[Southsider2k12]

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=n...&id=7041386

September 30, 2009 (WLS) -- A former northwest Indiana school principal who was convicted of having a sexual relationship with an 11-year old girl has been released from prison.

William "Andy" Beith has been sent to a halfway house in Michigan City.

He was the principal of Liberty Baptist Academy in Lake Station before he and the girl disappeared in May 2001.

Beith was arrested after FBI agents caught him with the girl in Las Vegas.

[donnaschindler]

It is sickening that the News Dispatch did not report to the good folks of Michigan City that a child molester and abductor soon will be joining the neighborhood. Here's the full article from NWI.com
http://nwitimes.com/news/local/article_b70...0c7173ea30.html



William "Andy" Beith, the former Baptist school principal who seduced an 11-year-old girl into a sexual relationship and a road trip to Las Vegas in 2001, has been released from federal prison into a Michigan City halfway house.

Beith, 37, was listed Tuesday on the federal Bureau of Prison's online inmate locator as being in the custody of the Chicago federal Community Corrections office, the agency that supervises halfway house placements. A staff member in that office said Beith now lives at the PACT Bradley House, a 59-person halfway house for federal convicts in Michigan City. Beith is scheduled for release from federal custody in February, according to the prison bureau's Web site.

Beith was the principal of Liberty Baptist Academy in Lake Station before he and the 11-year-old student disappeared in May 2001, just after the girl's parents alerted police to the relationship. Beith picked the girl up in Portage and drove her to Las Vegas, stopping to have sex with her in motels along the way. The pair was the target of an FBI manhunt before Beith was arrested a few days later outside a Las Vegas hotel and the girl was returned to her parents.

The girl's father, Joseph Marshall, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The girl's mother, Sybil Marshall, died a few years after her daughter's cross-country ordeal, said Voyle Glover, a Merrillville lawyer who represented the family. The family considered suing Beith, but Sybil Marshall didn't want to endure additional strain.

"I think all the stress really hurt (Sybil Marshall). I know it did," he said.

Neither federal authorities nor Regina Ruddell, PACT Bradley director, would confirm Beith's residency Tuesday.

Ruddell said residents of PACT Bradley House, 132 E. Sixth St., constantly are supervised. The residents are given job training, psychiatric care and "anything that is going to help them not go back into the system," Ruddell said.

PACT Bradley and other halfway houses are part of federal efforts to reduce recidivism and reincarceration, said Derek Plants, chief probation officer for the Northern District of Indiana federal courts. The halfway houses try to move convicts back into society, Plants said. Convicts can leave for mental health care, work and other purposes but they are under curfew and supervision, Plants said.

The pair's 2001 cross-country trip touched off a media firestorm and years of legal wrangling. Beith pleaded guilty to molesting the girl and U.S. Senior Judge Rudy Lozano initially gave Beith a 15-year sentence, enhancing it because Beith abducted the girl, who was particularly vulnerable. She previously told Beith she was molested by another adult.

The 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected Lozano's reasoning and sent the case back to him for resentencing in 2005. He sliced five years off the sentence in 2006.

Beith was the principal of Liberty Baptist Academy in Lake Station before he abducted an 11-year-old female student in May 2001 and took her on a cross-country trip to Las Vegas, stopping at motels along the way to have sex with the girl.

Posted in Local, Porter on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 12:00 am Updated: 11:50 pm. | Tags: Crime, Education, Lake Station, Law Enforcement, Michigan City, Nwslttr

[NDReporter]

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=n...&id=7041386

Just wanted to let you all know, the Federal Bureau of Prisons told me Beith is now being held at the St. Joseph County Jail in South Bend.

[Southsider2k12]

Just wanted to let you all know, the Federal Bureau of Prisons told me Beith is now being held at the St. Joseph County Jail in South Bend.

Sounds like someone violated the terms of their release...

[NDReporter]

Sounds like someone violated the terms of their release...

That is not necessarily true. I asked why he had been moved, and the Bureau of Prisons public information officers told me that inmates are moved for any number of reasons, including available bedspace or level of care needed. However, for security reasons they will not specify for any certain inmate why they were moved.

In Mr. Beith's case, you could rationally contend he was sent to the halfway house for that week because they made a mistake, maybe this guy hasn't completed a part of his sentence, or maybe he's not ready for a halfway house because of the magnitude of his crime. Maybe the newspaper articles helped them realize how stupid it seemed. It's all conjecture, anyway, since they won't tell us why he was moved.