Homeless Sex Offender Arrested After Des Moines Library Assault

-- Library Journal, 10/11/2005

A 20-month-old toddler was abducted from the downtown library of the Des Moines Public Library, IA, and then sexually assaulted in a locked men’s room while library staffers urgently tried to open the door and get help. According to the Des Moines Register, James Carson Effler Jr., 32, grabbed the girl as she played on the floor near her baby sitter, who was using a library computer. Searching for the child, library employees heard her cry inside the restroom. They opened the door by taking off the handle, rescued the girl, and shut the suspect inside until police arrived. “Most of the police work was done by the library staff before we even arrived,” Capt. Kelly Willis told the newspaper. Dorothy Kelley, the library’s assistant director, was lauded for directing the search and response. “She even thought of positioning a guy below the window outside in case the guy tried to escape that way,” Detective Tom Follett told the Register. While Effler is listed on the a state sex offender registry, he was not covered by a new state law that bans child molesters from living within 2000 feet of a school or child care center, because his conviction involved an adult victim.