Offender’s proximity alarms mother

By Jim Haley

Herald Writer

MILL CREEK — Between the casual smile and tears, you can see the terror in Vicki Lindeke’s eyes.

She has effectively moved out of her home near here, taking her 12-year-old developmentally disabled daughter with her.

What drove her out was a 17-year-old teen-ager who sexually molested the daughter three years ago and who now lives less than two miles away.

The teen is considered a Level 2 sex offender who still has sexual fantasies and has not participated in therapy, according to a sex offender treatment provider.

Lindeke is flabbergasted that the youth has visited her daughter’s school in attempts to see the girl, his adopted sister. All that, despite a Snohomish County Superior Court order prohibiting the youth from being within 500 yards of the family home, the girl’s school or Lindeke’s workplace.

"We are determined to keep our daughter safe," she said of herself and her husband, Bruce Lindeke.

The issue of the teen sex offender living in the community will be discussed at 7 tonight at a community meeting set for Heatherwood Middle School, 1419 Trillium Blvd. SE, Mill Creek.

Among the speakers will be Joe Beard, a sexual assault detective with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office.

Vicki Lindeke is afraid for both the physical safety and the possibility of another sexual attack on either herself or her daughter.

"I can’t sleep in my bed. My daughter can’t sleep in her own bed. Our family is split apart," she said.

She is the adoptive mother of her daughter and the teen she fears. She and her ex-husband adopted the children years ago, and Vicki Lindeke tried to raise both as a single mom when the couple separated. At the time, she lived in Marysville.

One day in spring 1999, she picked her daughter up from school and was told what happened. According to county juvenile court records, the teen was convicted of first-degree child molestation in April 2000. He was sentenced to a juvenile facility the following November.

The youth served eight months before returning home to live with Vicki Lindeke’s ex-husband.

The Lindekes already were living in the Mill Creek area when her ex-husband moved nearby last June.

Beard believes she has legitimate reason to be concerned after getting a response from the sex offender therapist. He went to court with her to get an order prohibiting the teen from coming within 500 yards of Vicki Lindeke and her daughter, sheriff’s spokeswoman Jan Jorgensen said.

Her situation prompted the community meeting.

Early this month, the sex offender treatment provider wrote to Beard, advising him that the teen attends weekly counseling sessions, but his participation has been "minimal to nonexistent."

Over the last few months, the youth has been viewing pornography, smoking marijuana and leaving school without permission, the treatment provider said. He also has not obeyed the curfew laid down by his father and has had knives in his room.

He also has admitted going to his victim’s school and has ongoing sexual fantasies with rape themes, the therapist told Beard.

This information alarmed Vicki Lindeke to the point where she sought the court order earlier this month.

"We’re not going to stay in that house until (the teen) moves," she said. "It’s too unsafe."

You can call Herald Writer Jim Haley at 425-339-3447 or send e-mail to haley@heraldnet.com.

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