Fla. Sex Offender Kills Teen, Himself

[The Straight Story]

Fla. Sex Offender Kills Teen, Himself

POSTED: 11:08 am EDT July 16, 2006

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- A registered sex offender fatally shot a 17-year-old girl he had been harassing, then killed himself after an hourlong standoff with police Saturday, authorities said.

Police had been investigating 42-year-old Scott David Uslan's relationship with Brittany Carleo for several months, but did not have probable cause to arrest him until Wednesday after he started making harassing phone calls to the teen, police spokesman Rob Vega said.

Uslan posted bond and was released from jail Thursday. He entered the smoothie cafe where Carleo worked with a gun around 9:15 a.m. Saturday, police said.

"Unfortunately this mad man was not kept behind bars where apparently he should have been kept, and unfortunately we have a young girl who is now dead," Vega said.

....
Uslan was registered as a sexual offender in Florida because of a previous conviction of providing obscene material to a minor.

http://www.local6.com/news/9524308/detail.html

This was his son's girlfriend and he became obsessed with her.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Oh how terrible

for the son and the girl's family.

[madmusic]

2. Bars, the great panacea n/t

[benburch]

4. Seems to me that it would have worked in this case.

Can you suggest an alternative that might have?

[madmusic]

6. There are experts on this stuff, like Gavin De Becker.

And they are often able to deal with people like this, and inform the victims how to deal with them without helping escalate the situation to violence.

Before someone accuses me of blaming the victim, Becker empowers the victim with strategies and abilities that help prevent these tragedies.

It's a tragedy and we can't prevent every tragedy with jail. That is always a reactive solution. An ounce of prevention is always worth a pound of cure.

[benburch]

7. That's hopeful.

But until that person can get clones of himself to every place where a child is being stalked by a predator, our choices are jail or arming the child. I prefer jail as most children would not be able to use a weapon appropriately.

[madmusic]

12. Or buy his book. n/t

[benburch]

13. A book does not translate into hands on therepeutic work.

Giving a victim a self-help book in such a situation is worse than reckless.

[madmusic]

14. What are you talking about? n/t

[benburch]

15. Look, that person may be able to do what you say...

...though I am highly dubious.

But if he can he does it through teaching his method of dealing with the offender to the target of the offender. Now, you either need to show us how we can get somebody to help each and every targeted minor in his fashion or you don't HAVE an alternative to offer. Are YOU going to volunteer to do this work? Are you going to learn the method, get whatever certifications might be available and offer YOURSELF to have this done in your area? Because a book is just pulp and ink. It cannot teach anything. And a distraught victim given a book as protection against a dangerous predator will not learn whatever is in that book, EVER. The natural reaction will be to throw the book at you and to cry because they know they are doomed. When your life is endangered it is NOT the time for a self-help tome.

[madmusic]

16. Wow, pessimism.

1. She or her family might have read it, either during this process or long before.
2. They would have known a stalker is most dangerous right after the issue of a restraining order.
3. They would have known to trust her instincts. Her instincts were correct, but there was more they could have done.
a. If she insisted on going to work, she could have shown this guy's picture to others around where she worked. That alone would have saved her life if that one guy who thought the perp was applying for a job knew of the danger.
b. She could have taken some time off until after the restraining order reaction wore off some. If she stayed close to family and friends instead, she would probably still be alive.
c. She could have checked the area thoroughly to see if he was around IF she trusted her instincts more. Then she could have called the cops or made her escape once she saw him.
d. Some basic self-defense classes could have taught her how to deal with a gun threat. (It is possible, even if it never should have gone that far.)

Some want this guy punished, for life, for phone calls and porn. That won't happen.

I want that poor girl still alive. Since that isn't possible, the second best thing is to hope this doesn't happen to another. That requires more than depending on jail.

The book will help, believe it or not. Read the amazon.com reviews if you don't believe it. He has a few books out:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-author-exact=Gavin%20De%20Becker

[benburch]

17. None of which would have been necessary...

...if he had been held pending trial as a danger, or if a high bail had been set.

[madmusic]

18. Right, flush the Constitution.

Article VIII

Excessive Bail shall not be required;

Now, if EVERY weird phone caller were a murderer, a $1,000,000 bail would not be excessive because we would know murder would soon follow. But since weird phone calls so rarely result in murder, or any violence at all, it is excessive.

Next you'll be saying an "activist judge" let him out, like Bill O'Reilly.

Is it a coincidence this happened in Florida? Maybe, maybe not.

Anyway, if you don't want to read any of his books, that's fine. They may save someone else's life though.

[benburch]

19. Excessive in this case?

You have a registered sex offender under police observation for months at the behest of the victim. He makes a phone call that is threatening enough to warrant arrest. it does not take a genius to realize that he needed to remain in stir, nor to realize that he needed to be stripped of his guns and permit to carry as a condition of bail if indeed he was granted any bail.

BTW, being as this was Florida, the young woman could have shot him dead at any time because she felt threatened and would not have committed any crime whatsoever.

[benEzra]

20. An aside on Florida self-defense law...

BTW, being as this was Florida, the young woman could have shot him dead at any time because she felt threatened and would not have committed any crime whatsoever.

Not true, actually. Florida self-defense law says you have to be in reasonable fear of death, serious bodily harm, or a "forcible felony" as defined by statute. You don't have to try to run away first in order to use potentially lethal force in self-defense, but you DO have to be in imminent danger from an actual attack. The only time this test does not apply is (1) using lethal force to stop a home invasion in progress or (2) using lethal force to stop a carjacking in progress.

[Stargazer99]

10. If the pervert was jailed permanently

She would probably still be alive.

[madmusic]

11. For porn and phone calls?

Are you serious?

[Catch22Dem]

You have a better suggestion?

Obviously this guy needed help, therefore some sort of mental/medical environment would have been best, but that facility better have fucking locks and bars.

[Straight Shooter]

5. "Bars, the great panacea."

Preferable to bullets.

[benburch]

3. Reasonable bail in such a case ought to be a whole lot higher.

If it were in the million dollar range, people like this could not post bond.

[SensibleAmerican]

8. Then would it still be reasonable

Honest question ...

[benburch]

9. Yes, given the degree of danger such a criminal so often presents. nt

[WI_DEM]

21. You mean a sex offender having contact with a 17 year old gave police

no probable cause to get involved? Is 17 considered an adult in this state? This is very sad. A young life taken.