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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Sex Offender’s Confession Could Be A Cry For Help

Doug Floyd Interactive Editor

Does anyone sink lower on society’s contempt scale than a sex offender?

Not in the eyes of readers such as Carol Conzelman of Spokane and Lucy Forman Gurnea of Loon Lake, Wash.

“All sex-related offenders, from rapists to pedophiles, inherently have important wires crossed,” said Gurnea. “Nothing will change this. They need to be removed from society permanently. The options should be castration or incarceration, period.”

“Sex offenders should be on ‘three strikes and they’re out’ for life,” added Conzelman. “They should also automatically be committed for life in mental institutions if they’re considered dangerous, and they should not be considered for parole of any kind.”

Both women were responding to the item in “Bagpipes” on Tuesday about Patrick Riggs, a 19-year-old sex offender whose East Central neighbors picketed his and his mother’s home after they learned he was living there.

But Nancy Skog of Spokane, who remembers Riggs as her son’s best friend, had a different outlook:

“The Patrick Riggs I knew was a great kid - a bit too mischievous at times - but he had a wonderful sense of humor and a kind heart.

“I’m sure we’ll never know what drove him to commit such a heinous crime. But I truly believe Patrick’s confession to authorities that he might offend again was a cry for help.

“Instead,” she wrote, “he and his family got harassment - not from the pickets but from the media who camped in his yard for hours and scouted nearby streets in hopes of getting another shot of the teenage offender.”

Lack of help ‘doesn’t make sense’

Because of a low IQ, Angel Harper has been denied custody of her 2-year-old daughter.

“In the original article I read,” said Leslie Novak of Spokane, “it said that if she were more retarded, she would get help from the state. I don’t understand, if she’s retarded enough to lose her child, how she couldn’t qualify for … help from the state. That doesn’t make sense.

“Fathers who don’t pay their child support get more visitation than she’s apparently going to get,” Novak added.

“I don’t understand why they don’t do that with teenagers if they’re going to take someone’s child away without her having a chance to prove whether she’s an unfit mother,” said Carol Dingwell of Spokane, “seeing as how there are a lot of these teenagers who have children who do a terrible job of parenting or dump them on their grandparents.”

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