The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: twyacht on October 26, 2009, 06:13:44 PM
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We all will have very little sympathy for a Father beating his son's "alleged" molester with a previous molestation record. However, the suspect is now in a coma and may not survive, while the Dad has been arrested and sits in jail.
http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/MI134868/
DAVIE, Fla. (WSVN) -- Police have arrested two men after they attacked a man who fondled a 3-year-old boy.
According to Davie Police, 37-year-old Luke Petruschke spent the night at the residence of Manuel Vega in the 5100 Block of Davie Road after visiting with the family. At about 10:50 a.m. Friday, as Petruschke was preparing to leave in his silver Chevy Cobalt, Vega's 3-year-old son told his parents that Petruschke had fondled him during the night.
Vega and a neighbor, Krish Carter, confronted Petruschke in his vehicle and used pieces of concrete blocks and other debris found nearby to force their way into Petruschke's vehicle. After removing Petruschke from the vehicle, Vega and Carter reportedly struck Petruschke with their hands and feet numerous times.
Davie Police, responded to the report of the child being fondled and encountered Petruschke nearby, who had been severely beaten. Petruschke was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood and is in the Intensive Care Unit. "We all understand that people get emotional, but there's a point where your behavior has to conform to the law. These people apparently went beyond that point, they became judge, jury and issued their own punishment," said Sergeant Greg Gasse.
Vega's family and friends said he loved the little boy and he reacted in the way any father would to protect their child. "I know he shouldn't't have done this. I understand where he was coming from, you know, I wasn't here, I'm sorry I wasn't here. Hopefully if I was here this would have never even happened, but there's nothing I can do now I'm just praying," said the Child's Grandmother.
"Any father would react this way. Yes he took the law into his own hands, but he was here and when he found out what happened he just reacted, in a bad way, but any parent would have done it. It's too much of this going on," said the Child's Godmother.
Vega and Carter were arrested and charged with Attempted Felony Murder.
Petruschke is facing charges for Lewd and Lascivious Molestation on the three year old.
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Remember the child is 3 years old.
The sad part is this 3 year old boy, has no father for the time being, and if the suspect dies, will face manslaughter or some other charge that will keep him away from son even longer.
Would it be worth it?
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I can't say it was right but I would have probably done the same thing.
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I could only justify it if the guy was obviously guilty and was going to walk on a technicality. Even then, what's more important, doing justice/getting revenge or being there to raise your boy? The answer to me is pretty obvious.
Beyond that, the cops now can't investigate the guy. Did he have other victims? (probably) Did he have an accomplice? (maybe) Was he making kiddy porn? Now we'll never know. I've got no sympathy for the perp, but it just seems to me that all this did is victimize the kid twice and maybe let someon or someones go free. I'd say it was a bad move.
FQ13
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I'm surprised the perp survived.
We can all hope for the jury to toss this case on its ear.
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I try to avoid at all cost going to prison and being someone's b*tch.
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"with a previous molestation record. "
Think this dirt bag will ever touch another little boy ?
Just because it isn't "legal" doesn't mean it was wrong. Legal coddling of perverts is why they are so prevelant today. With any kind of decent lawyer Daddy will walk whether the scumbag dies or not.
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The 2 men reacted in the heat of the moment. It's easy to sit back and say what we would do. This man was defending his kid. HIS KID!! I hope it never goes to trial. Ther is alot more info I would like to hear. Why was this guy at their house and around the child etc.? We need more info but on the surface it sounds like it's time to GET A Rope!!
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Think this dirt bag will ever touch another little boy ?
Just because it isn't "legal" doesn't mean it was wrong. Legal coddling of perverts is why they are so prevelant today. With any kind of decent lawyer Daddy will walk whether the scumbag dies or not.
Well, the statistics show that he will almost assuredly molest another child. And any molester who dies, makes a child somewhere safer.
The law doesn't allow a father to harm or kill one who molests his child, but maybe it should. We have castle doctrine and make my day laws in a lot of states, maybe it's time for an "Eye for an Eye" law. As in, the Sally Field movie, where she took out a molester, played by Kiefer Sutherland. At any rate, no molester should EVER be allowed back into society. They should either get life, or death.
I would always choose being there to support my children in the future, over leaving their lives for revenge. Years ago, there was a case where a local girl was molested in the park, there were posters with sketches posted all over the county. They never caught the guy and the little girl's father could never deal with the terrible attack that his angel had suffered. A few years later, he blew in brains out in the kitchen with a .223 rifle, in front of his family. Now he's not there to protect or support, and his little girl may be growing up, blaming herself for daddy's death. We know it's not her fault and I hope she knows, but he should be the one to put an arm around her and let her know that. The molester is sill out there and he's probably done more horrible things.
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"with a previous molestation record. "
Think this dirt bag will ever touch another little boy ?
Just because it isn't "legal" doesn't mean it was wrong. Legal coddling of perverts is why they are so prevelant today. With any kind of decent lawyer Daddy will walk whether the scumbag dies or not.
The 2 men reacted in the heat of the moment. It's easy to sit back and say what we would do. This man was defending his kid. HIS KID!! I hope it never goes to trial. Ther is alot more info I would like to hear. Why was this guy at their house and around the child etc.? We need more info but on the surface it sounds like it's time to GET A Rope!!
+1
I'm glad my kids are grown.....don't know what I would do in this situation......these perverts make my blood boil.....
I've actually been stewing on this very subject since the 5:00 local news aired a story about one of these SOB's that tried to lure two elementary school boys into his van on school property today just two counties over from us. I caught the story just before leaving to go to an auction and couldn't concentrate while there.
People that harm kids really get me riled up inside. >:(
Sex offender victims speak out
By Tayleigh Davis - bio | email
ALBANY, GA (WALB) - Northsideside school police cought sex offender Kenneth Kellam after he tried to entice two boys into his van. Monday, they helped police capture the man before any kids got hurt.
The mother, Diane McCoy, was worried about her sons safety after learning a suspicious man approached them after school last week. Monday afternoon, she followed her boys as they walked home. She says that's when the man came after the brothers again.
Diane McCoy's two boys, 10-year-old Ricky Benyard and 9-year-old Rickey McCoy were crossing Palmyra Road on their way home from Northside Elementary School Monday afternoon when they say 36-year-old Kenneth Kellam approached them.
"He was waiting in the bushes waiting for us to come out of school, said Rickey Benyard."
"My baby yelled out mom there goes the man," McCoy said. "I rushed up to him and I said what are you doing messing with my children."
McCoy was nearby watching out for Kellam because she had been warned by a neighbor and her sons that he had been watching them. She says he rubbed her two boys on the shoulder and touched them on their arms last week-and then told the boys not to tell their mom.
"He was going to show us three pictures of boys that sold drugs,"the sons said.
They say Kellam also tried to convince the brothers to get into his van, but they knew better.
"I wasn't going to get in that van," the boys said. "He said not to tell your momma what I did, but I told her anyways."
"It's nasty to see a man prey on little boys then to see he was charged for child molestation in another state," McCoy said.
In 2003, Kellam was convicted of false imprisonment in Florida for trying to force two 13-year-old boys into his van. He recently moved to Albany but did not register as a sex offender.
McCoy is greatful so many people are concerned about the safety of her sons.
"I thank my neighbors and the school for cooperating so much," she said. "I really had a lot of help today."
And her two boys learned an important lesson not to speak to strangers, which is a big reason they're back at home with their mom.
The mom says even though she's still shaken up, she's doing better and she's just glad to have her two sons back in her arms.
School officials at Northside say no other kids were victims of the sex offender as far as they know. Kenneth Kellam will have his first court appearance Tuesday morning at the Dougherty County jail.
http://www.walb.com/global/story.asp?s=11388194
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There wouldn't be a body to be found.
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I really don't know what I would do if I was in that situation. Hope to never know.
I do know what I would do if I were on his jury.
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Shoot, shovel, shut up.
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I hate to say this, but he would not be alive.
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It really wasn't that long ago, when molesting a child would have gotten you lynched. And it would be all the local law enforcement could do to keep the community from tearing you apart. Can someone tell me, when did society start looking at these sick freaks as victims? And when did we start to feel the need to protect them?
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Apparently you didn't get the memo. No one is responsible for their actions any more. Personal responsibility is, like the Constitution, an out dated idea that is not appropriate for this "progressive" era. Every one is a victim, of their enviroment, of society, or because their childhood did not conform to the Ozzie and Harriet template.
Child molesters should still be lynched.
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So is that where I've gone wrong in my life? Actually admitting when I'm wrong, and taking action to rectify my mistakes! Wow, if I had known that I wasn't responsible for my screw-ups I would be so much farther ahead in life! Of course that would be at the expense of my conscience, my dignity, and personable accountability. Doesn't really seem like a good trade to me. ::)
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Apparently you didn't get the memo. No one is responsible for their actions any more. Personal responsibility is, like the Constitution, an out dated idea that is not appropriate for this "progressive" era. Every one is a victim, of their enviroment, of society, or because their childhood did not conform to the Ozzie and Harriet template.
Child molesters should still be lynched.
Here's where we part company. I'm all in favor of the hanging (or life without parole, I honestly don't care as long as they never hit the streets). I'm not so much with the lynching. A fair trial and then the gallows. What if the grieving dad had gotten the wrong guy? Wait till the system has done its work, DNA, witnesses, other victims etc., and let a jury handle it. Just make sure the law is such these guys are dealt with permenantly. If he walks on a technicality.....then its a different game. I still think you're doing your kid more good by being home to help them through it than in a cell for avenging them. As far as being on the dad's jury, I'd propose deliberating long enough to get a pizza on the tax payers and doing the crossword before coming back with a not guilty verdict.
FQ13
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Yes . ;D
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Here's where we part company. I'm all in favor of the hanging (or life without parole, I honestly don't care as long as they never hit the streets). I'm not so much with the lynching. A fair trial and then the gallows.
Not too many years ago a child molester would have preferred the lynching over life, there was an honor code among prisoners.
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They still have a rough time. Guy in a small town I used to live in went to prison for molesting one of the neighbors kids. Heard he complained about spending all his time getting bent over.
Served him right.
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They still have a rough time. Guy in a small town I used to live in went to prison for molesting one of the neighbors kids. Heard he complained about spending all his time getting bent over.
Served him right.
As ye sow, so shall ye reap.
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My last several years as a police detective was spent investigating child abuse and sexual assault crimes. Many of those kinds of crimes often lead to murder of the victim. During my investigations I often had to counsel the parents, usually the father, to not harm the suspect. If the father harms or kills the suspect, then the father must go to jail. Then the child must get through a very rough time in his / her life without their father. Parents, both parents, must be there to support and help their child heal. Because our system is set up on the rule of law, we must let that system work. Does it always? No, certainly not. Do sex offenders always get the punishment they deserve? No, they don't. Why?
Too often when parents try to take matters into their own hands, they harm the criminal case. An investigator's best weapon against perverts is the ability to conduct a forensic interview. Often that interview is successful because the investigator is able to take him by surprise and trip him up on his own statements. When a parent or other adult confronts an abuser, the suspect is forewarned and more difficult to get a confession from. Sometimes they will flee the jurisdiction before the police can get their hands on them. I've never known a child abuser who has only done it one time. If the case is jeopardized by well meaning amateurs, not only is that case harmed, so are all of the other crimes he (mostly men) has committed. I never stopped with just one case, but once I got a confession in my cases, I always went fishing for others in his past.
Most sex crimes lack an important element; that of a third party witness to the crime. Even with physical evidence, a confession is very important to obtaining a conviction. Criminal defendants and their attorneys will invent very creative ways to explain how the suspect's DNA came to be on or in the victim. The trick is, to convince the jury that the defendant is guilty. There is almost never a guilty plea in such crimes, at least at first. Once the defense attorney sees a solid case against their client, they usually convince them to plead guilty and try for a reduced sentence. I've been successful in nearly all of my cases presented to the DA, with many guilty pleas and convictions. I've sent many sexual offenders to prison, and the stories about child abusers in prison is NOT a myth.
It is a very macho thing to sit back and say what you would do, but until it happens, you really don't know. Harm the suspect and there's a good chance he will get away with a light prison sentence, while you sit in prison as "an example" to not take the law into your own hands.
Before you dismiss what I have to say because I've never been there, both of my children (now adults) were sexually abused as children. I've been there. Twice.
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Here's his lowly scumbag self, after his ass kicking.
I think they still were too easy on him..
(http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm182/twyacht/1175_1256656738.jpg)
Gators get fat this time of year...
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Pioneer, good valuable words!
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You can kill him right away or kill him if the Courts don't serve justice and it's still murder. Pioneer is an intrepid believer in the Court system but I think there are a few people who do not share that conviction. There's a liklihood your status as an leo influenced your outcome and if so I say good on you. For most people justice stops when they run out of money but trusting the system is best in the long run.
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Having seen what some one goes thru after they are attacked(for both an adult and a child) there is nothing that can be done to them that even comes close to the harm they have done.
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Pioneer, thanks for your perspective, it is completely right legally, and I respect what you have done, and feel bad for you, to have done it, must have been very hard, but necessary. I can't imagine doing it, looking at kids molested or killed, by people such as this. Then trying to explain it to the parents. A lot of things I am capable of, that one is at the extreme of my list.
Thank you for your service.
I had a different answer, involving good friends and a shovel, but I'll defer at this time.
I got into a pickle a while back with another man trying to attract my wife, good friends told me, don't go after this guy, don't talk to him, let us take care of it. Luckily, it worked out ok without their help. GOOD FRIENDS.
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Pioneer, thanks for your perspective, it is completely right legally, and I respect what you have done, and feel bad for you, to have done it, must have been very hard, but necessary. I can't imagine doing it, looking at kids molested or killed, by people such as this. Then trying to explain it to the parents. A lot of things I am capable of, that one is at the extreme of my list.
Thank you for your service.
I had a different answer, involving good friends and a shovel, but I'll defer at this time.
I got into a pickle a while back with another man trying to attract my wife, good friends told me, don't go after this guy, don't talk to him, let us take care of it. Luckily, it worked out ok without their help. GOOD FRIENDS.
That's a different game though. Your wife and the guy were both adults. Maybe you win, maybe you lose, there's no excuse for violence. Adults get to choose. If she prefers him over you, that's the way the ball bounces and move on. If she prefers you, you win. Kids though, it's a different story. They don't get the choice. Ethically, Pioneer is right. We are either a society based on the rule of law, or we aren't. Take your pick, even when what's legal doesn't fit with what's just, that's the price we pay for not looking like Somalia. The moral point, as opposed to ethics is this. Is it more important to be there for kid every day and be their dad, or avenge them and be seperated by being in jail? That's the tough call in cases like this. Justice says kill the SOB, love (for your child) says let it go and be there for them. I don't have kids, but I do have Godkids and little cousins I love dearly. If this happens, I hope that I will act in their best interests.
FQ13 who is just praying that the dad gets jurors like us at his trial
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Our "Safe Schools Czar" is buddies with the North American Man Boy Love Assn. A former FBI agent went undercover and found that meetings and conventions are strategy sessions for trapping victims as young as months old. Take Action!
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That's a different game though. Your wife and the guy were both adults. Maybe you win, maybe you lose, there's no excuse for violence. Adults get to choose. If she prefers him over you, that's the way the ball bounces and move on. If she prefers you, you win. Kids though, it's a different story. They don't get the choice. Ethically, Pioneer is right. We are either a society based on the rule of law, or we aren't. Take your pick, even when what's legal doesn't fit with what's just, that's the price we pay for not looking like Somalia. The moral point, as opposed to ethics is this. Is it more important to be there for kid every day and be their dad, or avenge them and be seperated by being in jail? That's the tough call in cases like this. Justice says kill the SOB, love (for your child) says let it go and be there for them. I don't have kids, but I do have Godkids and little cousins I love dearly. If this happens, I hope that I will act in their best interests.
FQ13 who is just praying that the dad gets jurors like us at his trial
More faux "libertarian" BS.
There is a huge difference between what's "legal" and justice. A lot of things today are not legal - by design - to take responsibility away from the individual and give it to the gummint. Pioneer is right but only in terms of how the system has been gamed today. He is not right when it comes to justice. Justice means that you stop those that threaten your family in any way, and the so-called "legal" (gamed) system looks into it, sees it as righteous self-defense for your family and then looks the other way.
With the system gamed the way it is, cops enforce the law (even though they have the discretion not to) and some piss-ant gummint thug in a suit humping for the next promotion destroys your life to build his gummint cred. And that is wrong.