Keeping Austin Safe from a Sexual Predator

Part of the outrage over the recent Joseph Edwards Ducan III story, is that a judge allowed the previously convicted child rapist to roam the streets again on a mere $15,000 bail.

And what did Joseph Duncan do while out on bail? He stalked the Groene family for days before breaking into their home and tying up and beating to death two adults and one teenager. He then abducted their 8 and 9 year old children, and brutally raped them for weeks before burning the 9-year old boy to death. Thankfully, he was arrested and 8-year old Shasta Groene was rescued before he could hill her, too.

Thankfully, at least in this case, our judges here in Texas understand the true danger that child and sexual predators are to our communities.

An Austin man is accused of viewing a live Internet broadcast of a man who might have been raping his young daughter and was ordered detained without bail Monday pending trial on child pornography charges.

When the home of Steven Keith Hawkins (47) of Austin, TX was searched on June 14, agents seized his computer hard drive and a computer disk that had 100 images and 12 videos of child pornography.

Judge Pitman, in ordering Hawkins detained without bail, wrote that even after his home was searched, he continued to download child pornography:

As recently as July 12, according to court documents, Hawkins used instant messaging to ask someone to molest a child and broadcast it on the Internet.

That suggests “an inability or unwillingness to discontinue this illegal activity,” Judge Pitman wrote. The judge concluded that Hawkins is a “danger to the community”.

If only the judge who let Duncan out would have had the same concern for the citizens of Minnesota.