Mayor Henry Hearns offers mea culpa
LITTLEROCK — Lancaster Mayor Henry Hearns apologized to the Antelope Valley and the Lancaster City Council on Wednesday for allowing a convicted child molester to help plan a youth sports camp at Jackie Robinson Park.
The camp is a church event sponsored by the Living Stone Cathedral of Worship, where Hearns serves as bishop.
Maurice Wyre will no longer work with the camp, which ends Friday, Hearns said at a press conference at the park. He was responding to an article published in Sunday’s Valley Press disclosing Wyre’s role in the camp. While Hearns spoke, about 50 children inside the park’s gym listened to a former Olympic athlete instruct them to work hard, persevere and live a balanced life.
Wyre is listed on the state’s Megan’s Law online sex offender registry for continuous sexual abuse of a child. He underwent 90 days of psychiatric evaluation after pleading no contest to molestation — a lesser charge — in 1995 and served five years probation, which would have ended in 2000.
“In hindsight, while all I did was lawful, I must agree this could have been done differently,” Hearns told reporters. “While my intention from the beginning was that his knowledge of sports would be of great help to the church in planning a new recreational program for youth, I should have strongly counseled him against doing anything outside of adult planning.”
The 42-year-old former athlete and scion of a locally renowned sports family helped plan the camp, but Hearns insists that Wyre never would have had contact with children.
“He does not do anything that has anything to do with the kids, except for planning, on paper, with adults,” the clergyman mayor said Friday. At the press conference, Hearns said several times that that fact had not been reported.
Hearns also stressed that Wyre has no “official” position with the church, although he still sings in the adult choir.
Several parents at the camp told a Valley Press reporter they were comfortable having their children participate in the program at Jackie Robinson Park.
About two months ago, Wyre applied to run a summer youth camp at Littlerock High School, with the backing of a local church.
Wyre’s application remains a minor mystery.
Hearns insists he did not send Wyre two months ago and does not know why he went.
The high school’s vice principal of athletics, Peter Getz, turned down Wyre’s request to use campus facilities.
“I was unaware that he took it upon himself to approach a high school or a county park to ask for involvement with youth,” Hearns said Wednesday. “That would be wrong.”
Getz said last week he could not recall which church Wyre represented, and Getz’s secretary could not locate the original application.
Hearns credited “hindsight” with his decision to remove Wyre and offer the mea culpa, but political pressure may have pushed him as well. On Friday, state legislators George and Sharon Runner spoke to the mayor after learning of Wyre’s role in the camp from a reporter.
The Runners are leading proponents of a measure on the November ballot that would tighten restrictions on sex offenders. “Jessica’s Law,” as the initiative is dubbed, would mandate lifetime electronic monitoring of perpetrators and limit where they could live.
Sharon Runner, a Republican in the state Assembly, said she and her husband encouraged Hearns “to make sure he doesn’t have this gentleman working in any kind of relation with children.”
“I think Henry’s desire to help other people maybe gets in the way of his common sense in dealing with the situation at hand,” she added.
State Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster, called removing Wyre a “wise move,” adding that “faulty decision making … brought (Hearns) into that situation.”
He said the situation won’t hurt the Jessica’s Law campaign.
“People will make individual decisions and choices. It just points out how important it is for people to be fully aware of what’s happening with their children and how our children are always at risk,” Sen. Runner said. “Without Megan’s Law in place, these kind of issues wouldn’t even be visible.”
Political organizer Darren Parker, who heads the Antelope Valley Human Relations Task Force, joined Hearns at the press conference, standing to the mayor’s right and occasionally prompting him with responses to reporters’ inquiries. Parker ran Hearns’ mayoral campaign earlier this year.
Also a member of Living Stone Cathedral of Worship, Parker said he has met Wyre but didn’t know about his past until reading Sunday’s story. Parker described the man as amiable. At one point, the former athlete did some landscaping work at Parker’s house.
“I didn’t feel threatened when he was there at my home,” said Parker, who has five daughters. “I’ve seen change in his behavior, and growth.”
Councilman Ron Smith also admonished Hearns this week. He said the mayor “has a good heart,” but he told Hearns working with Wyre was a bad idea.
“History shows you with people like that. … The majority of child molesters, their whole plan is, ‘How can I get to the next kid?’ ” said Smith, a former deputy sheriff.
Smith proposed a council resolution supporting Jessica’s Law, which was approved unanimously. Council members may soon consider an ordinance creating “predator-free zones” where those convicted of sex crimes cannot live, in addition to areas around schools and parks.
Hearns’ backtracking on Wyre won’t weaken the council’s efforts or credibility when it tries to crack down on sex offenders, Smith said, noting that the mayor’s job isn’t a managerial position, and “the council’s not governed by one person alone.”
“You can’t un-ring the bell,” he added. “But if you make a mistake, you’ve got to do whatever you can to remedy it and fix it.”
In the early 1990s, Hearns helped push through a city ordinance restricting adult-oriented businesses to heavy industrial zones. The law — still on the books — earned Lancaster the moniker of “The City That Banned Sex.” It applies to adult arcades, adult bookstores, novelty stores, video stores, motels, theaters, nude or semi-nude dance clubs, massage parlors, swing clubs, escort agencies and modeling studios.
Hearns more recently spoke out against porn channels offered through a local cable company, fearing that children might access illicit videos and on Wednesday said he “absolutely” backs the “Jessica’s Law” ballot initiative.
Table of contents for The Mayor and the Molestor
- Mayor backs sex offender on kid-camp plan
- Mayor Henry Hearns offers mea culpa
Tags: breaking news, crime, politics, sex