Sex Offenders Arrested for Violating Registration Law

A police task force arrested seven convicted sex offenders in the San Gabriel Valley and Whittier on Tuesday for violating a state law that requires them to register their addresses with city authorities.

The sweep came after a convicted sex offender who was on parole was charged with the murder of a 26-year-old West Covina woman in May. After the slaying, some West Covina residents demanded to know why public officials did not inform them of the man’s presence in their neighborhood.

The task force--led by the West Covina Police Department with assistance from the departments of Azusa, Baldwin Park and Glendora, as well as the state Justice Department--was in the works before the slaying, “but the homicide is what spurred the big interest,” said West Covina Police Detective Rudy Lopez.

“What we want to do is get the message out that if they move to our city and don’t play by the rules, they can expect a knock on their door,” Lopez said.

The state law requires that all convicted sex offenders register with local law enforcement authorities each time they move.

The task force caught the convicted men Tuesday through leads, including tips supplied by neighbors and other relatives, said Detective Pete Mena. More sweeps were planned in the “very near future,” he said.

The seven arrested included: Jose Figueroa, 37, of West Covina; Norman Sines, 38, of Azusa; John Anderson, 38, of Rowland Heights; Rich Cardenas, 33, of Pomona; Steve Barr, 40, of West Covina; Ferdinand Altingsiberg, 54, of Whittier, and Lawrence Escoto, 31, of West Covina.

The man charged in the May stabbing murder of Lola Mary Ramirez--Alan Kidd, 44, of West Covina--had registered with the West Covina Police Department. But Mena and other authorities said the slaying brought “a continuing problem to life.” Lopez said Kidd complied with the law, “but a lot of people objected to the fact that he was in their neighborhood.”

State law does not require the notification of neighbors when a sex offender or other convict is released in their midst. But the Department of Justice recently started a 900 number for the public to gain access to information on registered sex offenders who have victimized children.

Kidd was arrested in 1989 for trying to strangle and rape a woman in her 50s, according to police and state records. Kidd was convicted, sentenced to a seven-year prison term in August, 1989, and paroled in March, 1993, state records show.

Kidd also had been arrested in 1987 after trying to rape another woman, whom he attempted to subdue with a tire iron or similar weapon, Lopez said.

Kidd was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon. He was sentenced in May, 1988, to two years in prison but was released in December, 1988, according to state records.

Authorities said that Ramirez apparently had not been sexually assaulted.