Last modified: Saturday, January 12, 2008 12:33 AM EST
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| Keith Sampson |
Condo seeks to ban rapist
BY DAVID LINTON SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
FALL RIVER - The condominium association where former Norton dance instructor and convicted child rapist Keith Sampson lived is seeking a court order to keep him off the property even after his release from prison.
Condo owners at the the Rolling Pines complex on Pinebrook Lane in South Easton "are rightfully concerned about the safety of their children" and have demanded the condo association take action, according to court records.
Rolling Pines is a 163-unit condominium complex occupied by mostly families with children ranging in age from infants to young adults, according to the complaint.
Sampson, 29, was convicted Thursday of statutory rape for having sex with a 15-year-old Norton dance student in 2005 after engaging in drinking games with her at a Taunton motel. He is being held in jail without bail and is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 22.
In a separate case, he was charged with rape of a child and drugging for sexual intercourse about a week before his trial began in the Norton case.
Sampson, while free on bail in the Norton case, is accused of bringing another 15-year-old dance student he met at a Johnston, R.I., dance studio to his mother's condominium on Dec. 29.
Police allege he gave the teen alcohol and raped her.
He was arrested at the condo at 34 Pinebrook Lane by Easton police in the early morning hours of Dec. 30, allegedly after the girl text-messaged a friend with her cell phone, police said.
The complaint references his arrest and trial, and includes several news accounts about the cases.
Sampson has denied the allegations in the Easton incident and testified at this week's trial that he never had sex with the Norton girl.
A jury found him innocent of one statutory rape count involving the girl a month after the hotel incident.
Sampson and his mother, Alma, the owner of a condo in the complex, are listed as defendants in the civil suit.
The Sun Chronicle could not reach Alma Sampson Friday. She has no listed telephone number.
Lawyers for Rolling Pines filed the suit four days after his arrest in Easton.
A hearing was supposed to be held Thursday, but was postponed to Jan. 15 in Fall River Superior Court because of Sampson's rape trial.
Dedham lawyer Ellen A. Shapiro, who represents the condo association, said the association must first obtain a preliminary injunction to keep Sampson off the property, but ultimately wants the court to make the order permanent. |