Mitchell Richtman has been charged with child porn and sexually abusing a horse. PHOTO | MERCER COUNTY PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE
Tier 2 level sex offender, Mitchell Richtman, was arrested for the ownership of thousands of images of child pornography and animal cruelty in his home in East Windsor, New Jersey on January 27. Richtman is facing charges of second-degree possession of child pornography and fourth-degree animal cruelty.
Richtman was arrested under Megan’s Law, a law that was created to keep the community aware of sexual predators after seven-year-old Megan Kanka was raped, beaten and murdered by her Hamilton, NJ neighbor, Jesse Timmendequas in 1994. Her body was shoved in a toy box and dumped next to a portable toilet in Mercer County Park, less than a mile from MCCC’s West Windsor campus.
It has been 27 years since Megan Kanka’s parents, Maureen and Richard Kanka were able to get the sex offender registry law that became known as “Megan’s Law” enacted in New Jersey, yet sex offenders like Richter still threaten the safety of the community
Megan’s Law was passed in 1994 and made it possible for the public to view internet information regarding sexual offenders on the sex offender registry.
For a Tier 2 offender like Richter, Megan’s Law permits law enforcement, schools, licensed daycare centers, summer camps, and registered community organizations to be notified of the presence of someone who has committed sexual assault. But it is unclear if the system is applied consistently.
In one notable example from 2017, a tier 3 (“high risk”) sex offender named Adam L. Woolf, who was taking classes at MCCC was arrested and accused of posing as a campus employee and luring 12-year-old children who were using the pool for swim practice into the showers telling them the chlorine level in the pool would damage their bathing suits and enticing them to shower with him. Woolf later pleaded guilty to three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, in the third degree. It is not clear whether MCCC was informed of his presence on campus, as Megan’s Law would have required, or why he was allowed to enroll given the college shares a campus with The Joseph F. Cappello School, which serves students between the ages of three and seven.
Nicole Foulks, principal of the Ethel Mcknight Elementary School which is located about four minutes away from Richtman’s house, declined to say if the school was notified about Richtman living nearby saying she was “not at liberty to discuss” the issue.
If the school was notified, it’s not clear what their proper course of action could have been. If they were not notified, it suggests putting people on a sex offender registry list is not adequate for protecting people, especially children, against sexual violence.
The U.S. Department of Justice conducted a study analyzing Megan’s Law, found that the law “has no effect on reducing the number of victims involved in sexual offenses.”
The study goes on to say that the cost of enforcing the law was prohibitively high given its lack of effectiveness.
When asked if sex offenders can change their behavior Dr. Kelli Palfy, a psychologist specializing in victims of sexual abuse and sex crimes says, “I think they need monitoring and intensive therapy, and the desire [to succeed] and a lot of support.”
Steven Ing, a licensed marriage therapist and experienced treatment provider for sex offenders for over twenty-two years says, “Instead of Megan’s Law, which I think is highly flawed, which I think is entirely reactive, we could actually get out front if we care about victims; we could prevent people from ever becoming victims.”
Ing continues, “If you can understand sex offenders, then you can predict sex offending. And you can prevent sexual criminality. It’s for the most part, preventable.”
He explains that most of his clients fail to develop the required social skills needed to form appropriate and consensual relationships which is the reason they push their sexual attractions on unwilling individuals.
In the U.S. Department of Justice, Sex Offender Management Assessment and Planning Initiative research paper, author Dominique A. Simmons reinforces Ing’s position explaining that many child abusers possess the same trait of poor social skills which then creates unsuccessful relationships that can provoke loneliness as well as anger.
A study conducted by the United States Department of Justice Bureau of Statistics titled Recidivism of Sex Offenders Released from State Prison: A 9-Year Follow-Up (2005-14) found that “Rape and sexual assault offenders were less likely than other released prisoners to be arrested, but they were more likely than other released prisoners to be arrested for rape or sexual assault.” It also found “Released sex offenders were more than three times as likely as other released prisoners to be arrested for rape or sexual assault.” If there was an encouraging finding it was that 67% of sex offenders were arrested after release compared to 84% of those convicted of other crimes.
Dr. Palfy says she doesn’t force her religious beliefs on her clients but says “I think God is the only one who can truly change us.”
