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Jessica's tragedy changed him

Joseph Dawson is the force behind a petition in the slain girl's name. He wants lawmakers to change the sexual predator law.

By JORGE SANCHEZ
Published April 10, 2005

	[Times photo: Ted McLaren]
	Gone are the diamond rings and other jewelry in Joseph Dawson's display cases. In their place are stacks of "Jessica's Petition."

HOMOSASSA SPRINGS - The day after Jessica Lunsford disappeared from her mobile home, Joseph Dawson pushed his way past the reporters waiting outside her family's mobile home to speak with her father, Mark.

"He was grieving and in shock and I was outraged, but he listened to me," Dawson said. "He agreed something had to be done."

Finding Jessica was paramount, but also important was changing the sexual offender law. Putting his jewelry business on hold for three weeks, Dawson started "Jessica's Petition" and it spread like wildfire across the state.

People signed the petition through the Internet, and it seemed petitions gathered signatures on the sales counter of every store. Soon, Dawson emptied his store's display cases, replacing the rings, bracelets and watches with stacks of signed petitions.

Authorities discovered Jessica's body on March 19 after they said convicted sex offender John Couey had confessed to murder. Couey had moved to a mobile home near the Lunsfords and did not notify authorities of the change of address.

The petition drive hit hyperspeed.

Dawson was all over the news. He embodied the public outcry for changing the law.

"Nothing had been done, really," he said of the state's sexual offender law. "I lived near where Jennifer Odom was kidnapped and since then, basically, nothing had changed."

Odom was 12 when she was abducted at her school bus stop in eastern Pasco County in 1993. Her body was later found in Hernando County. Nobody has been charged.

Since Jessica's Petition, plenty has changed. There is a bill in the state Senate to strengthen the sexual offender law. Dawson was invited to testify before a Senate panel Wednesday. He also met with the governor.

His jewelry business is still on hold.

"How else could we answer the 5,000 phone calls we get a week?" he said Thursday. "It takes us a whole day to go through the mail."

Dawson said he has been reading about sexual predators and studying the state law since the Odom abduction.

Jessica's case led him into action.

"I just felt inspired by God, actually," he said.

While he supports the Senate bill sponsored by Sen. Nancy Argenziano, Dawson said the measure doesn't quite live up to the stricter measures of Jessica's Petition.

"Sexual predators need to be marked for life. Just like their victims are," he said. "We should have that on their drivers licenses."

He also worries that without full public support, the bill may stall.

"We might have won a battle (in getting a bill introduced), but that's not the same as winning the war.

"Whatever is passed has to be funded," he said. "We have to keep the pressure on the legislators, and that's where I come in, with all these signatures that I'm going to personally deliver to the governor."

Dawson said the fame that accompanied the petition drive is not the reason he did it.

"This experience has changed my life. Knowing that there are so many people who care," he said. "But I'm looking forward to the day I can step out of this arena and get back to being a jeweler."

Jorge Sanchez can be reached at 860-7313 or e-mail at sanchez@sptimes.com

[Last modified April 10, 2005, 00:39:14]