NH- Dover defends sex offender ordinance in NHCLU challenge

7-3-2008 New Hampshire:

DOVER – Municipalities have a history of enacting regulations for the safety of their citizens, and a Dover ordinance restricting where registered sex offenders can live falls into the same category and thus is protected under the law, officials said this week in a response to a legal test of the ordinance.

The New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union is challenging Dover's sex offender residency restrictions in a case that could have ramifications for the entire state. The ordinance bars sex offenders who must register for life from living within 2,500 feet of a school or day-care facilities. Franklin, Tilton, Northfield and Boscawen all have similar ordinances and many other communities, including Manchester, have considered such legislation.

In May, the civil liberties union filed a motion to dismiss a charge against former local resident Richard Jennings, a registered sex offender who is accused of living within a restricted zone, claiming that the ordinance itself violates the state constitution.

In a response filed Tuesday in district court, the city laid out its argument for why the ordinance is valid and contends that it is meant to protect Dover's citizens much in the same way that regulations on the sale of drug paraphernalia and curfews for minors do.

The response also says the city has the right to enact the ordinance because the state has never tried to stop municipalities from regulating sex offenders and that Jennings' constitutional rights have not been trampled.

"It's an effort to protect children from becoming victims of sexual abuse and that's the bottom line," police Chief Anthony Colarusso said yesterday of the city's ordinance. "I know there are some critics who feel it's not effective, and I would agree that it doesn't solve everything, it can't prevent every crime, but it's just one more tool in the fight against sexual predators." The civil liberties union argues in its earlier motion that the city does not have the power to restrict where sex offenders can live, that state criminal law dealing with sex offenders preempts the local ordinance and that the ordinance runs afoul of the state constitution's guarantees of due process and equal protection under the law.

The two legal motions set up a constitutional showdown that may affect similar sex offender residency restrictions throughout the state. No matter who prevails in district it's likely the losing side will appeal to the state Supreme Court. A decision there could nullify or validate the ordinances.

Jennings, 41, pleaded guilty to two counts of felonious sexual assault in 2000 for having sex with a 15-year-old girl and served four years in state prison. In May of this year, he was sentenced to more than four months in jail after pleading guilty to two counts of failure to report for living in Dover although he was registered in Epping.

Jennings is scheduled to go to trial for violating the city ordinance on July 21 at 9 a.m. in Dover District Court. ..News Source.. by CLYNTON NAMUO