Last summer, registered sex offender Richard Diccicco upset neighbors in Cherry Creek because he was sleeping in his van next to a park playground.
Diccicco wasn’t doing anything wrong by parking in the 200 block of South Monroe Street overnight because state law allows sex offenders to register to a street corner if they are homeless.
Residents concerned for the safety of their children reached out to the Denver police and Councilwoman Jeanne Robb to try and have Diccicco move away from the corner. He was convicted in 1998 of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust.
“For a while, for about a week, he had a voucher for a motel during the summer, but he really liked living in his van,” Robb said.
The more people protested his choice of lodging, the more Diccicco “dug in his heels” about staying put, she said.
But this month, Diccicco moved to a temporary day shelter to the relief of neighbors.
Denver police Sgt. Larry Valencia, who tracks homeless sex offenders in the city, said that even though Diccicco found housing, the city still has 100 sex offenders registering on random street corners or in vehicles.
A directive issued by the Colorado Department of Corrections allowing homeless parolees to register from a street corner every night is increasing those numbers.
“While you are transient, you will report every night between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. to the Rescue Mission or the Crossroads Shelter, then you will call (parole) and report the street corner that you plan to sleep for the night,” the directive says.
Valencia says of the 100 homeless sex offenders he monitors, 16 of them are parolees.
Police in Denver are hoping the state legislature clears up some inconsistencies in the way sex-offender registration laws are applied throughout Colorado.
That is because some jurisdictions refuse to register sex offenders who don’t have a brick and mortar address, leaving other cities, such as Denver, to take on the load.
Katherine Sanguinetti, spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, said they have not received complaints from communities surrounding the shelters. The DOC recently held a parolee re-entry symposium to discuss housing needs, particularly for sex offenders.
“We continue to work on transitional housing for these offenders and are partnering with different housing authorities in the area and different landlords that are felon-friendly,” she said.
