Prosecutor: Accused Sex Offender Died While Fleeing Vigilante Gang

[Ed: The U.K. continues to lead the world in levels of unbridled hysteria over sex offenders with mob justice becoming increasingly more common.

I find it interesting that the English, renowned for their historically harsh mistreatment, both physical and psychological, of their children and, of course, their stoicism, can become so irrational when the topic turns to kids and sex.

The Queen herself and Prince Phillip are reported to have treated their own children with an icy coldness which would be almost unimaginable today. And this was a model loosely emulated down the ladder of class which, upon arriving at its bottom, frequently took the form of actual child-beating.

Of course, I must hasten to add that, over the last several decades, major cultural shifts have occurred in the British Isles and that parental treatment of children has vastly improved. That the froideur reserved for children in the past has become an anachronism in today's Britain, is certainly to the good and laudable.

But there are other characteristics, admirable qualities, which have diminished as well and I rather miss them. There was a rationalism and objectivity which seem to have completely vanished amongst the paroxysms of grief expressed in the aftermath of Princess Diana's death. And, as in the States, the freedom of children to roam about unchaperoned by fussing adults has virtually disappeared. And then there's the blind rage which we see now today when the subject turns to "paedophiles".

I wonder if these cultural shifts are somehow connected. One thing I am sure of: television has something to do with it. ]

A British man suspected of sexually abusing a teen fell to his death while trying to run from a group of five vigilantes, a prosecutor said Thursday.

Several individual showed up at the apartment of 44-year-old Scott Campbell in July 2008, hours after a 13-year-old boy claimed Campbell sexually assaulted him, the Manchester Evening News reported. Prosecutor Peter Cadwallader told a Manchester Crown Court that the group was armed with a variety of weapons, including a baseball bat, hammer and bicycle chain.

Campbell was able to close his door before the group could force their way in to his second floor apartment and tried to climb over his balcony in an attempt to escape as the gang banged on his front door, the Daily Mail newspaper reported. But he lost his grip on a rail and fell to the ground, dying instantly.

The five suspects allegedly tried to hide their weapons from CCTV cameras, which also captured Campbell's death.

"The only sensible conclusion is that they intended to give the man a beating,” the Manchester Evening News quoted Cadwallader as saying. “This was a vigilante group seeking revenge.”

The five suspects have been charged with manslaughter.

Guilty plea avoids trial for mother who beat offender

The new neighbor was a convicted sex offender, so Tammy Lee Gibson attacked him with an aluminum baseball bat.

Gibson, a Pierce County resident, pleaded guilty Monday to third-degree assault stemming from the incident on June 16 of last year. It was a plea bargain, reduced from original charges of second-degree assault and felony harassment.

Gibson, 40, faces up to eight months in jail. Her sentencing is set for for Feb. 27 in Pierce County Superior Court.

Deputy prosecutor Sunni Ko said the guilty plea resolves a case that could have turned into a tricky trial. Initial police reports of the incident said the victim, William Allen Baldwin, might have suffered a broken arm. He didn’t.

Charging papers said Gibson saw fliers announcing that Baldwin, a Level 3 sex offender, had moved into the 7900 block of River Road East to live with a relative. Gibson, armed with the small aluminum bat, went to the address and knocked. Baldwin answered the door.

Gibson accused him of molesting her children. Baldwin hadn’t. Gibson started swinging.

Ko said a trial would have raised several questions. Would the small bat qualify as a deadly weapon? Would a jury sympathize with Gibson, allegedly a crime victim in the past?

“That could certainly sway a juror,” Ko said. “We took a lot of that into consideration. This is a plea to a felony, which still recognizes this person who was assaulted.” 

Teesside mum fears she has been mistakenly linked to a paedophile

Dec 1 2008 Evening Gazette

A Stockton mum-of-three fears her window was smashed because she shares the same surname as a sex offender on her street.

But Colleen Waterhouse says she is no relation to Andrew Peter Waterhouse, who is facing jail this week for spying on teenage girls as they undressed at a swimming pool.

The mum was just getting ready to go to work when a missile was thrown through her living room window at around 4.30pm on Friday, November 21.

“I just heard a big crack,” she said. “I opened the blinds and the front pane had gone. It was a bit of a shock.

“My children were in the room. My little girl was very upset and my youngest son was shaken up. But when I went outside I couldn’t see anybody.”

Colleen, who works at the University Hospital of North Tees, lives with her three children, James, 11, Matthew, nine, and Elizabeth, three, on Etherley Walk, Hardwick, Stockton.

She said when police came to investigate the incident they told her she may have been mistakenly targeted for having the same surname as Andrew Peter Waterhouse.

“They thought that was the reason for this. I’d never had any problems before his court case,” she said.

As reported, Andrew Waterhouse, who also lives in Etherley Walk, admitted voyeurism when he appeared at Teesside Magistrates’ Court last month and is awaiting sentencing on Wednesday.

The court heard the 42-year-old used a shaving mirror to spy on a group of girls aged 13 and 14 as they undressed at Splash swimming baths, in Stockton, on November 3.

Naked Jogging Priest Must Register As Sex Offender

Robert Whipkey Given Five Years Probation, Must Register As Sex Offender For Life

GREELEY, Colo. -- A former Catholic priest, who was caught jogging naked in the small Weld County town of Frederick, was given five years probation Thursday and was ordered to register as a sex offender.

Robert Whipkey was also ordered not to have contact with any children younger than 18, including family members. He must also serve 100 hours of community service and pay various court fees.

Whipkey's attorney has filed an appeal so the sentencing has been stayed until the appeal is heard, the Weld County District Attorney's Office said. No date has been set on the appeal.

Weld County Judge Timothy Kerns could have sentenced Whipkey up to 18 months in prison.

Whipkey, who was ordained in 1983, was the pastor of St. Theresa Catholic Church in Frederick when he was arrested June 22, 2007 by an off-duty police officer who saw him walking nude along one of the main streets in Frederick just before daybreak.

The priest told the police officer that he was nude because he "sweats a lot" when he exercises. He said he had been jogging on the track at nearby Frederick High School.

Whipkey told Kerns before sentencing that the indecent exposure conviction had ruined his life.

"This conviction has cost me my career and my life," Whipkey is quoted as saying by the Greeley Tribune.

The case attracted nationwide attention.

[Ed: while the advisability of running around a track naked in the predawn hours as a means of controlling perspiration might be questioned given today's climate of hysteria, that this "offense" rises to the level of a sex offense is quite preposterous. When one compares the widescale acceptance of nudity in much of Europe (for example, in Germany, nudity in public parks is quite commonplace), it should surprise no one that America is regarded by Europeans as extremely puritanical. But leaving aside comparisons to other countries, in our own country, a mere thirty years ago, "streaking"was a phenomenon that played out across the nation. Streaking, in which (mostly) adolescents ran around town, their school auditoriums, across the football field during a game, etc. completely nude was seen as a kind of exuberant display of personal courage and audacity.  Everyone (except for the most humorless prudes) laughed and maybe blushed but got over it very quickly. The "streakers" were not imprisoned nor did they face lifetime registration as sex offenders, nor were they otherwise "pathologized" and permanently castigated.  What the hell has happened to this country??]

Residency restrictions for sex offenders popular, but ineffective

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Despite research that shows sex offender residency requirements actually hamper the rehabilitation of offenders, jurisdictions across the country continue to pass them, including Allegheny County last year.

Experts say the laws, which prohibit convicted sex offenders from living within a certain distance of schools, day care centers and parks, also don't work to help cut down on recidivism.

These types of residency restrictions have been passed in at least 30 states and thousands of municipalities nationwide. Even as prosecutors, criminal justice researchers and child advocates say they don't work, parents and legislators continue to push for the tough laws.

County Councilman Vince Gastgeb, R-Bethel Park, who was the primary author of the local bill passed in October 2007, said he wrote the law that parents wanted.

Mr. Gastgeb said he originally intended for the restrictions to apply only to offenders whose victims were children. But after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit against the county this month, Mr. Gastgeb learned that the law actually applies to all registered sex offenders, no matter their victims' ages.

The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of six sex offenders who said they could not find anywhere to live because of the restrictions.

At the time the suit was filed, Mr. Gastgeb said he would amend the law so that it applied only to sex offenders whose victims are children.

But days later, he changed his mind.

"I do think it's legally sound, and I do think we'll prevail in court," Mr. Gastgeb said. "So a certain section of the county is off-limits. That's the way it is.

"There's plenty of places for people to live."

Even if there are "plenty of places for people to live," those who have studied the issue know that residency restrictions push sex offenders outside of metropolitan areas into rural communities.

That means less access to family, housing, employment and treatment programs, said Dr. Jill S. Levenson, a professor at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., who has been studying sex crime policy for six years.

"At first glance, these laws sound good in theory," she said. "But it's much more complex than that."

The visceral reaction of "not in my neighborhood," needs to be balanced with pragmatism, she said.

Part of the problem, she continued, is that residency restrictions are often one-size-fits-all.

They often don't distinguish among the types of crimes that have been committed, Dr. Levenson said. Just because someone is designated a sex offender under state law does not necessarily mean that that person is a sexually violent predator or a pedophile.

Further, studies conducted by the Minnesota Department of Corrections and Colorado Department of Public Safety have not shown any correlation between sex offender recidivism and living near schools or parks.

And though residency restrictions might prohibit a sex offender from living in a certain neighborhood, they can't keep such a person from sitting across the street from a playground.

"They really do nothing at all to stop sex offenders from having access to children during the day," Dr. Levenson said.

On the other hand, there is ample scientific evidence that shows residency laws do interfere with the reintegration of sex offenders into society.

"Criminal offenders who have stable housing, stable employment and support systems in their lives, those people are less likely to go on and commit new crimes," Dr. Levenson said.

Sex offender residency restrictions were approved in Iowa in 2002, though the law was put on hold pending the outcome of a court case. In 2005, the state Supreme Court upheld the law there.

Law enforcement opposition

Almost from inception, law enforcement entities have been fighting to get it repealed, said Corwin Ritchie, the executive director of the Iowa County Attorneys Association.

The prosecutors' group issued a policy statement on the issue, outlining what it sees as numerous problems.

In addition, residency restrictions have made it less likely for people charged with sex offenses to plead guilty, for fear that they will lose their homes.

That means that more cases must go to trial -- potentially causing additional trauma for victims -- or more offenders go free because sex crimes can be hard to prove.

Another important factor to be considered, Mr. Ritchie said, is the vast amount of resources being spent to enforce residency laws with few tangible results.

In Iowa, according to his organization, the state has lost track of more than half of its registered sex offenders since restrictions went into place, making the jobs of probation and parole officers much more difficult and time-consuming.

Also, Department of Justice research shows that at least 90 percent of children who are abused are victimized by someone they know and trust.

"[The incidence of] stranger danger is tiny," Mr. Ritchie said. "It's tragic, but its incidence is really, really small."

And despite public opinions to the contrary, research shows that sex offenders are among the least likely criminals to re-offend, Dr. Levenson said.

But in Iowa, legislators don't want to hear any of that, Mr. Ritchie said.

"We ran into the politics of it," he continued. "No one wants to be seen as soft on sex offenders.

"It's just politically untenable."

Soon after Iowa's law went into effect, a small panel of legislators who wrote it told Mr. Ritchie that they were wrong and that it should be overturned, he said.

But those same lawmakers said they would not be the ones to do it, he said. Instead, they left it up to the courts.

"They're a fearful bunch," he said. "They've done such a good job of selling it, they can't turn and go the other way."

Advocates for repealing Iowa's law came close two sessions ago, Mr. Ritchie said. They will take up the fight again in 2009.

"The general public doesn't really care if it's good public policy," Mr. Ritchie said.

Parents insistent

The decision by Mr. Gastgeb to write the local law was influenced by listening to many parents in Mt. Lebanon speak at community meetings.

They were outraged last year to learn that a convicted sex offender was living near Howe Elementary School in the Sunset Hills neighborhood.

Last week, parents there continued to support the residency restriction law.

"It would be very difficult to have a whole lot of sympathy for sex offenders at all, having three children," said Kathy Graziano, who lives in the community.

One of the reasons she feels so strongly about the restriction is that the Mt. Lebanon School District does not have a busing system. Many students walk to and from school, she said, which makes them more vulnerable.

"There were children passing his residence at any time of the day," Ms. Graziano said. "We don't have buses . . . or designated adults that would be one more set of eyes."

She doesn't care if local sex offenders have access to housing or jobs.

"Then I suppose they should work out in a cornfield in the middle of Iowa," she said.

Another neighbor, Bill Crock, who has four children, believes the residency restriction should stick.

"From what I've read, these guys don't get better," he said. "It's a lifelong problem."

A teacher, who also lives in the community, was the only one to express mixed feelings on the issue.

She wouldn't give her name for fear of reprisal from her school district, but the woman said she felt sorry for the offenders.

Though the most important thing is to protect children, she also added that sex offenders do have to live somewhere.

That's a notion that Dr. Levenson backed up.

"When sex offenders become homeless, they do become more difficult for probation and parole to track," she said. "That, in itself, defeats the very purpose of Megan's Law."

Though most jurisdictions pass residency restrictions when they are introduced, the Kansas legislature in 2006 chose not to after listening to expert testimony during two days of hearings.

"This is not about sympathy for criminal offenders," Dr. Levenson said. "Housing instability is one of the strongest indicators of recidivism in the criminal justice literature."

If jurisdictions want to enforce some residency restrictions, Dr. Levenson suggests that it be done only after an evaluation is performed to assess the person's potential for future danger.

Parents should not rely simply on sex offender registries to keep their children safe, she said.

"With the reliance on sex offender registries, we do parents a disservice," she said. "They need to be aware of what to look for in anyone who spends time with their child."

[Ed: Continuing to promulgate bad public policy, despite the evidence of both its ineffectiveness and damage to society, is the definition of irrational behavior. When politicians pander to the most irrational and  hotheaded amongst us to the exclusion of all reason, we must fear for our safety and our liberty. ]

Sex offender magician disappears

SURREY ADVERTISER (U.K.)

A POPULAR children’s entertainer, who was exposed as a sex offender this week, has fled after his Leatherhead home was trashed by vigilantes.

Kevin Hart, whose stage name is Billy Wand, was arrested by Surrey Police last year after pornographic images of children were found on his computer – for which he was punished with just a caution.

This week, locals took the law into their own hands and vandalised the 49-year-old’s Kingston Road home, smashing his windows with rocks and spray-painting the word “Paedo” in red over his front door and on the side of the house.

Mr Hart, who appeared at the TV programme Blue Peter’s 40th birthday celebration and was signed up to help with the Government’s Sure Start scheme for children under five, was nowhere to be seen this week.

In the past he has worked at events across Surrey as a children’s entertainer and magician and even performed his famous Punch and Judy show in front of dozens of children at Wotton Village fete in August last year – just a month before his arrest.

Police officers raided his home and seized his computer in September after tracking him down though his credit card details.

A Surrey Police spokesman said: “A 49-year-old man from Leatherhead was arrested on September 5, 2007, on suspicion of making indecent images of children.

"On Friday, October 12, 2007, he was cautioned and placed on the sex offenders’ register for two years.

“Taking into account his previous record and the number of pictures found, the CPS found it appropriate to give a caution in this case.”

He would not comment on the number or seriousness of the images found.

The police force would not comment directly about the attack on the magician’s home this week but said its Public Protection Risk Management Unit (PPRMU) was looking into the case as a whole.

A spokesman added: “Surrey Police works with the Probation Service, Prison Service and other agencies under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) to manage the risk posed to the public by sexual and violent offenders who have been rel-eased from prison on licence or are registered sex offenders.

“We cannot discuss the circumstances of individual cases but every person subject to MAPPA receives a full risk assessment, which takes into account the perceived risk to local people and the views of the community."

[Ed: In the midst of a witchhunt even greater in scale than that underway in the U.S., comes this tale from our English neighbors that serves as an additional, chiliing, confirmation of the obvious purposes to which "public shaming" and public registries are being put. It would seem the level of hysteria in the U.K. has overtaken all reason and that the mobs may now give full expression to their most vile instincts. But the U.S. is not far behind...]

DPS to post Texas sex offenders' job data

[Ed: Yes, you read that correctly. Now the sex offender registry website in Texas will include the place of employment of registered sex offenders. Imagine the implications...]

By TRACI SHURLEYStar-Telegram staff writerThis year, visitors to the Texas Department of Public Safety's Web site can find out where the state's registered sex offenders are working and can sign up for a notification system for their home ZIP code.The changes, which resulted from a $1.2 million software upgrade, will be welcomed by some North Texans.
In Mansfield, members of one neighborhood group that recently organized around concerns about where sex offenders live say they're glad to get any information they can. Sex offender employment information will help residents keep tabs on those they consider dangerous, said Steve Kyle, a Mansfield father of two who helped organize a recent meeting about a registered sex offender in his neighborhood.
"The guy comes and goes at very odd hours," Kyle said. "In our community, we'd at least be able to know if he's working, and if we knew where he was working, it might give you some indication of when he would be coming and going."
The changes
About 47,000 registered sex offenders live in Texas. Their names, birth dates, addresses, physical descriptions including shoe size and limited information about the conviction for which they are required to register is available on the DPS Web site, said Tela Mange, an agency spokeswoman.
The upgrade came about in part because of federal regulations related to the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, Mange said. That act requires states to comply with a number of disclosure rules by 2010 or risk losing some federal funds. The new features also reflect Attorney General Greg Abbott's opinions about what information should be available to the public.
Twice in February 2007, Abbott issued opinions that law enforcement agencies should release sex offenders' employment information.
Besides work information and e-mail notifications, the new system will also allow people to search for a full listing of sex offenders in their ZIP code. The software doesn't now allow generation of a ZIP code list of more than 100 names, Mange said.
Restrictions in place
Registered sex offenders can be restricted in where they live and work as long as they are on parole or probation.
But those restrictions don't continue after an offender successfully completes supervision.
As a result, many Tarrant County communities, including Arlington, Southlake, Watauga and Richland Hills, have adopted ordinances in the past few years to limit where sex offenders can live, typically more than 1,000 feet from schools or other places where children gather.
In Mansfield, the subject of sex offender residency restrictions has been discussed among city leaders for several months and played a large role in the resignation of the mayor this year. Now, in part because of concerns from Kyle's community, the issue is once again on the City Council's agenda.
Mansfield's Web site has its own listing of sex offenders with a link to the state database. Residents can also sign up for computerized RSS alerts that notify them of any new or changed registration in the city.
Kyle said he didn't know about the city's notification system until after a man convicted of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl moved into his Walnut Creek Valley neighborhood.
Now, he said, parents in the neighborhood are cautioning their children more than ever and keeping an eye on their new neighbor. Giving the public more information about offenders would make that easier, he said.
Caution offered
Shari Julian, who teaches in Texas Wesleyan University's criminal justice and sociology department, said she worries that the workplace information could result in "collateral damage" by creating dangerous situations for businesses that have chosen to give a registered sex offender a second chance.
Julian said she's not justifying sex offenders' crimes. But, she said, the state needs to do a better job of separating classes of offenders if authorities are going to continue making more information available about their lives and adding more restrictions.
"We have to figure out who got on there because somebody's dad was ticked off because their 16-year-old daughter was seeing a guy who just turned 20 and they ended up getting married and having kids," Julian said.
Sgt. Cheryl Johnson, who oversees the Fort Worth Police Department's sex crimes, registration, apprehension and monitoring unit, said the addition of work addresses to the registry will be helpful to the public. But she cautions that people need to remember that not every sexual predator can be found by looking on the registry Web site.
"I'm just as concerned about the sex offenders we don't know about as I am the ones that are registered with us," Johnson said.
This report includes material from the Star-Telegram archives.
PROPOSED MANSFIELD ORDINANCE
The Mansfield City Council is scheduled tonight to consider regulations that would apply to registered sex offenders who were convicted of crimes against children younger than 16. Offenders who have completed their probation or parole are not now limited in where they can live. The first of three required votes and the first of two public hearings are set for the 7 p.m. meeting at City Hall, 1200 E. Broad St.
The proposal would:
Prohibit offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school, day care, playground, youth center, public swimming pool or video arcade.
Forbid renting a house or trailer to an offender not allowed to live within a 1,000-foot safety zone.
Require police to mail alerts to neighborhoods when an offender moves nearby. Police would also notify the school district.
Fine an offender up to $500 for each day of a violation.
In the know
Texas Department of Public Safety Web site: www.txdps.state.tx.us

Sex-offender law ignores real harm, Human Rights Watch

Sarah Tofte is a U.S. researcher for Human Rights Watch

State lawmakers will need to decide whether to comply with the federal Adam Walsh Act on sex offenders or lose federal money for law enforcement. The choice for states is to dramatically increase their registration and community-notification requirements for convicted sex offenders by 2009 or lose significant federal law enforcement grant money.

It doesn't seem like a difficult choice. Who wouldn't want to support laws targeting convicted sex offenders and be paid for it? Yet legislatures from Arizona to Illinois to Rhode Island are leaning against implementing the law. Because once you get past the painful emotions and look hard at the problem of child sexual abuse, it turns out that sex-offender registration and community-notification laws might not actually prevent sexual violence.

Sex-offender laws are based on two popular myths about child abuse: that children have most to fear from strangers, and that sex offenders will repeat their crimes. In fact, more than 90 percent of child sexual abuse is committed by someone the child knows. And authoritative studies show that three out of four sex offenders do not re-offend within 15 years of release from prison. In fact, 87 percent of sex crimes are committed by people with no previous sex-offense convictions.

The Adam Walsh Act doesn't tackle the real dangers to children, and contains disturbing provisions. It requires states to register and identify online children 14 and older who commit sex offenses. Many states treat juvenile sex offenders differently from adults, exempting them from community notification. They understand that young sex offenders respond well to treatment and have an excellent chance of rehabilitation - and that crimes they committed as children should not haunt the rest of their lives. Thus the Illinois legislature, knowing it was acting in conflict with the Adam Walsh Act, recently overrode the governor's veto of a law exempting child offenders from online registration.

In the past, federal law required only that states register sexually violent offenders for 15 years. The new act requires states to register virtually anyone convicted of a sex offense. This would force some states to significantly expand their registries. While it may seem a good idea to place all convicted sex offenders on a registry, law enforcement officials and child-safety advocates say that expanding the registry to include all offenders reduces its usefulness in helping law enforcement to identify and monitor individuals considered a real risk to the community.

The Adam Walsh Act also extends from 15 years to 25 years or life the time someone is on a registry and subject to community notification, without the possibility of petitioning to be removed. If Congress had consulted experts on sexual violence, it would have found that the longer a convicted sex offender lives offense-free in the community, the less likely he is to re-offend, which is why experts often advocate giving convicted sex offenders an opportunity to be released from registry requirements upon a showing of rehabilitation.

Implementing the changes required by the act will cost states a lot of money. At a legislative hearing in Arizona, witnesses testified that the state would lose between $700,000 and $800,000 in federal law enforcement grants if it didn't comply with the law - but that it would cost millions of dollars to expand the state's sex-offender laws to comply with the Adam Walsh Act.

Unnecessarily expansive community-notification laws may drive more offenders underground, away from supportive services like treatment, and away from the supervision and monitoring of law enforcement. Harsh enduring consequences also provide little incentive for former offenders to live without re-offending: as one registrant told Human Rights Watch, "No one believes I can change, so why even try?"

Sarah Tofte is a U.S. researcher for Human Rights Watch and the author of "No Easy Answers: Sex Offender Laws in the U.S." E-mail her through HRW at hrwnyc@hrw.org.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20080225_Sex-offender_law_ignores_real_harm.html

Connecticut considers special sex offender identification

Newsday.com By SUSAN HAIGH

HARTFORD, Conn. In addition to height, weight, address and willingness to be an organ donor, more driver's licenses across the nation include another piece of information _ whether the carrier is a registered sex offender. It's part of a growing effort by state policy-makers to help police keep better tabs on pedophiles, rapists and others who must sign up with state-run, offender registries and compel them to comply with restrictions on their whereabouts. Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell this month proposed a new law requiring registered sex offenders to obtain a driver's license or state identification card that includes a code identifying them as a sex offender. "It just gives the police department another tool, something else they can use," she said. A similar law took effect in Florida on Aug. 1. In that state, IDs feature the number of each state statute that the offender violated on the bottom right corner. Florida officials hope to finish updating the cards of sexual offenders and predators by this month. "If you didn't know about the statute, you wouldn't know what that is," said Ann Nucatola, a Florida Department of Highway Safety spokesman. Other states make the carriers' crimes more clear to an untrained eye. An Oklahoma law that took effect in November calls for driver's licenses and ID cards to display the words "sex offender" in three places. Offenders are required to renew the cards annually. Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Delaware also have laws requiring registered sex offenders to carry identification that identifies their status, the U.S. Government and Accounting Office said. West Virginia and Kansas both require state ID cards or licenses to include the information, but don't require offenders to obtain the IDs. In Connecticut, it's uncertain if Rell, a Republican, will succeed in pushing the bill through the Democrat-controlled legislature. Some lawmakers are already suggesting the proposal goes too far and could hamper offenders' efforts to find jobs and housing after leaving prison. "It's so far-reaching," said Rep. William Dyson, D-New Haven, who has worked to pass legislation that helps ex-offenders reintegrate into society. "We don't put a brand on murderers, people who've killed someone." Rell said the designation would be as innocuous as the code that identifies if a driver should wear corrective lenses. "It's not like, you know, the scarlet letter or anything like that," she said. "If you have some identifying tool on that driver's license, how different is that than anything else that's already on there now?" Dyson said it won't take long for the public to know what the designation means. "I'm not about the business of defending sex offenders. But what does that do to all us eventually?" he asked. "We're going to create this colony of people that are going to be so far outside the mainstream." ___ AP Political Writer Susan Haigh has been covering the Connecticut statehouse and political scene since 1994. Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Treatment of sexual offenders debated

By Morning Sentinel staff, Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel, Augusta, Maine

WATERVILLE -- It didn't take long for residents of a South End neighborhood to learn they had a sex offender living among them.

Within days of being notified that a 37-year-old offender had moved to Waterville, police officers last month went door to door, armed with colorful leaflets describing crimes against the victim, a child under the age of 8.

Under Maine law, most sex offenders must tell police where they are living and when and where they move -- for the rest of their lives. They also are listed on the Maine Sex Offender Registry.

And police, in turn, must notify the community of the offender's presence.

But the law does not dictate how law enforcement gives that notice. They can post a flyer in the town office or at the general store or do as Waterville police did and pass out leaflets.

So, is it ethical to make a public display of a community's sex offenders?

Is doing so punishing someone twice?

Is it even a good idea?

GOOD INTENTIONS?

Some professionals say the practice of publicly posting the names and pictures of sex offenders amounts to double punishment and unfairly -- even dangerously -- targets an offender who has served his prison sentence.

Others, especially law enforcement officers, say the community is alerted to a potential threat and is therefore a safer place to live.

Bob McArthur, a retired professor of philosophy at Colby College, said that while intentions usually are good, there is potential harm to the person on the registry who may be refused housing, denied employment and could become a target of vigilantes.

"It's clear that there's a potential harm and the question is, can you justify this because of some potential good," McArthur said. "It's trying to figure out what the good is of these additional notifications."

He said the sex offender notification process started with Megan's Law, enacted by Congress in 1996 after 7-year-old Megan Kanka of New Jersey was raped and killed by a neighbor who was a convicted sex offender.

McArthur said he does not believe public disclosures, including the registry, discourage repeat offenders.

"The usual claim in defense of a registry is, first of all, that the crimes are against children and we have a higher obligation to protect children than we do property or adults," he said.

"Secondly, that there is a greater likelihood of repeat offense from such individuals than other crimes -- that's the twin justification that is used in support of the sex registry idea."

At the China Village General Store, co-owner Belinda Winn said she posted a notice of a resident sex offender who had moved to town, but then took it down after people objected.

"We had it up for a couple of weeks," she said.

"Some people didn't like it. They didn't want to see their neighbor up there. We took it down after we felt all of our regular customers saw it."

Mike Spaulding, constable for the town of Benton, said he first began posting images of registered sex offenders last fall at the request of the Kennebec County Sheriff's Department.

At first, Spaulding said, it was the printed photograph and case details of just one Benton resident.

"Then, there were concerned citizens who told the selectmen that they wanted them all to be posted, regardless of the nature of the crime," Spaulding said.

He said the decision to post the names and pictures at the town office came after a selectmen's meeting in October.

There are now six posters of Benton's registered sex offenders.

"This is happening more and more," Spaulding said.

"I personally feel every case has to be taken on an individual basis."

Spaulding said the postings are not intended to be additional punishment, but the safety of the town's children has to be a top priority.

"Community protection comes first," he said.

CIVIL LIBERTIES AT STAKE?

Zachary Heiden, legal director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, disagrees.

Heiden said that if people cannot find meaningful work or a decent place to live because their picture is hanging in the local post office or general store, they are going to be forced to live outside of the community and perhaps on a path toward breaking the law.

"We all want our neighborhoods to be safe, but distributing photos of convicted individuals can actually make us less safe," Heiden said. "The goal of our criminal justice system should be to turn people who break the law into people who obey the law.

"Instead, it seems like these officers are trying to marginalize people who have been convicted and served their sentences, which would make it more likely that they will commit crimes again."

He questioned the fairness of singling out sex offenders from other criminals for greater punishment.

"We do not, for example, have a burglars' registry or a robbers' registry and those crimes are serious," he said.

Colby College philosophy professor Justin Steinberg took the idea a step further, saying that more harm than good can come from public postings of registered sex offenders.

He said privacy rights come into play early in the discussion.

"We, as a society, value autonomy and privacy and it would seem that in order to justifiably override these values, there must, minimally, be clear social benefits to doing so," Steinberg said.

"In this case, the consequences are not so clear."

Steinberg acknowledged that repeat offender rates can be high among certain kinds of sex offenders, but public postings might not do any good.

"My understanding is that there is not much evidence to suggest that these warning systems do much to protect individuals," he said. "While such efforts might encourage vigilance and safety, I suspect that they generally do little more than inspire unnecessary fear in a community and a more acute sense of ostracism on the part of the offender.

"In short, my guess is that more harm than good comes from publicizing this information."

Kennebec County Sheriff Randall Liberty said individual towns decide whether to post sex offenders' information.

"I believe that it's important to inform neighborhoods of sex offenders because the potential victims are often defenseless," Liberty said.

"The parents need to be informed of the surrounding potential threats. Although offenders have served their time, they most often struggle not to reoffend."

When a registered sex offender has been convicted and subsequently released from custody, county detectives do a background investigation.

"They make a recommendation to the sheriff as to the threat level to the community," Liberty said.

"If based upon the facts of the case, I believe that the offender is a potential threat, I direct my deputies to notify the neighbors. The postings include the town offices."

VIGILANCE IS THE KEY

Ronald Raymond, a retired chief deputy for the Kennebec County Sheriff's Department and now a volunteer sex offender resource officer for the county, said a town office, the school system or the local post office are the best places to begin with the notification process.

Again, whether to display or distribute the flyers is up to the store owner or town official and it is not required by law.

It is then up to each of those entities to determine how they want to handle that information. Some slip the paperwork into a file; others post them on the wall, he said.

In Somerset County, Sheriff Barry DeLong said his office will notify residents if the sex offender is being released from the Somerset County jail.

But generally, he said, he and his staff rely on the Maine Sex Offender Registry to spread the word in Maine's third-largest county.

The list is effective, police say, because parents, school officials and daycare providers know who is living in their town.

Raymond took over last summer and had 87 registered sex offenders in the city of Waterville alone, he said.

"When we were able to maintain and accurately keep up with the list because of the manpower, the list rapidly went down to 56 or 57 -- that's because of constant critiquing -- you're on them all the time, you go out and check on them."

Some leave town, some are arrested and the list dwindles, he said. Because they are under a microscope, there are fewer who stick around.

"The program that the sheriff and the Waterville police chief came up with proved to be very valuable in terms of maintaining the list and that's the key to the whole sex offender registry -- maintaining the list accurately," Raymond said.

"As a parent and a citizen we feel much more comfortable knowing who our neighbors are and what their background is so that allows us to participate in keeping our kids safe."

Waterville Police Chief Joseph Massey, who is a selectman in neighboring Clinton, said both communities print out flyers on registered sex offenders and distribute them in neighborhoods where a sex offender has moved.

"Whenever we get someone who is required to register or let us know of an address change, we have a detective who takes that case, researches it, researches the original offense, where it was, what the crime was, was there violence involved, how young the children were and take a look at where they are going to be living," Massey said.

He said the notification area may be expanded if the offender's crime was particularly serious or if he or she lives in a neighborhood with a heavy concentration of children.

"I think it's important that you know if there's a sex offender living beside you," Massey said.

Doug Harlow -- 861-9244

dharlow@centralmaine.com

State fosters homelessness with offender registry law

Daytona News Journal Editorial

Because of its perverse laws against sex offenders -- laws that permanently brand offenders and forbid them to live in many parts of the state -- Florida is actively creating homeless colonies.

At least two have cropped up with the Department of Corrections' help. One is under a bridge below the Julia Tuttle Causeway in Miami. About 20 offenders live there. Another is in the woods off John Young Parkway in Orlando, long frequented by the homeless. Needless to say, neither colony has running water, electricity, sanitation, telephones or security. At least one murder took place at the Orlando camp this year.

Before offenders are released from prison, the Department of Corrections spends up to three months locating a place to stay for them anywhere in the state. When the search proves fruitless, they point to the homeless camps. Some offenders go there. Others disappear, which goes against the state's interest in keeping track of them.

It's easy to say that the offenders get what they deserve. No one forced them to break the law, after all. Now they're paying for it. Not exactly: Paying for it is going to jail, serving out sentences and supervision time. Once they've done that, they're owed the same basic rights as anyone else. Creating colonies of homeless ex-offenders isn't the offenders' doing. It's the doing of state and local laws that wantonly deny ex-offenders their rights, property rights among them.

The system goes out of its way to ensnare former offenders again. Take Gideon Bernhard, a 59-year-old man who lived in Deltona until summer. In 1998, he was convicted in Seminole County and sentenced to probation and community control on charges of sexual acts with a 14-year-old girl. In 2006, he was again on probation. He had not recommitted sexual acts with a minor. Most sex offenders don't recommit. His offense: He'd failed to register as a sex offender. That year, the law changed, requiring offenders to register twice a year instead of once. But why require ex-offenders who have served their time to register at all, especially when it turns into such an easy setup for lawbreaking?

For Bernhard, probation set him up for his next problem. At a July 4 parade he was arrested for disorderly conduct for pointing a laser light at spectators. (He owned an LED laser light business.) The charges were dropped, but not before Bernhard spent 120 days in jail awaiting a hearing. Because of the probation charge, he was ineligible for bail. And because he spent 120 days in jail, he was thrown out of his three-bedroom home in Deltona and his business inventory was seized. He'd been able to live in that Deltona home because his residence there pre-dated the city's draconian ordinance forbidding sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of where children gather, including bus stops. Without the grandfather clause, Bernhard had to find a place that fit the new restrictions. Aside from swampland on the periphery of the city. Deltona barely has such places.

So Gideon Bernhard, who'd been living a relatively productive life, lost it all due to a series of circumstances, none of which should have led to his eviction. Now he's homeless and living in the wretched camp in the woods off John Young Parkway. Bernhard paid his debt for the 1998 sentence. Now he's paying the state's debt for hysterical, indefensible laws.

States and localities, pushed by courts, are beginning to realize that the draconian laws forbidding sex-offender residence are wrong and counterproductive. But it's a slow process. As far as eliminating Florida's homeless colonies is concerned, it shouldn't be. The state created the problem with those draconian laws. The state should assume the responsibility of housing the offenders more decently by providing a shelter or underwriting the costs of the offenders' stay -- anywhere appropriate but in homeless camps. Source
[Ed: Bravo! Journalists do not often criticize the witch hunt and this one is to be commended for exercising both bravery and intellect in taking these wretched laws to task.]

Sexual Predator Driver’s Licenses

WJHG-TV

Since summer, Florida law requires convicted sexual predators and offenders to have a code on their driver’s license that identifies them. Florida is the only state with this requirement. The sheriff who pushed for the law hopes other states follow Florida’s lead.

You have to look closely to see whether a person is a sexual predator or offender by their driver’s license. The identifier is a small number in the lower right hand corner.

Jefferson County Sheriff David Hobbs came up with the idea. It became law in July. He believes it helps officers quickly identify if someone could cause trouble, when computer systems go down, like during a hurricane inside a shelter.

“I think the public needs to be made aware if it, at any costs. That’s a lifestyle that individual chooses. And I personally have no tolerance or patience for an individual that would do anything to a child.”

Sexual predators and offenders already have to register with the state. They also have limits on where they can live. Some parents like Jason Knowles wonder if the law goes too far.

“I don’t know if that’s the best way to identify who sex offenders are, by putting a marking on their driver’s license. But I think it is important to identify who the sex predators or potential child molesters are.”

The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles says there are no known issues with the requirement.

Because kids often can’t protect themselves, the sheriff behind the law hopes other states adopt similar measures.

“If you stop a car on the interstate and there’s a small child in there with this individual. Do you know if it’s his child, do you?”

A sexual predator or offender who fails to register with DHSMV could face up to five years in prison. Full Story

Michigan Lawmaker, A Convicted Drunk-Driver, Wants To Escalate Sex Offender Registration

[Editor: In 2005, a total of 414 fatalities among children age 14 and younger occurred in crashes involving alcohol. (source: stopthemaddness.org). Now, a Michigan State Legislator, David Law, also convicted in 2005 of drunk driving, wants to expand Michigan's Sex Offender Registry to include those convicted of sex crimes before 1995 in the interest of "child safety". Apparently, he accords greater danger to those (now adult) men who, when 18 years old, were convicted of having sex with 17 year olds sometime before 1995, than he does to himself.

However, statistics are clearly not on his side. Fewer than 40 children are murdered by a sex offender every year (source: U.S. Department of Justice) while, as cited above, many hundreds of children are killed every year by drunk drivers. If David Law wanted to make a contribution to reducing childhood victims of violent crime, then perhaps he should try implementing a public registry of drunk drivers or (to be more commensurate with sanctions taken against sex offenders) have their driver's licenses revoked for life. At a minimum, assign them orange license plates with the words "DRUNK DRIVER" appearing in place of "GREAT LAKES" ]
___________________________________________________________________________
Lansing State Journal

One state legislator is trying to debunk the theory that Michigan's sex offender registry is a comprehensive list of dangerous predators.

Offenders convicted before 1995 aren't required to register.

State Rep. David Law, R-Commerce Township, wants to change that.

He said sex crimes against minors left an imprint on him during his time working at the Oakland County prosecutor's office.

Law's bill would require some individuals convicted on or before Oct. 1, 1995 to register. It would cover offenders who were 17 or older when they sexually assaulted a child under 13.

"This bill is not about further punishing sex offenders - this is a matter of public safety," Law said. "The recidivism statistics of the most heinous sex offenders pose a significant threat to public safety and our children."

According to the Michigan State Police, the intent of the registry is "to better assist the public in preventing and protecting against the commission of future criminal sexual acts by convicted sex offenders."

Offenders are required to register if they reside, work or live in the state and have been convicted of specific sex crimes. The registry is a public record and includes the individual's name, photo, crime, physical description, last known address and aliases.

Elizabeth Arnovits, executive director of the Michigan Council on Crime and Delinquency, said sex offender reporting laws may make people feel more secure, but accomplish little and make people less vigilant because they're lulled into a false sense of security.

Arnovits predicts the bill will pass.

Patricia Caruso, director of the Department of Corrections, said the recidivism rates for sex offenders are extremely low, but because sexual assault is such an emotional issue, the facts often are ignored.

According to Caruso, laws that require offenders to stay a minimum distance from playgrounds and other areas with children are "meaningless and ineffective" because less than 1 percent of sex crimes against minors are committed by strangers."

_______________________________________________
Previous Reports On David Law's Drunk Driving:

Gregory Herbert is a writer with the Capitol News Service.

Michigan state representative gets fine, probation for drunken driving

October 28, 2005, 7:58 AM

BERKLEY, Mich. (AP) -- The trip home after Major League Baseball's All-Star game in Detroit will cost a state lawmaker and former prosecutor $986 and six months of probation.

Rep. David Law was sentenced Thursday in Berkley District Court after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of operating a motor vehicle while visibly impaired.

Law was charged July 13 with drunken driving after Berkley police stopped him for speeding on Woodward Avenue. Police measured his blood-alcohol level at 0.13 percent, above the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

The Republican from Oakland County's Commerce Township told Judge William Sauer that he was embarrassed to be standing in the courtroom and that such an offense would never happen again.

Sauer also assessed fines and fees, prohibited Law from buying or possessing alcohol and ordered him to enter an intervention program.

------

Information from: The Oakland Press, http://www.theoaklandpress.com


http://stopthemaddness.org/cached1/20050285.html
Michigan state representative gets fine, probation for drunken driving

BERKLEY, Mich. The trip home after Major League Baseball's All-Star game in Detroit is costing a state lawmaker and former prosecutor 986 dollars and six months of probation.
Representative David Law -- a Republican from Oakland County's Commerce Township -- was sentenced yesterday in Berkley District Court. He pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of operating a motor vehicle while visibly impaired.

Law told the court that he was embarrassed to be standing in the courtroom and that such an offense would never happen again.

Law was charged July 13th with drunken driving after Berkley police stopped him for speeding on Woodward Avenue.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071229/NEWS04/712290334/1005/news

Published December 29, 2007
More registers
• The bill proposed by state Rep. David Law, R-Commerce Township, would require some individuals convicted of sex offenses on or before Oct. 1, 1995 to register with authorities. It would cover offenders who were 17 or older when they sexually assaulted a child under 13.
• Right now, sex offenders convicted before 1995 aren't required to register.

• The bill is pending in the House Judiciary Committee.
More sex offenders required to register under bill

Gregory Herbert
Special to the State Journal

Constitutionality of Sex Offender Law Challenged

TROY, OH, Dayton Daily News — Ohio's new Adam Walsh Act was challenged Friday in a Miami County court by lawyers arguing the law's reclassification of previously convicted sex offenders and new registration requirements for those offenders are unconstitutional.

Troy lawyer Jose Lopez filed injunction requests on behalf of six people in county Common Pleas Court and said he plans to file similar complaints for others Monday in Shelby and Auglaize counties.

The challenges are believed to be the first in Ohio against the law passed this summer by the Ohio General Assembly. ...

Previously, judges determined classification — sexually oriented offender, predator, etc. — after looking at a number of factors.

Lopez said he sees two "chief problems" with the new law. He said making the law retroactive changes the penalty for crimes that occurred years ago. Full Story

Ohio Gets More Draconian, Must Disclose Email Address

Register-Herald

Tier 3 offenses include: •Rape •Sexual battery •Aggravated murder with sexual motivation •Murder with sexual motivation •Unlawful death or termination of pregnancy as a result of committing or attempt to commit a felony with sexual motivation •Kidnapping of minor, not by parent •New section of Gross Sexual Imposition •Felonious assault with sexual motivation •Pre-AWA predators unless reclassified after hearing under ORC •Any sexual offense that occurs after the offender is classified as Tier 2 or 3 •Automatic classification after SVP specification •Includes an attempt, complicity or conspiracy to commit any of these offenses.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2008, Ohio's sex offender law will be changed to comply with the federal Adam Walsh Act.

"Where we used to have sexually oriented offenders and sexual predators, they are now going into three groups. These tiers will be based on what they are convicted or found guilty of," Preble County Sheriff Mike Simpson said.

Tier 3, which is the most serious offenders, are required to check in every 90 days for the rest of their life.

Tier 2 offenders must check in every 180 days for 25 years.

Tier 1 offenders are required to check in once per year.

"Tier 3 is the one subject to area notification. We have to notify everybody within 1,000 feet of where they are living," Simpson said.

According to Simpson, there are a total of 54 sex offenders in Preble County and beginning the first of the year, 22 people in the county will be classified in the most serious category. That number is up 12 from the old law.

"We've got some people based on what they are convicted of that are going from oriented offenders with no community notification and were probably going to drop off (the list) in 10 years, to Tier 3, every 90 days for life," Simpson said.

Simpson said there are going to be 21 people in the Tier 2 category and 11 who fall into Tier 1.

According to Simpson, what used to take his office about 40 mintues to register a sex offended will now take closer to an hour.

"It will definitely increase our workload a little bit," Simpson said. "But, if all these offenders register like they're supposed to, it will increase our ability to keep track of them. It's going to create (workload) more so if they don't, because you don't know where that sex offender is, which isn't good."

And, if the offender works in another county, that individual will have to register in that county as well, according to Simpson.

Simpson said the offender is required to give all his/her information to his office, which includes physical description, tattoos, birthmarks, vehicles, address, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, if they volunteer anywhere.

"If they have an e-mail address, a MySpace account, anything they are supposed to tell us," Simpson said. "Because, if they fail to tell us, that's considered failure to register because they left out information."

Simpson said all the sex offenders received letters from the Attorney General's office notifying them of the change in the law and what their new classification will be beginning Jan. 1.

"If they live in Preble (County) and also work in Montgomery, they also have to register there to let that sheriff know they are working in that county," Simpson said."They have an obligation and a duty to notify the sheriff where they work."

According to Simpson, each of the offenders who have had his/her classification changed will have the right to challenge the new classification.

"They had 60 days after they received this letter to file a petition in Common Pleas Court in the county where they reside," Simpson said. "It's a civil action, meaning they are not entitled to an attorney. They have to hire their own attorney, they have to pay the fee to file the petition in the clerk's office. And if they don't file within that 60-day period, they waive their right to contest."

Simpson noted Ohio is one of the few states in the county to adopt this new law.

"Ohio's on the front end of it. Really, Ohio's system of eSORN, the e-mail notification, we are way ahead of the game in Ohio as opposed to other states," Simpson said.

Simpson said he encourages people to vist his website and register for an e-mail. The site address is preblecountysheriff.org.

"If a sex offender moves within a mile of your house, you are going to get an automatic notification," he said.

Simpson said people can register multiple addresses, such as other relatives' homes or child day cares, for example.

Facts about the Adam Walsh Act

•The Adam Walsh Act was signed into law on July 27, 2006. At the time of passage, at least 100,000 of more than a half million sex offenders in the United States and the District of Columbia were "missing" and unregistered.

•The act was signed on the 25th anniversary of the abduction of Adam Walsh from a shopping mall in Florida. Walsh was found murdered 16 days after his abduction and the perpetrator of the crime has yet to be found.

•Expands the National Sex Offender Registry.

•Strengthens Federal Penalties for Crimes Against Children.

•Makes it harder for sex predators to reach children on the Internet.

About eSORN

According to Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, eSORN is one of the most important programs in the Attorney General's office. The database is connected to all 88 counties in Ohio.

The eSORN is a state-of-the-art electronic sex offender registration and notification website to help Ohioans protect their families and communities. This website marks the first time the public and law enforcement have electronic access to a list of all registered sex offenders in the state in one location.

Providing easy access to this website gives more information to the public and helps make our communities safer. The enhanced database provides a secure link for the exclusive use of law enforcement.

Users will find the name, address, type of offense and photo of each convicted sex offender the Attorney General's Office is permitted by law to include. The website is searchable by offender name, county, ZIP code and school district. It also provides links to county sheriffs offices' websites. By law, the eSORN public website may only contain information on offenders who have been convicted in adult criminal court.

State law requires county sheriffs to provide information for the eSORN database. Many, but not all county sheriffs, have a local convicted sex offender database. The website and enhanced database supplies a critical link between local and state databases to share information.

The Attorney General's Office furnishes technical assistance to sheriffs' offices interested in creating their own sex offender website.

In addition to the public website, there is secure access, for law enforcement agencies and prosecutors, to more detailed information on all convicted sex offenders, including victim preference, release date and fingerprints.

The Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation updates the database with relevant information pursuant to Ohio's SORN law. This section of the database is designed to increase communication among law enforcement agencies. A new mapping function is now operational, allowing both the public and law enforcement agencies to determine if sex offenders live within a certain radius of his or her residence.

Editorial: 'Jessica's Law' one year later: Empty promises

Initiative aimed at protecting children is prohibitively expensive, unenforceable
Sacramento Bee

A little more than a year ago, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 83, popularly known as Jessica's Law. That initiative, aimed at monitoring and controlling sex offenders, now is collapsing under its own excess. Virtually no local government is enforcing the law because its sweeping provisions are both unenforceable and prohibitively expensive. ...

The measure requires lifetime monitoring for sex offenders – not just those charged with child sexual abuse and rapists whose victims were adults, but also those convicted of consensual sex with a teenager and even misdemeanor indecent exposure. It also bars offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park. ...

So for now at least, the law is not being enforced, and there is a real question whether it ever will or even can be. ...

State corrections officials predicted the residency restrictions in the law would drive sex offenders underground and make our communities less safe. Now it also turns out that the measure would bankrupt local governments if it is enforced as written. California will be wrestling with this mess for years to come. Full Story

Megan's Law of unintended consequences

The recent killing of sex offender shows dangers of legislating punishment by ballot box
Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times

So now two more lives are ruined.

Michael Dodele is rotting in a grave, and his neighbor, Ivan Garcia Oliver, is rotting in a Lake County jail cell; soon, by his own accounting, Oliver expects to be spending "a numerous amount of years" in a California slammer.

Dodele was a convicted rapist, a 67-year-old registered sex offender who had been living in a Lakeport trailer park for about a month when someone stabbed him to death just before Thanksgiving. Oliver is his accused killer, a 29-year-old construction worker who lived in the same trailer park. He was arrested with more blood on him than Lady Macbeth.

Dodele had spent two decades in prison or a state hospital for raping women, at least one time at knifepoint. The Megan's Law sex offender website -- which tracks most sex offenders, not just child molesters -- described his offenses as "rape by force" and "oral copulation with a person under 14 or by force."

Such a small word, "or." So easy to go right past it, especially when the scarlet phrase "oral copulation with a person under 14" sizzles off the screen. "Or"? Who cares about "or"?

Is anyone surprised that this death happened? Or just surprised that it didn't happen sooner, as it has in other states amid the froth of undifferentiated public and political fury about all sex offenders, from pathetic flashers to bona fide monsters who hurt children?

To get onto the Megan's Law website, I had to acknowledge a disclaimer saying that the state doesn't guarantee that the information is complete or accurate.

Not accurate or complete? Who should that alarm more -- the public or the 65,000 people listed? Some information may be rendered in hard-to-decipher legalese -- as appears to have been the case with that fatal "or." Some of it is flat-out wrong. I interviewed LAPD detective Diane Webb about it on KPCC radio this week. She's the coordinator of the LAPD's REACT -- registration, enforcement and compliance teams for sex offenders and Megan's Law.

Website mistakes, she told me, are sometimes as "mundane" as a "misplaced parenthesis in a code section," which can completely change the description of the conviction. Or they could come down to something as simple as the "capitalization of a letter" in the code, which would make a crime against an adult "show [up as] an offense against a child."

Who usually spots the mistake? The sex offender. "They oftentimes say, 'I'm not a child molester, this was an offense at an adult,' " Webb told me. Police verify it and let the state know the listing needs fixing.

There was evidently no mistake in Dodele's listing. But as Webb said, the penal code section for forcible oral copulation "is very similar to that of child molestation. They're oftentimes misinterpreted."

No politician ever lost votes by crusading against sex offenders. But voters don't always reckon on what happens after the votes are counted. Some of the same law enforcement leaders who persuaded 70% of us to vote for Proposition 83, which among other things mandates the tracking of tens of thousands of sex offenders with GPS for the rest of their lives, now worry that it's unenforceable. The law doesn't spell out who'll run the program or who'll pay for it. California is $14 billion short of this year's budget ante. Maybe we could all send in the money from our Monopoly games -- fantasy dough to pay for a fantasy law.

The Lakeport killing could shake some thinking about such laws. Suzanne Brown-McBride chairs the California Sex Offender Management Board, and she told me that the Megan's Law website is a useful community tool -- but it's only one tool. The point is "not to create vigilantism," she said, or to "have people then act out ... in a way that may put offenders and quite honestly themselves at risk." Vigilantism could make offenders "less stable." Oliver told The Times' Maria LaGanga that he had to take "evasive action ... any father in my position, with moral, home, family values, wouldn't have done any different." He'd seen Dodele watching his son, he declared, "fantasizing, plotting." When LaGanga told him that Dodele's rape victims were adult women -- not little girls or little boys -- Oliver said it didn't matter. "There is no curing the people that do it."

Is there any curing us? Do we have the judgment to take serious crimes seriously without plunging ourselves into policy hysteria? Can we acknowledge that no protection, no punishment, is foolproof? Can anyone suggest that we fine-tune Megan's Law, or conclude that Proposition 83 is goofy, without being labeled a friend of child molesters?

Dodele's name and crimes were listed on the state's Megan's Law sex offender public website; Oliver found them on a computer. Oliver was on parole for assault with a deadly weapon, but his name and crime were not on any such public website.

But just wait long enough. We may get around to voting for a website listing that too. Hey -- we can call it Oliver's Law. Like that?