ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 16, 1993                   TAG: 9307160255
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: DEMING, N.M.                                LENGTH: Short


CHILD RAPIST, VICTIM OF ARSON, LEAVES STATE

A child rapist whose house in Washington state was torched the day he was released from prison has moved to his brother's house in this southern New Mexico town.

Joseph P. Gallardo arrived in Deming on Wednesday night and is staying with his brother, Pierre, a local silversmith and clockmaker, Police Chief Michael Carillo said Thursday.

Gallardo was released from prison Monday after serving 18 months of a four-year sentence for raping a 10-year-old girl.

Authorities in Lynnwood, Wash., calling Gallardo "an extremely dangerous, untreated sex offender" took the unusual step of passing out fliers with his picture and warning residents he was arriving from prison. The news prompted angry protests in the small wooded area of Washington.

Then, hours before Gallardo was freed Monday, an arsonist destroyed the house he had lived in for nearly 20 years before going to prison.

- Associated Press



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