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Life & Times Transcript

10/1/07

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

A sex offender is forced to move seven times in two weeks, ending up in a tent. Is this what Jessica's Law intended?

Ross Wollschlager>> I didn't expect to really be accepted coming out into society, but I didn't feel to be completely alienated either.

Val Zavala>> And then, questions have haunted the families of these World War II veterans for years. Can this military researcher solve the mysteries?

It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times.

Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Val Zavala>> It's been about a year since Jessica's Law went into effect. That's the law that requires police to notify residents when a paroled sex offender is living in their neighborhood. The idea is to protect the public and children, but did it also intend to make some parolees homeless? Hena Cuevas has our story.

Hena Cuevas>> Every morning, forty-four year old Ross Wollschlager takes down his tent. It's not much, but for him, it's home.

Ross Wollschlager>> I ended up being homeless. I came out here to the river bottom and just looked for a place where I could camp a tent.

Hena Cuevas>> Ross sleeps in a tent because no one will rent to him. Hotels won't take him in. Even homeless shelters shut their doors. Ross is a registered sex offender and convicted serial rapist. He was released from prison last August. By then, voters had overwhelmingly passed a new law called Jessica's Law. It severely limits where Ross and five thousand other paroled sex offenders can live.

Ross Wollschlager>> I didn't expect to really be accepted coming out into society, but I didn't feel to be completely alienated either.

Hena Cuevas>> Voters passed Jessica's Law last November. It forbids parolees from living near playgrounds, schools or parks where children gather, and they must wear a tracking device twenty-four hours a day.

Ross Wollschlager>> If I go by any parks or schools or designated locations that I'm not supposed to be around, it will sound an alarm and give me a warning and make sure that I leave that area immediately. That's happened several times just driving by.

Hena Cuevas>> Ross also has an ankle bracelet that monitors his alcohol intake and a security guard, paid for by the state, is always by his side. But it's the residency restriction that's causing him and government officials the biggest problem. You knew coming out that it wouldn't be easy to find a place to live.

Ross Wollschlager>> Yeah, I knew it wouldn't be easy to find a place to live, but I thought that there would be some things that they could possibly do, putting me up in a camper or I thought motel rooms would be legitimate. I had security that was parked outside the door watching and making sure that I wasn't leaving and keeping the community safe, and making sure that I was safe, that people weren't coming up to the door to harass me or to do other things.

Hena Cuevas>> Ross is the first sexually violent offender to be released in Ventura County since Jessica's Law passed. He spent thirteen years in a state prison plus another ten years getting therapy at Atascadero State Hospital for criminals. He was supposed to be released in March 2006. Todd Howeth is his attorney.

Todd Howeth>> We had anticipated that, once you get this order, even though the law mandates that you're supposed to be released into the community within twenty-one days, that it wasn't happening that quickly.

Hena Cuevas>> And it didn't. Ross ended up spending another year and a half at Atascadero. Howeth appealed Ross's extended imprisonment. The judge agreed and he was released immediately. That meant that the county had to find a place for him to live. Like other sex offenders, he was taken to a motel nearby. But when residents found out that a sex offender was living there, they asked that he be moved. In the span of two weeks, Ross was moved around to seven different motels.

Ross Wollschlager>> None of the motel managers were rude to me. In fact, all of them told me, "We wish we could do something. You haven't caused any problems, but just with the media and all the situation, we can't have you at our motel."

Hena Cuevas>> How difficult was it for you to go through that, being kicked out from place to place?

Ross Wollschlager>> It was really scary. I certainly didn't want to alarm anybody or the community. I can understand everybody's concern with someone with my record coming out into the community. I didn't want to come out here and create a lot of hysteria and fear from the public.

Hena Cuevas>> Ross says that he tried the homeless shelters, but they wouldn't take him because of his record. He also applied at River Haven, a tent community for the homeless run by the homeless. They also turned him down.

Captain Jerry Hernandez>> They problem is, there isn't an acceptable place for him to go to, so it's a dilemma.

Hena Cuevas>> Captain Jerry Hernandez is with the Ventura County Sheriff's Department.

Captain Jerry Hernandez>> How would you like to be vacationing with your family and stop at a hotel where a sexually violent predator was just released? It's not reasonable to do that and the state needs to do a better job of finding a place for these people that he doesn't end up in this type of circumstance.

Hena Cuevas>> He says that Megan's Law requires law enforcement to inform the public about any sex offenders in the area, so they posted flyers wherever Ross was living.

Captain Jerry Hernandez>> He realized that he would have to be under certain restrictions. He went through the court process. He knows what he's done in the past. I'm sure he understood that law enforcement was going to be watching him.

Hena Cuevas>> But on Labor Day, frustrated and with no place left to go, Ross bought a tent and moved into the river bottom.

Ross Wollschlager>> I don't know what other options I have at the time and I'm trying to do everything I can to at least find a safe place so I can stay and so the community won't be so alarmed about my presence here.

Hena Cuevas>> But that won't be easy. Ross was convicted of several sex crimes. In the late 1980s, he broke into homes in Ventura and, in a series of attacks, he violently raped two women and molested an eleven year old girl.

Ross Wollschlager>> My idea of a sexually violent crime was force, hitting somebody and holding them down or tying them up or using a knife.

Hena Cuevas>> And you realize that, by doing it randomly, you're part of everybody's worst nightmare?

Ross Wollschlager>> Absolutely. I terrorized this community, not just my victims and their families, but the community. Everybody was afraid when I was out here prowling through neighborhoods, looking into windows and going into homes and attacking people.

Hena Cuevas>> It's Hernandez's job to make sure that Ross doesn't re-offend, but having him camped out at the river bottom presents a challenge.

Captain Jerry Hernandez>> I think it paints an ominous picture for the state because this is going to continue to happen. If this is an example of what's going to happen, I think we need to do something different with the law.

Todd Howeth>> You know, you don't want a sexually violent predator to be your neighbor. I appreciate that, but the fact is that, when people commit crimes, at some time they're going to be released and we're going to have to deal with the problem.

Hena Cuevas>> Ross is not alone. Almost half of the five thousand California parolees impacted by Jessica's Law have been notified that they live too close to schools or parks. They've been given forty-five days to move.

Todd Howeth>> These people who are registrants are calling and asking, "What should we do?" We have been, you know, informed that we have now run afoul of Jessica's Law. Despite the fact, they claim and I think there's good reason to support this, they haven't violated the law. They've kept up with all of their obligations. But now they are compelled to move so that they don't violate this new law that's been passed.

Hena Cuevas>> As for Ross, he knows that he can't stay in a tent near the river bottom forever. You realize that a lot of people aren't sympathetic to your plight?

Ross Wollschlager>> I understand that. There's been a lot of victims and every day you read that and hear that in the news and in the paper. I can't ever undo the harm I caused my victims, their families and this community.

Hena Cuevas>> And you're asking them to believe you?

Ross Wollschlager>> I'm praying that they will believe me, but they'll see too by my actions.

Hena Cuevas>> For now, he knows that the only thing he can do is follow the rules, continue knocking on doors and hope that eventually someone will take a chance and give him a place to live. I'm Hena Cuevas for Life and Times.

Val Zavala>> So what do you think? Has Jessica's Law gone too far? You can post your opinion. Just go to kcet.org/lifeandtimes/blog.

Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times".

Val Zavala>> And now for this Life and Times story update on Mirthala Salinas. Salinas was the reporter and part-time anchor for Telemundo News, but when a romantic relationship between Salinas and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa became public, Salinas was suspended.

Last week, Telemundo announced that Salinas would be re-assigned to their Riverside bureau, but Salinas didn't show up. Telemundo then announced that Salinas was quitting her job. No word on what will be next for the anchor reporter who was considered a rising star. But what about Mayor Villaraigosa? Will he have to pay a price for his indiscretion?

For a discussion of politicians and personal ethics, we brought three people together at our Kitchen Table; Bob Stern with the Center for Governmental Studies; Bill Boyarsky with the City Ethics Commission; and the moderator is Joe Hicks of CommUnity Advocates.

Joe Hicks>> Well, guys, I think there's a new video that's out called "Politicians Going Wild" (laughter) and we've got some interesting kinds of things going on here with, well, our good city attorney Rocky Delgadillo and the mayor and his affair with Mirthala Salinas. I guess the question is, who cares? Does character count for anything?

Bill Boyarsky>> Well, I think it depends on the offense. I mean, is adultery indicative of bad character in the view of most people? A couple of years ago, I asked one of my USC classes about the adultery question when one of these things had come out. The class was about half divided. Some said that it was bad and disqualified the person from public office. About half said that it didn't.

Joe Hicks>> Has something changed the country in terms of our attitudes about perhaps behavior that's inappropriate or did we just not know? Was the press not covering some of this?

Bob Stern>> The press clearly wasn't covering. I mean, President Kennedy had a series of affairs. They actually affected national policy because he was dating women who were involved with the mob, and we didn't know about it. Now we know everything. Politicians are fouled all the time and everything comes out. But I don't think we can legislate morality in terms of sex. We can legislate conflicts of interest. We can legislate misuse of public property and we should do that.

Joe Hicks>> But it's clear that Delgadillo and Villaraigosa have been sort of wounded at least temporarily. Do these kind of public revelations really hurt or harm their ability to actually do the job that they were elected to do?

Bob Boyarsky>> Well, in the case of the mayor, I think it hurts him even though the governor's election is a few years away because he has built his political persona around his private life, around his climb from, you know, East Los Angeles up to where he is today.

He has made his family part of that. His family until recently was on his website and was part of the campaign, so that's part of his story. If you make that part of your story and then that part of the story isn't true, that is not going to help.

Bob Stern>> I disagree with Bill on that. I think that the Delgadillo and Alarcon situations are much worse because they involve public policy. They involve the office. For instance, I think Delgadillo is going to have a real tough time even going anywhere.

Now the mayor, I think, has enough time to resurrect himself. I think that he'll probably be re-elected for mayor if he runs again clearly. In 2010, he'll have some competition that he might not have had without this, but I think by 2010, as long as nothing more comes out, I think he's in good shape.

Joe Hicks>> But I don't remember the mayor sort of campaigning on sort of family values issues. But talk about hypocrisy, there have been a number of what have been described as right wing Republican figures that have gotten busted particularly on some sexual scandals related to their behavior, and these were all guys related to other men. People sort of went, "That's a little bit hypocritical." But if hypocrisy isn't involved, do you think people are in a more sort of forgiving mood about this?

Bob Stern>> Well, I think the right wing is less forgiving probably than the rest. But the Larry Craig situation, the senator from Idaho who had campaigned against gay issues, possibly being gay. David Vitter, the senator from Louisiana involved with a prostitute and campaigning on family values. I think they have more problems with their constituency probably than the liberal.

Bill Clinton had problems, but today Bill Clinton probably is one of the most popular ex-presidents. If he were running, he probably would do better than his wife in running for president. So it really depends, I think, more on how you deliver. I mean, Clinton delivered in terms of economics. We had a real boom economy. If Villaraigosa can deliver in terms of Los Angeles doing well in the next couple of years, I think he's going to be okay.

Joe Hicks>> But what about the other figures, say, the good city attorney who apparently had larger ambitions politically? Are we going to remember that at the ballot box?

Bill Boyarsky>> The city attorney is the chief law enforcement officer, the judicial law enforcement officer of the city, not the police. What he did was, he didn't report things. He didn't register. He didn't pay fines. I mean, he was negligent on a lot of things that they all seemed to be the kind of "I'll take care of this. I'll just put it in my top drawer and get to it next week" and then you forget.

I mean, it wasn't a pattern of venality or anything that would make him rich, but it was a pattern of sort of forgetfulness and incompetence. That's what people would remember because everyone has to do all these things and everyone worries about taking care of these small things. I think that hurt him especially because of the nature of his job.

Bob Stern>> I think that's right. The Los Angeles Times has called for his resignation. But probably people remember more of Villaraigosa because it was more flamboyant, in a sense, what he was doing than Delgadillo and probably people would remember that more. But I think Delgadillo's future is in much worse shape than Villaraigosa's.

Bill Boyarsky>> You know, there is a journalistic ethical question. The woman involved, his friend. I only have three ethics rules that I teach my students at USC and, if they follow these rules, they'll never get in trouble. Don't steal, don't lie and don't sleep with your news sources.

Joe Hicks>> But there also is a question of, you know, not that we're going to get too deep into it, of the issue of Villaraigosa being involved with this big development that Universal is involved with. He may be in deciding position on that big project. So, again, there may be some large questions of ethics involving that.

Bob Stern>> When I write ethics laws, it's very difficult because you can write ethics laws that are very objective saying that it's either black or white whether you violate it or not, or you can write ethics laws that are very subjective.

I write laws that are objective. Even though something may look bad, it may not be against the law. That's the probably the case in what you're talking about with Villaraigosa. It may look bad, but there's nothing against the law.

Joe Hicks>> But bottom line, should we care? Should there be a character question that all of us are concerned about at this point about politicians? Is that something we just say it doesn't matter or we sort of issue-by-issue decide whether or not it's a problem? Should character be something that we should demand out of our political figures?

Bill Boyarsky>> Well, I think character is important. It's not all-important, but it's an important factor. If somebody lives a profligate, private life and drinks and adultery and is out all the time, I mean, it's an indication of what kind of a person he is. It should be factored in.

Now it may not be definitive in making your judgment, but it's part of this person's story. One of the ways that journalism has changed, and I think for the good, is that journalism does consider these things important.

Joe Hicks>> Well, I think we're just about flat out of time, so we've got to let it stop right there. Guys, thanks for coming in and talking about this today. Appreciate it.

Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address:

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You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org.

Val Zavala>> Ken Burns' "The War" has brought up memories for thousands of Americans and yet many families still don't know what happened to their loved ones during World War II. Well, that's where Bill Beigel comes in. He's an expert at working through the maze of military records and finding answers that families have been waiting for for decades. Inside this modest home in Torrance, a detective of sorts is hard at work.

Bill Beigel>> Okay, we've got a number of names that come up here. Some of the sources are from people that are relatives of these guys.

Val Zavala>> Wedged into a small breakfast nook between the family calendar and the microwave, William Beigel types away at a computer.

Bill Beigel>> And this would give me a lot more information. It will give me a serial number on top, state entered from the service, his rank, his unit, which was the 121st Cavalry Reconnaissance Squad, and the date that he disappeared, which was August 2, 1944.

Val Zavala>> He's digging for very personal information on complete strangers.

Bill Beigel>> He was killed in action and an heir of his estate was down in Cook County, so he was probably from the Chicago area. What I do is find out records regarding people that served in World War II and Korea and specifically the people that were wounded or killed or made prisoners of war. One of the reasons I do that is because that kind of information was just not available back when it was happening.

Val Zavala>> What do you mean? You mean precisely what happened to them?

Bill Beigel>> Right. An example would be that somebody would be shot down and, three weeks later, mom and dad or brother or sister would get a telegram saying, "Your son, Johnnie Wilson, is missing in action over Germany July 15, 1943. Further details may be provided." Typically, the further details would be either he's now a prisoner of war or we have determined that he is dead, and that would typically be all they would get.

Val Zavala>> That's because they didn't want to compromise military strategy.

Bill Beigel>> The other reason, of course, is that the scope of the casualties was tremendous. There were over a million American casualties in World War II between killed, missing and POWs, so the two things put together made it very difficult. "94th Bomb Group? Shot down January 11, 1944."

Val Zavala>> But Bill Beigel has learned how to navigate through the massive national archives and work through the maze of military records. He knows the structure of the Armed Services and the right questions to ask. It all started about fifteen years ago with a gap in his own family's history, a gap he wanted to fill.

Bill Beigel>> My father grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He had a cousin that grew up in the same home with him. His cousin was a gunner on a B-17 heavy bomber that disappeared over the Atlantic and nobody ever knew what the cause was or ever heard another word from my father's cousin or anybody else on the crew.

Val Zavala>> After a few months of research, Bill found out that the cousin's flight crew was sent on a mission to Germany during a freak hail storm. Sending planes up during bad weather was against military policy.

Bill Beigel>> However, the base commander in Newfoundland said these planes got to go. So it turned out that eight or nine planes left that day, three of which, not just my father's cousin's plane, but two others, disappeared because of weather.

Val Zavala>> From then on, Bill was hooked. Now he's helped more than five hundred clients learn the details of their loved one's death or injury, details that many vets have never talked about.

Bill Beigel>> I just got done doing some work for a woman whose husband was shot down and survived the war, but would never tell his wife or kids about what happened. I find that time and time and time again. They just don't want to talk about it.

Val Zavala>> Really?

Bill Beigel>> Yeah. All the time. It's almost the default position of a lot of these guys is to be humble or reticent. They just don't want to talk about it.

Val Zavala>> Some cases are tougher than others. Often people have very few or incorrect clues to go on.

Bill Beigel>> For example, they say Battle of the Bulge, December 24, 1945, which is actually a year after the Battle of the Bulge.

Val Zavala>> Oh, so they got that wrong.

Bill Beigel>> So they did, but that's a typical mistake.

Val Zavala>> But Bill, like a Marine on a mission, works through mistakes keeping track of the cases, often waiting months for answers from the military records division. But when he gets the answers he's looking for, it's like striking a target.

Bill Beigel>> This is a crew of a B-24 flying out of Italy. The guys on this crew actually were out in an olive orchard the day before they went on their last mission. What was interesting and what made this a real research challenge is that when the plane crashed, it went down over Bulgaria which, right after World War II, became a soviet satellite.

So their remains were stuck in an area that was very difficult for Americans to get into. They eventually did, but it took until about six years after the war before they were able to get in there and identify the remains of most of these guys.

Val Zavala>> Paul Edlund was the only survivor. That day, he was stuck in a hospital bed wounded, so he didn't join his crew on that fateful day. After research help from Bill, Paul wrote a book.

Bill Beigel>> He was very courteous to thank me as much as he did in this book too.

Val Zavala>> Bill has a regular job. He does this on nights and weekends. And how much does it cost?

Bill Beigel>> My work typically is one hundred to two hundred dollars for most people.

Val Zavala>> But, he says, the best feeling comes from letters like this one.

Bill Beigel>> "This is awesome. We kept reading and rereading each page to take it all in. We knew Robert Miller enlisted before the war, but didn't know when. It was the finding of death report that showed us."

Val Zavala>> That must be so satisfying to get these.

Bill Beigel>> It's incredibly satisfying for me. Every time I read one of these, I get chills. I share them with my wife and it's always a nice experience for her too.

Val Zavala>> Now are there ever things that you don't tell the families? Do you have to use your discretion?

Bill Beigel>> I get information on occasion that I can tell will be disserving to families. When I get that, I advise them in advance that, when you read this particular part of the report, know that it's going to be something that may be upsetting to you for whatever reason.

Val Zavala>> Like it could be an especially gruesome death?

Bill Beigel>> It could be an especially gruesome death or it could be a death that is not as --

Val Zavala>> -- honorable?

Bill Beigel>> Honorable or as expected as it might be. That doesn't happen much, but it does come up.

Val Zavala>> And sometimes the client will end up telling Bill things they'd never told anyone before. One of his clients was a soldier in Germany toward the end of the war. He was assigned to guard a bridge.

Bill Beigel>> He said, "Our orders were not to allow anybody to come across the river, no matter what. So one day in broad daylight, a German woman and about ten other Germans started to try to wade across this river. We had a German interpreter who said, "You got to go back. You may not cross this river." They kept coming. Our orders were to fire into the air two or three times and make them stop. A couple of them turned back and went back, but a couple of them kept coming.

We fired again in the water in front of them, you know, twenty yards in front of them, and a couple more turned back, but the woman who was leading them kept coming. Bill, I had my orders. I shot that woman coming across the river and I watched her float down the river." By this time, he was really shaking and his eyes were bloodshot. He said, "I've never told anybody that in my life."

Val Zavala>> These days, information going to families is much more detailed, so Bill won't have the inquiries from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as he had from World War II or the Korean War. Still, he has plenty to keep himself busy.

Bill Beigel>> Four hundred thousand killed, six hundred thousand wounded and around a hundred fifty thousand prisoners of war.

Val Zavala>> Bill says that he can't wait to retire. Then he'll be able to do this full-time, discovering stories that give families a deeper respect and understanding for the beloved fathers, grandfathers, uncles and husbands whose secrets have been hidden for decades. If you'd like to reach Bill Beigel, you can go to his website at ww2research.com.

And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

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