HAWTHORNE, CA—Even the Pope may have taken offense for this alleged criminal’s moral trespass.
William Craig Watkins, 59, was arrested by Hawthorne Police Department (HPD) on Sunday, June 15 at approximately 5:45 p.m. Officers apprehended him at the corner of Manhattan Beach Boulevard and Aviation, south of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
The self-proclaimed pool maintenance worker was charged with “Lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age,” a charge which is officially identified as “A288(A)PC.”
According to attorney Robert Marshall of the Law Office of Robert L. Marshall: “A conviction carries lifetime registration as a sex offender. It is also listed as a violent felony under Penal Code §667.5(a), which makes it a strike under the Three Strikes law. The only way to terminate sex offender registration for this offense is a pardon, and the odds of winning the lottery are better than the chances of getting a pardon. Since 1991, California governors have pardoned a total of sixteen people.”
“Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has only granted three pardons during his years in office, and all three were to people who had been convicted of nonviolent drug offenses more than thirty years ago and had lived exemplary lives ever since. His predecessor, Gray Davis, did not pardon a single person during his five years in office.”
Identified as booking number 4004807 and case number 13-13871, no comment has been presented regarding the blue-eyed, brown-haired Caucasian male suspect. Hawthorne Police department spokespeople declined to discuss the case.
The 6’,200-lb. Hawthorne resident of 5400 block of West 140th Street was unavailable for comment. Bail was set at $100,000, and no known trial date has yet been set.
