Sex Offender’s Probation Violation Hearing Slated

By Andrew Gorosko

A local sex offender, who has been in jail for the past seven weeks on high bail, following his arrest on a probation violation, is scheduled to have a Danbury Superior Court hearing on the probation charge next week.

Kenneth J. Northrop, 33, of 25 Maltbie Road is being held on $250,000 bail at Bridgeport Correctional Center, a bond that Mr Northrop has been unable to post. A bond reduction hearing is scheduled for August 13.

A hearing on the probation violation charge, which stems from Mr Northrop’s alleged curfew violations, is scheduled for August 14 and 15. Mr Northrop contests the state’s contention that he violated the terms of his 20-year probation.

Mr Northrop, who served four years in prison on convictions stemming from a series of bizarre late night Riverside burglaries involving illegal sexual contact with children, was released from prison by the state Department of Correction (DOC) on May 9.

On June 20, Newtown police charged Mr Northrop with violation of probation for allegedly violating his overnight curfew. Besides the four-year prison term, a judge sentenced Mr Northrop to serve a very strict 20-year probation following his prison term.

In response to Mr Northrop’s living in their neighborhood, Maltbie Road area residents have formed a Neighborhood Crime Watch with the aid of the Newtown Police Department, said Ray Ruzek of 17 Maltbie Road. Maltbie Road is a dead-end side street off Castle Meadow Road, near the Monroe town line.

Maltbie Road area residents are quite apprehensive about the presence of Mr Northrop in their neighborhood, considering the number of children who live in that area, Mr Ruzek said. About 47 children live within a ten-minute walk of Mr Northrop’s 25 Maltbie Road residence, Mr Ruzek said.

Mr Northrop was unable to comply with the terms of his probation only briefly into the term of that 20-year probation, Mr Ruzek said.  

Noting that the probation violation charge stems from Mr Northrop allegedly repeatedly leaving his home in the nighttime, Mr Ruzek pointed out that the crimes for which Mr Northrop was sentenced involved breaking into Riverside homes in the middle of the night to sexually pursue children. Mr Northrop lived in the Riverside section when he committed those crimes.

“This is pretty scary stuff in Newtown, Connecticut,” Mr Ruzek said.

Mr Ruzek said Mr Northrop should live in some adult environment, where children do not live nearby.

“[Maltbie Road] is not a good location for someone with his kind of record,” Mr Ruzek said of Mr Northrop living there.

When Mr Northrop moved into the neighborhood in May, probation officials strongly cautioned area residents that they should keep a close eye on their children, Mr Ruzek said.     

“We don’t think he [Mr Northrop] should be in any neighborhood where there are a lot of children,” Mr Ruzek said, adding that Mr Northrop is considered to be at high risk for repeat offenses.

Mr Ruzek terms Mr Northrop’s residence in the Maltbie Road neighborhood “very difficult, an awful situation.”

Opposing View

Attorney Ralph C. Crozier of Seymour is one of the lawyers representing Mr Northrop in his probation violation case.

“This is case of vigilantism, a large neighborhood group which doesn’t want [Mr Northrop] living there [Maltbie Road],” Mr Crozier said. “This is vigilantism in the extreme,” the lawyer said.

Mr Northrop has a constitutional right to live in the Maltbie Road neighborhood, Mr Crozier added.

Maltbie Road residents have harassed state probation officials over Mr Northrop’s residence there, Mr Crozier said.

The judge who sentenced Mr Northrop did not order that he wear an electronic monitoring device, the lawyer added.

Mr Northrop’s probation officer, however, required that he wear such a device.

The state’s probation violation charge is based on an electronic monitoring device indicating that Mr Northrop had left his residence three times during an overnight period, thus violating his curfew.

Mr Crozier maintains there was a technical problem with the monitoring device. The lawyer said that Mr Northrop never left home, adding that telephone records will substantiate that point. “He [Northrop] never left the premises,” Mr Crozier said.

Mr Northrop has served his prison sentence and is a “model individual,” the lawyer said.

In response to Mr Crozier’s comments, Mr Ruzek said, “Mr Crozier’s really out of line in what he says about the neighbors…We are not vigilantes…We are simply trying to protect our children.”

During the summers of 1997 and 1998, Mr Northrop entered private properties in Riverside late at night intending to secretly massage small children with vegetable oil. Mr Northrop had admitted to authorities that he was intoxicated during those incidents. Riverside is a densely built community situated along Lake Zoar, near the Rochambeau Bridge on Interstate 84.

Those nighttime incidents frightened Riverside residents and led Newtown police to conduct surveillance and perform door-to-door interviews in a lengthy investigation, which included help from state police and the FBI.