2-19-2009 New York:
ALBANY -- A City Court judge has dismissed a charge against a convicted sex offender accused of violating a county law that limits where sex offenders can live, ruling the county's law usurps state authority.
The decision this week by Judge Thomas K. Keefe runs counter to one by his colleague, Judge Rachel Kretser, last summer and would seem to deepen the legal uncertainty surrounding more than 80 similar laws that have popped up across the state.
A constitutional challenge to the Local Law No. 8 of 2006 is pending in state Supreme Court. On Jan. 22, a judge struck down a nearly identical measure in Rockland County for the same reasons as Keefe.
Keefe's decision cites the Rockland case and echoes that judge's view that the state has already made clear its intent to regulate where sex offenders can live.
The decision also refers to efforts in Colonie to evaluate whether the town should pass its own law to prevent clustering of sex offenders in motels.
Albany County's law bans Level 2 and 3 sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools and day care facilities. It was under that statute that John Blair was charged last May. His attorney, assistant public defender Julianne Girard, moved to dismiss the misdemeanor on the grounds that the county law is pre-empted by state authority. Keefe agreed.
Last July, Kretser upheld the charges against four men in a similar situation to Blair, finding the county law "has not been pre-empted by the New York law, either expressly or by implication."
The conflicting decisions from the same court could send mixed messages to city police.
Attorney Terence Kindlon, whose firm is suing the county pro bono, said he believes it would be "more intelligent than not to refrain from prosecuting these cases."
"I don't think the police are going to be playing judicial roulette here in an effort to convict half of the people all of the time," Kindlon said.
Detective James Miller, a spokesman for the Albany Department of Public Safety, said officers in the city will keep making arrests.
"Until told otherwise, we'll continue to enforce it," he said. He echoed the position of the district attorney's office, which will continue to prosecute "unless and until the law is changed," said spokeswoman Heather Orth.
Mary Witkowski, a county spokeswoman, declined to comment on Keefe's ruling but reiterated the county's stand that residency restrictions need to be addressed at the state level.
The residency issue is unlikely to be resolved before heading to an appeals court. ..News Source.. by JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST, Staff writer
Court decision is available here on The Parson's Net
February 19, 2009
NY- Albany judge says sex offender law usurps state
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I agree with all of this ignorance of where sex-offenders shall live if it says within 1,000 feet of schools and daycares, As long as this person hasn't attempted to do anything else if this is his or her fist offense and they have paid there depth to society just as any other criminal why should he or she be able to live there lives like the rest of society. The ones to watch should be the repeat. APD, has nothing better else to do when there are bigger crimes being committed out there. I commend the judge and the public defender and Terence Kindlon for recognizing when some one is being unfairly targeted. If families educated there young and themselves they wouldn't feel like this what about the kids who kill, who sell drugs,is this any difference when they are on our street corners and close to schools and daycares. What about the ones who work in public places around children but who aren't exposed. They pose a greater threat than someone doing it for the first time and then this wasn't a stranger as they say it is someone the child knows. Get your laws right and APD, need to pay attention to there own problems we don't always trust them either...
As long as they have a resiendence then whom are we to intervene, people are so ignorant to anothers issue that they sometimes get caught up in something they have no knowledge about. Now, when they say Albany's Law is to keep levels 2 and 3 1,000 feet from schools and daycares, and not parks. what is the picture here what is it. If they have done there time why are they still being prosecuted after the fact. What about the men and woman who work in facilities where these children are do we know who they are. I done research and the most likely of someone who has never done this before but knew the victim because they were family would not repeat again as if someone who was a stranger and is working in public, private schools and daycares. Who is speaking for them. Then when something happens and it comes from a school or a daycare then what do they say or how stupid do they feel. There are so many people to place judgement on. I would fear them more than I would it being a family member. So, lets not make it harder for them than it already is especially, if they have not done the research and just going by what the media or the neighbor says. They are just like any other criminal who has committed a crime and done the time for it. To me this is worst than your average drug dealer or murderer or gang banger, what is the difference they all hang on the corner's of houses, schools, playgrounds, or work with you so how does this make them any safer/
Post a Comment