NY- Judge upholds sex-offender living zones

7-20-2008 New York:

A Rockland County law that makes most neighborhoods off-limits to sex offenders has been upheld by a state Supreme Court justice.

The 2007 law was challenged by two Monsey men who were arrested after moving into homes suitable for their religious beliefs but within 1,000 feet of a school, park, day care center or other facility dealing with children.

Yoel Oberlander and Betzalel Dym challenged the statute following their arrest by Ramapo police in August 2007 on charges of violating their probation and the county law.

Both men argued that, as Orthodox Jews, their religious needs to live within walking distance of a synagogue would be violated if they were forced to leave the community and could not find suitable housing outside Ramapo, according to the court decision.

Justice William Kelly disagreed, finding that the law doesn't single out people based on their religion. Kelly called the law "facially neutral," writing that a law is not automatically invalid because it burdens a particular religious group.

"There is no mention, overt or implicit, to religion or the practice thereof," Kelly wrote.

He also ruled that there was no documentary evidence provided to dismiss the charge of a probation violation. He said a hearing would be held on the facts in the case.

After ruling out religion as an argument, Kelly determined that the law was constitutional as it applied to sex offenders. He cited several federal court decisions.

Like the state's Megan's Law, the county law's nonpedophile zones demonstrated a compelling interest to protect children's safety by "preventing easy access to potential victims," Kelly said.

The "need to live in Ramapo is no stronger than those of the potential victims within the town that share the same religious beliefs," Kelly wrote. "The state has validly exercised its police powers to protect vulnerable citizens of all religions in Ramapo and throughout Rockland County."

Kelly's decision falls in line with similar judicial rulings on residency laws for sex offenders in New York and nationwide.

The Rockland Legislature approved the measure in 2007 and County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef signed it. The law bans sex offenders from living, working and congregating within 1,000 feet of facilities involving children. Violators face a misdemeanor charge.

The law doesn't force sex offenders already living within the boundaries to move.

In practical terms, Rockland officials have said the law has made most of the county off-limits to sex offenders, creating the potential to have them all living in one area, if such a neighborhood exists. Vanderhoef created a special panel, including police officers, probation officials and others, to study the law for possible revisions.

Courts have upheld exclusionary laws as constitutional, even if they seem impractical. What doesn't matter to the court, Pace University Professor Ralph Stein has said, are supposed common-sense arguments that exclusionary zones bunch all sex offenders together, are not enforceable, or might not protect children.

Kelly's decision won applause from Legislator Ed Day, R-New City, a former police officer who first suggested the pedophile-free child safety zone law.

"The law merely acknowledges the clear and present danger to our children these predators present, and gives society a reasonable tool to protect them from those who would defile them," Day said.

Other groups and children's advocates have opposed such laws, arguing that they offer a false sense of security by creating imaginary walls. One group pointed out that the Schenectady law made the local police station off-limits because it's next to a school.

State statistics found the rate of recidivism among sex offenders was lowest among all crimes, opponents have argued.

There are more than 25,000 sex offenders in the New York State Registry, including 456 in Westchester, 112 in Rockland and 33 in Putnam.

Ramapo police have arrested three sex offenders for moving into neighborhoods.

Oberlander, 27, of Monsey, was charged with violating the law because he lived within 1,000 feet of a religious elementary school and public park. Dym, 22, of Monsey, moved within 1,000 feet of a child care facility.

Oberlander pleaded guilty in 2002 to second-degree sexual abuse, second-degree unlawful imprisonment and endangering the welfare of a child, all misdemeanors. He admitted in County Court to having sexual contact with an 11-year-old girl in Spring Valley and Ramapo.

Dym was convicted in August 2006 of first-degree sexual abuse, a felony, for having sex with a 10-year-old Monsey boy.

In March, Ramapo police arrested Dennis W. Edwards, 54, of 372 N. Main St., Apt. 2, in Hillcrest, after a warning that he was moving within 1,000 feet of a child-care facility, an area that is off-limits to Level 2 sex offenders.

Edwards, convicted of improperly touching a 7-year-old girl in 2002 in North Carolina, was living in Spring Valley when the county law was adopted and could not be moved.

Since Edwards left Spring Valley in December, he has moved several times - from Haverstraw village, back to Spring Valley and then to Hillcrest. His lawyer, Mitchell P. Schecter, planned to challenge the constitutionality of the county law. ..News Source.. by Steve Lieberman