"Hoarders" Star A Convicted Sex Offender

OCTOBER 18--In another low for reality television, a Florida man featured last month as a doll-collecting eccentric on the hit show “Hoarders” is a registered sex offender whose rap sheet includes three years in a Michigan prison for an attempted sex attack on an 18-year-old coed and a felony assault conviction for throwing a 72-year-old woman to the ground following a fender bender, records show.

The man introduced on the A&E network show as Patrick Donovan Flanagan O’Shannahan, or “Sir Patrick,” is actually Roger Sisson, a 65-year-old repeat felon who has created a fantastical, fabricated biography that includes a purported knighthood and a celebrated military career that left him with a chest full of medals.

This phony back story was never challenged on “Hoarders,” where Sisson was portrayed as a good-humored oddball who claimed that the doll collection in his rented Port Charlotte home was worth more than $50,000. “I am King Arthur, I am Peter Pan, I am the White Knight, so I create my own world which I live in,” he proclaimed on the show. “I’m addicted to beauty. I like beautiful women, flowers. Yes, that is my addiction.” Sisson, amidst his belongings, is pictured above in a scene from “Hoarders.”

In fact, Sisson--who was not identified by his real name on “Hoarders”--is a very creepy little man, according to police and court records. His rap sheet includes an assortment of felony and misdemeanor busts, which have resulted in a variety of mug shots (nine of which can be viewed here).

Convicted in 1981 of an attempted sex attack on an 18-year-old Eastern Michigan University student, Sisson, 35 at the time, was sentenced to two to five years in prison. He ended up serving slightly more than three years.

According to court and police records, Sisson attacked the teenager after treating the student and three friends to an expensive dinner at an Ann Arbor restaurant (he paid the $270 check and $51 tip with bad checks). After driving the students back to their dorm, Sisson offered to give the victim a ride to her boyfriend’s dorm.

In a handwritten statement to police, the student said that she accepted the ride. At one point, she recalled, Sisson stopped the car and, “He said that he wanted me.” Sisson drove to the end of a street, grabbed the student’s hand and bent her fingers backward. “He told me several times to take my pants off,” she wrote.

The woman began grappling with Sisson inside his 1972 Ford station wagon, biting his hand so hard she drew blood. “Then he reached for my throat to strangle me,” she recalled. The teenager, who said Sisson broke her glasses during the struggle, fled the vehicle after nearly biting off Sisson’s thumb. Running and crying, she got into a car occupied by a woman who quickly locked the vehicle’s door. She then saw Sisson get out of his car and begin running towards the woman’s vehicle before turning around and returning to his car.

When questioned by police, Sisson waived his Miranda rights and confirmed the student’s account of the attack, according to a police report. He admitted grabbing the teen “by the hand and squeezed her fingers and told her to take her pants off.” After he was bitten on the right thumb, Sisson told investigators that “he let her exit the vehicle.”

A notation in police records indicates that, at the time of Sisson’s bust for the assault on the Eastern Michigan student, a felony warrant for sexual assault had been issued for him in adjoining Oakland County. The disposition of that matter (and another felony case) could not be immediately determined since archived court records have yet to be retrieved.

As a result of his Michigan conviction, Sisson was required to register as a sex offender. Strangely, though, the Florida registry lists him under the name “Patrick Donavan O’Shannahan,” and records his birth date as September 24, 1955. The name “Roger Sisson” is included among his many aliases. Sisson was born on September 24, 1945.

A Florida Department of Law Enforcement rap sheet reveals that Sisson, under the O’Shannahan surname, has been arrested a half-dozen times since 1994. He has been busted for trespassing, fraud, failing to register as a sex offender, violating probation, and aggravated battery on a person over 65.

A Brevard County Sheriff’s Office report details Sisson’s 2002 arrest for pushing a 72-year-old woman to the ground after he got into a minor auto accident with the senior citizen. The woman, Joyce Dessart, suffered a broken hip in the fall.

Sisson told deputies that when he offered to help Dessart up, she just said, “My hip.” Thinking that the pensioner was faking an injury, Sisson recalled yelling at her, “Quit faking and acting like a bitch.” When Brevard County Fire Rescue officers arrived at the accident scene, a deputy asked Sisson “to stop yelling and to step to the side so the Fire Department could get to Joyce.”

Sisson subsequently copped to a felony plea for the Dessart assault and was sentenced to six months in the county jail. Upon his release, he was placed on probation for 4 ½ years.

Sisson did not respond to a message left on his voicemail or a note sent to his e-mail address.

It is unclear how Sisson passed muster with A&E or the company that produces “Hoarders” for the cable network. A&E reported last month that the show’s third season debut set a ratings record, with “Hoarders” recording “the best season debut for any original series in network history.” (10 pages)