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Paul's story -  Clergy abuse survivor questions effectiveness of sex offender registry

by Teresa Woodard, Reporter
Photography By:Brian Holt, Photographer
Last updated: 2/4/2005 10:19:01 AM

 

"I just wish I could've...I could've known before," says Annette Alix, choking back tears.

 

This mother spends sleepless nights worrying over what happened to her son 21 years ago, when she says she treated him like a sacrificial lamb, leading him to the lion's den.

 

In 1984, when her son Paul was 11 years old, she took his hand and led him to a church retreat in Harriman, where they say a man they trusted more than anyone -- their priest -- sexually molested young Paul.

 

"There's just never a day that goes by that I don't go over this in my mind, over and over again. What could I have done?" she asks.

Annette lives with regret; Paul lives with pain.

 

"Remembering it isn't the most painful part," says Paul, now a 32 year old father of a 4 year old daughter. "Talking about it isn't the most painful part. The most painful part is knowing exactly how little is done today to protect our children. It's tough being a father and knowing how easy it was to fall through the cracks by accident."

 

Paul is an example of how the scars left by sexual abuse never fully heal.

 

There was no sex offender database in 1984, when Paul says his abuse happened. The priest accused in Paul's case, Edward McKeown, is in prison now in Nashville, for molesting other children after he left the priesthood. If McKeown ever gets out of prison, he will be a convicted sex offender, required to register with the state.

 

The registry means that police, and parents like Annette would know where he lives. Perhaps businesses wouldn't hire him to work with children. The state's sex offender database came too late for Paul and Annette, and until six months ago, it still wasn't working as well as lawmakers had originally intended.

 

"We were letting too many people slide through the cracks," says Knox County District Attorney Randy Nichols, who helped re-write the new law, which took effect in August of 2004. Nichols says the main problem with the old sex offender registry law was how light the sentence was for people who didn't register.

 

"The maximum punishment was six months," Nichols says. "You're talking about somebody who's been convicted of a sexual offense. They may have served 10, 12, 14 years in a prison, and to threaten them with six months in a local caboose, that was not much of a threat, in my view."

Statistics show fewer than half of the convicted sex offenders arrested for not registering got sentences of even six months.

 

During the entire time the old law was in effect, Knox County prosecuted only 57 people for failure to register; 26 pled guilty and and got that maximum six month sentence. Sixteen other cases were dismissed. Two were found not guilty, and 13 cases are still pending, including eight arrests since the new law took effect on August 1.

 

The situation wasn't that different in other East Tennessee counties. In the last two years, in Sevier, Cocke, Jefferson, and Grainger counties police charged 64 convicted sex offenders with not registering. Thirty people were found guilty and each got six months in jail. Fourteen cases were dismissed. Five are pending, and 15 of the offenders are missing. There are warrants for their arrests out that have not been served.

Randy Nichols says when the Knox County cases now pending are resolved, fewer of them will be dismissed. The new law makes failure to register a felony offense, meaning that an offender's parole can be revoked.

 

The tougher new law also increases other penalties. The first violation is $350 and 90 days in jail. A second violation is $600 and at least 180 days imprisonment. A third violation brings a fine of $1,100 and one year behind bars.

 

"I think we're gonna be safer in this state as a result of this new law," says Nichols, who says parents parents can now have more faith that all offenders are registered.

 

Annette Alix says she wishes she had been able to check out the man who hurt Paul before handing over her son and her trust.

"It would've made all the difference," says Annette Alix. "I never would have brought him over to his house."

 

Paul says he checks the online registry on a regular basis, trying to protect his daughter from predators. But he does not have faith in the system.

"I am completely disappointed in the enforcement of it," Paul says. "I think it's the right thing to do but I don't think we've employed all the means possible to protect our most precious resource, our children."

 

The Tennessee Sex Offender Registry is online, completely searchable, and free of charge. Anyone can search by name, neighborhood or street address to determine whether any registered offenders live in their communities.