have created out of that Christian tradition. Unfortunately, in this case, statistics tell us we must ignore those principles and create laws that work more pragmatically for now to secure the safety of our children.
I don't see how we have any other choice.