A child molester is living next door to a school.

But in the case of this sex offender, he didn't choose the residence on his own. He was sent there by a judge to serve his sentence.

The following report by Team 4's Jim Parsons first aired July 5, 2006, on WTAE Channel 4 Action News at 5 p.m.

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Brian Sukitch of Coraopolis is serving a sentence for indecent assault on a 12-year-old girl.

But it's not the kind of sentence you might expect for a child molester whose name will appear on Pennsylvania's Megan's Law list for the next 10 years.

On most mornings, 39-year old Sukitch walks out of a Stowe Township apartment house and strolls to his car, past the school yard where young students at Stephen Foster kindergarten play.

What the parents of these kids and others in the residential neighborhood don't know is that Sukitch is serving a sentence for indecent assault on a 12-year-old girl.

Brian Sukitch was supposed to spend at least 11 1/2 months behind bars at the Allegheny County Jail. Judge John Zottola imposed that sentence in March.

Just three weeks after he checked in, his defense attorney filed a motion to have him released to a halfway house. Zottola granted the motion after the district attorney's office failed to file any objection in writing.

Amy Barth is a family friend and former cheerleading coach of Sukitch's young victim.

Barth: "I couldn't believe it. I was blown away. Three weeks after he's put in jail, he's back out in a halfway house, where he has so much freedom."

Freedom to drive to the grocery store.

To hop on Interstate 79 and head to Wexford, where he helps out at his father's beer and hot dog store.

And freedom to go to his full-time job as a supervisor for UPS at the airport.

His photo does not yet appear on Pennsylvania's Megan's Law Web site, even though his conviction for indecent assault on a minor requires it.

Barth: "Why does he have all this freedom? He has more freedom now than after he has served his sentence. Because then, he'll have to have his face on that Web site."

Parsons: "Brian Sukitch, what are you doing out of jail after only three weeks of serving a sentence that was supposed to be 11 1/2 months long? Brian, are you going to answer my question?"

Elaine Sukitch: "He pulled it off. He's out already. He's in a halfway house."

Elaine Sukitch is Brian's ex-wife and the mother of the 12-year-old victim, Brian's former stepchild.

Elaine Sukitch: "What's wrong with it is that he has caused a lot of devastation in the lives of others, and there needs to be a debt paid for that, and he's not paying that debt."

After paying his debt for three weeks in jail, Sukitch is now living at ADA's House in Stowe, an alternative sentencing facility designed for nonviolent offenders with drug or alcohol problems.

Sukitch doesn't have a substance abuse problem, according to court records.

Owner Panfilo DiCenzo says he accepted Sukitch at the request of his attorney, Michael DeRiso, whose father, Jerome, serves on the board of directors for the facility.

Twenty other jail inmates are also living at ADA's House, though the county recently stopped sending new prisoners there.

Team 4 has learned that jail officials have concerns about ADA's House.

In a letter to the facility last month, Deputy Warden Greg Grogan wrote, "Due to inadequacies discovered by jail personnel ... a further investigation is warranted and will be conducted. The outcome of this investigation will determine the suitability of ADA's House as an alternative affiliate to the county jail."

That investigation is still ongoing.

In the meantime, Sukitch remains at ADA's House, next door to a kindergarten and surrounded by homes with young children. Their parents have no idea.

Parsons: "He is a convicted sex offender and he is living in your community. Did you know this?"

Mini Rickerd, Stowe resident: "No, I did not."

Parsons: "How do you feel about this, now that I tell you?"

Rickerd: "Oh my God almighty, there are so many kids around here and I don't want that. If it's only supposed to be for drug and alcohol, then why do we got child molesters in there? And are they really keeping a good eye on them?"

Mike Manko, a spokesman for the district attorney's office, issued Team 4 a statement about this case, saying the district attorney objected to a halfway house for Brian Sukitch.

"While we raised an objection as to the sentence being imposed at alternative housing, we respect the judge's authority to impose sentence at his discretion," the spokesman said.

But Zottola's law clerk tells a different version.

Joseph Mistick told Team 4 that "...at no time were any formal objections raised to the placement (of Brian Sukitch) at ADA's House."

There is a change in the system. Under a new agreement that took effect last month, judges in Allegheny County will no longer choose which halfway house a defendant goes to. That will be up to the jail warden.