Violent sex offender living in Queens family shelter, after being moved from similar Bronx site
A man convicted of a heinous sex crime is now living at the former Westway Hotel on Astoria Boulevard, after being transferred from the former Capri Whitestone Motel in the Bronx, according to state records.
BY BEN KOCHMAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, February 3, 2015, 8:23 PM
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ANTHONY DELMUNDO/NEW YORK DAILY NEWSThe city moved a violent sex offender into a family homeless shelter at the Westway Hotel on Astoria Boulevard, according to state records.
The city is playing a dangerous game of musical chairs with violent sex offenders, enraged local leaders say.
A convicted child molester who sexually assaulted a 7-year-old girl is now living at a Queens family homeless shelter after being transferred from a similar site in the Bronx, state records show.
“It is abhorrent to have a registered sex offender, who was convicted of a heinous crime . . . living in our community at a facility meant to serve women and children,” said Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas (D-Queens).
James Bryant, who had been housed in a shelter at the site of the former Capri Whitestone Motel near Ferry Point Park, has been moved to a city-run shelter at the former Westway Hotel on Astoria Boulevard, according to the state Division of Criminal Justice website.
It is abhorrent to have a registered sex offender, who was convicted of a heinous crime . . . living in our community at a facility meant to serve women and children.
Bryant, 49, was released from prison last year after spending 10 years behind bars for the 2003 aggressive assault in Texas.
He was convicted in 2004 and is listed by the state as a level-two sex offender.
“This is either a complete lack of oversight or a willful attempt to pull the wool over our eyes by quietly shifting this danger from one community to the next,” Simotas said.
James Bryant, a level two sex offender, is now listed as living at a Queens homeless shelter in the former Westway Hotel after being moved from the east Bronx's Crystal Family Residence.
The city Department of Homeless Services has been housing 121 families in the former East Elmhurst hotel since about July 2014.
A department spokesman confirmed Bryant had been taken out of the Bronx shelter but would not disclose the new location.
But shifting registered sex offenders to other family shelters is not the answer, said state Sen. Jeff Klein, who has introduced a state law that would ban high-risk sexual offenders from living in family shelters.
“Playing musical shelters with dangerous sexual predators is a policy that hurts our children,” Klein (D-Bronx) said.
