NH- Court rejects sex offender's motion to (Temporarily) bypass city ordinance

8-1-2008 New Hampshire:


DOVER — A district Court judge has denied a registered sex offender's motion for exemption from the city's sex offender ordinance while his legal challenge of the ordinance is being resolved.

The denial means that when registered sex offender Richard Jennings is released from jail today, he won't be allowed to live with his fiancé, Janice Sessler, and her daughter at their 175 Locust St. residence.

"At this juncture, the court cannot presume that the Defendant will prevail in its argument that the ordinance is unconstitutional," Judge Stephen Morrison ruled. "Absent some type of judicial finding relative to the unenforceability of the ordinance, this court may not blunt the presumably lawful wishes of the legislative branch of government."

The city's ordinance bans registered sex offenders from residing within 2,500 feet of a school or day care center. Jennings' Locust Street address is located about 1,200 feet from My School Kindergarten at 118 Locust St.

The New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union has filed a motion on Jennings' behalf asking the court to throw away the ordinance and rule it unconstitutional. A hearing on that matter is scheduled for Nov. 10 at 9 a.m.

It's unknown what Jennings will do for a residence when he is released from jail today. His attorney, Barbara Keshen of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union, couldn't provide any information about Jennings' plans.

"I know he won't be living in Dover," she said when reached by phone Thursday afternoon.

Keshen filed the motion last week asking the court to allow Jennings to live at 175 Locust St. upon his release from jail. During a hearing on Tuesday she said moving to another location would create a severe financial hardship to Jennings and his family.

"They're not wealthy people and for them to bare the expense of looking for a new place is going to be hard," Keshen said. Keshen added she's also worried that Jennings won't be welcomed in other communities.

She also admitted she wasn't surprised the motion was denied.

"I knew we were asking the judge something that is certainly on the cusp of what a District Court judge was allowed to do," she said.

Despite the setback, Keshen said she's still confident about Jennings' chances of prevailing in his case against the ordinance in November, citing a recent case in New Jersey where similar ordinances were struck down on the grounds they were pre-empted by state law.

City Attorney Allan Krans was pleased with the judge's ruling and is now focused on November's hearing.

"I think we're on the high ground," Krans said. "We're going to present a strong case to the court to uphold this ordinance."

Jennings, 41, was convicted in May 2000 on a charge of felonious sexual assault on a minor.

Jennings moved to the city from Portsmouth at the end of 2007 and was arrested in November and charged with felony-level failure to register as a sexual offender for not notifying police that he moved from Portsmouth to Dover. That's also when police charged him with the ordinance violation.

He was arrested again in April for also living at the Locust Street address and not registering with city police. Jennings had claimed he was living with his parents in Epping, but several neighbors tipped police off about Jennings still living at the address, which led to police performing surveillance in the area.

He was sentenced to six-months at the Strafford County House of Corrections for the April arrest.

Sessler, 47, was also charged in April for allegedly harboring Jennings while police tried to arrest him. She recently agreed to plea guilty to a charge of hindering apprehension. ..News Source.. by AARON SANBORN