NY- Sex offender's upkeep: $661G and counting

10-26-2008 New York:

Rockland taxpayers have shelled out more than $661,000 to house a sex offender living at Summit Park Hospital in Ramapo, even though doctors cleared him to leave the psychiatric unit nearly 18 months ago.

But state regulations prevent the county facility from forcing Christopher Palma, 25, to leave - and end the burden on taxpayers - unless he has a place to live.

And a 2007 county law essentially blocks sex offenders from living in most neighborhoods in Rockland County.

"Summit Park cannot discharge him without a place to live," Senior Probation Officer Jennifer Williams told a Clarkstown judge. "Those are state guidelines. And there is really no place he can live outside the pedophile zones."

Rockland officials claim they had exhausted the list of possible housing across the county for Palma. His decision to remain in the county hospital costs taxpayers $1,225 per day - and the costs are not reimbursed by any federal or state programs.

County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef said the county law was adopted ostensibly to protect children, but was not meant to bleed taxpayers. He said the whole issue of housing sex offenders needed a state policy.

"I think one has to look at the practical effect of this law," Vanderhoef said. "I think the law gives a false sense of security anyway. This law has put us in a financial burden in this case."

Palma pleaded guilty to several misdemeanor sex offenses in 2005 and voluntarily entered Summit Park's in-patient crisis unit in April 2007. Two weeks later, the facility's doctor's cleared him for release.

That's when the problems started - and the bills started mounting.

Rockland's Pedophile-Free Child Safety Zone Act prohibits high-risk sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools, parks and other places where children congregate.

Palma and county officials say he has been unable to find housing that conforms to the law. Palma has said he would be willing to live outside Rockland.

During an interview in August at Summit Park, Palma spoke of a desire to leave the facility and move to a more affordable part of the state with a decent bus system and a local college.

He said he had been searching for an apartment consistently during his stay at the facility.

"I've been getting the paper, looking through the classifieds," he said. "Every place that I can afford is either a drug house or it's over a bar or I can't afford to go there.

"I asked my grandmom for help," he said, "and she didn't seem too pleased about it, so we'll see about that."

At a hearing Thursday, Williams, Palma's probation officer, told Justice Howard Gerber that the few places Palma could potentially afford in Rockland conflicted with the terms of his probation.

She cited a bungalow-type residence in Stony Point, but she said the housing was known for being a haven for drug dealing and violence. A Nanuet housing development requires three months rent up front for anyone earning less than $75,000 a year.

Gerber floated one solution to to the problem: Send Palma to the county jail for violating his probation.

Palma pleaded guilty to a violation of probation charge that could carry jail time. But it's not necessarily the best solution, said Williams and Palma's lawyer, Jonathan Ripps.

If Palma went to jail on the charge, he likely would be released within six months and no longer be subject to the control of the Probation Department. He has six years left on probation if he were to avoid jail time.

Gerber agreed with Ripps and Williams that the sex offender law was keeping Palma as a ward of the county.

"It really is something that's out of Palma's control," Ripps said, "and it seems that the court is well aware of that."

Palma apparently has housing opportunities in Ulster County. Williams said previous out-of-county residences fell through or the host county didn't want to monitor Palma's probation.

"I want you to pursue all avenues, any possibility of finding him a place to live," Gerber said. "If the Rockland County Department of Probation has to monitor him in Erie County, so be it."

He is scheduled to return to court Nov. 6.

This isn't the first problem that has cropped up from the law, which was approved in February 2007.

For months, Dennis W. Edwards, 55, bounced from residence to residence, at one point claiming he was living out of his car.

This summer, two convicted sex offenders from Monsey challenged the statute in state Supreme Court, claiming it infringed on their ability to practice religion. State Supreme Court Justice William Kelly disagreed and upheld the law's constitutionality.

Several state and federal courts have upheld exclusionary laws as constitutional, even if they seem impractical, experts say.

Rockland Deputy Director of Probation Kathleen Tower-Bernstein said a handful of sex offenders had been charged under the county law for living in prohibited areas.

A similar ordinance in two New Jersey towns was struck down by a state appeals court in July after the judge ruled that it conflicted with the state's Megan's Law. Megan's Law classifies sex offenders and forces them to report their addresses to police.

Rockland County Legislator Ed Day, who sponsored the sex offender law, said Palma's situation was a failing of county government, not of the law itself.

"I think that if we are spending money to house a predatory sex offender who has never had a problem finding a place to live, and he's now being supported by taxpayers, there's something desperately wrong with that system, and it needs to be changed," said Day, a Republican from New City.

Day has called Palma "the poster child" for this pedophile-free zone because he had proven himself to be a danger to the community.

"There are people who truly are in need of housing in this county," he said. "Meanwhile, we are bringing the power of government to find a place to live for someone who defiles children."

Critics have argued Rockland's sex offender-free zone was ineffective in protecting children from sexual predators.

Though they supported Day's proposed legislation, Vanderhoef and some legislators said at the time that the law would give people a false sense of security.

Most children are sexually abused by people they know or relatives, experts say. And the law doesn't prevent pedophiles from entering parks, though police are empowered to arrest those offenders if they recognize them.

State statistics found the rate of recidivism among sex offenders to be the lowest among all crimes, opponents have argued. More than 25,000 sex offenders are listed on the New York State Registry, including 456 in Westchester, 112 in Rockland and 33 in Putnam.

"Most children are not snatched up from playgrounds or day care centers and abused by strangers," Tower-Bernstein said. "It's mostly people they know or someone you open your door to and invite them in and offer them dinner."

In December 2005, Palma pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of attempted possession of an obscene sexual performance by a child and two counts of endangering the welfare of children.

The endangering counts involved having oral sex with a 14-year-old girl and intercourse with a 15-year-old girl. A state police investigator testified that Palma had given both girls alcohol first.

Palma expressed a desire to put his crimes behind him and move on with his life.

"I don't know what I was thinking at the time," he said. "I was trying to figure that out in the therapy. I was trying to figure out why I did these things." ..News Source.. by Ted Hesson and Steve Lieberman