Sex Offender’s Mother’s House Site of Protest

More than 30 concerned parents and residents staged a protest Saturday in front of a Woodland Hills home where they say a paroled child molester could return next month to “re-terrorize” a victim who lives just blocks away.

However, the convicted sex offender, Daniel Supri, who lives in Bakersfield, said he has no plans to move into the neighborhood.

Supri, 33, was convicted of three counts of child molestation in 1991 for molesting a Reseda boy and served 18 months of a three-year sentence for the crime. Released nearly three years ago, Supri’s parole will end on Aug. 16.

To give their son a change of scene, the boy’s parents moved to Woodland Hills, only to find out later that Supri’s mother lives in the area.

Though free by law to go wherever he wants, Supri has steadfastly maintained that he has no plans to move into the neighborhood.

But Jayne Shapiro, a friend of the boy’s family and organizer of the protest, said public penal records indicate that Supri intends to move back to the home shared by his mother and grandfather. Shapiro said Supri’s presence would be a constant reminder of the incident and continue the terror that the boy has to endure.

Some protesters said they were especially fearful because the home is near an elementary school and an intersection that is heavily traveled by children each day.

Loretta Matthews, who has lived in the quiet Woodland Hills neighborhood all her life, said she is scared that her two children may be victimized on the way to school or heading to a dance or karate class.

“My kids walk around here by themselves all the time,” she said. “And you want them to at least feel safe in their own neighborhood.”

Scott Wilk, chief of staff for Assemblywoman Paula Boland, who attended the rally, said Boland will push for a package of laws which would include a “two-strikes” law for child molesters, similar to the “three-strikes” felony state law already in place. The proposed legislation also would require that residents be notified if a convicted child molester will be moving into their neighborhood.

“If there is a child molester in your area, you should have the right to know about it,” Wilk said.

Supri has been living in Bakersfield since his parole in August, 1992. Contacted at his home Friday, Supri said he never told authorities he intended to move in with his mother. Supri also said he has moved on with his life and will never again cause harm to anyone.

But residents say they want legal restraints to keep Supri away.

“If a woman is raped, then she can get a restraining order,” said area resident Debra Alexander. “Why can’t victims of child molesters get a restraining order, too?”

Alexander, whose five children play in the neighborhood, doesn’t agree with the two-strikes proposal--she says it’s too lenient.

“One strike is enough,” she said. “He doesn’t deserve another chance.”

Hollywood resident Christopher Robin traveled to the neighborhood to participate in the protest after hearing about it on a talk radio show. He said he was angered by a judicial system that would give such a short sentence and allow the molester to return to the place where the child lives.

“I have a 10-year-old son, and I just think it’s time we start fighting back against these people and the court system that allows this to happen,” Robin said.