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Residents called for the Brooklyn Town Council president to resign Thursday night.

The call comes following the finding that Brooklyn Town Council President Frank Sams is housing his brother-in-law, Dennis Waltz, 55, who is a convicted child molester, at the Brooklyn Church of the Nazarene parsonage within 1,000 feet of a school. Sams is the pastor at the church.

Sams attended an executive session of the council at 6:30 p.m., but left without explanation before the regular meeting began. Thursday night’s meeting was moved to the fire house to accommodate the more than 40 people who attended the meeting.

The fireworks began when council vice president Chie Chie Boles allowed Katherine Burke, who had asked to be on the agenda, to speak.

Burke said she moved to Brooklyn in 2007 because she “wanted to live in a community that would be a part of my family.”

Burke said she had attended past meetings and was unhappy with Sams’ actions.

He has “disrespected others by doing ‘raspberries’ from the highest seat of our town council,” she said. “As a victim of child molestation, I know what damages a pedophile can do to a child and to the adult they grow to become.

“I am not on a witch hunt, and I am not trying to run anyone out of town on a rail. I am trying to protect the future of our town.”

In response last week to the story of Waltz living at his home, Sams said people in the town were on a “witch hunt against me and my brother-in-law.”

Sams said he intends to file a civil lawsuit against the complaining residents, charging they have harassed him and violated his civil rights in protesting Waltz’s presence and Sams’ own ability to oversee town business.

According to the state sex offender registry, Waltz was convicted of a Class C felony child molesting in Montgomery County in 1997. Indiana law defines the offense as the fondling or touching of a child younger than 14 with the intent to arouse the sexual desire of the older person.

Waltz was released from jail in 1999 after serving one year; he then spent five years on probation. He must keep his registration on the sex offender list current and is required to do so for the rest of his life.

Offender is given 30 days to move

Don Abel is a volunteer who oversees Morgan County’s sex offender registry. It’s his job to keep track of the people on the registry and to make sure they are properly registered as the law requires.

“There is nothing in the law that tells us how quickly he (the offender) must move. But I have talked to the prosecutor on this, and we agreed it’s difficult for someone to move out and find a place immediately, so we always give an individual 30 days,” Abel said last week for a story that appeared in the Reporter-Times on Feb. 13. “I have talked to Mr. Waltz and his relatives, and they understand and I do not anticipate any issues to come up.”

During Thursday’s meeting, Burke said Sams not only put the children of Brooklyn in danger, but the members of his own household. She said a child molester can do a lot of damage in five minutes, much less 30 days.

Burke said she believes Waltz should be arrested and removed from Sams’ home immediately and that charges should be filed against Sams for allowing Waltz to live in his home, which is within 1,000 feet of the Brooklyn Elementary School.

Burke also said Sams needs to be removed from his position on the council.

During the meeting, councilman Jeff Brahaum said that under the council’s rules, each member is supposed to be council president for a year. He said they should be following the rules and since Sams had been the president for a year, Sams should be removed. Brahaum made a motion to remove Sams, which was seconded by councilman Tom McGlauchlin. Both men voted for the motion while Boles voted no, and councilman Jim Newman abstained. The motion failed because it needed three votes and since the vote was not a tie, the clerk was not allowed to vote.

After Burke spoke, nearly all of the 40 people in the audience gave her a standing round of applause.

Boles, Newman end the meeting

When others attempted to speak, Boles said they were not going to talk about the matter and said the meeting was over. She asked for a motion, which came from Newman. Boles seconded his motion and asked for those in favor to vote yes. Boles did not ask for a nay vote and declared the meeting over. While members of the audience called for the meeting to resume, Boles and Newman walked out of the building leaving council members Jeff Brahaum and Tom McGlauchlin sitting at the table.

After the meeting, several residents met to discuss the possibility of holding a recall vote to remove Sams from the council.

Some expessed concerns that Sams may be using the town’s attorney, Steve Wolfe, for advice in regards to Waltz. When asked if he had given Sams legal advise on having Waltz at the church parsonage, Wolfe said he had advised Sams about the sex offender law.

In other business, Dan Miller Sr., who was appointed Thursday night by the council to the town’s plan commission, said he is unhappy with logs kept by Brooklyn Town Marshal Terry Carlyle. Miller said there were 160 errors in the seven months of logs he had received from Carlyle. Some of those errors, he said, involved the number of hours Carlyle said he worked.

Miller brought the matter up during the council meeting.

Brahaum said Carlyle told him that he destroyed the logs after 30 days and he questioned how, If the logs had been destroyed, Miller could have been given the seven months of logs. When it came to approving the claims, Brahaum voted against approving them, because he was concerned about paying the town marshall if his records are incorrect. Brahaum said after the meeting he was unhappy because he could not get answers from Carlyle.

CITED FROM:

http://www.reporter-times.com/stories/2009/02/21/mdtnews.qp-5654381.sto

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