MO- AGAINST THE GRAIN

9-19-2008 Missouri:

Local sex offenders a cause for concern

I got an email this week from Melinda Kidder, a private detective with a heart for children’s issues.

She told me she came across information on the Internet showing that sex offenders are living and working within 1,000 feet of Columbia schools, preschools and daycare centers. "Isn’t that illegal?" she asked.

"I’m working a child molester case right now, and it just wears me down," Kidder wrote. "Seeing that these guys and one gal are living close to schools is even more disturbing."

I was disturbed, too. I did a little digging in an effort to separate fact from fiction.

First, I looked at the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Web site to cross-reference the names and addresses there with the ones listed by Kidder. Kidder had done her research on a Web site, FamilyWatchdog.us, and I wanted to go to the primary source.

This eliminated a sizeable number of the offenders. Turns out most of these men list multiple addresses, and the ones Kidder pulled were work addresses. Under Missouri Law, Chapter 566, the distance restriction only applies to the place where an offender "sleeps," not where he works or visits.

A random sample of sex offenders listed by Kidder found them working at a local college, car dealership, pizza parlor, hotel and fast food restaurant. All of these locations fall within 1,000 feet of schools, sometimes more than one.

But what about the rest of these folks? Of Columbia’s 109 registered sex offenders, at least eight appear to be living within 1,000 feet of schools, according to the home addresses listed by the Highway Patrol and Family Watchdog’s data of distances.

I called Detective Andrea Luntsford of the Boone County Sheriff’s Office and found that, surprisingly, in most cases the offenders are acting well within their rights. The law that mandates a 1,000 foot distance was enacted in June 2006, and any offender who committed his or her crime before then is not subject to it. Offenders convicted before 1995 don’t have to register at all for the same reason.

The Missouri Supreme Court ruled on the issue in February, calling any other method of enforcement a "retrospective law" that would violate the state constitution. State Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, is beginning an initiative to allow retrospective enforcement against sex offenders, but he must first put the measure to a statewide vote.

Another lawmaker, state Rep. Mark Bruns, R-Jefferson City, plans to advance new legislation that would make it illegal for offenders to be physically present within 1,000 feet of daycare facilities, swimming pools or parks. Bruns also plans to push legislation that would apply the 1,000 foot restriction to the workplaces of offenders. The laws would make it nearly impossible for sex offenders to live or work in most populated parts of Missouri.

Reached by phone, Bruns said safety is his top priority. "For me and most of the people I know, a sexual offense is a different type of crime," he said. "Maybe they’ve done their time in an institution or as a prisoner or inmate, but there’s still that safety net we want to put up there. Anything we can do to keep them away from children we should strive to do that."

But will more restrictions make children safer? Luntsford, who said she already spends about 40 percent of her workday making sure sex offenders are compliant with state law, isn’t so sure.

"If they can’t find a place to live, then they either lie to me or they say they’re homeless or something," she said. "If they can’t find a place to live or a job, what are they going to do? If they’re just going to sit around all day, what do you think they’re going to want to do?"

Luntsford recently began sending deputies out to knock on offenders’ doors to check on their whereabouts. Her staff also must photograph offenders once a year, re-register most offenders every 90 days and testify in court when they are found to be "noncompliant,’ a felony offense. She and Boone County have rightly earned a reputation of being tough on sex-offenders, but experience has taught Luntsford that the distance restrictions don’t make for safer neighborhoods.

"As a rule, no" it doesn’t make people safer, she said. "It gives people a false sense of security. Just because the offender isn’t living there doesn’t mean the offender isn’t spending time there."

Missouri needs to adopt a tiered system like one put forth in the federal Adam Walsh Act, Lundsford said. The system would place offenders into different classes based on the seriousness of their offenses. That way, she said, her deputies could spend more time monitoring potentially dangerous offenders and less time with the relatively benign ones. Currently, Missouri places sexual offenses ranging from pornography charges to child rape all under the same umbrella; offenders must register for life.

"I’ve got a kid that had a 17th birthday party and, at some point after midnight, he had sex with an underage girl and now he’s an offender for life. Is he a John Couey? Do we really need to be that worried about him? Is he an Edward Duncan?" Luntsford said, referring to sexual predators who received national attention in kidnap-murder cases. "The system needs some work. I’ll be the first to admit that." ..Source.. Opinion of Tribune reporter T.J. Greaney