Sex Offenders Want a Fresh Start

GARDEN GROVE — Marc Tad Hall struggles with Megan’s Law. As a citizen, he agrees it’s necessary to warn the community of high-risk sex offenders. As a convicted child molester trying to rebuild his life, he’s not so sure.

“In general, for serious offenders, I think that’s a good law,” Hall said Monday. Still, he added, “Whatever happened to doing your time and moving on? I guess for the rest of our lives we’re condemned.”

Hall, 40, was among the 17 high-risk sex offenders from Orange County whose names were released Monday. He pleaded guilty to two counts of child molestation in the 1980s, according to court records. Both victims were Orange County girls between the ages of 3 and 6.

He says he spent five years in prison.

“I feel very remorseful for it,” Hall said, his wife beside him on their couch. “I feel I have to live with something cruel that I did. That’s the hardest part for me to live with: what I did to a child.”

Hall said he works nights repairing VCRs and has kept his apartment, next to Page School, a private elementary, for more than a year.

Though the rate of recidivism among child molesters is high, he vowed never to harm another child.

“I was caught, that’s all I did, and I don’t plan ever doing that again.”

A second sex offender from Garden Grove expressed similar mixed feelings about the public’s need for the law and his own need to get on with his life.

“In a way, it’s nice to let people know, one” said Norman Douglas Parker, 40. “And two, I think people should have their own privacy.”

Parker, who was convicted in 1992 of committing a lewd act against a child, claims he is innocent.

“I’ve told a couple neighbors what I was arrested for, and it doesn’t seem to bother them,” he said. “I didn’t commit that crime.”

Parker, a mechanic, said he does not consider himself a threat to children.

“I just mind my own business.”