'Halfway House Draws Concern"  Page 1 and 11

https://mar.wildapricot.org/Resources/Documents/Wakulla%20News%20April.pdf

Residents of the Ball Court neighborhood are upset and concerned about a halfway house for state and federal prisoners being operated in their neighborhood – that includes sexual and violent offenders.Resident Scott Taranto, who lives across the dirt road from the halfway house at 55 Ball Court, was contacted by The News after learning of the controversy. He said residents are concerned about the risks of having a number of violent and sexual offenders in the neighborhood. Renee Miller, who owns the house, said residents of the neighborhood are overreacting – that there are sexual offenders all over Wakulla County. While neighbors have raised concern about the three living at her Ball Court house, Miller notes that there’s another sexual offender living a couple of roads over and that residents haven’t expressed concern about him.The three registered sex offenders at 55 Ball Court are Conrad P. Arndt, Richard E. Huntley, and Jerry Lee Parrish.Arndt, who was imprisoned for lewd and lascivious battery on child in 2005, just moved into the house a week ago. Huntley, who was imprionsed for child porn charges, was recently arrested in Leon County and is currently in the Leon County Jail  on a charge of lewd and lascivious behavior and failure to register as a sex offender, which would appear to indicate that he had left the Ball Court home.The offender that neighbors are most concerned about – and they have placed his FDLE posters on fence posts, is Parrish, who was arrested in 1999 and spent 16 years in federal prison after he traveled from Texas to Tallahassee to meet what he thought was a young boy. It turned out to be federal of  cers conducting a sting.Miller, who operates the City Walk thrift store in Tallahassee, said she used to live in the Ball Court house. She no longer lives there, she said, but questioned why neighbors were in an uproar about her allowing people to live in that house who need help.“My question for neighbors is – there have been multiple sex offenders in there since 2006. No rules have ever been broken. There is no reason for the community panic,” Miller said.Taranto said neighbors only recently found out who was living at the house. He said they have been in contact with government agencies since then – Wakulla schools, the Wakulla sheriff’s office and the county commission – to resolve concerns.Superintendent of Schools Bobby Pearce confirmed that bus routes on Ball Court were recently adjusted. It is state policy that there should be no school bus stops in front of a home where a sexual offender lives. The Wakulla School Board’s policy is more stringent, Pearce said, because they don’t want children walking past a sexual offender’s home – so the bus route was adjusted to turn around at the end of the road.County Commission Chairman Ralph Thomas confirmed that he had met with residents of the neighborhood last week, but said he didn’t want to act too quickly and create unintended consequences.Pastor Glenn Hamel of Promise Land Ministries, who works with former inmates just released from prison, confirmed that he had been contacted by county staff asking about his program.Hamel stressed that  men who come into his program are rigorously screened – no sex crimes, no violence – and if there’s any violation of the rules, they’re out.There is another halfway house for those transitioning back into life from prison, Radical Restoration Ministries in Panacea, which is across the road from Panacea Plaza. Taranto said that’s a better location because it’s in a commercial zone, not among families.Miller responded that she doesn’t own another home somewhere where she can help people.Taranto said the Panacea halfway house is in a better location than the one in his neighborhood.Taranto compiled a list of offenses that put the men in prison who have cycled through the Ball Court house –  126 felony charges that include 13 sexual offenses on children.There were also 11 violent felonies committed, including two armed robberies and four batteries on law enforcement of  cers, and two burglary of occupied structure or conveyance while armed.Information from the sheriff’s of  ce indicates there are 119 registered sexual offenders in Wakulla County and   ve sexual predators.Miller noted, citing those numbers, that the densest population of sexual offenders is where there is the densest population – the Wakulla Gardens neighborhood.There is no hue and cry from those residents, she said.Both Miller and Taranto claimed each had suffered some form of harrassment from the other:Taranto said the   rst posters that were put up in the neighborhood were taken down and blamed Miller. He claimed she went to the sheriff’s of  ce complaining of aggravated stalking of residents of her house by  neighbors. Taranto said she was told by deputies that neighbors putting up posters on their own private property – that were printouts of FDLE sex offender postings – did not constitute stalking. Taranto and other neighbors were told that if Miller took the posters down from their property, she could be charged with trespass or criminal mischief.Miller con  rmed taking down posters that were on public rights-of-way such as stop signs and power poles., but said she did not go onto private property. She said neighbors have begun photographing the men at her house – even while they’re out raking leaves in the yard – and claimed neighbors had gone so far as to photograph and follow her.Taranto denied that anyone had followed her.Miller said, “The hysteria is quite crazy,” and said that one of the residents in the house, who has no criminal record at all, but is apparently on the autism spectrum and showed up on the front porch of her church asking for help. He had found a lost dog in the neighborhood and went to return it to a neighbor. The resident refused to open the door, called deputies to come out and the resident said they wanted no contact with people from that house.Taranto said that he has found no indication that Miller’s motives are anything other than altruistic. “I think Renee very passionately wants to help these people – but in her zeal is taking some inappropriate risks.”And while Miller said this is something she is doing on her own, and is not associated with her thrift store, Taranto noted that she advertises it as a transition home on the internet, through Big Bend 211 and other sites. Miller gained some notoriety a couple of years ago, going undercover at the Tallahassee homeless shelter and complaining of sexual harassment. An investigation led to the dismissal of longtime shelter director Mel Eby.Still, Taranto is confident that an amicable solution could be worked out, and said he had an idea but was reluctant to reveal it.In fact, he said he feared that the publicity would force a quick reaction from commissioners rather than a thoughtful one.“I thought we could handle this quietly,” he said. “But I guess not.”