Although thousands of Coloradans are doing background checks on caregivers and neighbors every day using a free website, a Longmont woman didn’t learn her babysitter was a registered sex offender until after he allegedly molested her 9-year-old boy, officials say.
More than 1,700 people a day searched the Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s sex-offender website in 2006, said Chris Lobanov-Rostovsky, who oversees the Division of Criminal Justice’s sex-offender management unit.
It appears thousands of people are using it to be aware of sex offenders in their midst, Lobanov-Rostovsky said. But the Longmont case demonstrates that not everyone who should be tapping the database is.
A few months ago, Frank James Gutierrez, 62, befriended a single mom and her son, said Craig Earhart, detective commander of the Longmont Police Department.
“He built their trust over the course of months,” Earhart said. “He was the friendly next-door neighbor who had done a lot of things for the family. He offered to babysit for free when she needed to go to work.”
Then the mother called police saying she had returned home from work and caught Gutierrez sexually assaulting her son in the living room of her apartment, Earhart said.
Gutierrez was arrested Monday evening for investigation of sexual assault by a person in a position of trust.
He had watched the child about eight or nine times, Earhart said.
Authorities are talking to the boy to find out if Gutierrez molested him previously.
Gutierrez was convicted in 1990 of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl in San Diego and had been accused of molesting other children, police found out.
He first registered as a sex offender with the Longmont police in November 2005 and has kept his registration current.
Gutierrez was not on probation or parole and only had to register his address with police, Earhart said. There had been no previous complaints about him in Colorado.
Neighbors are notified when a sexually violent predator moves into a neighborhood, but Gutierrez had not been identified as a predator.
The Longmont Police Department had Gutierrez’s picture on its sex-offender website when he began babysitting. People can search the free site, which maps where sex offenders live.
Though sex offenders may adhere to restrictions about staying away from children while they are on parole or in therapy, they don’t always follow those guidelines when their supervision ends, Lobanov-Rostovsky said.
“They may say to themselves, ‘I’m better now. I can do something that everyone else is doing,”‘ he said. “It may be they are in denial of the risk of reoffending, and they take chances.”
Or they may put themselves next to children intentionally so they can reoffend, Lobanov-Rostovsky said.
Law enforcement advises parents to make use of the sex-offender registry websites.
If people recognize someone on the website, they can get copies of a sex offender’s file at the Longmont Police Department, Earhart said.
“The whole idea is for people to see who lives in their neighborhoods,” he said. “You should do some checking to see if someone would be a danger to your child.”
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
Online and offline, information available
ONLINE
Federal: The Justice Department provides sex-offender addresses and photos at for every state and region, as well as by name.
State: Go to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation website at , enter the security code at the bottom of the page, then click on “search for offenders” on the subsequent page. Scroll down to your city and click “search.” Many categories of sex offenders are listed here.
OFFLINE
Not all local police agencies provide information online, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a list that residents can pick up. Call and check.
JUVENILE OFFENDERS
Colorado sex-offender lists on the Internet do not include the names of juvenile offenders, but the printed list at a local police station does.
FACTS ABOUT SEXUAL OFFENDERS
Most offenders commit multiple crimes against multiple types of victims with whom they have varying types of relationships (adults, children, male, female, known and unknown).
Sex offenders rarely commit just one type of offense. Many offenders have no official criminal record or sex-crime history of any kind.
There is no such thing as a “typical” sex offender; however, all tend to be manipulative, deceptive and secretive. Sex offenders come from all backgrounds, ages, income levels and professions.
The majority of offenses (80 to 95 percent) are committed by someone the victim knows.
Sexual deviancy often begins in adolescence.
Sex offenders usually do not commit their crimes impulsively. Usually, they carefully plan their crimes.
Approximately 4 percent of sexual assaults are committed by women.
Source: Colorado Bureau of Investigation
