Homeless sex offenders roam city streets

Violent sexual offenders list their area of residence near Miami Valley Hospital, UD.

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By Lucas Sullivan, Staff Writer Updated 12:28 AM Sunday, October 18, 2009

DAYTON — The highest concentration of Montgomery County’s most violent convicted sexual predators have gone unreported to the public and are known to roam around Miami Valley Hospital and the University of Dayton, authorities say.

At least a dozen Tier III sex offenders are among the homeless who list their area of residence within a half-mile radius around Miami Valley Hospital.

State law allows sex offenders to register as homeless as long as they give an area where they sleep.

But their homeless status circumvents another state law that requires neighbors be notified when a Tier III sex offender is living within 1,000 feet of them.

“To me it is a way for them to skirt the system,” Sheriff Phil Plummer said. “If you’re a Tier III sexual predator, you shouldn’t be allowed to live in an area without us notifying your neighbors. Period.”

Plummer’s deputies struggle with who to notify when a Tier III sex offender registers at “various” hotels near the Dayton Mall.

Do they notify everyone within a 1,000 feet of every hotel or motel near the mall?

“He could be staying in a different area every night,” Plummer said.

The neighborhood near Apple and Main streets, within blocks of the area’s largest homeless shelters, was where a Miami Valley nurse was stabbed twice in the neck on Oct. 1 during an apparent robbery. She was released from the hospital less than a week after the attack.

Police arrested James Cundiff, 42, their only suspect in the attack. Cundiff was a homeless Tier III sex offender living in a tent in Veterans Park. Detectives have since charged him with the Aug. 28 stabbing of another woman near the hospital.

“This is a concern that all Dayton businesses and institutions share,” said Nancy Thickel, spokeswoman for Miami Valley Hospital. “It is going to take employers, city and county officials, law enforcement and social service agencies working together to protect citizens and make our community safer.”

A University of Dayton official said campus police constantly monitor Plummer’s sex offender list and have not changed security protocol since the attacks.

“We have no reports and are not aware of any registered sex offenders living in the (UD) community,” said Lt. Randall Groesbeck, a campus security administrator. “No related incidents have been reported on campus that indicate a threat to our community.”

Cundiff was one of 48 Tier II or Tier III homeless sex offenders living throughout the county, according to Plummer’s data.

There are Tier II and Tier III homeless sex offenders who list various streets in Huber Heights, Kettering, Miamisburg and the Dayton Mall as the place where they sleep.

Keep reading: Tracking homeless sex offenders problematic for law enforcement

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