Scary Parole Possibility

It’s like a plot from Law & Order: SVU. I wouldn’t be surprised if they use this.

A prosecutor from Orange County, California, traveled to a state prison to argue against paroling a serial child molester who was a fugitive for almost 30 years. Larry Welborn of the Orange County Register has the story. And if you go to the website, you can see a picture of this guy. Creepy.

George Joseph England, 65, was captured in Florida in 2006, extradited to Orange County and sentenced to four consecutive one-year-to-life-in-prison terms for molesting three young girls in Costa Mesa in the mid 1970s.

He also molested a Vietnamese girl – whom he purchased from her mother while the war raged in Vietnam – for years while he claimed her as his adopted daughter, according to prosecutors.

Have you lost your appetite yet?

When he sentenced England to prison in September 2006, Superior Court Judge Robert Fitzgerald said "I expect that you will die in prison."

But after serving only three years for the molestations in Costa Mesa, England became eligible for his first parole hearing because of the laws that were on the books in the 1970s.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Rebecca Olivieri, of the DA's Special Prosecutions Unit, will attend the hearing to oppose parole for England on behalf of the Orange County District Attorney.

I hope Ms. Olivieri was highly persuasive.

He was convicted of those charges in Orange County Superior Court in 1977, but was allowed to remain free in lieu of bail pending his sentencing so that he could tidy up his affairs.

But instead of showing up in court, England removed the Vietnamese girl from protective custody and fled, spending the next 29 years as a fugitive until he was captured in Florida.

Oh, Floridian alligators - you failed me. You could have incapacitated this guy in such a way and place so that the abundant insects of Florida could have had their way with him over several painful days. Oh well. Prison must be loads of fun for this guy.

UPDATE: He was denied parole for now, but he'll be up for release again soon.