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Sarasota Sex Offender Charged In Attack On Neighbor

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By ANTHONY CORMIER

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: June 24, 2008

SARASOTA — A registered sex offender crept into a 75-year-old woman's home and tried to molest her early Monday, deputies say.

Investigators found a latex glove at the woman's home in the Tri-Par Estates mobile home park and arrested Larry D. Goff about 4:30 a.m.

Deputies say the woman was awakened by a hand creeping up her nightgown and recognized her attacker as Goff, who lives in the mobile home park, deputies said.

She screamed and he ran.

When deputies confronted Goff, he was sweaty and wearing a black T-shirt and black shorts, as described by the woman.

Deputies say they found a pair of black boots in his closet, still wet. A box of latex gloves was in a bathroom cabinet in the home. Goff was charged with attempted sexual battery.

The woman, whose identity is being withheld by the Herald-Tribune because of the nature of the crime, was shaken but unhurt. She left her home to stay with family.

"It's awful what he did," said a son-in-law from New Hampshire. "Just sickening."

Goff, 47, has arrests dating to the 1980s for burglary, assault and drug possession.

In 1991, he was charged with raping a woman. Details of that case were not immediately available, but the charge landed Goff on Florida's sex offender database, which requires offenders to register with law enforcement and alert neighbors about their past.

Goff's wife, Judith, says that Tri-Par residents have fought with the couple since they moved there about five years ago.

The park has a 55-and-older age restriction, and neighbors tried to have Goff evicted because of the age requirements -- and his criminal history, his wife said.

Judith Goff said she was at home asleep and her husband was in bed next to her when the break-in occurred.

Goff, who is out of work and collects disability payments, took medicine for depression and went to sleep about 2:30 a.m., his wife said.

Judith Goff said she woke up when police banged on the door and that her husband was still in bed. She said she does not think he attacked the neighbor and that the charge is a conspiracy by Tri-Par residents who want Goff to move.

Judith Goff, 65, won her dispute with the park and her husband was allowed to stay because her name is on the mortgage. Since then, though, neighbors have made her life "a living hell," she said.

"Nothing but trouble," she said. "They have nothing better to do than meddle in our lives, gossip about Larry because of his past. I'm just so sick and tired of it."

Larry Goff is being held without bail at Sarasota County Jail.

In the past year, records show, deputies have gone to Goff's home about 15 times. Once, authorities accused him of choking his wife, slamming her onto a bed and punching her in the face.

She later called the fight a disagreement and prosecutors dropped a criminal charge against him.

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