Update:
I've had a bit of time to think about this now, and I am still in a sort of shock over this. I'm usually, almost always, an excellent judge of character. In this case, I was horribly, horribly wrong. This was a guy that was part of my circle of friends back in my early 20s. I met him because one of my friends was a friend of his sister, and as things went, we all hung out together for a number of years. But still, in my mind, I'm still stuck in a state of WTF regarding this.
I think I would be less shocked about it had he been involved in dealing drugs or even murder. I mean, this guy was around to see my god daughters growing. Hell, he even stayed at my apartment in Durham a few times, alone with my wife, while I was at work. It just goes to show that sometimes you never really know someone. Also, I could even be, while disgusted, at least less shocked, if this was a first time thing, but apparently, this has happened 4 times now.
Doing some research, I see that he's pretty much skated incarceration or any "real" punishment until now. The third time got him registered as a sex offender, but why did it take until now to get him held without bail. Sadly, I think this is another example of the system failing to protect the people it's supposed to. It happens, but it's still not terribly palatable when it does.
We lost touch shortly after I moved to North Carolina, and to be honest, I stopped talking to him because I grew tired of the constant fighting with his ex-wife, and just certain other things that rubbed me the wrong way. But still, to think that I was THAT wrong in my impressions of someone is somewhat disturbing.
But that's all I'm going to say about it at this point. For now, he's behind bars where he should be, and without bail, and hopefully this time, the system will work, and he won't be able to do things like this again. As someone who has no kids, but has tried to have them for years, the fact that people out there DO do these things to children remains as one of the few things that really frightens me. Read the rest for the original post and the news article.
I'm absolutely ashamed that I used to hang out with this guy. I knew things were a bit off when I realized he had a habit of trying to sleep with my and my friends' girlfriends. Then there was the incident in 1998 with a teenager. Of course, he also had a history of dating high school girls when he was in his 20s, a lot like a far, far creepier version of Wooderson from .
However, it seems that as the years wear on, he kept spiraling down the drain, and now the latest incident involving a 4 year old girl. Holy fuck! This is a guy I let crash at my apartment. A guy who worked on my ambulance and volunteered at my rescue squad. The '98 incident cost him his Paramedic certificate. Hopefully this one will keep him away from kids for good.
Here's the story from WSLS NewsChannel 10 in Roanoke, Virginia:
"Local registered sex offender accused of sexually assaulting 4-yr.-old girl
By Scott Leamon | WSLS10 Reporter
Published: January 28, 2010
Updated: January 28, 2010
A Roanoke County registered sex offender is back behind bars, accused of sexually assaulting a 4-year-old girl.
Roanoke County police arrested Mike Webber, of Old Bent Mountain Road, on January 8th.
It’s Webber’s second arrest involving an alleged sex crime against a minor in the last 18 months.
In August 2008, Webber pleaded no contest to one count of taking indecent liberties with an 8-year-old girl in Salem Circuit Court.
Judge Robert Doherty Jr. suspended all of Webber’s three year prison sentence.
Charges of kidnapping the girl and hitting her were dropped as part of a plea agreement, court records show.
Doherty also placed Webber on one year of supervised probation.
Webber’s live-in girlfriend, Jennifer Wimmer, said Webber is innocent in the latest set of charges.
“I do not believe he did anything to this particular child,“ Wimmer said.
A judge denied Webber bond on this latest charge in a court hearing Thursday morning.
Court records show his prior criminal history includes convictions on misdemeanor sexual battery in 1998 and indecent exposure in 2004."
I really don't know what to say. I really don't. I KNEW this would happen, I really expected it to happen sooner rather than later, though.
Maybe I'll update this with more later, but for now, I'm just still in a state of WTF that this happened AGAIN.
Das Aggregator!