Offender Next Door When Neighbors Were Notified That Level Ii Sex Offender Paul Cook Was Living Among Them, They Responded With Fear And Rage. Authorities Have Found That Notification Often Sparks Retaliation.

Paul Cook’s East Central neighborhood crawls with kids who ride bikes and trikes and throw water balloons at each other.

They all know him.

A little boy with a candy-stained face and blue tank top says he can help find Cook.

“I know where pervert lives,” he says, pointing toward a white home with a narrow staircase leading to an upstairs apartment.

Cook, who graduated this month from Ferris High School, was convicted of raping his half brother four years ago. He doesn’t like to leave home. When he goes to the corner store or walks down the street, he likes to have an escort.

The police issued a bulletin in early April telling neighbors that Cook is a registered sex offender at moderate risk of offending again.

Neighbors were outraged. The nearby COPS shop at 3001 E. Fifth tried to defuse tensions. In April and May, two men were arrested during neighborhood confrontations over Cook’s presence on the block.

His mother, Kathy Cook, moved her brown Ford Fairmont onto the grass beneath her bedroom window to make sure it didn’t get vandalized again. A rock broke a downstairs neighbor’s window. Another rock hit the wall near Kathy Cook’s window.

“The neighbor kids were calling me child molester,” says Cook, 19, who rode the school bus to Ferris all year. “It was bad. It made me feel confused, frustrated.”

Cook illustrates the dilemma posed by state laws that require community notification of sex offenders.

In Washington, neighbors are told when a Level II or Level III offender moves into the area. But sometimes, the notification meant to protect neighbors can spark retaliation.

In King County and Seattle, police hold public meetings when a serious sex offender is released into a neighborhood. The idea is to educate neighbors, calm fears and discourage vigilantes.

In Spokane, meetings have been scheduled only if a neighborhood asks for one — after the notification is handed out.

Cook’s neighbors didn’t ask for a meeting.

He was a Level I sex offender — a low risk — when he moved into the neighborhood last August, after living in a foster home and serving almost 11 months in state juvenile institutions. Neighbors aren’t notified about Level I offenders.

But sometime this year, Cook was upgraded to a Level II sex offender. Authorities won’t say why, because Cook was under 18 when he committed his crime.

A COPS shop volunteer and a police officer handed out fliers about him on April 7. “Cook was convicted of 1st degree child rape in 12/94,” the flier states.

“It upset me when I found the address, and he lives right behind us,” says Kathryn Duncan, who baby-sits a 4-year-old during the day. “It says he might offend again? It just threw the whole neighborhood into an uproar.”

Tom Bernard, president of the East Central COPS shop, helped pass out the fliers. Now he’s helping deal with the fallout. The COPS shop tried to set up a meeting between Cook’s mother and angry neighbors.

No meeting occurred, but the neighborhood has calmed down.

Bernard says he watched Cook’s home every day when school let out. Sheridan Elementary is five blocks away and students would stream down the sidewalk and street.

“I never see him outside,” Bernard says. “I don’t blame him. These neighbors out here want to beat him up.”