Child-molesting cop in trouble again

[juliana24]

Ex-cop Gannon in trouble again

On probation for child molestation, he's accused of having child porn

BY KEN KOSKY

February 11, 2006

A former Porter County police officer and convicted child molester was arrested Friday charged with violating the terms of his probation.
Robert Gannon, who fell from respected member of the Sheriff's Department to convicted felon a few years ago, is now accused of bringing child pornography and alcohol to the Michigan City home where he was hired as a house sitter.

(snip)

Porter County Probation Officer Shane Schafer, in his petition for probation revocation, is asking for Gannon to serve the remaining portion of his suspended sentence -- six years and nine months -- in prison.

(snip)

In 2002, Gannon was sentenced to one year behind bars and seven years probation after pleading guilty to two counts of molesting two young boys under the age of 14. With credit for good behavior, he served six months in prison.

Upon his release, he got into trouble for failing to pay child support, for using his son's identification to obtain telephone service and for violating the probation from his child molesting conviction. He pleaded guilty in 2004 and was sentenced to two years and three months in a work release program in St. Joseph County. With credit for good behavior, he would have finished that obligation late in 2005 and started seven years of formal probation.


More at:
http://nwitimes.com/articles/2006/02/11/news/porter_county/7ca1240d3a30663d8625711200089b56.txt

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. sounds like someone

who cannot be rehabilitated or someone who is not ready to be rehabilitated. Either way, he needs to be away from society.

[Ken Burch]

2. In the immortal words of The Firesign Theatre

"Deputy Dan has no friends".

[Ecumenist]

10. I don't believe that most of them can be rehabilitated.

I believe that it's a particularly sick addiction in the vein of drug addiction or alcoholism. Anyone with this type of problem will tell you that they always will be addicted and that they live one day at a time. Unfortunately, when people fall off of this wagon, (if I may use that analogy), innocents are abused and thrown away in one way or another, except these are living beings.

[deadparrot]

3. Why is he allowed to still be a police officer

after being convicted of child molestation? :wtf:

[RoyGBiv]

5. He's not ...

He was "working" as a house sitter at the time. He told the homeowner he was a retired police officer.

[sandnsea]

4. six months

We really value children in this country. Six friggin' months.

[Ecumenist]

7. As someone who is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse

I hate to say that I'm not surprised. People do not understand what kind of residual effects that this terrible abuse has on the children who survive it. The worse thing is that the effects are LIFE LONG. You learn to live with it but you always have the damage right under the surface of the skin and I for one, feel that people who perpetrate these horrible acts on children should have to pay in the same way, Life long, as the children and adults have to deal with the lifelong ramifications.

[helderheid]

9. I too am a survivor. I think they should be castrated. You're right - you

learn to live with it but the effects never go away.

[Ecumenist]

11. Amen and frankly, I don't see why they get to go on with

Their lives. If they go to gaol, they are eventually released to go on their merry way, in one way or another. But the survivors live in a life long prison of guilt, disgust and pain.

[helderheid]

13. alright. C'mere, you.

:hug:

[sandnsea]

12. I thought we'd gotten further

I really did. The system isn't what it should be, I'm not much for punitiveness for the sake of retribution, although I understand the feeling. But if we're not going to have a system in place that truly deals with child molesters, and permanently removes repeat offenders, then we need to lock them up for a long time from the very beginning. Six months has got to feel like a punch in the gut to every sexual assault victim and I am just damned sorry about it, that's all I can say.

[benburch]

6. I'll bet anybody twenty-five cents that he is a Rebpublican. nt

[Ecumenist]

8. They are usually "upstanding pillars of the community"

The cop, Preacher, Teacher, mentor, and usually, conservative.... Been there done that. Seen it all too often, sadly.

[Maestro]

14. Is he related to Jeff Gannon?

Seriously, he needs to be committed because he obviously is not over his compulsion.

[northofdenali]

15. Seven years (only) of "formal" probation..........

I don't know about Indiana, but here the probation officers are spread as thin as the social workers - actual monitoring is, at best, hit and miss. It's fortunate that his PO even petitioned for revocation. This guy is bad news - he has and had no intention of being "rehabilitated" whether through counseling, medication or punishment.

I am not a great advocator of prisons. I usually think there must be options for many of the crimes that land folks there. But child molestors are notoriously recidivist; according to every psychological study I've read, treatment is almost impossible.

Is prison the answer? I don't know. An environment allowing productivity while maintaining security?

Until we know much, much more about this illness - whether psychopathic, sociopathic or otherwise, children are not safe in the vicinity of a molester.

All of you who have had this horrible experience, :hug:

Alaska has the nation's highest rate of child sexual abuse; the counseling I've helped with is heart-wrenching, particularly when the child is from a small village and the molester (98% of the time) is a family member or friend.

I wish we could collectively wish upon a star and have the answers. Uncured and mostly unrepentant molesters, and a childhood ripped away.

[juliana24]

16. All the while he is on the streets instead of in prison where he belongs!