Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 25, 1993                   TAG: 9307260329
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

COMMON TACTICS OFTEN CAN WARN PARENTS AGAINST CHILD MOLESTERS

One police officer said Reese's attention to the boy was typical pedophile behavior.

Reese had bought expensive gifts for the Bedford County boy and had taught him how to drive, officials said.

Reese was awaiting indictment by a Montgomery County grand jury on a sodomy charge from January when he was was accused of molesting the Bedford County boy, whom he had brought to his Blacksburg worksite in May with the permission of the boy's mother.

He recently had been found guilty of contributing to the delinquency of another Montgomery County teen-aged boy by providing him alcohol.

Reese killed himself before Blacksburg police could serve an indecent liberties warrant against him. Besides the three recent cases, records show Reese had been charged with other sexual offenses in Virginia and New Jersey in the early 1960s.

Peggy Frank, an assistant commonwealth's attorney with Montgomery County, said Reese gained the two Montgomery County boys' trust by taking them places, giving them alcohol and talking about girls with them.

Alice Miesen, a detective with the Blacksburg Police Department, said buying expensive gifts and taking children on trips is typical pedophile behavior.

How do parents know when an adult's attention to a child is simple interest or potentially dangerous to the child's safety?

When children are molested, it almost always is by a family friend, acquaintance, or relative, said Gino Williams, Floyd County's commonwealth's attorney.

"Obviously, a tremendous amount of gift-giving," should be viewed with a suspicious eye, Williams said.

Miesen said it's important for parents not to panic and be immediately suspicious of every kind of attention.

"There are people who genuinely do like kids that aren't pedophiles," she said. "The last thing you want to do is charge someone falsely."

Dennis Cropper, clinical services coordinator for the New River Valley Community Services Board's Mental Health Services, warned that just as "all exhibitionists do not wear trench coats," all child molesters can't be easily spotted.

Parents should become wary if the person shows "repeated patterns of behavior that may seem oversolicitous of the child," Cropper said.

Parents should also be aware of the past history of those who spend a lot of time with their children.

"If it feels uncomfortable to them or brings a question to mind, they should look into it," Cropper said.

Miesen said it's not uncommon for pedophiles to pick out kids who have no strong family relationships - children of single parent homes, for example. These children crave attention and make easier targets, she said.