Nevada's newly created sex offender law failed to take effect earlier this month because of a constitutional challenge.
Nevada has multiple sex offender laws, rules for everything from sentencing to supervision to registration. But despite the existing resources, one victim is finding the safety net doesn't stretch wide enough.
When "Michelle" recalls her most vivid childhood memory, she doesn't see a birthday party, a family vacation or even playground. Michelle flashes to the face of her babysitter's boyfriend, Roscoe Kennedy. She remembers the knife in his hand and the pain of her rape at four-years-old.
"I remember crying every day, not sleeping," she said.
A child's words pepper the transcripts of Michelle's testimony in 1986. He put it down there, she told the court as she used dolls to demonstrate her attack. Faced with his victim's statement and medical evidence of a sexually transmitted disease, Kennedy cut a deal with prosecutors.
"It's not just over for him. For me, I have to deal with that for the rest of my life," she said.
In 1989, Kennedy emerged from prison a free man -- free of supervision and free to live wherever he wants.
Save two arrests for failing to change his address with the sex offender registry, for the last decade Kennedy has stayed off law enforcement's radar and out of Michelle's mind.
"I was doing fine. But ever since he moved in, on a daily basis, if I think about coming to my Grandma's, I have to think about what's going to happen," she said.
Three months ago, Kennedy moved next door to Michelle's Grandmother. Next to the house she grew up in and next to the gathering place for generations of her family.
"You walk outside your door and you see him, and then all of the memories come back about what happened and all we had to go through with her," said Michelle's Grandmother Barbara Caldwell.
As a once trusted family friend, Barbara Caldwell has no doubt Kennedy knows exactly where he is and seems to relish being there.
"I've seen him a few times and he looks at me and smiles and laughs about it and you know that hurts. You can't do nothing to a person who looks at you and stares you in the face knowing what he's done to you," said Michelle.
Kennedy claims he hasn't done anything, "I don't have no victim."
He denies the rape conviction, denies his prison time and even denies his identity, "James Walker. You got the wrong person."
On the state's sex offender registry, Kennedy lists the address next to Barbara Caldwell as his residence. The homeowner, Kennedy's mother-in-law, confirms he and her daughter rent the house.
So who is James Walker? Kennedy's wife says she has no idea, but he certainly looks a lot like her husband.
"Who would think that something like this would ever happen? Only a sick person would do something like this -- move next door to your victim," said Michelle.
Efforts to force Kennedy's eviction have failed. There is no law keeping ex-cons from their casualties.
"I think it should be a rule that he shouldn't be able to move, or any of them, should not be able to move next door to the victim," said Caldwell.
Until such a rule exists, Michelle makes a choice every time she wants to see her grandma; stay home or re-live her most vivid childhood memory.
Some have asked why Caldwell doesn't just move. She's lived in her house for 37 years. The issue of a restraining order has also come up but Caldwell says she applied and was denied.
Several lawmakers are taking a look at the issue for possible legislative fix next session.
Email your comments to Investigative Reporter Colleen McCarty
Roscoe Kennedy
