Convicted Felon Next Door - What Are My Options?

[klamath632]

Hello CF, I live in the western suburbs of Chicago. I've just found out that my next door neighbors are going to allow a convicted felon to live with them. This guy has been in prison for three years, and may possibly be released next Friday. He was convicted for dealing drugs, including selling drugs to teenagers. I have a ten-year old daughter and I fear for her safety.

There's a chance he may be deported, but if that doesn't happen, do I have any options to prevent him from living there, next door to my daughter?

 

[TykeClone]

Be thankful that the police in Chicago do a great job in keeping crime down and are only minutes away should they be needed.

 

[cowgirl836]

I think your option is to move.

Seriously though, lock your doors, be cautious like you normally would be. I don't think you can ever really know what the criminal background of people living near you is unless they were really bad and made it into a database......I don't think the drugs would land him in one.

 

[ruxCYtable]

If he was convicted of selling to minors I wonder if he has any restrictions on him like how close he can live to a school or anything like that. Any chance you live close to a school because that just might automatically keep him out of your neighborhood.

In all likelihood you won't have to deal with him for too long because a moron like that is going to re-offend and be back behind bars soon.

 

[cowgirl836]

If he was convicted of selling to minors I wonder if he has any restrictions on him like how close he can live to a school or anything like that. Any chance you live close to a school because that just might automatically keep him out of your neighborhood.

In all likelihood you won't have to deal with him for too long because a moron like that is going to re-offend and be back behind bars soon.

it looks like the penalties go up for selling within so close of a school, but they could still live there, I believe.

 

[Farnsworth]

My sister in law is in a similar situation. The house next doors to them is owned by a local church. They normally rent the property out for extra income, however they are converting it to a halfway house now. All of the houses around it have small children so they are all worried about it. Plus it may effect the resale value of the houses.

 

[bufante]

You don't have any legal recourse as far as doing something about it. The only thing you can do is to move or live with it. Be vigilant and communicate your concerns with your neighbors. Strength in numbers.

 

[RollsRoyce]

You might want to take a look at your neighbors backgrounds if they are allowing a criminal to live with them. On the other side people change and prisons have good rehabilitation programs.

 

[bringmagicback]

Good news either he changed in prison and is of no threat or he will break probation and go back. I know this doesnt help but...he was a drug dealer and more than likely non violent. This isnt the movies. I know several people who have gone to prison for the same and imo they would be wonderful neighbors.

 

[Rabbuk]

Literally all of us are probably living a block or two from a felon.

 

[cyclonedave25]

Living in Chicago, I'm sure I have all kinds of psychos by me. This is a case where ignorance is bliss. I do think the homeless people living across the street from me are great guys, though.

 

[Mtowncyclone13]

My sister in law is in a similar situation. The house next doors to them is owned by a local church. They normally rent the property out for extra income, however they are converting it to a halfway house now. All of the houses around it have small children so they are all worried about it. Plus it may effect the resale value of the houses.

Doesn't local zoning code regulate this use? I'd call the local planner and get some info.

 

[aauummm]

My sister in law is in a similar situation. The house next doors to them is owned by a local church. They normally rent the property out for extra income, however they are converting it to a halfway house now. All of the houses around it have small children so they are all worried about it. Plus it may effect the resale value of the houses.

What is important in this case is what the neighborhood is zoned for. If it's R1/R2 then a halfway house probably would not be allowed unless the property is rezoned. To get a rezoning, the church would have to go before the zoning board and then the neighbors can take their objections to the board and express them at the public hearing.

 

[klamath632]

I'll have to checkout the school issue. We do have an elementary school pretty close nearby. Thanks for the responses everyone. It's pretty much what I was afraid of, I don't really much legal recourse.

Part of my issue with it is my personal experience with "reformed" drug dealers. My wife's sister met a drug dealer, dropped out of her final semester of college, married him while he was in prison, and is now a Muslim along with him (he "converted" in prison). They have six kids, neither one of them works, they collect benefits, and I'm pretty sure he only claims to be Muslim because he thinks that allows him to sleep with multiple women. The wife's sister is dumb enough to let him do it.

I don't want any of that **** next door.

 

[isufbcurt]

The way I see it is as long as he doesn't mess with your stuff/bother you it's no big deal.

 

[Rabbuk]

It's the same with sex offenders. I always laugh when people complain about sex offenders living near them, as if they can't get on bikes or in cars if they live a certain distance away.

 

[3TrueFans]

and I'm pretty sure he only claims to be Muslim because he thinks that allows him to sleep with multiple women.

Wait.....is this true?

 

[Gnomeborg]

I've gone all these years without a thigh master or a shake weight.

Just because someone's selling doesn't mean that anyone is obligated to buy. Talk to your daughter about drugs (without throwing the dude next door under the bus) and be a good parent. The dude next door can't sell to your daughter if your daughter doesn't buy. And take it as a good excuse to have a conversation you should have with her anyway, because she's just a few years from middle school, and believe me, she wont have to go to the felon next door to get drugs once she hits middle school (if she doesn't already have access to the drugs anyway).

A guy that was in jail for three years for selling to teenagers that is going to be allowed to live where he wants (not in a half-way) isn't there for something violent, and if your neighborhood isn't already conducive to violence, one drug dealer isn't going to be able to change that unless you let them. Don't let any windows stay broken, if you catch the meaning.

In the meantime, it's Chicago. The dude, if he might be deported, isn't a native to the United States. Maybe three years ago he felt like selling drugs was the only chance he had to survive and thrive. Maybe prison is what it took to wake him up that that might not be the best option afterall. Maybe, just maybe, getting into a better community could help him keep his life on the straight and narrow. The difference between you treating him like a pariah and giving him a chance might be all the difference in the world. If they're releasing him, society believes that he's paid his debt for what he did, no reason to keep treating him like he's selling drugs if he isn't. People make mistakes. I know I have, and some of them, if I'd gotten caught, could have cost me a couple years of my life, too. Being a felon means he's already forfeited certain rights for the rest of his life, but one of those things he forfeited isn't the chance to make himself better. Don't take it from him, you could actually end up being part of this dude's success story.

And who knows, maybe he knows how to BBQ, tells a good joke, and will always be there at the crack of dawn on moving day, and all it took to find it out was not judging him unworthy of attention before you even met him.

 

[Farnsworth]

What is important in this case is what the neighborhood is zoned for. If it's R1/R2 then a halfway house probably would not be allowed unless the property is rezoned. To get a rezoning, the church would have to go before the zoning board and then the neighbors can object to the board and at the public hearing.

good information, I will let her know.

 

[Gnomeborg]

I'll have to checkout the school issue. We do have an elementary school pretty close nearby. Thanks for the responses everyone. It's pretty much what I was afraid of, I don't really much legal recourse.

Part of my issue with it is my personal experience with "reformed" drug dealers. My wife's sister met a drug dealer, dropped out of her final semester of college, married him while he was in prison, and is now a Muslim along with him (he "converted" in prison). They have six kids, neither one of them works, they collect benefits, and I'm pretty sure he only claims to be Muslim because he thinks that allows him to sleep with multiple women. The wife's sister is dumb enough to let him do it.

I don't want any of that **** next door.

That would be a bit like saying "I watch BBC's Sherlock because I want to drive on the left side of the road."

Sure, a crazy person could make a connection through a couple dozen steps to make one equate to the other, but that person would have to be, as mentioned, crazy.

From just the paragraph you've given me, your sister-in-law is fertile, and her husband is incapable of providing for the basic needs of his family. They live in the United States, where polygamy is illegal, too. This means that they fail to meet all but one of the exceptions (yeah, Islam teaches that polygamy is an extreme result of exceptional circumstances), and since I don't know of anywhere in the united states where the male-to-female population ratio is so dangerously lopsided that reproduction-possibility is in question, I don't think they meet the fourth. And those are just the exceptions that allow polygamy.... multiple marriages. Adultery (which is what you're actually talking about) is still not allowed, in any circumstances.

So, either your sister-in-law and her husband are stupid, or there's a whole pile of ignorance stinking up the yard.