Graphic by Riley Benson
Damien Dean Milchak was recently released from prison for molesting a six-year-old and his cat.
Mark Woda was caught distributing images of young boys masturbating.
Andrew Vincent Bellini was jailed for taking pictures of boys on a playground and distributing them online.
They all earned a spot on Pennsylvania’s Megan’s List for child predators and live at Wood Street Commons, right in the middle of the Point Park campus. Some students are questioning why the University has not informed them about the offenders.
The registered predators on Megan’s List are given an online profile where they must put their current address, so anyone can go online to websites such as familywatchdog.us to see which predators are living nearby.
Marc Klaas is the founder of Klaas Kids, a foundation dedicated to helping parents affected by child predators.
“Megan’s List was set up to regulate and monitor the activities of child sex offenders, including making the information available to the public via the Internet,” Klaas said in an April 16 email interview.
Wood Street Commons is a privately owned apartment complex where indigents, convicts and special needs individuals live on government subsidies. The owner of Wood Street Commons could not be reached for comment.
Among Wood Street Commons’ current residents is Damien Dean Milchak, who was arrested and sentenced to a mere 11 ½ – 23 months in prison in 2013 for the molestation of a six-year-old boy. The boy also testified that Milchak then sexually abused his cat. The sexual assaults took place between 2010 and 2011.
According to a probable cause affidavit in his case, another resident, Mark Woda, was arrested and charged with dissemination and possession of child pornography.
Woda was caught sending an email containing “highly explicit” child pornography by the America Online Legal Department, who then forwarded the case to local police based on the zip code found in the emails.
Woda was subsequently arrested and sentenced to seven years probation in 2012.
Bellini was also arrested for distributing online child pornography. An undercover police officer identified him online as distributing images of “prohibited sexual act(s)” with a minor, according to his probable cause affidavit in his Allegheny County case. Bellini was arrested in 2010 and sentenced to three years probation.
While the information is online for anyone to read, some students are upset that Point Park hasn’t taken the initiative to inform them of the convicted sexual predators living around them.
“I had no idea that we lived so close to people like that,” said freshman Stone Swiess in an interview on April 10. “The University should be informing us of these things.”
Freshman Brenden Depp agrees with Swiess’ analysis.
“I wish Point Park would have let us know,” Depp said. “I understand that you don’t sell the school by talking about people on Megan’s List, but…they should be courteous enough to let us know.”
The University is not legally obligated to inform students of nearby sexual predators, but it is required by the Sunshine Law to make annual reports of crimes in and around campus public. Those reports are available in the campus crime report.
“I don’t feel particularly safe, but having a University that’s located in a downtown area, you’re going to find people like that anywhere,” said Erin Patterson in an interview on April 10.
Liz Andrews, a freshman dance major, is concerned for her well-being looking back on all the times she walked home alone at night.
“I’ll be walking with much bigger groups from now,” Andrews said.
If you are walking alone at night on campus and feel unsafe, do not hesitate to call Public Safety. They will send a security officer to walk with you. Public Safety can be reached at (412)-392-3960.
