Residents who packed a southeast Denver middle school Tuesday night were outraged to learn that a state-designated sexually violent predator released from prison into their neighborhood was rooming with another sex offender.
David Earl Russell was released from the Department of Corrections on Sept. 30 and is residing at Bowling Green Condominiums on East Tennessee Avenue near South Monaco Parkway.
Russell, 39, was convicted in 2001 of sexual assault on a child and attempted sexual assault, stemming from an incident in which he fondled an unaccompanied 4-year-old girl while working in a south metro-area department store.
He served four years in prison and is serving a second sentence of 10 years to life on probation, Arapahoe County District Attorney Carol Chambers told the 200 residents gathered in Place Middle School’s auditorium.
“The fact that you know this person is in your midst is an important thing,” Chambers said.
The tension in the auditorium was tempered temporarily as Russell’s parole officer assured everyone that Russell will live under strict monitoring and a schedule that prohibits him from being around minors and requires him to be accompanied by another adult at all times whenever he’s away from home. Also, he is outfitted with an electronic monitoring bracelet and is subject to frequent, unscheduled visits by authorities, parole officer Juli Huber said.
But when it was revealed Russell’s chaperone could at times be his roommate, Randolph Jakus, also a convicted sex offender, tempers flared.
“They chose to live in the middle between this middle school, (George Washington High School) and a Montessori school where there are kids all around,” an upset Carol Gibson said. “I don’t see how we’re supposed to feel better knowing that he has another adult with him and that adult can be that other sex offender.”
Few details were available about Jakus, 50, other than he committed a felony sex offense while vacationing in California and also is living under constant monitoring by a parole officer.
Attempts to contact Russell at his home were unsuccessful.
Michael Meyers, who lives in the Bowling Green complex and attended Tuesday’s meeting, said he plans to keep his eyes peeled.
“There’s no way he can walk out of his apartment without being in the general vicinity of young kids playing in the commons area,” Meyers shouted.
“Statistics don’t lie,” Meyers told reporters later. “If he committed these acts once, he’ll do it again.”
At meeting’s end, Tyree Wilkins, 13, also a resident at the Bowling Green complex, stood and asked officers with the Denver Police Department’s sex-offender unit the question that was on everybody’s mind: “Can we go outside and feel safe?”
There are no guarantees, the officers replied.
Staff writer Manny Gonzales can be reached at 303-820-1537 or mgonzales@denverpost.com.
