Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
STEVE THOMPSONRobert Haas said he completely abides by his probation as a registered sex offender.
NEW PORT RICHEY - Robert Haas' neighbors are afraid of him. They're concerned for their families. They're afraid to let their children play outside.
Haas, 38, is a registered sex offender. He was sentenced to probation and counseling in 2003 after a charge of lewd and lascivious behavior with children under 16.
But when a Pasco sheriff's deputy arrived at the Nature's Hideaway subdivision early Thursday, it wasn't in response to the fears of Haas' neighbors.
It was in response to fears in Haas' household.
"I am afraid for my life," he told the Times on Friday. "I can't walk out the damn door."
It was Haas' live-in girlfriend who had called the Sheriff's Office. She said neighbors had been harassing them, carrying signs and shining lights in their house. She said they had been threatened, told to move, or else.
"They're being mean," Haas told the Times on Friday. "They're not bad people. They're good people and they want to protect their families. But their efforts could be directed in other places."
Teasha Marino has three children and lives across the street from Haas. She rallied the neighborhood after she learned of his sex offender status Monday. They have held signs in her front yard every night this week. On Friday, signs were planted in her lawn. Their messages included declaring the area a "Family Zone" and a plea to "Keep Perverts off the Streets."
But it has been a silent protest, said Marino, who said she was a victim of a sex offense as a child.
"I am outraged at the state that they would allow him to move into this neighborhood," she said. "There's a bus stop for children to go to school two doors away from his home."
Under the conditions of Haas' probation, he is prohibited from having unsupervised contact with children or frequenting places where children are known to congregate.
But he moved into the neighborhood last month with the knowledge of the Florida Department of Corrections.
"I abide by my probation," Haas said. "I do what I'm told. I do what I'm supposed to do."
Haas pleaded guilty to the lewd and lascivious charge, but said his case is more complicated than that. He didn't have the money to fight it, he said. He didn't want to put the victims through testifying in court.
"I wish I could believe his story and make this whole thing go away," said Garry Fink, Marino's husband. "But unfortunately I can't."
Marino said they will keep the signs up indefinitely, "to let him know that we're watching him and that we're aware of him and to have him feel as uncomfortable in his house as we do in ours."
Haas says the effort is unnecessary - and hurtful.
"I can tell my community that they don't have to worry about me, but I understand their fears," Haas said. "I'm not here to hurt anybody. I just want to live. Let me go to work, live in my home, mow my grass, do the things that are right."
- Staff writer Richard Raeke contributed to this report. Steve Thompson covers crime in Pasco County. He can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6245, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6245. His e-mail address is sthompson@sptimes.com