Oscar Rowell has been arrested again. The notorious Delray Beach man, back in police custody, this time for trespassing. It is his second arrest in two days.
He was arrested Thursday morning, accused of indecent exposure at the beach in Delray. Since then, the convicted rapist and registered sex offender was released from jail and arrested again for trespassing Friday afternoon.
According to records, this is at least his 32nd arrest, in a life of crime that goes back to the ‘70’s. He will spend Friday night in jail ahead of his Saturday morning first appearance.
“Again and again officers are seeing Oscar Rowell break the law in Delray Beach and we’re going to continue to arrest him,” Dani Moschella, a spokeswoman for the Delray Beach Police Department, said.
The career criminal has spent 20 of his 59 years in prison. That includes time served for a 2008 rape of an elderly woman in Delray Beach.
Anne Margo Cannon recalls her mom being scared after spotting Rowell in her Delray Beach neighborhood after Hurricane Irma. Her mother was afraid to sleep with her windows open.
“At some point somebody needs to take a step back and say ‘what’s the deal here?’ This is testing my faith in the system,” Cannon said.
So, I asked the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office. In a statement they said in part, “Law enforcement and the State Attorney’s Office work together to try to remove offenders from the streets to ensure these people receive lengthy sentences."
“The only thing law enforcement can do is arrest him when he commits a crime,” Moschella said.
“I’m scared that my children or some other children will be exposed to his indecent behavior, that someone may get hurt,” Cannon said. “It seems to me that the Delray Beach Police Department is spending a tremendous amount of time trying to protect people from becoming his next victim and this is taking them away from other problems.”
Rowell will appear before a judge Saturday morning and Cannon will be there. In fact, prosecutors are asking concerned members of the community and the police to show up and make a plea to the judge to keep Rowell locked up.
First appearance is scheduled for 9 a.m. at the main Palm Beach County Sheriff’s building off of Gun Club Road.