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Robbery suspect admits to assaulting sex offenders in Grover Beach

April 27, 2010

David Griffin

A man shot and wounded by a Grover Beach police officer last Friday morning may have been involved in a self-styled vigilante spree, targeting convicted sex offenders posted on the Megan’s Law website.

Police believe David Jordan Griffin, 24, who was arrested for allegedly robbing the Kautz Chevron station on Grand Avenue on Friday with a machete, may be linked to other crimes earlier in the week.

On Thursday, April 22, two separate incidents occurred within a half hour of each other in Grover Beach.

A young man, matching Griffin’s description, first attempted to confront the occupant of a residence on Longbranch Ave. He knocked on a door and asked for a man by name.

The occupant of the home, a registered sex offender, explained that the man he was asking for did not live at the residence. Griffin began to walk away while allegedly reading a printed list from the Megan’s Law website.

He quickly came back and began kicking the door, calling the victim explicit swear words and a sex offender.

While the door was damaged, the victim was not injured.

A half hour later, a second victim walked into a burglary in progress on N. 16th Street. Griffin hit the victim, who was using his right arm to block the blow, in the forearm with a hammer and also kicked and punched him.

Both victims in the case positively identified Griffin.

Grover Beach Police believe Griffin was selecting his victims by going down the list of sex offenders posted on the California Megan’s Law website.

“We don’t have a complete motive as to why, except for the obvious financial gain,” said Grover Beach Chief of Police Jim Copsey. “We are just happy he is in custody.”

Griffin was shot Friday morning by Grover Beach Police Lt. John Peters, a 15-year police veteran. Five shots were fired; one hit Griffin in the leg.

Following his arrest, Griffin allegedly made numerous statements that he hated sex offenders and admitted he had attempted to burglarized the two homes and had beat up the victim. Detectives later found stolen property in Griffin’s house.

Additional charges will be filed against Griffin including assault, trespassing, vandalism, burglary, and assault with a deadly weapon.


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While I agreee that this guy probably has had something in his past that might make him target the sexaul predators (which I have no use for them), it still doesn’t absolve the crime of robbery that this guy has committed. Can you imagine the poor clerk at the market confronted with a machette?


This guy is a criminal too. I have no use for either. Lets remember the TRUE victims at the end of the day. I am not saying put him away for ever. This kind of crime, if first offence, is probably about year in county. That is a fair punishment.


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So I have a question to those leaving all the neg. feed. You wouldn’t have a problem with this guy (kid) coming into your home wielding a machette against you and your family? Or is it just o.k. when it is a store cleck you don’t know??


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It’s good they caught this kid. People with that kind of rage — no matter why — tend to escalate their activities and some day he might run out of sex offenders and start pounding on anyone who comes near to him.

He obviously got fixated on sex offenders and for some reason decided they deserved to be assaulted. He may have been molested at some time, but I bet he doesn’t even know why he hates them. Who’s next, gays? Women? Or maybe he gets a gun and heads down to Farmer’s Market?

Violent people are a danger to everyone, yes, even sex offenders. Ever heard of a case of mistaken identity?

He should be examined by a psychiatrist because it sounds to me like this kid has a screw loose.

Good job Grover Beach PD, you may just have prevented a massacre.


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“He should be examined by a psychiatrist because it sounds to me like this kid has a screw loose.”

Exactly my thought’s.”He needs some serious therapy.” I suspect he was raped at some time in his life and was made to feel helpless, worthless and all sorts of other things that we can’t begin to imagine that he feels. . He is out trying to take his power back and show the sex offenders that he is someone and not their toy. .

I don’t care how much red I get, that’s where I stand. I don’t believe prison is the right place for him. He can be helped.


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The basic purpose of prison is to warehouse folks who have — sometimes violent — ways of solving problems at 18 ( or in this case 24) until they are 35 … when they don’t get the same kick out of solving problems in a psychopathic way.


BTW Cindy, the sad statistical truth is that sex offenders never are cured by ‘treatment.’ They keep re-offending until they are caught. They best way to handle them is to take them out of circulation permanently to some sort of work farm.


It is also interesting to see the many negatives on Cindy’s post … which has me wonder how many sex offenders live between Foothill and Diablo in San Luis Obispo and post on this site?


Roger Freberg


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Roger, I think you are wrong in your statistics. You are mixing sex offenders with pedophiles. True

pedophiles may not be cured and they are the most dangerous, but most sex offenders are not pedophiles. Treatment has been proven to help sex offenders and statistically they will reoffend less than almost all other crimes. In reality, our current sex offender laws have been placed in effect because of sex offenders who murder, making those cases a very special category. Now, you may want to continue spreading your misinformation but I suggest you do some research on the matter first.


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Do you even know what a sex offender is or who falls into that category? Please take the time to do a little research before you voice an uneducated opinion. A sex offender can be someone who was caught urinating in public, the teenagers who were caught having sex or the husband who’s wife accuses him of spousal rape so she can get the house and kids in the divorce and the list goes on. There is a 7 year old boy on the sex offender registry in Texas, so you think it’s ok for this guy to be a vigilante and harm this young child? I am so thankful that most of society does not have your mentality.


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You make good points but I think in this case we are talking about adults. As you point out the category is far too wide and should be tempered by common sense. But in many celebrated cases of especially child abuse (rape, murder etc) the perp was often a turned loose sex offender. One noted psychiatrist interviewed on the subject said none of them can be rehabilitated and should probably never be released, the urges are too strong.


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April – He was using Megan’s List. That list doesn’t include the types of sex offenders that you are referring to. Megan’s Law is reserved for the adult on children offenders. 18 year old’s having consensual relations with 16 year old’s don’t fall under Megan’s Law, likewise adult on adult rape doesn’t fall under Megan’s Law and certainly not urinating in public. Seems like you should do some research.


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Cindy, that is not true. You can be on the sex offender registry for many offenses other than adult on children offenders. Most common are inter-familial issues, and next are friends and those acquainted with the victims. Adult on adult rape and sex assault are also placed on the list. What is interesting is how many youthful offenders are on the list and because of the Adam Walsh Act many are on the list for life.


The problems with the sex offender laws that are in force is that many sex offenses will not be reported as they see what has happened to those on the list, including this incident. Families are less likely to report a family member now because the whole family could be stigmatized unless the family breaks up. Many cases are found to be revenge cases or false reports. In years past, people were convicted based on the accusations against them, but now we find that those making false accusations are not being prosecuted.


Current laws, with the exception of a few states, do not allow reviews to place offenders in an appropriate class, such as low risk, medium risk, and high risk. Their crime is used whether the person is a risk or not. That means we are using valuable resources to track all offenders and not the ones we should be looking at. Also, while it may give you comfort to know who is on the list, it has not prevented true pedophiles from continuing their sick actions.


There are many voices now being raised against the Adam Walsh Act because it is the one that requires juveniles to be placed on the registry, while it also classifies people who were convicted 20, 30, or more years ago as high risks even though they have recommitted any such offenses.


Regardless of what one thinks about sex offenders, vigilante justice is still a crime that many look away from, at least until it affects them.


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Cindy, re-read what I wrote, my question was not in regards to Megan’s Law but to the term “sex offender”. Our society puts all sex offenders into one category and over burdens law enforcement and parole. We need to be using our time to watch the seriously dangerous offenders, not the offenders who are no threat to society or a child.


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April- I agree. In all honesty I know of a person who was found guilty of a sex offense and reprimanded to serve prison time. He is not on a Megan’s Law list but is listed as a sex offender. I know people end up stigmatized for life who are not a danger to society. I was making the distinction that David Griffin was carrying, with him, a Megan’s Law list which to the best of my knowledge deals with sexual perversions inflicted upon innocent helpless children. It appears that he is attacking those who should never be allowed back on the streets to begin with. I have already said twice and here comes the third time, I know, I know ,I know that we can’t allow vigilante’s to take the law into their own hands. Regardless, I have sympathy for David Griffin and I believe that prison is the worst thing that we could all do to him. There has to come a time when we recognize the makings behind a criminal and try something different if we are ever going change the course that we as a society has embarked on. Here is a perfect case study IMO..


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HUH? A vigilante attacking sex offenders! Poor kid must have been a victim at sometime in his life. I know we can’t have vigilante’s running around, I know, I know, I know all the reason’s but I can’t help but have a sympathetic view towards this kid. Especially since it’s clear that he didn’t really try to run any police over, he was slowly backing up and they had a right to shoot him or his tires and they decided to shoot him, rather than chase him down the road and wait for his rims to fall off, can’t fault the police for their decision. If I end up on his jury I’ll be going very easy on him, poor kid. Yeah I know, I know, I know but I still feel sorry for him, those sex offenders shouldn’t be on the streets in the first place. Poor kid needs some serious therapy, not prison.


7

Hey, this story changed a little since my post. Initially I was of the impression that this kid was only tracking and attacking sex offenders. If he attacked someone with a hammer simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time then I have to reconsider my initial response.


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Good on you Cindy for tempering the iron wheels of the law with some compassion and common sense. That is why we have humans on the jury instead of computers.


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