Repeat sex offender living in parking garage

He fears he won't be able to stop himself   

Jonathan Perfetto of Concord, NH, wants his rights. Of course he joins an interesting group of people from NH who demand their religious rights on a regular basis.  Take for example Paul Berry, he along with church financial backing and lawyers successfully demanded his religious right to privacy when it came to disclosing the sexual molestation of his second daughter.  You see he was already convicted for 56 years for molesting his first daughter.  Yet his religious rights argued by church attorneys protected him from a second conviction.  Another man, Gregory Blackstock, also in NH, avoided additional convictions when this same church argued for the rights of their elders to have ‘ecclesial privilege’ and thus not be required to disclose his confession of molesting multiple children.  This same group argued for their right to not display the license tag motto, "Live free or die”, for the state of NH as they stated the state motto offended their religious freedom. In that case the simple absurdity of the argument did not allow them to prevail.     

Now we have the current case of Jonathan Perfetto in which after being arrested in 2002 as a sex offender for the possession of child porn, he now wishes to attend services where children are part of the worship curriculum. What the public may not be aware of is that Mr. Perfetto has a sex offender history dating back to when he was 17.  In his own words in 2008 he stated, “I may not be able to stop my self from reoffending.” It seems apparent Mr. Perfetto is now a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses and feels the need in spite of his proclivities to attend services where children are present in violation of his probation. However this is not a requirement to worship as an active member.  As any Jehovah’s Witness know, services are routinely broadcast in real time to elderly and infirm members by telephone on a regular basis.  Interestingly no adult member of the church is forbidden to visit Mr. Perfetto in his home for fellowship.  Yet the Jehovah’s Witnesses feel that is just not enough. So while the elderly and infirm may have to stay at home, Mr. Perfetto the repeat sex offender is going to be provided an especially trained ‘chaperone’ that is an elder in the church.  Now the question is what will be the training?  As any Jehovah’s Witness elder knows there is no training provided by the church for treatment of sex offenders.  Jehovah’s Witness elders are ‘lay ministers’ which in most cases do not even have a high school diploma.  Would you want someone like this watching a sex offender with the potential to molest your child? While the average parent that wishes to worship God might have a problem with this, Jehovah’s Witnesses proudly defend their religious right to protect sex offenders from going to jail as well as keep them in the company of their children at worship services. 

Do you believe this to be an unfair statement?? If so please read the testimony of twenty seven members of Paul Berry’s congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Nashua NH. At his sentencing hearing, they offered character statements for him including several parents that stated they were perfectly comfortable with Mr. Berry babysitting their children.  The Judge was not moved, Mr. Berry got 56 years perhaps more so due to the compelling testimony and evidence presented by his daughter. 

 Jehovah’s Witnesses routinely do this for their convicted child molesters as directed by their elders. They are just exercising their religious freedom that offers a tremendous benefit to pedophiles.  For those reasons some have coined the expression ‘pedophile paradise’ as a way to describe how the misuse of religious freedom can be used to benefit sexual predators in the name of the First Amendment.  Jehovah’s Witnesses have cleverly abused the US Constitution to protect sex offenders and take away the rights of children.  This was never the intent of the founding fathers, yet the agendas of misguided God fearing people allow pedophiles to laugh at the laws of this country while enjoying the cozy benefits of exploiting the First Amendment in the name of God. 

 Jehovah’s Witnesses are not bad people but they need to get a clue, bad policy that hurts children has nothing to do with serving God. So the next time a smiling Jehovah’s Witness calls at your door remember they just might be a pedophile exercising their 'religious right' to share their faith and study the Bible with your children. Yes that is another ‘religious right’ fought all the way to the Supreme Court and won by Jehovah’s Witnesses.       

CONCORD, N.H. --A New Hampshire sex offender on probation is asking the state's highest court to allow him to go to church with a chaperone. The case of Jonathan Perfetto marks the first time the New Hampshire Supreme Court is being asked to rule whether a probation condition that effectively bars church attendance violates constitutional rights to religious freedom. Perfetto, 35, of Manchester, was convicted in 2002 of possessing child pornography. A condition of his probation is that he have no contact with children age 16 and under. A lower court denied Perfetto's request to attend Jehovah's Witnesses services with a church elder acting as chaperone. 

The New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union and Perfetto maintain the chaperone would eliminate any risk to children, and stressed that Perfetto was not convicted of assaulting a child. The state counters that public safety trumps Perfetto's religious rights. "The danger of the defendant conversing among a congregation filled with children is quite clear, and the defendant's right to converse certainly does not outweigh the danger to these children," said Maureen O'Neil, first assistant Hillsborough county attorney, in arguing against Perfetto's request. 

Assistant Attorney General Nicholas Cort wrote in court documents that the Jehovah's Witnesses faith is a demanding one that requires multiple church services weekly. "The likelihood the defendant will be supervised every minute of every meeting every week is not very high," Cort wrote. He declined to comment on the case ahead of Wednesday's arguments. Cort placed little stock in the distinction that Perfetto was convicted of possessing 61 images of child pornography, but did not sexually assault a child. "When a large volume of child pornography is involved, as here, it is only sensible to limit the defendant's access to children," Cort wrote. 

The N.H. Civil Liberties Union responded to the issue with a statement on Saturday. "Jonathan Perfetto wants to worship God according to the dictates of his conscience," said Barbara Keshen, of the NHCLU. "He has a fundamental right to do so." Keshen said the right to worship God is among the most cherished rights of the U.S. "The government cannot restrict the right of a citizen to worship unless it demonstrates a compelling need to do so, and then can only restrict that right in the least restrictive way that would accomplish its goal," she said. "Here, Mr. Perfetto is under court supervision and can have no unsupervised contact with minors. Mr. Perfetto has asked the court to allow him to attend church services with a trained chaperone. This is an accommodation that is routinely allowed in New Hampshire and throughout the country. It allows Mr. Perfetto to worship and it assures the safety of the community." 

Both sides agree that the state's highest court has never addressed the subject of religious freedom in the context of probation conditions. Perfetto also claims his due process rights were violated when the lower court denied his request without holding a hearing. Keshen said Perfetto is being held at the Hillsborough County House of Correction on a charge of making a false complaint to a police officer.Tell Us More: E-mail WMUR your tips and story ideas.