KTRK's Willey reports on Katrina sex offender problem (updated)
In a Saturday blog post, we suggested that local media had neglected a key local aspect of the Katrina story: the dispersal of sexual offender refugees and FEMA's seeming refusal to work with state and local authorities on tracking them down.
On the 10pm broadcast tonight, KTRK-13's Jessica Willey followed up with a solid report on the problem. The story is posted here.
UPDATE (11-16-2005): The Austin American-Statesman has an update today. Mike Ward reports that the state of Texas has finally received a list of sex-offender evacuees from FEMA:
After a month of high-level finger-pointing, federal officials have finally turned over to Texas authorities a list of convicted sex offenders who evacuated from Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina.
The release of the list Tuesday comes after officials said four children fell victim to displaced sexual predators in Texas.
State officials moved quickly to start tracking down the estimated hundreds of convicted sex offenders they think are now living in Texas but have failed to register with local police, as they are required by law to do.
"We have received the list, aliases included, and are processing it as quickly as we can to get the names into the hands of the appropriate agencies," said Kathy Walt, press secretary to Gov. Rick Perry. "We want for local law enforcement to be able to identify these sexual offenders in their communities and make contact with them to make sure they register so we know where they are, that they're not around children and not in situations they shouldn't be."
[snip]
Walt and other Texas officials said Tuesday that the list they received from federal officials contains hundreds of names. An exact count was not available because the list also included aliases, meaning some offenders are counted more than once.
Since Katrina hit New Orleans in late August, state officials said, at least four offenders from Louisiana have been arrested and charged in Texas with sexual assaults involving children -- two in Houston, one in Richardson, one in Plano.
The American-Statesman story should be read in its entirety.
The Chronicle's coverage of this story with greater implications for our community than for Austin? A thin, four-paragraph rehash of AP copy. Perhaps Austin bureau chief Clay Robison was too busy looking for Proposition 2 supporters dressed in sheets to cover this state news of importance to Houstonians.
At least Houston news consumers have KTRK and the American-Statesman keeping an eye on the story.
UPDATE 2 (11-16-2005): Chief Hurtt held a press conference on the issue this morning, which KHOU-11 covered and posted to its website almost immediately.
Since it was a press conference, the Chronicle finally managed to cover the story, with a short online story that carries a webstamp of 1:41pm. At least they beat KPRC-2 to the news, but that's really not saying much.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/15/05 10:56 PM | Houston Miscellany | Print | Comments (0)
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