MARIETTA - Marietta Board of Education Chairman Randy Weiner is outraged that a convicted child molester has moved into his neighborhood that is teeming with children - even if the sex offender is in compliance with the law.

"It raises suspicions of the surrounding neighborhood when a convicted child molester chooses to live in the middle of a stable family neighborhood," Weiner said.

Last week, Dennis James Costello, 53, leased a home on Evelyn Street owned by Craig Douglass for one year, a home located 0.64 of a mile from West Side Elementary School and 0.98 of a mile from Marietta Middle School. There are four elementary school bus stops within a block of the area, Weiner said.

Douglass, who lives in Cobb, said while he didn't know he was leasing to a sex offender, he didn't ask or check either. But now that the lease has been signed, he claims he can't get out of it for fear of being sued.

Costello offered money to a 14-year-old boy to enter his motel room off Cobb Parkway in Kennesaw and perform a sexual act in early 2009, according to court documents. The charge, which he pleaded guilty to on April 14, was enticing a child for indecent purposes. The guilty plea could have brought a maximum of 40 years imprisonment and a fine of $200,000, but Cobb Superior Court Judge George Kreeger sentenced him to 5 years probation.

Marietta Police Commander Marty Ferrell said Costello is legally allowed to live in the residence.

There are a string of guidelines sex offenders have to follow - from being regularly checked upon by their probation officer, to entering a treatment program, to not living or working within 1,000 feet of any place where children may gather.

"The problem we have as officers is there are guidelines that lawmakers set forth," Ferrell said. "It ties our hands. We can't run them out of any place. They do have rights and he's in compliance with Georgia law."

Linda Wimberly, a grandmother who lives a few doors down from Costello on Evelyn Street, teaches piano lessons to the neighborhood children. Wimberly said she learned about Costello last week when a neighbor received an automatic call from the state notifying her that a sex offender had moved into their neighborhood.

"I don't want this element in our neighborhood, either for my own personal business or for my friends, or even if I don't know the families," Wimberly said. "... I don't want any child's childhood experience to be changed because there's someone in the neighborhood that does not have the same values that the rest of us do."

Councilman Johnny Sinclair, who represents the area, said residents have been contacting him upset about the news of their new neighbor.

"I can't stand the thought of a convicted child molester living around anybody's children," Sinclair said.

Sinclair, Weiner and Wimberly are upset with Douglass for renting to Costello.

"It enrages me that the owner of the house on Evelyn Street would rent a house to a convicted child molester knowing there are children living on that street. That really angers me and everyone else too," Weiner said.

Sinclair said, "I shared with [Douglass] my displeasure, and I think it should be a call for everybody who owns rental property, just as you do a credit check on a potential renter, to also do a criminal background check."

Douglass said people are wrong to pick on him. Just check the sexual offenders database, he said. There are hundreds of sex offenders living in Cobb County.

And finding a place for the offenders to live can be difficult, said Dr. James Stark, of Marietta, a clinical psychologist who specializes in sex offender evaluation and treatment.

"We had one guy who moved seven times in one year. Can you imagine what that would do to you? He moved because a church mission moved in or one discovered that a hotel swimming pool was within a 1,000 feet," Stark said.

Stark, a graduate of the Marietta High School Class of 1958, says he understands the concerns of parents, but the fear of sex offenders has become irrational.

"Nobody wants to see anybody abused," Stark said, adding that he is a grandfather and can identify with parents being fearful.

However, Stark said back in the 1980s, the problem was no one wanted to believe there were sex offenders in their community.

"So we did a very good job of getting people aware that it does happen, and then it swung from one extreme to another extreme and we're in danger of having sex offender panic," he said.

As an expert witness, Stark has been qualified in 29 Georgia judicial circuits and 25 state juvenile courts. His office works with more than 110 sex offenders. Georgia has about 18,000 sex offenders registered in the state.

Stark said just because somebody is called a sex offender doesn't necessarily mean they have done a heinous crime.

"We had two guys that got in trouble for peeing on a wall and somebody saw them. One guy did it off the back of his deck in the backyard. The general public just doesn't know how crazy this has gotten," he said.

Stark said child molesters are far more likely to prey on children they know or are related to.

"(Parents) need to know that the most likely abusers are family and somebody the child knows. 'Stranger danger' does happen, but it's not all that often," he said

Moreover, Stark said very few sex offenders are repeat offenders if they are treated.

"I think it's treatable and I think it's manageable. I don't think it's incurable," he said.

Stark said the recidivism rate when an offender goes untreated is 13 percent in the first five years, 19 percent in the first ten years, 23 percent in the first 15, and 27 percent in the first 20.

"If you do regular polygraphs, if they're being supervised by a probation officer, if they're having individual therapy and group therapy, then he is even less likely to re-offend," he said.

Stark advises parents to teach their child self-protection, such as how to say "no" and "get away," and to encourage the child to report someone who tries to touch them inappropriately.