Four days before the birth of the Salisbury girl he would be accused of kidnapping from her bedroom and killing, Thomas J. Leggs Jr. pleaded guilty to his first sex offense.
Over the next 11 years, as Sarah Haley Foxwell grew into a bright, lively middle school student, Leggs was charged with five other crimes against girls and young women, including raping a teenager on a Delaware boardwalk and grabbing a 13-year-old the same day his newborn child was brought home from the hospital.
Despite convictions for a sex offense and the rape of a minor as well as multiple parole violations, Leggs, 30, has eluded serious jail time. The Baltimore Sun reviewed court records for all of Leggs' criminal cases and spoke with several witnesses and past accusers to gain insight into the man charged with the death of the cheerful sixth-grade student whose body was found in a frozen field on Christmas Day.
In past cases, Leggs' attorneys have cut deals enabling him to serve fractions of his prison sentences. One Maryland conviction was overturned because of a police mistake. And Leggs has benefited from states' laws that forbid past convictions from being admitted as evidence in nearly all cases. Juries haven't been persuaded to convict the tall, powerfully built bar bouncer - clearing him of all charges in one case.
A Wicomico County grand jury indicted Leggs last week on charges of first-degree murder and two sex offenses in Sarah's death. He had been held on charges of kidnapping and burglary in the girl's disappearance since late December.
A lawyer representing Leggs has denied that his client is involved in Sarah's disappearance and death.
The Sarah Foxwell case has prompted calls to change the state's sex offender laws, to include lifetime supervision for certain offenders, limits on early release and bringing Maryland into compliance with federal sex offender regulations.
Unless changes are made to the way sex offense cases are handled, predators will continue to rack up repeat offenses, advocates for sex abuse victims say.
"After all the things he's done, this man should not have been allowed to walk among normal people. And he definitely shouldn't have been allowed around kids," said Kaitlyn Alley, 23, who as a middle school student in 1999 brought charges against Leggs after, she says, he groped her and a friend at a mall in Salisbury.
"When I saw his picture [after Sarah's disappearance], my heart went right to my feet," she said. "I felt like I had just been punched in the stomach."
At the time of the 1999 mall case, Leggs, then 20, was "very smooth," flattering the preteens and trying to make them feel grown up, Alley recalled. But when he invited them on a "wild ride," they refused.
Although Alley and her friend testified against Leggs, a jury found him guilty of just one of 18 charges. And that conviction was later overturned by the Court of Appeals, which ruled that detectives used improper questioning techniques.
"Having to go to court at 12 years old was not something I ever wanted for myself," said Alley, who now lives in North Carolina. "I almost feel like we had wasted our time."
The mother of another girl who accused Leggs of harassment in 2004 blames the judicial system - whether the fault lies with the state's laws, with the prosecutors or with juries unconvinced by children's testimony - for Sarah's death.
"This little girl would be here today if the system hadn't failed in this case," said Patty Rothwell, who noticed Leggs hanging around her 13-year-old daughter and other teens on her porch in 2004 and recognized him from the sex offender registry.
Before Rothwell called police, Leggs told one of the girls on the porch, "I've watched you playing in your yard and I can tell you're a wild one," and slapped another girl present on the buttocks, according to court documents. Leggs, who had just that day taken his newborn daughter home from the hospital, was charged with two sex offenses and second-degree assault; a jury later acquitted him of all three counts.
A call to the jury foreman in the case - the only juror named in the court file - to find out why the panel was unconvinced was not returned.
"The jury had no idea that he was a registered sex offender," Rothwell said. "That makes you see [his actions] in a whole different light."
Under state law, evidence of past convictions can be introduced only in rare circumstances. A defendant would never be able to get a fair trial if jurors knew of previous convictions, defense experts said.
"Just because somebody did it before doesn't mean they did it again," said defense attorney Andrew I. Alperstein, who has no connection to this case.
But knowing a child sex offender's past can convince a jury that an action is not merely inappropriate but part of a consistent pattern, advocates say.
"Many sex offenders are masters of manipulation - they dress well, they're articulate. And the only witness is a minor," said Wicomico County State's Attorney Davis Ruark. "These are different kinds of cases and should be handled differently."
Rothwell, alarmed enough by the porch incident that she took out a restraining order against Leggs on behalf of her daughter, said she is "infuriated" and "disgusted" that Leggs was free despite repeated run-ins with the law. She says she and her daughter, now a college student, have been haunted by the news of Sarah's death.
Leggs' link to the Foxwell case has prompted scrutiny in Annapolis, with some lawmakers questioning why emergency legislation in 2006 that called for extended supervision of certain sex offenders and for the creation of a Sexual Offenders Advisory Board to assess the state's handling of such offenders both failed to get off the ground.
The O'Malley administration, which contends that the advisory board was not adequately set up and that other sex offender provisions are unworkable or unconstitutional, has responded by announcing that the board will be reactivated and strengthened, with former Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. as chairman.
Though arguing that Gov. Martin O'Malley had improved sex offender supervision without the advisory board, the administration also unveiled 2010 legislative initiatives that they say go beyond what was envisioned in 2006.
The House of Delegates is slated to hear a host of sex offender bills, including the governor's, on Feb. 23. A Senate hearing has not been scheduled.
Advocates welcome the measures, but many say they don't go far enough. And while the sex offender registry can be a helpful tool for vigilant parents, it's merely an address registry. An offender can be furtively molesting children but be listed as compliant on the registry because his address is up-to-date.
"If we don't convict child molesters, it doesn't matter how strong the penalties are or how well the registry is enforced," said Lisae C. Jordan, a lawyer with the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault. "People think, 'If I just check the sex offender registry, my children will be safe,' and that couldn't be further from the truth."
Leggs earned his spot on the state's sex offender registry after an October 1997 incident involving a 12-year-old girl in a wooded park in Salisbury. An 18-year-old student at Wicomico High School, Leggs had volunteered at a Halloween "haunted trail" and was given the task of jumping out and scaring passers-by, according to court documents.
According to court records, the teen introduced himself to three girls who told him they were 11 and 12 years old, and he spent the evening chatting and playing cards with them. He focused his attentions on one 12-year-old, described as "shy" by a friend. He held her hand, and then, as her friends sat nearby in the dark, fondled her breasts and genitals beneath her clothes.
The Sun does not name sexual crime victims, unless they consent to be identified.
"I didn't say anything. I was scared," the girl told police, according to documents. Leggs called her several times afterward and tried to meet her again, but she refused, documents say. The girl's parents, who learned of the incident by reading her diary, alerted police.
Leggs confessed to police, but added, "She wasn't acting like she wasn't enjoying it," according to court documents.
In a letter to the girl and her parents, Leggs wrote: "If I would have known before I went up her shirt and messed with her lower private parts she was only 12 I most certainly wouldn't [have] messed with her at all."
As part of a May 1998 agreement, Leggs pleaded guilty to a third-degree sex offense and was sentenced to five years with all but six months suspended. He was released after four months because of credits for good behavior.
The incident involving Kaitlyn Alley and her friend at the mall happened about a year after Leggs was released from prison. The other girl spotted Leggs, a neighbor and an acquaintance of her older sister, at an arcade. The man, then 20, invited them to join him outside for a cigarette.
"He tried to make us feel older so we would go along with him," Alley said.
While they were outside, Leggs asked the girls to go on a "wild ride" in his truck, then grabbed their breasts and buttocks, according to Alley and court records.
"At first, I was trying to be cute," said Alley. "Then it just made me feel gross. I was scared."
When the girls went back into the mall, Leggs followed them, lingering outside Claire's Boutique and Spencer's Gifts as they browsed jewelry and key chains, according to court records.
Alley spent the night at the other girl's house. Leggs climbed up to the bedroom window, according to Alley and court records. He banged on the window and tried to talk to them, but left after Alley's friend threatened to call police, Alley said.
"I was terrified that night. I don't think I even slept at all because I was afraid he was going to come back," Alley recalled, adding that her friend didn't tell her parents because she was afraid of getting in trouble.
About a week later, a school counselor noticed that the two girls seemed troubled, and Alley told her about Leggs. The counselor alerted the authorities.
Upon questioning by police, Leggs confessed to touching one of the girls on the buttocks but defended his actions as playful "messing around." A grand jury indicted him on 18 counts - six charges each of second-degree assault, third-degree sex offense and fourth-degree sex offense.
In an October 2000 trial, a jury found him guilty on one count of second-degree assault involving Alley, acquitted him of three charges involving her friend, and could not agree on a verdict for two sex offense charges; a mistrial was declared on those. Leggs was sentenced to five years for the offense and an additional 4 1/2 for violating the terms of his probation in a previous case.
But in March 2002, the Court of Appeals overturned Leggs' mall conviction, ruling that detectives falsely claimed mall security cameras had recorded his actions and "made vacant suggestions" that confessing would help Leggs' case. Rather than attempting to retry the case - which would have been a "very weak case" without his confession - prosecutors agreed to a plea deal in which he only served time for the violation of probation, Ruark said.
While awaiting trial in the mall case, Leggs was accused of a far more serious crime in Delaware - forcibly raping a 16-year-old stranger on the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk.
According to court documents, the girl told police that she was outside looking for her sister about 3 a.m. when Leggs, 20, struck up a conversation and started walking with her. Documents say that Leggs "began playing around, slap-boxing the victim," playfully snatched a menu from her pocket and then tried to persuade her to have sex.
The girl walked away, but soon came upon Leggs standing near a soda machine. She went to see what he was doing and he grabbed and raped her. The girl fought him and "continuously told the suspect to stop" to no avail, according to court documents.
Detectives found Leggs' footprints, as well as those of the girl, near the soda machine and spoke with several witnesses who backed up her story. One man said he saw Leggs giving the girl an "intense stare" that "did not appear affectionate" and looked "a little weird to him." Leggs was charged with second-degree rape.
The rape charge triggered a probation violation for Leggs' sentence in the haunted trail case, Delaware authorities said. The day after the June 26, 2000, rape, Leggs was sent to the Wicomico County detention center and ordered to serve the remaining 4 1/2 years of his sentence.
A few months later, the mall case went to trial and Leggs remained in Maryland custody until February 2001, when he was moved to Delaware. The rape case went to trial four months later and Leggs pleaded guilty to fourth-degree rape, a much less serious crime, as part of a plea agreement.
It is unclear why the prosecutor who handled the rape case, Deputy Attorney General Adam Gelof, agreed to the deal. Gelof declined to respond to numerous requests seeking an explanation.
Richard Andrews, the Delaware state prosecutor and Gelof's supervisor, said Gelof "made a judgment that it would be unlikely to receive a conviction" on the second-degree rape charge. He declined to elaborate on Gelof's reasoning, or say whether the victim or witnesses were willing to testify.
In 2001, fourth-degree rape carried a penalty of up to 30 months in prison, according to Delaware sentencing guidelines. Yet Gelof requested - and Superior Court Judge T. Henley Graves granted - a sentence of six years of probation plus time served, about five months. Leggs was released back to Maryland custody in July.
That month, Gelof forwarded to the judge a request from the 16-year-old victim for $100,000 restitution for "counseling, missed work, embarrassment" and "fear." The girl was "extremely uncooperative throughout ... this case," Gelof wrote. "Her request was made after she was specifically informed, by me, that only legitimate counseling, out-of-pocket expenses would be covered and NOT emotional distress."
The judge denied restitution, saying that the damages were "more appropriate to a civil claim."
Leggs remained incarcerated in Maryland until April 2003, when he was released early. Prison authorities said that it was unclear why Leggs was released early, but that it was likely he benefited from good behavior credits. Soon after, he began dating the woman who would become his wife, and they conceived a child.
On the same day in June 2004 his infant daughter came home from the hospital, Leggs stopped by the porch of Patty Rothwell, a neighbor. Several teens were present, and Leggs struck up a conversation with one of the girls, calling her "wild" and causing her to feel "uncomfortable," according to court documents. Grabbing a wooden rod from the porch, he whacked the girl on the buttocks and then spanked her, as the other children stood around, according to the documents.
Rothwell recalls her daughter running into the house and complaining about the man's bizarre behavior. The mother, who thought he might be a sex offender based on her previous checks of the online registry, confirmed her suspicions, and demanded that he leave at once.
Several children and Rothwell testified, with prosecutors warning Rothwell not to mention Leggs' status on the sex offender registry, she said. In February 2005, a jury found Leggs not guilty of all three counts, a verdict Rothwell calls "frustrating." Leggs was released from jail.
Ultimately, prosecutors need to show enough evidence in the current crime, said David Irwin, a defense attorney and former federal prosecutor. Advocates "are on the right track if they want to hang every alleged sex offender, but they're on the wrong track if they want anyone to ever have a fair trial," he said.
In July 2006, shortly after filing for divorce, Leggs' wife was granted a restraining order against him. In a court document, she wrote that Leggs became enraged because their child was ill, punched a wall and threatened to kill her. "I know he will come after me, because he is on probation in DE," she wrote. "And he has told me if I take legal action, he will kill me."
The ex-wife told a reporter who went to her home that she didn't want to speak to the media until "that [jerk] is dead or locked up for the rest of his life." Leggs' relatives also declined to be interviewed.
Leggs' last brush with the law before Sarah's disappearance came in September, when he was accused of breaking into the Ocean City apartment of a female acquaintance he had met while working as a bouncer at a bar popular with local residents.
A 24-year-old woman who worked nearby met Leggs at Pickles Pub, where he was well-liked and seemed "very friendly, fun and outgoing," she said.
"He told me he was divorced and had a kid, but he was looking for a relationship," said the woman, who asked that her name not be published because of the intimate nature of the case.
About a week before the break-in, the woman invited Leggs to her apartment but ordered him to leave when he became "too forward sexually," according to court documents.
On Sept. 11, he approached her at another bar, apologized and shared a taxi with her. He asked to enter her apartment, but she refused, according to the documents. A few hours later, she awoke to see a man she identified as Leggs standing above her bed with his shirt off and his pants pushed down to his knees, documents say.
She made him leave the apartment, then noticed that a gaping hole had been ripped in one window screen and another screen had been removed.
"I still can't sleep at night," the woman, who has since moved out of the country, said in a telephone interview. "He didn't look like himself. He had a crazy look in his eyes."
Leggs was charged with two misdemeanors: fourth-degree burglary and malicious destruction of property, according to documents. Police did not attempt to charge him with a sex offense because he was not entirely nude - he was wearing boxer shorts - and was not acting in an explicitly sexual manner, said Officer Michael Levy, an Ocean City police spokesman.
"In order to have a sex offense, there has to be an action," said Levy. "Just having his pants down is not an action. If there had been a charge to be made in that regard, we would have made it."
On a chilly morning in late December, Sarah Foxwell's grandfather walked into the bedroom she shared with a sister to wake the girls for school. The younger girl was asleep in her bed; Sarah was missing.
When the sister awoke, she recalled seeing "Tommy" slip into her bedroom in the night and leave with Sarah. Leggs had dated their aunt and legal guardian a few weeks before and knew that the family kept a key hidden under a flowerpot on the porch, authorities later said.
Police found a green toothbrush - Sarah's green toothbrush was missing from the house - in Leggs' Dodge pickup truck, along with a lollipop.
Less than a year after he had been off probation for the Delaware rape, Leggs was arrested again and charged with Sarah's kidnapping.
But where was Sarah? Had the girl been hidden away somewhere? Was she wandering in the bitter cold, still wearing her fuzzy red pajamas and pink John Deere shirt?
The girl's school picture - an affable smile, blue-gray eyes a little weary - was flashed on TV news across the state and across the country. More than 3,000 people pushed aside their holiday plans to spend Christmas Day searching for the child. Miracles had happened before on this day and could happen again, one woman told a reporter.
That night, in a heavy rain, Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis announced that the girl's body had been found in a field near the Delaware border.
A grand jury quickly indicted Leggs on charges of burglary and kidnapping, and, after authorities' methodical investigation, added murder and sex offense charges last week.
"No one is more outraged than I am that this man was still walking the streets," said Ruark, the Wicomico state's attorney who plans to personally prosecute Leggs.
"I can't think of a case that more plainly calls out for the death penalty," Ruark said.
Baltimore Sun reporters Julie Bykowicz and Arthur Hirsch contributed to this article.
What fixes have been proposed? The O'Malley administration is proposing several new measures:
•Reconstituting and strengthening the Sexual Offenders Advisory Board.
•Lifetime supervision for anyone convicted of rape or attempted rape, repeat offenders and those convicted of sexual abuse of a minor, among other offenses. That supervision, which could include GPS monitoring, would apply after any sentence or probation for the underlying crime. A pre-sentence investigation would occur. A violation of that supervision would result in more prison time without early release for good behavior.
•Bringing the state into compliance with the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, also known as the Adam Walsh Act of 2006, by making registration requirements retroactive; reclassifying sex offense categories; and requiring juveniles to publicly register as a sex offender if convicted as an adult, or if convicted of a serious offense in juvenile court and at least age 14.
•Giving judges authority to require sex offender registration for a person convicted of child pornography possession or indecent exposure in the presence of a minor.
•Expanding the categories of people required to have state and federal background checks. It would include checks on private employees running recreation centers, plus home health and residential agencies that provide services to minors.
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