Four "Level Three" sex offenders recently moved into a house in the 1400 block of Kent-Des Moines Road. Level three indicates high risk to re-offend.

The Des Moines Police Department put out bulletins about each of the four men and held a community meeting on May 21. About 90 people attended.

"Most people had questions about the laws relating to sex offenders and what our limitations were with working with them and restricting where they can live and what our process is," said Des Moines Police Sgt. Berry Sellers.

Police do not have authority over where sex offenders may live unless court-ordered restrictions exist. Sex offenders have been required to register since 1990. Before that, law enforcement did not know where sex offenders were living.

Every time a level three sex offender moves into the city Des Moines police collect pertinent information, puts out bulletins and hosts a public meeting, Sellers said.

"We always tell people in our presentation that this is four sex offenders that you know about. We generally run between about 70-80 sex offenders in the city of Des Moines. Most of those are Level one, which nobody knows about other than us," Sellers said.

Level one offenders are considered to present the lowest possible risk to the community and their likelihood to re-offend is regarded as minimal.

One Des Moines resident, who lives close to the house, heard about it for the first time on a TV news report May 21.

"I was really surprised because we had not heard about this happening, nor had we heard that there would be a public forum on it where we would get more information," said the resident who does not want her name to be used in this story.

"One of my concerns is that this home, this address, is within walking distance of Highline Community College, Saint Philomena's Parochial School, which goes up to eighth grade or something, Midway Elementary, Pacific Middle School and Mount Rainier High School."

All four sex offenders have served their sentences and are not wanted by the police. There are also people living in the same house who are not sex offenders, who are there for drug and alcohol treatment, Sellers said. The house is owned and operated by Pastor Bob Faulk's church, House of Mercy.

Royce Z. Goodenough, 47, pled guilty in 1999 to three counts of child molestation. He admitted to a total of 15 unreported sex crimes. Goodenough is active in a sex offender treatment program and is under state Department of Corrections (DOC) supervision.

Toney B. Bates, 39, committed sex offenses including indecent liberties, stalking, sexual battery and sexual assault with stranger females ranging in age from 20's to elderly, according to police. His most recent offence occurred in 2004. Bates is also under DOC supervision and is on a GPS monitoring system.

Frank R. Borders, 50, raped eight to 10 different females, police said. He completed a treatment program in 1983 and in 1987 began serving the remainder of two sentences. He is under DOC supervision for a drug offense.

David F. Bevers, 49, pled guilty to first-degree rape in 1985. His offenses include rape, child molestation, voyeurism, stalking, theft, assault, resisting arrest, vandalism and, most recently, Driving Under Influence in 2007. Bevers is not under DOC supervision.

More information about these and other sex offenders is available through the Washington State Patrol's Washington State Sex Offender Information Center, online at http://ml.waspc.org.