A twice-convicted sex offender and pedophile who had been arrested in June for failing to register his address in the 1150 block of Home Avenue, was back on the block for Halloween, dressed in a yellow Star Trek shirt, after a judge on Oct. 30 lifted a restriction prohibiting him for returning to that address.
Around noon on Halloween, neighbors spied Kevin Miles Tinsley, 45, on the porch of the house he previously had been banned from visiting. They called Oak Park police.
“The officers responded and Tinsley produced documents showing that the restriction that prohibited his returning to that address had been lifted,” said Oak Park Detective Sgt. Michael Richardson.
On Oct. 30, Cook County Judge Noreen Love lifted the restriction on visiting the block, said Richardson. Love declined to answer questions on why the restriction was lifted because the case is still pending. Richardson and the spokesperson for the Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court said they did not know why the restriction was lifted.
But as trick-or-treating began — on a block that greets hordes of children who trick-or-treat on Halloween each year — neighbors observed Tinsley on the porch of the house, in costume. Neighbors could not confirm whether Tinsley was handing out candy to children.
“I don’t want this to be like a witch hunt,” said neighbor Ann Bell, “but nobody told us the [restriction] was lifted. Nobody told us it was the day before Halloween.”
Police, she said, asked neighbors if Tinsley had caused any problems on the block.
“Do we have to wait for something to happen?” Bell asked.
She said the block is filled with children. But neighbors kept an eye out for each other.
“Our block is pretty tight,” Bell said.
On June 7, Oak Park police arrested Tinsley for inhabiting a residence that was within a proscribed distance from a daycare center and for failing to register. The residence is also three blocks from Lincoln School.
He was held at Cook County Jail and released later in June. Tinsley registered on June 20 with the Brookfield police, giving his residence as the Pioneer Motel, 8835 Ogden Ave. Tinsley re-registered with the Brookfield police on Oct. 30, giving his residence as the 8809 Ogden Ave., the address of the same motel.
Neighbors said the man who lived in the house declined to inform neighbors of the situation.
“It’s one thing if you play by the rules,” Bell said. “But [Tinsley] has thumbed his nose at everybody; that’s the problem.”
Tinsley’s criminal record dates back to 1989, when he was found guilty of two felony counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault and sentenced to six years in state prison, said Blanca Jara, the public information manager for the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County.
Then in 1997, Tinsley pleaded guilty to charges of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a victim under the age of 18.
According to Forest Leaves, the male victims were 5 and 7 years old. He was ordered to have an exam at a behavioral clinic, but was found unfit and was committed to a mental health institution, Jara said. He was sentenced to 20 years for those incidents.
Tinsley lived in Overland Park, Kan., until he moved to Oak Park in December 2011. His failure-to-register case is still pending. His next court date is Dec. 12 at 9 a.m. in Room 105 of the Maybrook courthouse in Maywood.