By JAMES MacPHERSON
The Associated Press
Bismarck, N.D. — State prison officials say they will not renew the lease on a house for sex offenders that is less than a block away from a home for troubled girls.
The Bismarck house, bordering an industrial area, was leased for a year starting last December for sex offenders who had nowhere else to live, said Brian Weigel, a specialist in North Dakota’s Parole and Probation Division.
Four of the eight men who have lived in the home since then have been arrested again, on crimes ranging from failing to register as a sex offender to having sex in the home with a juvenile girl, he said.
“We will find something different - that’s a promise we’ve made to the residents,” said Leann Bertsch, director of the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. “I understand the discomfort with people having that in their community.”
Weigel still sees the home as a success.
“If not for that house, all eight would be living on street,” Weigel said. “If we take them off the street for a week, the community is safer for a week.”
Two high-risk sex offenders living at the home are facing charges after Weigel found a teenage girl there during an inspection Friday. She was not from the nearby facility for trouble girls, he said.
His visit was part of a routine check.
“The intent of the stop was to make sure property was being cared for, that they were mowing the lawn and the property was clean,” Weigel said. “When a 17-year-old female was discovered in the residence, it turned into a criminal investigation.”
Geoffrey Miller, 24, allegedly had sexual contact the girl at the residence, Weigel said. Miller, who had two earlier child molestation convictions, was charged with corruption of a minor. A judge set his bail at $50,000 cash on Monday.
Weigel said Kyle Hammond, 20, is charged with a probation violation for being around the girl. Hammond is barred from having contact with juveniles as a condition of his probation after being convicted of failing to register as a sex offender in McLean County.
The state leases the Bismarck, home for $600 a month and sublets it to sex offenders for $7 daily, Weigel said.
After the lease expires, the agency will try to find a place for sex offenders to stay that is not in a residential setting, Bertsch said.
Corrections officials and Bismarck police hand-delivered letters from Police Chief Keith Witt to people living in the area when the home was rented, Weigel said.
Tom Deitz owns a commercial painting business next door. He bought the building on the same day he was notified by Bismarck police that convicted sex offenders would be his new neighbors.
“I’ve never had a problem with them - they need a place to stay to get back into society,” Deitz said. “The cops drive by about every hour, which is good for my business. But if they lived next door to my home, I might think different.”
Deitz’s son, Tom Deitz II, questioned the location.
“What I think is silly is that a home for troubled girls is right down the street - that’s awful close to be to sex offenders,” he said, laughing. “But apparently, somebody didn’t look at a map.”
Weigel said corrections officials did know about the girls home and met with the facility’s board members before the lease was signed.
“We didn’t see a problem with it because of their level of security,” Weigel said. “If the girls are walking off site, they are chaperoned.”
Sex offenders often have trouble finding somewhere to live after they are released from prison, said Barb Breiland, a manager of the North Dakota Parole and Probation’s sex offender program in Fargo.
The state leases a one-bedroom apartment in Fargo as transitional housing for convicted sex offenders for about $400 monthly, Breiland said. The apartment houses up to three convicted sex offenders, who each must pay $7 daily.
Breiland said the decision to rent the apartment was spurred by one homeless sex offender who listed his car as his residence.
“It certainly got us in a higher gear as far as looking for a place where we could put homeless sex offenders,” she said. “If they are homeless, the risk level is increased.”
About 15 people have used the apartment in the year since it was rented by the state, Breiland said. Some have been arrested while living there for other crimes, but none for sex offenses, she said.
The apartment is about a block from the parole and probation office in Fargo, and some convicted sex offenders had been living there before the state signed a lease, Breiland said. There are no plans to end the lease on the apartment in Fargo, she said.
“It has really worked well for us,” Breiland said. “We’re able to keep close scrutiny on them.”