MO- Sex offender laws: Good intentions gone bad?

5-17-2008 Missouri

Last month, the small town of Wyoming became the second city in Minnesota to adopt an ordinance that limits ? drastically ? where convicted sex offenders can live.

Now several cities, including Minneapolis, have begun looking at measures to address something that's perceived as a growing problem: sex offenders living near children.

But these ordinances often bring unintended consequences.

Take Wyoming, for example.

When Wyoming passed a law prohibiting predatory sex offenders from living near places where children congregate, even the mayor said he was surprised to see how little land was left.

"I think I and the rest of the council were surprised that it ended up being that narrow," Sheldon Anderson said.

When all was said and drawn, Wyoming had mapped out roughly 50 acres for sex offenders. And those 50 acres don't have city water and sewer lines.

Marvyl Blair, who lives on those 50 acres (her home gets water from a well and has its own septic system), says she feels "really uneasy" about what the city has done.

"If (the sex offenders) stay where they're supposed to be, it's fine," she said, shaking her head. "But if they come treadin' over here, you know, uh-uh."

As of now, there are no sex offenders living in Wyoming. There aren't any sex offenders living in Taylors Falls, either.

But Mayor Anderson said he wanted to pass a "proactive" measure after he spoke with the mayor of Taylors Falls at a League of Minnesota Cities conference in February.

"I don't think there's any community that has faith in the correctional system (or) the judicial system and the monitoring of these people right now," he said.

Wyoming passed a carbon copy of the Taylors Falls ordinance.

It says Level Three sex offenders, those considered most likely to re-offend, and people convicted of molesting children younger than 16, are not allowed to live within 2,000 feet of a school, day care center, or playground.

That left Wyoming with those 50 acres.

And with those 50 acres came another concern: One man owns all of the land (except Marvyl Blair's property), and he is not inclined to sell.

"We own all of the white area there," said Roger Bakeberg, when KARE 11 showed him a map of the sex offender area.

Bakeberg was asked if the law would essentially make it impossible for someone else to live on the land.

"Yes," he said, "unless I sold them the property. And then I don't know if they could get a building permit to build."

The Wyoming ordinance, and others like it, concern the man in charge of the state's sex offender policy.

"I think there are dual problems," said Eric Lipman, Minnesota's sex offender policy coordinator.

One problem is that offenders might skip town and stop registering their addresses, as state law requires.

"And then we're creating a new class of folks who go underground," Lipman said.

He said the other problem is: If registered offenders are forced to live on land where there's no housing, they might live in a structure that can not be registered, like a van.

"If they're in that van down by the river, and not at a stable address, it makes it harder for law enforcement to keep track and good supervisory controls on those offenders," Lipman said.

There also is the concern that popped up in a cornfield in Iowa.

On the outskirts of Cedar Rapids, the Ced-Rel motel has become a symbol of what can happen when good intentions go bad.

Since the state of Iowa passed a 2000-foot law similar the ordinances in Wyoming and Taylors Falls, the Ced-Rel's 24 rooms have been booked almost exclusively by sex offenders.

"I don't think they have any vacancies there right now," said Don Zeller, the sheriff of Linn County.

Zeller says his state's law ? which applies to all levels of sex offenders, not just Level Three offenders ? has made his job harder.

Before the law passed, Zeller said, his office knew "approximately where 90 percent of people were."

But now that the Ced-Rel has become known as a sex offender colony, some offenders say they're going to live there, and then, they check out.

"Right now, we're lucky if we know where 50 to 55 percent of them are," Zeller said.

On the other side of the cornfield, farmer Steve Boland is trying get used to having neighbors.

"Before all the sex offenders moved in there, the motel was basically empty," he said. "I'm definitely worried about having sex offenders right next door to me, and worried about the safety of my two children."

But Boland also says he has some sympathy for his neighbors: people who might be trying to rejoin society but are forced to live on its fringes.

Jeff Loveless, who moved into the Ced-Rel with his wife, Carla, is one of the neighbors.

"I don't want to be out of view. I want people to know I'm alive," he said. "What would happen if they sold this place, and a new owner came in and said, 'I don't want you people here?' You know? Where would I go?"

Loveless, who spent three and a half years in prison for having sex with his 15-year-old stepdaughter, says he can't look for work because Carla needs their car for her job.

"I want a place where me and my wife can settle out the rest of our life," he said, "and show society I ain't gonna mess up again."

Statistically speaking, when convicted offenders do mess up again, they're not likely to do something the 2000-foot laws are designed to prevent.

"The archetypical description of someone leaping from the bushes, while it does happen, it is in a minority of cases," Eric Lipman said.

Studies in Minnesota and Iowa say more than 80 percent of sex offenders do not attack strangers. They know, or they're related to, their victims.

And when strangers are the victims, like Dru Sjodin ? the college student who allegedly was kidnapped and killed by convicted sex offender Alfonso Rodriguez ? critics of 2000-foot laws point out that Rodriguez was living more than 30 miles away from the scene of the kidnapping.

"Restricting where they live is not going to change the behavior," said Diana Longrie, the mayor of Maplewood.

Last month, Maplewood rejected a 2000-foot law.

"There's nothing that says safe zones are really safe whatsoever," Longrie said.

The Department of Corrections prefers what Eric Lipman calls "aggressive supervisory controls."

He said cities considering residency ordinances should "give police officers the resources and time available to make more frequent checks on people who are registered as predatory offenders."

The corrections department also encourages parents to educate themselves about the dangers ? both real and perceived ? of sex offenders (see links below).

But in Wyoming, like cities across the state, the mayor says the resources simply don't exist.

"(State officials) want to shift the blame, or not the blame, but the work, toward the cities," Mayor Anderson said. "It's not our job. It's not our police department's job."

Hence the ordinance in Wyoming, which seemed good in theory, but appears much more complicated in practice.

"The only way it could happen," said Roger Bakeberg, the man who owns the 50 acres designated for sex offenders, "is if Mrs. Blair up there sold her house."

Marvyl Blair said she's OK with sex offenders nearby, but with one condition: "Just so they stay away from me." ..more.. By Scott Goldberg, KARE 11 News