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Offenders' home tries to bridge needs

A Pinellas mobile home park addresses a sex offender housing dilemma and aids oversight.

By ABHI RAGHUNATHAN, Times Staff Writer
Published October 10, 2007

LEALMAN - At first glance, the Palace Mobile Home Park looks like just another trailer park, offering cheap rent to Floridians with downsized retirement dreams.

The small sign out front is faded. The streets in the cramped community of single-wides are narrow. This was supposed to be the new home of Bobby Joe Helms, the man known as the "Hyde Park rapist."

But the folks who run the park wouldn't have him. Too high-profile, too much attention.

In the past two years, the Palace has quietly become the neighborhood of choice for sex offenders in Pinellas, housing almost 8 percent of all the sex offenders and predators in the county.

About 98 sex offenders - about half of the roughly 200 residents - live in the Palace. No other area in the county has such a high concentration of sex offenders, sheriff's officials say.

"I feel safe here," said Michael Yancey, 41, a registered sex offender who has been at the Palace since June. "I don't feel the weight of the community on my shoulders, the stares. When I walk out of here, it's a whole other ball game."

Palace manager Nancy Morais said she had incomplete information on Helms' past and didn't know the extent of his crimes.

Morais is sensitive to public concern. She tries to keep a low profile and says it's good to have offenders live in one place where they're easy to monitor.

"We watch them very, very carefully," she said. "I just don't feel that the community is safe if sex offenders go unattended under a bridge."

In many ways, the Palace has become what it is because of Morais, who also runs the nonprofit Florida Justice Alliance, which helps incarcerated criminals transition back into society.

Morais, 59, has a son who is one of Pinellas' 1,260 registered sex offenders. Marc Morais, 38, was convicted of charges including being a principal in an attempted sexual battery of a child under 12, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. He lives at the Palace, and so does his mother.

Morais said she was troubled after learning how difficult it was for offenders to find even basic housing. State law does not restrict where offenders can live, but courts often include restrictions as part of probation.

When Morais came across the Palace several years ago, she soon realized it was in an ideal location for offenders.

"It's in the middle of nowhere," she said. "We're surrounded by basically nothing."

The Palace is in an unincorporated area called Lealman, one of the poorest areas of Pinellas County. At one time, the area near the Palace was frequented by homeless people.

The small mobile home park consists of a few streets and 80 units at 2500 54th Ave. N. Some of the homes look new; others dowdy. A Winnie the Pooh decoration adorns one home. On Tuesday, several offenders walked around the park doing odd jobs.

Morais said she convinced the park's owners to admit sex offenders several years ago. She said they agreed, as long as no designated sexual predators were allowed.

As word spread about the Palace, more offenders kept moving in. The number shot up from about 55 in 2005 to the high 90s this year, said Sgt. Judy Vovan, who oversees the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office sexual predator and offender tracking unit.

"It's a very high number," Vovan said. "We keep a very close eye on the offenders who reside in that park."

While the Palace is in a high-crime area, Vovan said most of the arrests have been for minor offenses such as disorderly intoxication or violating probation. The offenders also watch each other and report possible crimes, she said. But "we haven't seen a lot of incidents of them committing sex offenses," she said.

The Palace is owned by the R2 Property Co. R2 officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

For residents, the Palace offers cheap rent and access to counseling services. Morais said she doesn't receive any taxpayer dollars and pays for her operations through the $400 monthly rent she charges each offender. Several live in each unit.

Donald Sweeney, a licensed mental health counselor who works with Palace residents in group sessions, said most of the offenders use the Palace as a way station, staying there for a few months after they're released from prison. He said some work in the Palace, renovating mobile homes and making other repairs.

"It was a pretty rough place before the offenders moved in," he said. "They've cleaned it up considerably."

Some people in the Palace and the neighborhood have just started to become aware of the influx of sex offenders.

At Lealman Intermediate School, which is just 0.4 miles from the Palace, school officials have put up mug shots and shifted bus routes so students don't have to walk through the neighborhood.

Frances Bailes has lived in the park for about five years. The presence of so many sex offenders has left some residents afraid to go outside, she said.

"I have people telling me that they are scared, that they are going to move as quick as they can," Bailes said.

She said she hasn't had any problems with her neighbors, except that her grandchildren can't visit her in the park.

"If I can find a place, I'm moving," Bailes said.

Staff writers Jacob H. Fries, Anne Lindberg and researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this report. Abhi Raghunathan can be reached at araghunathan@sptimes.com or 727 893-8472.

Fast Facts:

What's a predator?

Bobby Joe Helms is classified as an offender and not predator because he committed his crimes before the law establishing the predator classification.

A sexual predator has been convicted of either one first-degree felony sex crime or two second-degree felony sex crimes. The second-degree felony sex crimes must have occurred within 10 years of each other or of the conviction or release from the sanction of the court, whichever is later. The court also must declare someone to be a predator. A sex offender has committed any sex offense listed in the statute. See Florida statute 943.0435(12) for additional information regarding sexual offenders.

GET THE LIST: A list of sexual predators and offenders is available from the Sex Offender & Predator Unit at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which can mail a ZIP code list of names and addresses of the offenders and predators in your ZIP code free of charge. The information also is on the FDLE Web site at www.fdle.state.fl.us.

[Last modified October 10, 2007, 01:17:15]