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Lacking Income, Sex Offender Lives Under Crosstown

Tribune photo by CHRIS CONYER

Zackery Hicks has no shelter from the elements and spends much of his nights avoiding snakes and rodents.

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By RAY REYES | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 18, 2008

TAMPA - Zackery Hicks, 42, needed a place to live after serving 14 years in prison on a robbery conviction. As a registered sex offender, however, Hicks wasn't allowed to live within 1,000 feet of a school, daycare center, public park, playground or bus stop.

Without steady income, Hicks couldn't afford an apartment. Living with his stepmother in Tampa was out of the question because her home is near a bus stop and a daycare.

Homeless shelters turned him away when they found out about his sex offender status, he said. In 1986, when he was 19, he was convicted on a charge of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child under 16.

So he lives in a field at 1318 Channelside Drive, under the Selmon Crosstown Expressway and across the street from a shipyard.

A curfew ordered by the state parole commission means Hicks must stay in that field from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. daily. If he leaves, an electronic monitoring device will go off and inform his probation officer.

"I'm doing everything in my power to keep my sanity," Hicks said. "I was better off in prison than under this place."

The state is aware Hicks' registered address is a field, Florida Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said. Of the 57 homeless registered sex offenders in Florida, Plessinger said, three are in the Tampa Bay area. More than 30 are in Miami.

"Even if that's a field, it's not illegal for him to live there," Plessinger said. "We're doing everything we can do to work with these offenders and minimize the situation. It's a very difficult situation."

Hicks said he has found intermittent work as a day laborer. When he earns enough on that job, he can afford a night's stay at a motel. On those occasions, he calls his parole officer who adjusts the tracking device.

But Hicks said he has not found work in nine days and has stayed in his designated field during his curfew hours.

He was released from prison Aug. 20 and has called the grassy field home for more than two weeks.

"It's dangerous out here," Hicks said. He has no shelter from inclement weather.

So he moves around the field at night, away from snakes and rodents and hardly sleeps. When it gets too dark, he sets up camp closer to the road and under the streetlights. He has befriended some people who had happened by and asked about his situation. On some days, those people visit and bring dinner.

Plessinger said Hicks has been diligent in following the terms of his parole and has not violated the terms of his probation. Hicks said he is just trying to get his life back on track, although it means for now, he has to live in an open field.

"I'm not saying I was a perfect angel all my life," he said. "But there's people who want to change their lives. Every door I go to, I turn the knob, it opens for a split second and it slams in my face."

Reporter Josh Poltilove contributed to this report. Reporter Ray Reyes can be reached at (813) 259-7920 or rreyes@tampatrib.com.

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