Following allegations that a convicted child rapist has used his job as an Upper West Side building superintendent to pressure tenants into having sex with him, a state assemblyman has proposed legislation that would keep high-risk sex offenders from getting jobs as supers. "To have someone who has done such monstrous things to have the key to your apartment—it would strike fear in me," said Assemblyman Micah Kellner (D-Upper East Side).
According to the Post, Kellner's bill is a response to the accusations against 57-year-old William Barnason, who was jailed for more than a decade for sexual assaulting, raping, and sodomizing girls as young as five years old. Since his release, Barnason found employment as a building super and has reportedly offered to help pay female tenants' rent and deposits if they would have sex with him.
The state's registry for sex offenders reveals that Barnason must attend a "Mandatory sex offender counseling program," and is allowed "No alcohol, No unsupervised contact with children 18 years of age or younger without permission, [and] No drugs." He must also "Seek, Obtain, [and] Maintain Employment," though the website lists no stipulations on the kinds of jobs he can hold.
