WPCNR THE HOMELESS NEWS. By John F. Bailey. March 28, 2006 UPDATED 9:52 A.M. March 29, 2006:  The night after a regular overnight guest at the 85 Court Street  County Drop In Shelter was stabbed to death on White Plains West Side, the forty or so nightly homeless, who had nothing to do with the crime,  found themselves returned to  “lock-in conditions”  at 85 Court Street tonight. WPCNR has learned this morning that the "return to lock down" was unrelated to the murder of Jermaine Pellettier Monday evening, but was instituted when it was discovered, according to sources that a Level 3 Sex Offender was allowed to leave the shelter about 2 A.M. Monday morning. WPCNR is attempting to confirm this with the Westchester County Department of Communications.

The "jail conditions" returned for the guests of the shelter, though the murder victim was fatally attacked an hour before he was even due to be picked up a the nightly Drop In Center pick-up point at Fisher Avenue and Dr. Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard. Above is a picture of a typical pickup scene (January 16, 2006) at the Drop-In Shelter Pickup point . Photo, WPCNR News Archive.

After the nightly homeless had assembled in the former basement conference room at the Department of Social Services, the Director of the operation passed out a new rules sheet with the number one rule being that no guest of the shelter would be allowed to leave the shelter once inside, going forward.

 “If you feel you want to leave, because you’re feeling anxious or something, you cannot go back (to the shelter) the next night” according to Geoffrey Ruff, who as a drop in shelter guest tonight received a copy of the rules. “The first person who wanders out of the drop in center is banned for life from the center,” Ruff said was his understanding of what was told the residents tonight. He said this was a reinstatement of the policy in effect the first night the shelter opened January 10. Ruff said, “This goes back to the civil rights issue. It’s not fair.”

Ruff pointed out to WPCNR  Wednesday morning that, since some shelter guests have relatives, "What if I had to leave for a family emergency? Is it right I should be banned indefinitely?"

There was no indication from the officials this reinstatement of the “you leave, you’re out of here rule” in effect the first night the shelter was opened was in response to Monday evening’s murder of Jermaine Pellettier. Pellettier, 20,  had been spending nights at 85 Court Street since March, according to White Plains Police. Others have reported the victim had been staying at the shelter since August 2005.

Pellettier was stabbed to death in a scuffle outside the Post Road Mini Mart at before 9:30 P.M. Monday evening, about 45 minutes before he was due to be picked up and taken to Court Street by Volunteers of America van from the shelter pick-up point on Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard and Fisher Avenue.  The vans by WPCNR observation usually pick up about 10: 30 P.M. Ruff said there was no discussion of Mr. Peellettier among the guests at 85 Court to his observation. Ruff said there appeared to be only one young man (who attends White Plains High School) in his twenties at the shelter this evening, who has moved over from the Open Arms Shelter.

Mr. Ruff told WPCNR Wednesday morning that the shelter personnel writes down the names of the persons who come to the 85 Court Street shelter each night. "It's simply to see who is here," Ruff told WPCNR today. Ruff charged that VOA has no nightly record of what the background is of the persons who stay in the shelter each night. When the shelter was opened by the county, White Plains was assured by Westchester County that nightly records of who was there and there backgrounds would be kept.