‘Deported’ Sex Offender Misses Florida Court Date

Miami Police Chief Clarence Dickson was said to be “pretty perturbed” this morning.

It isn’t just that Weston J. Hill, 44, arrested a few days ago on a sex-related count, had failed to show up for a court hearing. What’s really bothering Dickson is how Hill happened to be in Miami at all.

It all started back in 1982, when a Florida judge couldn’t figure out what to do about Melanie Ann King--arrested dozens of times on prostitution and related charges.

The judge finally solved his problem by buying her a one-way plane ticket to California. Within weeks, California police said, she was at it again, arrested, among other places, in Santa Monica. So, when Santa Monica Police Chief James Keane couldn’t figure out last March what to do with Hill--arrested dozens of times in California for sex offenses--Keane bought him a one-way ticket to Florida. Within weeks, Florida police said, Hill was at it again, arrested in Miami Beach on suspicion of indecent exposure.

Keane said today that he really had no choice--”that the failure of the state of California’s judicial systems and its mental health institutions to handle the matter left me with no alternative.”

And to Keane, Florida was the logical place to send Hill.

“He asked to go there, and we provided him the transportation,” Keane said. “They’d sent us a prostitute. We figured that if they wanted to play one-upmanship with California, we’d take them on any time.”