NC- Court upholds ban on sex offenders in parks

6-13-2008 North Carolina:

WOODFIN – Town government was within its rights to ban registered sex offenders from Woodfin public parks, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday in a case that could encourage other cities and towns to adopt similar rules.

Justice Edward Thomas Brady wrote in Thursday’s decision that it is reasonable for the town to keep offenders out of parks, and that the town ordinance does not violate any fundamental liberty of the plaintiff in the case.

Joe Ferikes, an Asheville attorney who represented Woodfin in the case, said the suit appears to be the first challenge to such an ordinance in the country.

Mayor Jerry VeHaun said several other counties and municipalities have asked for copies of the ordinance with an eye toward passing a similar measures.

“I can foresee a lot of other places adopting something like this,” he said. “Some have been waiting to see how this case came out, and some have gone ahead and adopted something.”

The town Board of Alderman adopted the ordinance in April 2005, a few weeks after a registered sex offender was charged with taking two 12- to 14-year-old girls from Asheville Mall to a Woodfin home so they could have sex with two men.

Some of the alleged acts in the case occurred in a home close to a town park, VeHaun said Thursday.

“We felt we were in the right all the way,” VeHaun said. “We’ve won one for the people.”

Town resident David Standley, twice convicted of sex offenses and now disabled, sued the town with the assistance of the American Civil Liberties Union. His suit said in part that the ordinance violated his right to travel.

Neither Standley nor his attorneys could be reached for comment Thursday.

Standley, 44, lost before a Superior Court judge and in a split decision before the state Court of Appeals.

Brady wrote in Thursday’s decision that, according to one study, “released sex offenders are four times more likely to be rearrested for subsequent sex crime than other released offenders.”

“Woodfin has a legitimate government interest in desiring to decrease and eliminate sexual crimes in its parks, and prohibiting those most likely to commit criminal sexual acts — persons previously convicted of such conduct — from entering the town’s parks is a rational method of furthering that goal,” Brady wrote.

Standley’s right to travel “is simply not comparable to those rights deemed fundamental” by prior court decisions and does not invalidate the town ordinance, the decision says. ..News Source.. by Mark Barrett