Experts have said it all along: Sex offenders in transient environments are far more likely to repeat-offend. To say that's the only reason for an alleged sexual battery that occurred Monday is a stretch -- but it certainly didn't help.
Miami police charged Julia Tuttle Causeway resident and registered sex offender Jeremy Jerome Carter with sexual battery on a seven year-old girl 8:30 a.m. March 2 at an undisclosed location. Carter -- a chubby 44-year old who told bridge dwellers he was a DJ-- apparently fled the state-mandated bridge colony after only a short time. When the attack took place, officers say, he was visiting a friend's home.
This is what happened according to the police report:
The young girl was sleeping on a couch, when "she heard a knock on the door" and "recognized it as her aunt's friend." Carter sat down on the couch and started to play with the girl's toes. He then "began to touch her private parts with his hands."
Warning: The following is upsetting and graphic. (Names are not disclosed.)
The girl "pointed to her genitals" and told the officer he "did not put his fingers inside her vagina" but that she was scared. Carter then got on top of her and "put his bare private parts on her bare private parts." Just as "it started to hurt," her aunt walked into the room and Carter stood up. The child put her shorts back on and went into her "Auntie's" bedroom.
When Carter was arrested, he told cops the girl "grabbed his hand and forced him to touch her vagina."
Carter was convicted of lewd and lascivious assault on a child in July 1999, and upon release from prison, was sent by his parol officer to live in the tent city under the Julia Tuttle Causeway. It is one of the only places in Miami-Dade County that doesn't violate an ordinance stating registered sex offenders can't live within 2,500 feet of a school.
By the way, check out today's Miami Herald take on the sex offender story, which is great -- if a little behind the curve.
Natalie O'Neill
