Murphy's Law: Sex Offender Can't Find a Legal Place to Live in Broward

By Thomas Francis Tue., Oct. 20 2009 at 8:25 AM

Categories: Broward, Crime

Ronald Murphy

The more we learn about Ronald Murphy's case, the sadder it is. We first told you about him last week. Then we met the man this weekend. And yesterday a source with knowledge of the case told us that Murphy's stuck living on a bench in Delray Beach, in part, because his family in Broward County has refused to let him live with them.

But mostly, he's stuck there because he's registered not just as a sexual offender but as a sexual "predator" -- meaning he gets a super-sized batch of statutory restrictions. Read them here if you've got an hour to kill.

He can't live within 1,000 feet of a school bus stop, a provision designed to keep him away from children, even though the crime that got him in this predicament was the rape of an adult woman he met in a public park.
Murphy has no money, so building an estate in Southwest Ranches -- or some similarly rural section of Broward -- is not an option. It's "nearly impossible" to find a legal location in the county for guys like Murphy to live, says the source (who asked not to be named) especially since neighborhoods that contain appropriate halfway houses have a way of suddenly building playgrounds in parks, whereby they disqualify themselves from being an area where offenders can live legally, which is what happened at one potential location, Fort Lauderdale's Mission of St. Francis.

So that puts Murphy squarely in no-man's-land: the bench outside his probation officer's office in Delray Beach.

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Delray Beach, Ronald Murphy, sex offenders

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This guy is a true sex offender and a pervert and does not deserve to have park bench to sleep on. Those laws should not apply to someone for example who was lied to so the girl could sneak out of her house to get away from her dad and let you be the excuse who ended up getting his life condemned even though he never had sex with the girl!!! omggggggggg
Gail, you are a rapist sympathizer, huh? I pray it never happens to you. I had a cousin raped in Chicago, when whe was 14. She committed suicide.
Jennifer is dangerous, she just gave a beating to her basket ball player husband!
I am in a situation where my husband did something when he was 15 and now has to register as a sex offendor for the rest of his life. He is now 26 and doesn't have a life. He has 3 more years of parole and I don't know what to do. He has never offended ever again after that, it was simply a bad mistake and being young. His whole life his mom has been in and out of his life because of drugs and alcohol and same for his dad. He was constantly in and out of drug houses and in the system for Foster homes. He has never really had much support. And obviously his lawyer didn't do much for him but make his life worse. He isnt some crazy sex offendor out there being a predator. He sees his p.o. regularly and goes to treatment regurly. He des everything he is supposed to, I dont understand why he has to be treated this way. We had to seperate recently because we had a child and he can't be around children because of something that happened almost 10 years ago. He has a 4 year old daughter with someone else he has only seen once. I am sooo saddened by this situation and watch my husband suffer everyday for something so old. What can i do????
Fantastic article! Are there any thoughts that you might be willing to share to justify your first part a small amount more? peace
HOW THE MEDIA AND LEGISLATORS DESTROYED THE SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY IN ILLINOIS How this makes all our children vulnerable to predatotors I am on the sex offender registry for having a consensual relationship with my now wife, in 1998. She is 27 years of age today!!!We now have two beautiful children.There is an answer to the question ",why cant the police watch sexual predators better and prevent future horrors."? The answer is not what people want to hear as this subject is driven by hysteria and knee jerk legislation to appease a roman colliseum, mob type mentality. There are thousands and thousands of consensual,statutory cases on the sex offender registry in each state,Plus juvenille cases(19 year olds with 15 year olds) ,public nudity,exposure,prostitution,indecent behavior,public peeing etc. There simply are not enough police to monitor all these cases. Because the states wont interject risk assessment hearings, all sex offender registrants are lumped together and there simply isnt enough police power to monitor all registrants,nor should they.!!!!!!!! I have been on television numerous times on this subject. I know what i did is socially taboo and illegal, yet i am not a threat to children or women.To put me next to a child rapist on this list, is like putting a casual marijuanna smoker ,caught with a bag, in the same arena s a meth lab gangster!!!!!!!. Partial List of police time waisted on my case: :Ive been on this list for 11 plus years,ive had 100 plus probation appointments,40 plus home checks,done over 17 police station check ins,police monitoring our home frequently,pulled over (with my wife,both of us in cuffs)11 plus times etc.Stickers on our home on Halloween,lost 6 jobs,various acts of vigilantism etc. We have had DCFS called on us 3 times by an anonynous neighbor because im on the list and have had numerous threatening calls to our home. Addittionally we have had to call the Crestwood Police and bother them numerous times because of suspicious cars in front of our home, snapping pictures,gawking etc.All this police time for one consensual case ,AND WE ARE MARRIED .!!!! ( We were married by the same judge who gave me the original misdimeanor,who did not consider me a threat!!! He later helped seal our case to "protect this family and the children" ) If the public is wondering why law enforcement cant even stop violent registered offenders from re-offending,the answer is that these predators are like a pin hiding in a haystack.The haystack is thousands of non violent cases like mine, that would be removed immediately if risk assessment was employed. MEDIA RESPONSIBILITY AND SENSATIONALISM No media figure has the courage to tell it straight: time to weed out the predators from the registrants who simply broke the law. Then the police can triple their time up on monitoring violent offenders.( Its not the police who make these laws its the congressional and Governor wannabes,who want to appear to look "tough on crime.",yet have no clue of the ramifications of their legislation on families nor care.) Its always the same pattern, the media likes to cry wolf,get the public excited (for sensationalism)and then the lawmakers legislate an already blotted system ,while the real predators know this and use it in their hunting techniques as camoflague. my name is Mark Perk, l Google in" Lets seperate the Misguided from the monsters" Eric Zorn ,Chicago tribune. This is our story. our daughter is 4 years old,ironically I am as scared as anyone of true sexual predators. The story of any young child raped is heart breaking ,frightening yet tragically will happen time and time again. No one has the courage to seperate the wheat from the chaff.or the "misguided from the monsters". Mark and Kris perk
I think you can do no wrong making things easier for your readers, and I think this is achieved through preview and subscription functionalities.
What a great website you have! You are absolutely right. :-D
How are these people suppose to live,it is on there drivers lic.That they are sex affenders.They do not put an ex murder on the driver lic.,or ex bank robber. I do agree some ,the hard core ones should be put on the drivers lic ,but not all.The laws need to be changed.
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"That sounds so innoculous - some dirty whore dressed like a slut looking for action blah blah and the poor bastard is charged with rape. You dopn't get that higher desingation for a "date rape" tyope situation you imply. How old was the adult female 18??? was she the only one?? Did he use force???? I'll bet it was a 18 year old high schooler and he dragged into the bushes and forcibly raped her. I'll bet he has a pattern of doing similar things. Give us all the facts before you ask for sympathy. If it was just one - she was old (older than 25) - date rape type thing - then I will have some sympathy." Whoa! Stop right there! So if she's 18 instead of 25, he gets no sympathy and if she's dressed "slutty" he does? Like he just couldn't resist himself and she was old enough to know not to dress like that?! Are you serious?!?!?! NOBODY gets to force ANYBODY to have sex against her/his will!! I don't care if she was a naked prostitute wandering the park or a virginal nun in a full habit bringing food to homeless people. And marginalizing violent offenders - sexual or not - to the edges of society doesn't do anyone any good. Even if it's only because we can't keep as good an eye on them.
Wow, that is so sad! Poor guy paid his debt to society now let him live his life! What a joke. The US Kangaroo legal system is a JOKE. RT www.anonymous.ua.tc
It is so disgusting to read the paper and hear the over dramatic news casters broadcasting the SEX OFFENDERS!! When drug addicts and people who have killed people in a DUI etc... get out of prison life goes back to normal for them, They are not treated like animals and told where they can live and who, where and why they can or can't do things. They have served their time and should be given a chance to make up for lost time. People in this world should read the bible more and learn not to be so judgmental and do just like Michael Jackson says...LOOK IN THE MIRROR!!! God Bless...
if we make it illegal for these folks to live within a 1000 miles of a job, why is it a surprise that they violate the registration and residence laws? politicians pander to the mob, the mob falls for it, and only thinking folks realize that no one is any safer for the effort. either we have a death penalty for all sex offenders or when they finish their sentence they can live somewhere reasonable. murderers can. it's not like they can't walk to a bus stop from a home outside the zone. make all kinds of behavior a violation of their probation instead of just zoning them into oblivion or underground
@ Ronald What would you have them do? Arrest Freeman because he *might* someday do something bad? I am willing to bet that Freeman, with you so far up his ass, isn't roaming any street, let another roaming them in a happy and go lucky fashion. @ joyo Nice thoughts. Bet you are proud of that NRA membership.
It should be a right and a DUTY to euthanize all of these scummers. If you know a person is a rapist or a pedophile, we should be REQUIRED to kill that person on the spot.
I empathize with the outrage of the community that such a beast lives in your midst. We have one, too, Adrian Freeman, living in Eufaula, AL. In 1984, he solicited, kidnapped, and raped a prostitute, for which he was charged, and indicted, in Cleveland, OH. Before that case could be adjudicated and close, in 1987, he kidnapped, raped, and committed gross personal imposition (forcible rape of child less than thirteen years of age,) in the same Cleveland, OH. He was granted bail in both of these cases. In October, 1988, he jumped bail, fled to Washington, DC, for twelve years, where he was a staple on the campus of George Washington University, while he was not matriculated there. Most students and faculty just thought of him as an intelligent, homeless man. Littld did they know how dangerous he was. It is unknown, at this juncture if he kidnapped/raped/murdered in the Metro Washington DC area. I would hope that the FBI would check its data base, for a match in any cold case rape/murder cases. I emailed them, and asked to to do just that, but I have not heard further from them, but I digress. Mr. Freeman was captured on 11/21/01, in front of the Tower Records Store, on the campus of George Washington University, two blocks from the White House, by a GW University Police Officer, who recognized him from the FBI Most Wanted List, on a fugitive warrant. The University Police Department turned him over to the Metropolitan Police Department, who released him to the FBI, who released him to the United States Marshals Office, to be returned to Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, OH, to be brought to justice. However, Mr. Freeman was not brought to justice. He pled guilty to the rape and kidnapping of the little girls, as well as the kidnapping and rape of the prostitute. He was given a minimal sentence, five years, sent to the Ohio State Penitentiary, Youngstown, OH, a Supermax facility, for his protection, so that his fellow inmates would not kill him. Can you imagine that? Protecting this beast from hell, while telling the women and little girls of Ohio, that they can go to hell. If you want to read the story of his capture, Google: "The Arrest of Adrian Freeman." If you want to know more, Google: The Ohio Criminal Courts, click on Cuyahoga County, type in the name Adrian Freeman, and read the court disposition of the two rape cases. Now, he roams the streets of Eufaula, AL, happy go lucky. He hangs out at the only McDonald's in town, sits right by the door to the Playland. I notified the manager of his past, allowed her to copy my file on this guy, which included his picture and some of his criminal record, on the Alabama Registry of Sex Offender. They would not even ban the guy. While he sits at the door to the Playland, his tongue hangs out, when he sees little girls, in their summer wear, entering the Playland area. It is totally repulsive. I contacted the local police, the local newspaper, the State Attorney General's Office, and the FBI, all to no avail. Please pray for us. They say, until he strikes again, they will do nothing. A fundamental civil right, in this country, should be the right not to be raped, man, woman, or child. Sincerely, Ronald L. White
Again, @anonymous, to clarify: He did indeed literally rape the woman in a park. She was sleeping on a bench when he found her. No irony meant there.
I think the reference to the rape in a park was meant to be ironic since he is now LIVING ON A BENCH IN A PARK. Sounds like a real good crime prevention strategy.
Knowing a sex offender or predator is near your family is certainly discomforting but study's have shown these distance laws accomplish nothing. And as we see in this case it makes things worse. Instead of being able to attempt to build a life he can focus his energy on, keep is mind occupied, etc now he is forced to sit on a bench doing nothing. No job, no home, no goals, no responsibilities, now way to track him. What do you think he'll do if he comes to the conclusion he was better off in prison? What incentive does he have to not do it again?
Well as both the center of the problem and the center of the "solution" I propose to call a news conference to declare I will find this man a home and that the media should take every word I say as gospel. I recently used this strategy when My Colony "Bookville" located under the JTC was exposed and received negative world press. I simply make a claim and every single Miami media outlet takes me at my word and does no follow up. Apparently because my daughter was a victim of sexual abuse by a female nanny that was not a registered sex offender I receive a "hands off" policy from all local media's when I propose more ridiculous unenforceable legislation regarding sex offenders. From the teenager who had a 15 yo girlfriend to a child rapist I treat em all the same. The root of the problem is my inability to take responsibility for the fact that making money was more important than raising our daughter. Because Lauren was a victim I am shielded against any objective journalism and there is absolutely no fact checking when I spit out a soundbite. My colony of "Bookville" is actually growing and there is no end in sight and the international press is hurting tourism but hey I am tough on crime right?
How is it that an army of angry homeless sex offenders who are roaming our streets making us safer? Are we all safer, as a society, with these folks living under the Julia Tuttle Causeway, or in the case of Murphy, on a bench? Are we safer? The answer, of course, is no. But, as a politician, you can't be soft on crime, even when it doesn't make sense.
Clarification: It certainly was not date rape, and that was never implied. The woman was in her late 20s, and Murphy threatened and beat her, and tried to force her into prostitution. He found her sleeping on a park bench, so chances are, she was homeless (as he may have been too). Whether or not you feel any sympathy for Murphy, the fact that he's sleeping on a bench outside his parole office because of draconian, and crazy, laws about sex offenders ought to give us all pause. He's served 13 years in prison, JaRomey, now he just needs a legal place to live. With a roof.
I read the predator statutes and he did not get this designation from "the rape of an adult woman he met in a park". That sounds so innoculous - some dirty whore dressed like a slut looking for action blah blah and the poor bastard is charged with rape. You dopn't get that higher desingation for a "date rape" tyope situation you imply. How old was the adult female 18??? was she the only one?? Did he use force???? I'll bet it was a 18 year old high schooler and he dragged into the bushes and forcibly raped her. I'll bet he has a pattern of doing similar things. Give us all the facts before you ask for sympathy. If it was just one - she was old (older than 25) - date rape type thing - then I will have some sympathy. Getting label a predator is earned by repeated conduct and a predator, depsite their proclamations of being changed, have not and will not. I don't want this guy near my wife and my kids. Go find a nice place in Clewiston. I feel sorry for the victims of his rapes who have to deal with it everyday. They did not "ask" for their end. Ronny intentionally enagaed in his actions - now he has to live with the consequences. Maybe he would like to go back to prison and serve the rest of his sentence?