Sex Offender Returns To Jail For Probation Violation

By Andrew Gorosko

A local sex offender, who was released from state prison recently, is back in jail, having been charged with violation of probation for not abiding by his curfew.

The man had served four years in prison on convictions stemming from a series of bizarre late night Riverside burglaries involving illegal sexual contact with children.

Newtown police on Friday, June 20, served an arrest warrant against Kenneth J. Northrop, 33, of 25 Maltbie Road, charging him with violation of probation. Newtown police held Northrop in the local police lockup over the weekend on a $90,000 bond for a June 23 arraignment on the charge in Danbury Superior Court.

In court, a judge increased the bond to $250,000, decreasing the likelihood that Northrop would be able to post the bond. This week, Northrop was being held at the Bridgeport Correctional Center for a July 1 court appearance, when he would enter a plea in his probation violation case.

At a January 2000 sentencing, Judge Patrick Carroll sternly criticized Northrop, who had formerly lived on Alpine Drive in the Riverside section. The four-year prison sentence included time that Northrop had already served before his sentencing.

During the summers of 1997 and 1998, Northrop entered private properties in Riverside late at night intending to secretly massage small children with vegetable oil. 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.

According to court papers, police arrested Northrop on the violation of probation charge because Northrop failed to comply with the terms of a curfew, which had been imposed by his probation officer.

On his release from state Department of Correction (DOC) custody on May 9, after having served four years in prison, Northrop signed documents promising that he would comply with the conditions of his probation.

Probation officials decided that Northrop’s movements would be electronically monitored and that a curfew would be imposed on him after Northrop had found a permanent residence.

On May 21, Northrop secured a permanent residence at 25 Maltbie Road. Maltbie Road is a side street off Castle Meadow Road. A technician from Securicor of Meriden placed an anklet-style monitoring device on Northrop that day. A curfew was imposed, during which time Northrop could not leave his residence. The curfew ran overnight from 7 pm to 9 am, and also from 2:30 to 4:30 pm. Northrop had a nighttime curfew because his past offenses occurred during the nighttime and pre-dawn hours.

From May 22 through June 17, Northrop complied with the terms of the curfew, according to court papers.

But Securicor then notified Northrop’s probation office that the electronic monitoring device indicated that Northrop had left his residence during the overnight curfew period at three separate times on June 18/19. Those departures occurred from 7:37 to 8:05 pm on June 18, and also from 2:37 to 3:02 am, and from 3:26 to 3:48 pm on June 19, according to the court papers.

“Northrop denies leaving during these hours,” the court papers state.

At 7:30 pm on June 19, Northrop’s probation officer met with a Securicor technician at Northrop’s residence and tested the electronic monitoring equipment, finding it to be operating properly, according to the court papers.

It was noted that the equipment did not pick up signals from the farthest part of a sunroom at the residence, but the court documents state that Northrop had denied being in that place when the curfew violations were recorded.

Consequently, David Carter, who is Northrop’s probation officer, determined that Northrop had violated his probation condition requiring that “You will submit to electronic monitoring as directed by a probation officer,” and sought an arrest warrant against Northrop.

Riverside Incidents

The nighttime incidents in Riverside in 1997 and 1998 led Newtown police to conduct surveillance there and perform door-to-door interviews in a lengthy investigation, which included help from state police and the FBI. Police suggested that residents form a neighborhood crime watch to keep an eye on suspicious activity.

In a summer 1998 incident, police arrested Northrop after he was found to have entered a tent at night in the yard of a Dock Drive residence. Inside the tent, a 13- and 14-year-old girl were camping out. Northrop reached inside the tent and touched one of the girls.

In a 1997 incident, Northrop went inside a house, entered a bedroom and picked up an infant. Northrop then walked outside and placed the baby on a lounge chair in preparation to massage the baby with vegetable oil. Northrop then fled the scene after being discovered.

No physical injuries resulted from the incidents, according to police. The presence of vegetable oil at the crime scenes was the common link that police used to connect Northrop to the crimes.

Before his sentencing in January 2000, Northrop had pleaded “no contest” to charges of risk of injury to a minor, second-degree burglary, third-degree criminal trespassing, and breach of the peace, with Judge Carroll entering findings of “guilty” to those charges. Another count of second-degree burglary against Northrop was not prosecuted.

On the risk of injury charge stemming from a June 29, 1997 arrest, Judge Carroll imposed a ten-year prison sentence, suspended after four years in prison, plus 20 years probation. On the second-degree burglary charge stemming from an August 5, 1997 incident, the judge imposed a consecutive suspended ten-year prison sentence, with five years probation.

Northrop received a concurrent six-month sentence on the breach of peace charge, and a concurrent three-month sentence on the criminal trespassing charge.

In probation violation cases, defendants may be ordered to serve their full sentences. In the case of Northrop, that could mean returning to prison for 16 years.

Judge Carroll placed many conditions on Northrop’s lengthy 20-year probation.

The probation conditions include that Northrop: be evaluated as a sex offender; be registered with the state sex offender registry for at least 20 years; have no contact with the victims of the crimes or their families; comply with AIDS testing; have no unsupervised contact with persons under age 18; have no possession or use of pornographic materials; have no employment requiring that he enter residences alone and have anyone who hires him be informed of why Northrop must be supervised by a co-employee while he is in residences; submit to a psychiatric examination and follow all recommendations for treatment and medication; and abstain from the use of alcohol and drugs, among various other conditions.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe said this week that whenever a convicted felon returns to the community from prison, the criminal justice system has a vested interest in his behavior.

Consequently, Northrop’s behavior after his release from prison in May has been closely watched by the probation office and by police, according to Chief Kehoe.