15 Sex Offenders Work for 1 Small Business in Manchester

The closed gates of Scrap Masters Corporate Headquarters in Manchester, MI.

There are roughly 2110 people who live in the village of Manchester. As in any town, some of our number will have been convicted of a crime -- some even, perhaps, of a crime of a sexual nature.  According to the Michigan Public Sex Offender Registry, however, while only nine sex offenders live in the 48158 zip code,  twenty-five more sex offenders commute from other cities into downtown Manchester for work.

Of the sex offenders who live and/or work in Manchester, two work for Moveable Feast, a locally-based catering company employing 20-25 people; nine more work at Martinrea, which employs approximately 150 employees at its plant on M-52; while others work for unique employers or not at all.

However, more than half of all the sex offenders working in the Village of Manchester work for one company, Scrap Masters, Inc (SMI). Scrap Masters is a recycling and wholesale scrap business that has been headquartered in Manchester MI since 2009. It is located at the west end of Madison Street. SMI's scrapyard sits at the river bend, but parts of the property on which it sits come just to the edge of Main Street, near the Dollar General.

Based on publicly available data, Scrap Master appears to employ between 15 and 20 people. 15 of SMI's employees are convicted of sex offenders and have been required to register yearly with the Michigan State Police. One of those sex offenders is the president of the company and the son of the CEO. None of SMI's employees who are registered sex offenders live in Manchester. Put simply, it appears that almost every employee at Scrap Masters, including its President, is a registered sex offender. The Mirror has reached out to the owners of the business by phone and email. Our contact has been acknowledged, but no response has been offered to explain these facts.

(A Note about the Registry: offenders report at least annually to the Michigan State Police. The information therein could be as much as a year out of date. We refer to people as "working" at these businesses, though some may have moved on in the last few months, while the Registry has not been updated.)

Residential sex offender "clusters" in many US cities have been the unintended consequences of increasingly strict regulation of where those with convictions for sex offenses may live and work. Long Island, Indianapolis, and Miami have all seen ghettoization of registered sex offenders.

In Michigan, offenders who are required to register may not work in “student safety zones” 1000 feet or fewer from school property.

Scrap Masters is outside all student safety zones in Manchester.

SMI has been family-owned and operated since 1989 and boasts three locations in addition to the Manchester plant: a facility in Toccoa, GA  and two additional, unspecified US locations, which are believed to be two properties located at 2372 US-223 and 7751 E. US-223, both in Blissfield, MI. SMI has also done business in Michigan as Corporate Wide Recyclers and Comprehensive Plastic Recovery.  SMI’s CEO is Keith Hansen.

Bryce Hansen, 40, President of SMI and an amateur nature photographer, was convicted of possession of child sexually abusive material in Pontiac in 2000. He commutes from Brooklyn to Manchester for work at Scrap Masters in a blue BMW.

Hansen supervises a staff at Scrap Masters that includes fourteen other men who have prior convictions for sex crimes. Here are basic facts about these men drawn from the registry. More information can found in the registry itself. (Links are provided below.)

Although this information is publicly available, it is of a sensitive nature, subject to error, and without comment from its subjects. The Mirror takes seriously its obligation not to contribute to an atmosphere of fear or violence and urges readers to review the original data themselves and to proceed calmly.

All information regarding these individuals is based on information registrants provided at the time of their last check-in with the Michigan State Police, which the MSP, in turn, makes publicly available. Because registrants must update their information with the MSP at least yearly (sometimes more often, depending on their offenses and the Tier assigned), the most dated of this information should be no more than a year old.

Employee one, 47, was convicted in 1992 of Criminal Sexual Conduct in the Fourth Degree with Force/Coercion. When he was last in compliance, he commuted from Jackson to Manchester for work at Scrap Masters. Social media suggest he may have since moved out of state.

Employee two, 48, was convicted in Adrian in 2006 of Criminal Sexual Conduct Second Degree and commutes from Adrian to Manchester for work at Scrap Masters.

Employee three, 54, was convicted in Jackson in 1992 of Criminal Sexual Conduct in the Fourth Degree with Force/Coercion. He commutes from Jackson to Manchester for work at Scrap Masters.

Employee four, 36, was convicted in 2000 in Howell of Criminal Sexual Conduct in the Second Degree on a person under 13. He commutes from Jackson to Manchester for work at Scrap Masters.

Employee five, 34, was convicted of Communicating with Another to Commit a Crime in 2006. He commutes from Jackson to Manchester for work at Scrap Masters.

Employee six, 26, was convicted of both Criminal Sexual Conduct in the Second Degree and Criminal Sexual Conduct in the Third Degree in Hillsdale in 2006. He commutes from Jackson to Manchester for work at Scrap Masters.

Employee seven, 44, was convicted of Criminal Sexual Conduct in the Second Degree on a person under thirteen in 1995 in Jackson. He is currently non-compliant with his registration requirement and the State Police are interested in information regarding his whereabouts. However, when he registered last, he reported commuting from Jackson to Manchester for work at Scrap Masters.

Employee eight, 27, was convicted of two counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct — Assault with Intent to Commit Sexual Penetration in 2006 in Adrian. He commutes from Tecumseh to Manchester for work at Scrap Masters.

Employee nine, 47, was convicted in Illinois of unknown crime(s) in 2007 and, a few months later, in Adrian of Accosting a Child for an Immoral Purpose. He commutes from Adrian to Manchester for work at Scrap Masters.

Employee ten, 22, was convicted in Jackson in 2011 of attempting Criminal Sexual Conduct Third Degree, with Force/Coercion. He commutes from Jackson to Manchester for work at Scrap Masters.

Employee eleven, 58, was convicted in 2004 of both Possession of Child Sexually Abusive Material and Criminal Sexual Conduct in the Second Degree on a person under thirteen. He commutes from Tecumseh to Manchester for work at Scrap Masters.

Employee twelve, 56, was convicted in Ann Arbor in 1988 of Criminal Sexual Conduct in the First Degree on a person under thirteen. He commutes from Jackson to Manchester for work at Scrap Masters.

Employee thirteen, 33, was convicted in 1996 of Criminal Sexual Conduct in the First Degree. He commutes from Adrian to Manchester for work at Scrap Masters.

Employee fourteen, 56, was convicted in 1984 in Adrian of two counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct in the First Degree. Prior to his re-incarceration, he too was commuting from Adrian to Manchester to work for Scrap Masters.

The Michigan Public Sex Offender Registry is a large, publicly searchable online database, established in 1999. (There are 37,513 people in the state of Michigan who are listed on the Michigan Public Sex Offender Registry.) Searches in the database are limited by the engine's parameters. Multiple searches (including searches by Town or zip code) relevant to the Manchester area turned up zero or incomplete results. However, other kinds of searches have yielded more information.

9 registered sex offenders living in the 48158 zip code

28 registered sex offenders working in a 2 mile radius of Village Hall

The Manchester Mirror reached out to the Michigan State Police for comment on this unusual concentration of sex offenders in one business. The State Police were not previously aware of this concentration.

Sgt. Chris Pascoe of the Michigan State Police, Brighton Barracks, observed: "There are only certain lines of work available to people with various backgrounds -- not just sex offenders. If you've got a criminal record, there are some jobs you can't get. There are more physical jobs available -- like roofing, road construction... You just need a strong back and willingness to work. And of course, people make mistakes -- and everyone needs to work, right? These are just generalities based on my experience that there are certain parts of the labor force where it's easier to get jobs. But I don't know of any problems with individuals there."

The Mirror also contacted the Washtenaw County Sheriff Department regarding the cluster of sex offenders.  Sgt. Paul Cook reviewed MIPSOR, noting that two registrants were non-compliant.  There were not, however, warrants for their arrests -- which Sgt. Cook said would have to be initiated by Jackson County since both men resided there.

Sgt. Cook also echoed Sgt. Pascoe’s sentiments that all individuals having the right to work, that no crime is being committed by this cluster, and cautioned against making assumptions.

Keith Hansen, SMI's CEO, Bryce Hansen, SMI's President and Dale Hansen, SMI's Vice President of Sales and Purchasing, have all been contacted and have declined to comment.

A map produced by the Michigan Public Sex Offender Registry.

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