The last blog entry http://fifthnail.blogspot.com/2005/05/still-confused.html on Joe Duncan's blog, he wrote it three days before the murders. It's pretty creepy.

Testing, testing to see if I can post.

And, really, how surprising is this arrest? There doesn't seem to be much of anything in this state EXCEPT bleakness and sex offenders. North Dakota is so dirt poor it can hardly devote the resources to solving crimes that have already happened, let alone preventing crimes from happening in the future by keeping better tabs on sex offenders. Really, you would think that running a websight advocating the things this guy was advocating would be, ipso facto, some kind of probation violation but the local yokels just went ahead and let him do it. It's no wonder North Dakota is the only state losing population as the young and smart flee, screaming, for a better life anywhere but the area Newsweek calls America's "rural ghetto," economic hurt bag of the nation. (September 10, 2001 issue of Newsweek) Somebody in Fargo should be held legally liable for the inadequate supervision which let this guy run a website with a pro-molestor orientation. The fact the guy ran off and did what he did...that's bad, but it's all too common. What really concerns me is the utter lack of adequate supervision as evidenced by the website. Are police in Fargo just too thick headed and behind the times to be capable of becoming aware of some perv's website? Sure seems like it. Police in Fargo need to be aware that "a lot can happen in the middle of nowhere." You betcha.

Wow, Whatever. The amount you don't know about North Dakota is astonishing.

I'll grant that this state doesn't exactly have the law enforcement resources available to other places...but that's because we have far fewer people and far less crime. Not because North Dakota is poor. In fact, North Dakota's economy has been booming of late.

And out-migration has been a problem for North Dakota in the past, but the trend has slowed to what is essentially a stand-still and we're expecting the population to begin growing again here shortly.

And, really, the problems I alluded to in my post as to the punishment of sex offenders isn't really something that's specific to North Dakota, so your negative comments about the state, be they true or not, are really sort of irrelevant.

Kindly explain your statement about how North Dakota is going to start "growing" in light of the 5,000 or so people the state will soon lose from Grand Forks Air Force Base in light of BRAC. And I see that my assertion North Dakota is "bleak" stands unrebutted. I'll go with what Newsweek said, no disrespect to bloggers, but "the rural ghetto" seems to sum it up pretty well. If there is far less crime, it may be due, in part, to so much less to steal. Today's issue of USA Today discusses yet another meth lab turned up in North Dakota...a drive through the whole state reveals so many empty, falling apart houses...most of the state looks like "a meth lab waiting to happen." Is it any wonder this monster Duncan was spawned amid such desperate squalor and dispair? And then just wait until CAFTA knocks out the sugarbeet subsidies. ANOTHER disaster about to happen to the economic hurt bag of the nation. Meanwhile, North Dakota's governor wants a bunch of half-drowned counties declared disaster areas...forget all the stuff that goes down in California, because acre for acre, North Dakota is the ultimate natural disaster theme park, this piled upon economic disaster, both ongoing and pending. Sick, sad and awful about sums it all up.

'Whatever' sounds like a 'slicker. Like the kind I was really mean to when I was a kid 'cause they were scared of all the icky animals. Somebody take you on a snipe hunt, son?

A slicker? Oh, I get it, you mean a CITY slicker. Not sure what the point was of putting an apostrophe in front of "slicker," but each to his own in North Dakota, it appears. I'm not sure what that "slicker" comment has to do with anything, but clearly I'm not much of a city slicker because I actually know what a sugar beet is and how it supports the wretched and pathetic North Dakota economy, which is more than any true city slicker would ever care to learn. But, to get back on track and keep this focused on North Dakota's latest famous sex offender, Duncan...the news articles about his residence in Fargo sure does make that area around NDSU sound like a dump...areas that used to be small homes, but they've been carved up into apartments, some of which are apparently flophouses for sex offenders. I mean, the guy has been running around Idaho for a while, it seems, and yet his rent appears paid up! Nothing in there about an angry landlord, unpaid rent, people wondering where the heck he went. Rent must not be too costly in that area, if you know what I mean. Are you right around there, Meezer? Is Fargo as much of a dump as these descriptions would seem to imply, a sad dead end for sex offenders and individuals from towns with one bar now majoring in Livestock Insemination? Was Fargo the same town where that guy came from who ran off with the mentally retarded girl and wanted to MARRY her? And the authorities more or less convicted him of kidnapping and molestation? Was THAT Fargo? I mean, is there something in the WATER or what? There was some previous mention of the small population of this state. I would really like to know which states have the most sex offenders PER CAPITA. And I'll say something else...maybe poor states that can't keep on top of all their sex offenders...yer Montanas, Wyomings, North Dakotas...might need some extra federal funding. Clearly, a sex offender in a state that can't deal with shit (like North Dakota, obviously, the state where sex offenders run their own WEBSITES!) is a danger to all, and not just a danger to people in THAT state. This discussion about how awful North Dakota is (or isn't) is interesting and all that, but when it comes right down to it...more needs to be done, and quickly. Perhaps all the sex offenders in the various states could be brought to North Dakota and given some of the empty, desolate towns and forced to make a life for themselves in places like that. Being forced to move to North Dakota would serve them right, and it would keep them all in one place where there aren't very many people they could get loose and hurt.

Um, whatever

I don't know from ND's demographics, but poverty doesn't cause meth labs or sex offenders or murderers.

The problem is not OUTSIDE the perp, but is their own responsibility and choices.

Poverty doesn't cause meth labs? Meth isn't associated with desperation and poverty? Oh, yeah, right, I suppose you think meth labs pop up like magic mushrooms in bathrooms in Beverly Hills. Meth is intimately associated with the rural squalor and empty, falling apart homes to be found not just in North Dakota, but all over the Great Plains, though North Dakota is the epicenter of the phenomenon. Yeah, sometimes it's just the offender, they are the "bad seed" or whatever, an errant piece of sunlight must have tweaked one of their genes in the wrong direction...and other times sex offenders are spawned from the refuse and detritus of human neglect, weakness, and stupidity. I look for rationale phenomenon, not something to do with their bad, bad soul. And it seems perfectly normal to me that sex offenders should spring up from a place so awful and wretched, the economic laughingstock of the nation and, I might add, a drain upon its neighbor, Minnesota, by mere proximity. Consider, if you will, that bastard Rodriguez who killed that dear, sweet girl from the University of North Dakota. Minnesota's governor actually *apologized* for not keeping better tabs on Rodriguez. But at least Rodriguez wasn't running his own WEBSITE. Who owes who an apology now? Governor Hoeven owes Idaho an apology...for not keeping the human refuse from blowing in the wind and having free reign on the internet.

Whatever

Climb off your high horse before you get a nosebleed.

why are methlabs more associated with the sticks? Cause cooking the crap smells to high hell. And it's cheap to manufacture and the ingredients are pretty easy to get and one doesn't have to deal with the Mexican Mafia which pretty much runs the coke/crack traffic (and their viciousness against poachers is infamously legendary). Profit margins (if you don't blow yourself up) are quite high.

And shock of shock, even rich locales like LA and surrounds have problems tracking sex offenders because it relies on voluntary compliance of the offender to register (or register truthfully) with his/her local police.

We always have a handful of cases of prosecuting for failure to register...usually only caught when they've done some other crime.

And sex offenders come from all walks of life...justices, teachers, scout leaders, priests ...so some weird "sex offenders are made due to horrendous upbringing" is actually a dangerous position to take.

Argh: Whatever.

Onto "meth labs" and "poverty" and the entire state of North Dakota (or any other)...when the issue is sexual predators and sexual predatation.

Sexual predators have a compulsive problem (as do others with other problems, but I'm limiting my comments to the issue of sexual predators). Many when confronted and even threatened with penalty are "sorry" and very humiliated and all that, but the point is, they always predate again (look at the statements made by and ongoing behaviors by the guy who killed the child in Florida, among many others).

They can't be relied on to behave in society without harming others. Not only children, by the way...but especially harms to children is my point. They kill people rather than be 'found out' and often fear exposure more than any penalty for murder and their own actions and cannot be trusted to change their behaviors voluntarily.

I think that many people today are beginning to realize this about sexual predators and why they pose a very awful threat to society and should not be simply paroled and asked to register with local authorities (many don't). Parole and registration does nothing to stop them from sexually predating upon others, childre particularly, and to assume they're going to stop their problematic behavior seems as irrational as the problems themselves.

Sexual predators at least should be permanently ankled (GPS, incarcertation, whatever it takes). At least define effective penalties to protect society from sexual predators and to provide treatments/remedies/recourses for those who are marginally included in that classification (nineteen year olds having sexual contact with fifteen year olds, for instance, but I don't excuse that and think that there's a questionable slope inherent in that sort of variation of evaluation about the behavior).

I read through that blog and the best word for it, though cliched, is chilling. Not a word of violence, but the angry, self-excusing 'I'm society's victim' tone, the slide toward greater psychosis... just mezmerizing.

You can tell something bad is happening in his head he's not telling you, but I'm not sure I would've guessed he'd of gone this completely evil. Plays out like the worst nightmare of anyone advocating for post conviciton leniency for these guys.

I'm also not so sure that the ND police weren't doing just what they were supposed too. They'd apparantly searched his home, seized stuff, were making sure neighborhood notification was going on to the full extent of the law, but it just wasn't enough.

I'm gonna remember this guy, his blog. I'm gonna keep this with me everytime the sex offender rehabilitation debate/merry go round starts up again.

Jeez Whatever, you have a wife/girlfriend stolen by a good-looking ND farmboy or what?

Living here in North Dakota, I wouldn't call it a ghetto at all. In fact, I quite like it. But then I'm the kind of person who likes small towns and small communities.

But really, I don't see where any of it has anything to do with the topic at hand. Really, your fixation on ND is kind of...weird. Usually, nobody really cares.

yep, I'm a California city slicker too, Orange county type, and we have a lot of meth labs RIGHT HERE in $1M homes. Sorry for the idiot from down here going off on North Dakota, I'm sure it's decent state and good people, albeit a bit too cold for me. There's a lot of sex offenders everywhere, and, by the way, he's actually from Washington, not ND. If you read his website, it's actually very sad, bz obviously he realizes he is sick, but the demonic side of him just got the best of his ability to control it, and it's clear he is mentally ill and very impulsive (but in NO WAY am I trying to excuse him; even if he had a dysfunctional upbringing and the system made him worse (as he argues), it still doesn't give him the right to go rape and murder little children).
Maybe he evaded and tricked the police, but he is very very smart, as is evident from his website, so he probably would have tricked the police down here too. By the way, as a matter of this funny archaic document called the Constitution, even people like him can maintain websites and express unpopular or even perverted views. I WILL say that it would have been better if some authorities had kept an eye on him and seen how his propensity to reoffend was obviously worsening, as is evident from his comments over time.

If people google jetd63 they will find other sites he had to do with, including the socalled travel bug sites -- yes, those are all him -- read his blog if you doubt me -- common themes run through it all. The police need to find those cached cameras (he was obsessed with cameras generally) and see what kind of photos are on them. Hint to law enforcement.

So, according to slicker #2, Joseph Edward Duncan III is originally from Washington (State, I presume). So were Theodore Robert Bundy and Gary Leon Ridgeway (the Green River Killer, the worst serial killer in this nation's history). Maybe whatever will now aim his rhetorical rocket launcher in another direction. (holding my breath, waiting--NOT)

Why will people who don't want to make excuses for sex offenders and their demonic behavior make so many excuses for a backward, half-assed state like North Dakota that couldn't even keep tabs on a sex offender when he had his own website and various blogs? More details that come out show that Duncan had done time in Minnesota, but while on probation he took up residence in North Dakota, just on the other side of the Red River in Fargo. You think many demonic Duncan knew something? Like the authorities in North Dakota were too backwoods to keep tabs on him, while he was all over the internet? My word, the guy even went to NDSU as a student--he didn't just live in the neighborhood with the students, he went to school and one school official said he was "quite a scholar." Compared to his mostly Nodak classmates, I guess. Blaming the offender and their sick demons is justified, but why are people so eager to make excuses for these dumb ass backwoods hicks from North Dakota who couldn't get a bead on the guy when he was SHRIEKING his sickness all over the internet? You think maybe Duncan knew what he was doing by going to Fargo? Think about it.

{STUPID HAYSEED NODAK DOCTOR MADE DUNCAN SPREE POSSIBLE, READ ALL ABOUT IT FROM THE FARGO FORUM, AS FOLLOWS}

Former Fargo doctor loaned money to offender
By Dave Olson, The Forum
Published Wednesday, July 06, 2005

A convicted sex offender arrested Saturday in Idaho with a missing girl received financial help from a former Fargo doctor, police records show.

Authorities believe Joseph E. Duncan III, 42, left the Fargo-Moorhead area shortly after April 5, when he posted $15,000 bail in Becker County (Minn.) District Court.

He is charged in Becker County with molesting a 6-year-old boy and trying to molest an 8-year-old boy July 3, 2004, in Detroit Lakes.

Police arrested Duncan Saturday in Coeur d'Alene with an 8-year-old girl whose mother, brother and family friend were found murdered in May.

On May 13, Fargo police investigator Greg Esposito spoke by phone with Richard Wacksman, a former Fargo doctor who befriended Duncan before he moved to Fargo in 2000.

Before coming to Fargo, Duncan served 14 years in prison for raping a 14-year-old boy at gunpoint in 1980 in Tacoma, Wash., when Duncan was 16.

Wacksman, who moved from Harwood, N.D., to Florida several years ago, told Esposito he last spoke to Duncan around April 15, when he got a phone call from him, according to a Fargo police report.

The report also said:

Wacksman loaned Duncan about $6,500 before his court appearance in Detroit Lakes. The loan was intended to defray attorney fees.

Wacksman said he didn't think Duncan was homicidal, though in the past he talked about suicide and what it would be like to drown.

Duncan apparently thought drowning would be the least painful way to die.

Duncan, who likes to scuba dive, visited Wacksman in Florida in March.

Wacksman told police he is not Duncan's doctor, but the two became friends when Wacksman was a pediatrician in Florida.

He said Duncan was very scared of going back to prison.

Wacksman, who now lives in New Port Richey, Fla., did not return phone or e-mail messages left for him Tuesday.

Wacksman is licensed to practice medicine in Florida, but does not have privileges at any facility in the state, according to a Florida Department of Health Web site.

When Duncan moved to Fargo, police released information on his past, including a document from a 1997 sentence review board hearing in Olympia, Wash., held to determine whether Duncan should be returned to prison for a parole violation.

At the hearing, Wacksman asked that Duncan be released so that he could live at Wacksman's North Dakota home.

Wacksman stated he had no concerns regarding the safety of his children, a view the review board did not share.

The board rejected Wacksman's proposal, finding that: "Under no circumstances whatsoever would the board allow Mr. Duncan to reside in a home where victim age children reside. … With all due respect to Dr. Wacksman, we are not willing to expose his children to that kind of risk."

Wacksman's Harwood neighbors felt the same way five years ago when they learned Wacksman was friends with the Level 3 sex offender, according to Don Nicholas, whose oldest son was friends with one of Wacksman's children.

"We had a neighborhood meeting about it," recalled Nicholas, who now lives in Virginia and was reached Tuesday in Puerto Rico, where he is doing construction work for the National Guard.

Nicholas, who did not attend the meeting, said neighbors confronted Wacksman, who confirmed Duncan had been to his house.

Nicholas said Wacksman told neighbors he would set conditions so Duncan could only visit when he was supervised. To his knowledge, Nicholas said, Duncan never returned to the Harwood residence.

Wacksman told his neighbors Duncan no longer posed a threat and was a changed man, Nicholas said.

"Obviously, he wasn't," Nicholas said.

Police say Duncan gave them little trouble during the five years he lived in Fargo.

However, authorities searched Duncan's Fargo home twice, once in August in connection with the Becker County case and again in April, when police suspected Duncan had not informed them of an address change as required by law.

Police learned in early May that on April 15 Duncan rented a 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee from a St. Paul rental car agency. The Jeep was reported stolen after it was not returned by April 20.

A key tag belonging to the vehicle was found in a national park in Wyoming by a park ranger, police said in May. According to a Fargo police report, Duncan e-mailed an upstairs neighbor, Joni Buzick, on May 10 and asked her to take care of his cats. In the e-mail, Duncan writes "life just isn't worth it and that he is truly sorry," the police report said.

{PERSONALLY, I THINK IT'S PRETTY CREEPY THAT A PEDIATRICIAN WOULD BEFRIEND A SEX OFFENDER TO THIS DEGREE, but I'm willing to believe that this doctor--despite his advanced degree--is just another dumb North Dakota hick from the sticks who really can't cope with "big city" issues like, oh, not letting a sex offender hang out with your kids. More to follow from the Fargo Forum detailing precisely how dumb the North Dakotans are, to the point of actually being a danger to the rest of the nation because they just can't *deal* with shit on account of being such backwoods hayseeds}

[HERE IS MORE ABOUT EXACTLY HOW STUPID THE NORTH DAKOTANS ARE. YOU HAVE TO READ BETWEEN THE LINES A BIT, BUT DON'T WORRY, I'LL HELP YOU]

Fargo police to update offender info on Web site
By Dave Forster, The Forum
Published Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Fargo Police Chief Chris Magnus said his department already does more than most agencies in the nation to track sex offenders.

On Tuesday, in the wake of national attention from the Joseph Duncan case, Magnus unveiled plans to keep the public even more informed. At the same time, he cautioned about getting "caught up in the hysteria of all this."
[READ: LIKE A SEX OFFENDER, THIS DEPARTMENT HAS BEEN CAUGHT WITH ITS PANTS DOWN. PLEASE DON'T LOOK AS WE SCRAMBLE TO COVER OUR ASS]

Beginning July 12, the Fargo police Web site will feature a city map that can be searched by neighborhood for Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders. The site now lists only photos, addresses and criminal histories for Level 3 offenders, those considered the most likely to re-offend.

Magnus and Lt. Tod Dahle also spoke briefly Tuesday about their department's help in the Duncan case and the flaws the case exposed in the criminal justice system. [ESPECIALLY IN THE HAYSEED FARGO POLICE DEPARTMENT]

Duncan, a Level 3 offender, had been missing since April from his Fargo address until Idaho police found him Saturday with 8-year-old Shasta Groene. Some of her family was murdered in May. Duncan fled Fargo after posting $15,000 cash to get out of jail in Becker County, Minn., where he was charged with molesting a 6-year-old boy on a playground. [SEE ARTICLE ABOUT HOW A KINDLY FARGO PEDIATRICIAN LOANED DUNCAN MONEY]

Magnus said Duncan's writings on his blog, "fifthnail.blogspot. com," show he was well aware of the attention Fargo police were paying him. [EVEN THOUGH THE DUMBASS FARGO POLICE APPARENTLY DIDN'T CATCH ON TO THE STUFF DUNCAN WAS SCREAMING OUT TO THE WORLD OVER THE FREAKING INTERNET]

Duncan, who moved to Fargo in 2000, was reported once by a woman who thought she saw him peering at her son, Sgt. Jeff Skuza said. The call prompted an officer to talk with Duncan at his home.

"He didn't commit a crime, but we did pay him a little visit," Skuza said.

Magnus said the attention might have kept Duncan from committing crimes in Fargo. He was charged Tuesday in Idaho with kidnapping Groene and her 9-year-old brother, Dylan.

"I think he realized he was under scrutiny here," Magnus said.

Magnus urged people to channel their anger, fear and frustration into pushing for changes in the way sex offenders are treated. Among the priorities should be a national sex offender registry, more probation time after sex offenses and a uniform system for assessing risk levels among the states, he said.

Residents should also hold public officials accountable for poor decisions, Magnus said. He directed his comments toward prosecutors and judges in general and said people can make changes at election time.

Judge Thomas Schroeder has told reporters he wasn't sure if he knew Duncan was considered a Level 3 offender when he set his bail at $15,000 on the Becker County charges. County Attorney Joe Evans said he requested bail at $25,000.

Magnus said it remains to be seen who, if anybody, should be held accountable in Duncan's case.

But for someone with Duncan's history, Magnus said, "My sense is that both of those (bail) figures are way too low."

The Fargo police Web site update has been in the works for months and wasn't in response to Duncan's arrest, Magnus said. It was planned to be ready for next Tuesday's annual police picnic, he said. [MONTHS. MONTHS TO WORK ON A WEBSITE. SOMEBODY SHOULD CHECK TO SEE IF SOMEBODY'S NEPHEW WAS HIRED TO DO THE WORK. NEPOTISM RUNS RAMPANT IN NORTH DAKOTA, BUT THAT'S PRETTY MUCH DUE TO THE FACT MOST NODAKS ARE RELATED TO EACH OTHER FROM INBREEDING]

In addition to the mapping feature, Fargo police officials plan to assign an investigator to sex offender cases, and add vehicle descriptions and photos to the information available on the Web.

Beat officers now check the accuracy of offender addresses three times a year, even though the law doesn't require any checks, Dahle said. The first nonreporting violation in North Dakota is a misdemeanor; the second a felony.

The Cass County Sheriff's Department checks addresses every four to five months, said Lt. Mike Argall. In West Fargo, police try to check offenders at least four times a year, Capt. Mike Reitan said. [THE OFFENDERS ARE SHAKING, WE ARE CERTAIN]

About 150 offenders are registered in Fargo, with the majority considered Level 1, or low risks, Magnus said. [POPULATION OF NORTH DAKOTA IS ABOUT 600,000, FARGO IS THE LARGEST CITY...SURE WORKS OUT TO A LOT OF PERVS PER CAPITA. THE MOST IN THE NATION? I, FOR ONE, AM DYING TO KNOW]

Serious offenders could be living in Moorhead and in Clay County right now, but police can't tell the public about them, said Moorhead Lt. Bob Larson.

But a law passed during the 2005 Legislature will change that for offenders who now move to the area, he said.

Of the 81 registered sex offenders in Moorhead, 18 are considered low risk, five are rated moderate risk and none is rated high risk. [MOORHEAD IS RIGHT ACROSS THE RIVER...WHY DO THE MOST SERIOUS PERVS CHOOSE FARGO EVEN WHEN THEY'RE DEALING WITH CONVICTIONS FROM MINNESOTA? INCLUDING THE SATANICALLY CLEVER DEMON DUNCAN? COULD IT BE THAT THE OFFENDERS FEEL SAFE IN FARGO BECAUSE IT'S SUCH A BACKWARD, DUMBASS STATE WITHOUT THE RESOURCES TO STAY ON TOP OF THIS SHIT?}

The rest have no designation because they never went through the state's prison system.

Clay County has 34 registered sex offenders outside of Moorhead. Of those with a risk level, five are low risk and one is moderate. The rest have no risk rating.

Most offenders who do not have a risk rating moved to Minnesota from another state or were convicted in Minnesota before the days of risk assessments, Larson said.

Previous law did not allow Minnesota authorities to talk about a high-risk offender who had no official designation as a high-risk offender.

Under the new law, all sex offenders moving to the state will be assigned an official risk level, Larson said.

Moorhead police will tell residents who ask whether there is a registered sex offender living within three blocks of the person's address, regardless of the offender's risk level.

Known Level 3 offenders also prompt community notifications in Minnesota. Level 2 offenders prompt notification of schools and other at-risk agencies.

In Fargo, the police went back and forth on the decision to publicize Level 2 offenders, Magnus said. The move was a difficult one because the medium-risk label covers people who present varying degrees of risk to the community, he said.

In the end, the police chose more transparency over concerns for a community backlash against the offenders. He said he didn't worry about the possibility of alienating a "sick" individual such as Duncan.

"We're going to err on the side of caution," Magnus said.

Magnus said he hopes citizens research offenders in their neighborhood and take rational steps to ensure safety. Measures might include frank discussions with children and a plan for uncomfortable or dangerous situations, he said.

He also said people should be less hesitant to call police when they think they've spotted suspicious behavior.

For more insight into the risk from sex offenders, Magnus directed the public to a "myths and facts" page on the department's Web site: www.cityoffargo.com/police/.

MYTH: "FARGO," LIKE THE MOVIE, STANDS FOR BASIC COMMON SENSE LAW ENFORCEMENT. FACT: THE MAIN CHARACTER IN THE MOVIE "FARGO" WAS ACTUALLY IN BRAINARD, MINN., AND FARGO WAS WHERE THE CROOKS WENT TO PLOT THE CRIME. ANOTHER FACT: I lived in North Dakota for a few years of my life, and I am forever scarred from being exposed to such pathetic, stupid bumpkins. North Dakotans just can't deal with shit. Hear my vent-age, and consider, rather than dismissing out of hand the possibility that statewide stupidity at a nearly genetic level played a terrible role in this crime spree.

[HERE'S MORE. I WILL LEAVE IT TO OTHERS IF THEY CARE TO COMMENT ON HOW THE FARGO PD LET THIS FISH OUT OF THEIR NET ON MULTIPLE AND PAINFULLY OBVIOUS EVIDENCE OF PROBATION VIOLATIONS IN THE PLANNING STAGES LIKE, OH, GEE, AIRLINE TICKETS]

Police records detail items found in home
By Dave Olson, The Forum
Published Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Between August 2004 and May of this year, Fargo police executed two search warrants at the home of Joseph Duncan III, seizing items ranging from cameras to airline tickets.

In a search conducted Aug. 20, 2004, at 810 7th St. N., police confiscated more than 40 items, including seven cameras and numerous video tapes, DVDs, CDs and floppy disks.

In an office wastebasket, officers found what was described in an inventory list as a "Lilly's Kids magazine," an apparent reference to a mail order catalog for children issued by Lillian Vernon.

The search was done in connection with an investigation that led to charges in Becker County (Minn.) District Court in March.

In that case, Duncan is accused of molesting a 6-year-old boy and attempting to molest an 8-year-old boy in July 2004 at a playground in Detroit Lakes.

Police conducted a second search at Duncan's home in May, when they had reason to suspect he had left the area.

In that search, police found a United Airlines ticket to Denver and a Northwest Airlines ticket to "FLL." The Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport in Florida is also known as FLL. [A FACT PROBABLY NOT KNOWN TO THE HAYSEEDS WHO CONDUCTED THE SEARCH]

Officers also found what was described on an inventory sheet as a "letter sent to Dr. Wacksman."

Other documents obtained from the Fargo Police Department show Duncan is friends with a former Fargo area doctor, Richard Wacksman, who now lives in New Port Richey, Fla.

Duncan, who likes to scuba dive, visited Wacksman in March, according to the police documents.

Wacksman told police the last time he had contact with Duncan was around April 15, when Duncan phoned him and sent him a photograph via phone.

Police say April 15 was the date Duncan rented a red 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee in St. Paul, which was later reported stolen.

Attempts to reach Wacksman by phone and by e-mail Tuesday were not successful.

As a Level 3 sex offender, Duncan is required by North Dakota law to notify police of any address change.

Duncan, arrested Saturday in Idaho in the company of a missing 8-year-old girl, faces kidnapping charges in that state.

In addition to those charges and the Becker County charges, Duncan faces a failure to register charge in Cass County.

If not being a hayseed from North Dakota means I'd have to be a jackass like you, Whatever, then I think I'll just stay right where I'm at.

Seriously, what have you got against ND? You seem absolutely obsessed.

Forum editorial: Outrage should be redirected
AND HERE WE HAVE TODAY'S EDITORIAL IN THE FARGO FORUM, suggesting that anger not be directed at the Fargo police. Since I doubt very much if anybody at the Forum reads this little blog, it seems likely that many other commentators--both public and in private, informal communications-- are saying the same thing is me: this happened party because the Fargo police were appallingly stupid. Here is the editorial, please note:

The Forum
Published Thursday, July 07, 2005
The story of sex offender Joseph E. Duncan is generating outrage from coast to coast. That outrage, some of it understandably misdirected, should be converted into changes in the way society deals with the most dangerous sex criminals - those who cannot be rehabilitated.

Duncan is in that category. As a Level 3 offender, he was known to authorities. His residence was known. His movements were supposed to be known. He was supposed to check in with authorities when he changed residences.

Yet, Duncan fled Fargo after posting a $15,000 cash bond in Minnesota where he was charged with molesting a 6-year-old boy. That was in April. He turned up in Idaho last week with 8-year-old Shasta Groene. He is suspected in the deaths of the girls' family.

A systemic failure doesn't get any worse than the Duncan case. Consider:

E Fargo police said they'd been checking up on him. They said they suspected he ran because he was under regular scrutiny in Fargo.

E Apparently no red flags went up in Minnesota when the court set bail for a Level 3 sex offender who was in the courtroom for having offended again.

E It was sheer happenstance that a waitress in a Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, restaurant recognized Shasta Groene and her captor. Had they left undetected, he might still be on the run and the girl might be dead.

All of this indicates a system that is unable to balance the constitutional rights of criminals with public safety. Duncan, after all, had paid his debt to society for previous crimes. Under current legal strictures there was only so much police could do to monitor him.

Also, the Constitution has a specific provision against excessive bail (the 8th Amendment). But when the founders insisted the provision be part of the law of the land, they could not have anticipated the unique horror society faces from sex criminals. The burden of defining "excessive," therefore, falls on today's courts, and an argument can be made that Duncan's bail in Minnesota was too low.

Legislatures across the land are trying to strengthen sex offender laws without violating constitutional rights. For example, a North Dakota attorney general's task force worked for months last year to find ways to open sex offender hearings in order to assure a fearful public that the system was working. But it was not a simple matter. In many sex offender cases, health records are involved, and most health records are closed to public scrutiny.

A handful of states don't have sex offender registries or monitoring structures. While that's hard to believe, it underscores the need for a national sex offender tracking registry. But drawing the civil liberties line between public protection from sex criminals and imposing a Big Brother government tracking system is no easy task.

The Duncan case has generated anger and outrage. But pointing fingers at this judge or that police department does not address the deeper issue. The system - whether state efforts or the national picture - needs a lot of work. And the primary responsbility for that work lies with state and national lawmakers.

Forum editorials represent the opinion of Forum management and the newspaper's Editorial Board.

....
IN RESPONSE TO THE ACCUSATION THAT I AM A "JACKASS"--what a delightfully earthy hayseed metaphor, with shades of accusation about being in the democratic camp--I'll tell you a thing or two about my outlook and why it is how it is. North Dakota receives more federal funds per capita than any other state. It is the backwoods welfare queen of states, yet its people self-righteously position themselves as independent and self-supporting.
After the brief period of suffering I spent in North Dakota, I asked myself, well, why is North Dakota so fucked up? I looked into it and found a fatal combination of backwoods stupidity, lack of resources, and a sick, self-rigteous fear of all "outsiders." Few normal people give a shit or notice North Dakota unless somebody is making fun of the place, but this state is a drain upon the other states. Here, the fatal stupidity of the Fargo police department and that dumb doctor from Harwood, North Dakota helped to unleash this demon on the world. And now here's the Fargo newspaper..."Oh, don't blame the Fargo police, blah blah blah." I blame the Fargo police, the doctor from Harwood, as well as Duncan himself. I point my finger. This symbol represents my finger pointing northwest to Fargo. \ Stupid, stupid, stupid and typical, just TYPICAL of these backwoods bumpkins. Can't run shit, can't manage shit, can't *deal* with shit. I'm a jackass? I'm pointing out what needs to be pointed out. Nodaks can't deal with shit, and others suffer for their backwoods stupidity.

I'll not disagree with you that ND gets way too many federal dollars. Most of it is farm subsidies. That's something that should be changed.

As for everything else? You still seem like a mean-spirited jackass. But what do I know, I'm just a hayseed...right?

Right. And if the rest of the Nodaks would just admit how little they know, how incapable they are of *dealing* with shit, their pathetic flatlander civilization might make some progress, with the help of the outsiders they fear and disdain. But too late for Duncan's victims.

Ha. You're the one exhibiting fear and disdain, my friend.

Seriously, grow up.

I'll grant you the disdain. Fear? No way. And my disdain is a response to what I experienced in your state, where people are hardly even allowed to laugh out loud or smile, except at a stupid sports event, and people who aren't originally from North Dakota are never treated with complete social equity or fairness. I came to your state to go to school, young and stupid and believing that it would be a good (though boring) life where I could get a decent education. I pretty much cut my East Coast ties, planning to go to school in Nodak-ia and then move to the Twin Cities. But once I got to your wasteland, I was pretty much trapped there. People get paid shit, and live on the lie of a lower cost of living. Your toothless, tired, meth using store clerks were in the same boat as me--trapped in your fucking wasteland of stupidity, negligible human and economic resources, and the most miserable weather south of the North Pole. It's amazing that a sex offender like Duncan got away with so much...since Nodaks are uniformly intolerant of most "outsiders." In any case, possessing a precious UND degree but pretty much drained of financial resources just from trying to live in a wasteland, I finally scraped up what I had and lived in my fucking station wagon just to get established in the Twin Cities. Now I have a great apartment, lots of toys, lots of chances to see art and culture (real art and culture, not the pathetic "duck art" you Nodaks pass off) and I've escaped, THANK GOD. But believe you me, I warn everybody, EVERYBODY every chance the subject comes up about what a wretched pig wallow your state is. I feel only pity for those who are stuck there, and my advice to them is to just get the fuck out. When I drive to Montana to see my grandparents, I fucking go through Canada, just to avoid the SMELL that hits you just outside of West Fargo. When I started reading about this Duncan thing I thought, oh yeah, that makes perfect sense...perfect sense that the stupid Nodaks would fuck it up. I tried to cut and paste the editorial from the new High Plains Reader, but it won't copy...so I'll just tell you the gist of it. North Dakota's response is to try to blame Minnesota! See High Plains Reader, see the editorial! ONLY THAT SHIT WON'T FLY. It was North Dakota that dropped the ball the worst-est, and North Dakota that deserves the public humiliation that goes with the revelation of their systematic cultural incompetence. BUT I KNEW. Oh, Lordie, Mr. WHATEVER knew long ago, when I was packing shit in my station wagon and praying, praying to God, saying, Lord don't leave me in this one horse town.

I don't know what to tell you. I wasn't born in ND, I came here later in life and have noticed few, if any, of the observations you make.

Have you ever considered the idea that maybe nobody in North Dakota liked you because you're a pontificating jackass? Does anybody like you where you live now?

You'll probably say yes, but I have my doubts.

It's a heck of a thing to be a regular blogger like yourself, Rob, and then accuse others of "pontificating." As for you noticing few, if any, of the observations I make, practically everything I've said has been said, with less venom, but people in North Dakota who are, incredibly, positive about the state. Take, for example, that editorial I mentioned in the High Plains Reader...a later story about the "New Bohemia" concept goes into observations about North Da