Sep 22, 2006 10:45 pm US/Central
Carnival Raids Reveal Sex Offenders
State Rep. Hopes To Have Law In Place For Screening Next Year
by Dave Savini
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
A ticket to the carnival could be a "ticket to danger." But that may soon change.
Dave Savini's 2 Investigation is getting results that would better protect children, even adults, who go to carnivals.
A statewide task force moved in on a Cicero carnival -- surprising the operators -- and checked the criminal backgrounds of workers.
Since last year, statewide sweeps have led to the apprehension of child sex offenders, including Richardo Coleman who was running a merry-go-round.
"When sex offenders start working here, then we have to get involved and protect the children," said Commander Cook County Sheriff John Palcu.
Investigators also found 225 carnival workers with a combined 744 arrests and 184 convictions, including armed robbers and convicted murderers.
"You get mad as a parent and nothing is more important than children," said state representative Kevin Joyce (35th).
Joyce supports these raids, but wants more done. He wants all carnival workers to undergo background checks.
"Any person that's going to be exposed to those children should be subject to a background check," said Joyce.
He wants children protected from what happened to a woman's 8-year-old daughter. She was molested while being strapped into a children's ride by a carnival worker in Downers Grove.
"It broke my heart that I could not protect her," said the mother.
Another danger exposed by our CBS 2 investigation has Joyce taking action. He wants state- mandated minimum requirements for training since carnival workers report getting very little -- even psychiatric patients say they were put in charge of rides, when off their medications.
Rodney Harding admits rides malfunctioned and he did not know what to do.
Joyce also wants standards to protect workers themselves. Our investigation found homeless and psychiatric patients who say they were recruited, then exploited by carnival companies. Joyce hopes to have a law in place some time next year.
Read more about the story in this weekend's editions of the Naperville Sun and the Aurora Beacon News.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Get breaking news alerts
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
