Senator supports state holding jobs for predators

Thursday, 18 December 2008 03:45

A state bureaucrat who held jobs open for two incarcerated child predators says it was "among the most difficult" decisions of his career, and now a state senator says he sympathizes. John A. Hughes, the Secretary of Delaware's Deparment of Natural Resources and Envirnomental Control, gave leaves of absence to two employees serving prison time for sexually assaulting children. Delaware news reports say that both sex offenders returned to their jobs after getting out of jail.

Robert A. Dick, an accountant, was convicted of sexually abusing a girl over a period of years, according to the Wilmington News Journal. Gene M. Pettingill, an engineer, was convicted of sexual abuse against a 7-year old girl. "Dick and Pettingill returned to their DNREC posts as soon as they were freed," says the paper.

Hughes is facing harsh criticism in Delaware, but at least one state senator feels his pain. Sen. Robert Venables says "I don't know what I would have done with that. But are we going to brand sex offenders for the rest of their lives? Certainly it was a bad thing they did, but who would ever give them another chance if the state didn't?"

At least one citizen sees it another way: Robert Dick's victim, who is now 20. "DNREC doesn't think about the victim going through any issues they are having," she says. "They think about the employee and giving them a second chance. It's not right."

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