MO- Missouri’s Halloween law’s flaws pose a trick for police

10-30-2008 Missouri:

A new Missouri law aimed at protecting children from sex offenders on Halloween night has created nothing but confusion for those who are supposed to enforce it.

In some parts of the state, authorities have planned spot checks Friday evening of offenders’ homes to make sure their outside lights are off and they are not handing out candy, as required by the new law. Others who had planned full enforcement are scaling back after a St. Louis federal judge’s ruling this week found fault with parts of the law.

And still more say they won’t do anything to enforce the legislation, because it appears to them that the law applies only to offenders convicted of their crimes after Aug. 28, the date the law took effect.

“I’ve had offenders call and ask what they need to do on Halloween night,” said Sgt. Gary Kilgore of the Jackson County sheriff’s office. “And I have to unfortunately tell them, as I tell anyone else, that the law is unenforceable in Jackson County.”

The law requires offenders to avoid all Halloween-related contact with children, remain in their residences between 5 and 10:30 p.m. and turn off all outside lighting. Plus, they must post signs stating, “No candy or treats at this residence.”

Sen. Brad Lager, a Republican from Savannah who is running for Missouri treasurer, said he sponsored the measure after a constituent alerted him of what other states across the nation were doing.

“I was like, ‘Hey, that makes a lot of sense,’ ” Lager said. “If they are on the registry, I as a parent wouldn’t want to send my child to their door.”

But the Missouri Highway Patrol also thinks the law cannot be enforced on nearly all offenders, pointing to recent Missouri Supreme Court rulings that the state constitution prohibits civil laws from being enforced retroactively.

A Missouri Senate proposal last session to put a constitutional amendment on next week’s statewide ballot failed in the House. Some law enforcement officials say they will just face the same issues with other legislation if changes are not made to allow laws to be retroactively enforced.

“Until that Missouri constitutional amendment is taken care of, then they are all unenforceable,” Kilgore said.

This is not the first time authorities have struggled with uncertainties regarding sex offender legislation. Earlier this year they discovered that wording in the state’s initial law requiring offenders to register with the state excluded those who committed their crimes out of state. Legislators have since fixed that wording.

And after a Supreme Court ruling on retroactive enforcement, authorities also discovered that the majority of Missouri sex offenders do not have to comply with laws prohibiting them from living near schools and day care facilities.

“It’s a moving target on us,” said Capt. Frank Hunter with the Platte County sheriff’s office. “We sit down, think we understand the law and then find out we didn’t. … It’s real difficult for us to keep up with what is the law.”

The Missouri attorney general’s office has said it will appeal this week’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Carol Jackson that parts of the law were unclear. While she was OK with outside lights being turned off and no candy, she said other parts were vague and too broad.

A spokesman for the attorney general’s office said Tuesday that their position was that the law applied to all registered offenders, regardless of the date they were required to register.

Clay County Sheriff Paul Vescovo said he still planned to send his deputies out on Friday to make sure registered sex offenders turned off all outside lighting and posted signs at their residences.

Vescovo said Tuesday that while the federal judge in St. Louis ruled that parts of the law were unenforceable, some parts were OK.

“Halloween is a time kids are out and this is a public safety issue, so not withstanding a court injunction, if we observe lights are on and no sign is posted, we will contact the prosecutor,” he said.

Clay County Prosecutor Daniel White said he would review all cases to see whether an offender had violated the law. Violations are a class A misdemeanor with punishment ranging up to a year in the county jail and/or a fine of up to $1,000. ..News Source.. by LAURA BAUER and GLENN E. RICE