Megan's Parents Blast Sex-Offender Article

HAMILTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. - The parents of Megan Kanka, the 7-year-old girl whose murder sparked a movement that led to Megan's Law, denounced a report that they had heard years earlier of a sex offender living in their neighborhood.

"My husband and I did nothing to cause Megan's death. We are not bad parents," Maureen Kanka said. "I did not know that three sex offenders were living in our neighborhood."

The New Jersey Law Journal reported Monday that the Kankas likely had heard that neighbor Joseph Cifelli was a convicted sex offender.

Two other sex offenders moved in with Cifelli and his mother 6 years ago. One of the men, twice-convicted child molester Jesse Timmendequas, 35, is accused of sexually assaulting and killing Megan in July 1994. The trial is set for September.

The journal article proposed that if the Kankas knew about a sex offender in the neighborhood, then Megan's Law, which allows for community notification when a convicted sex offender moves in, is based on the flawed premise that parental awareness leads to better protection for children.

Maureen Kanka said the only thing she'd ever heard about an abuser was several years ago, when an 11-year-old child told her that a man living in the neighborhood had hurt a child a long time ago.

At least four neighbors told the Journal that they believed the Kankas were aware of Cifelli's past, and two of them - James Rivera and Joan Kowalski - confirmed that in interviews.

But Rivera, appearing with the Kankas yesterday, said he had been misquoted by the Jounral. Another neighbor cited in the Journal also denied the report.