Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
A Sweet Home predatory sex offender was arrested last week for parole violation after he followed an 89-year-old woman home and was found giving her a backrub.
Recently out of prison on parole, Scott Anthony Hall, 49, turned himself in to Sweet Home Police on July 24 on a state parole and probation warrant for parole violation related to the incident.
The warrant carried a term of 180 days in prison, Sweet Home Detective Cyndi Pichardo said.
“A family member of an 89-year-old female reported that a male subject had befriended their grandmother at Safeway,” Pichardo said, and then he followed her home.
While the woman was putting groceries in her car, the man approached her, noticing she had a bad back, Police Chief Bob Burford said. He offered to follow her home and help her with her groceries.
He told the woman that he takes care of elderly people and that he was a semi-retired stocks trader who had moved to Sweet Home to care for his grandmother, Pichardo said. He also mentioned that he gives massages.
Because he was well-dressed and had good manners, she acquiesced, Burford said. At her home, he offered to give her a massage. Her adult grandson arrived to find her shirt up and bra unfastened with the man giving her a backrub. The grandson alerted other family members, who contacted the police.
The victim identified the man as Hall through a photo lineup, Pichardo said.
It hadn’t risen to the level of a crime, and the woman was allowing the backrub, Burford said, but the situation could easily have escalated into a crime.
“Because of the intrusion of a family member, it didn’t get that far,” he said. Because it violated his parole, police were able to arrest him.
During the investigation, information was provided to his parole officer, and his parole was subsequently revoked, Pichardo said.
“With his history, I think we’ve got a very, very lucky woman,” Burford said.
Hall has shown a persistent predatory pattern, Pichardo said. He is listed as a predatory sex offender and is on the Oregon State Police sex offender website.
Sweet Home Police arrested him in 1992 for breaking into Twin Oaks Rehabilitation Center through a window and raping a 71-year-old woman. Initially charged with first-degree rape, sexual abuse and burglary, he was convicted on first-degree sodomy and burglary.
Earlier the same night, he had been arrested on suspicion of first-degree public indecency, criminal mischief and criminal trespass after exposing himself and masturbating in the parking lot of a downtown restaurant.
In 2005, Sweet Home Police contacted him after he took photos of children at Safeway, Burford said.
That’s not a crime, but because he is on supervision, it violates his probation, Pichardo said.
He has approximately four arrests for sex crimes, Burford said, as well as violations of his probation and parole because he has not adhered to his restrictions.