GA- Georgia law puts non-offenders on sex registry

3-14-2009 Georgia:

Child molesters, rapists and other sex criminals often remain dangerous even after they’ve served their time, and Georgia’s sex offender registry is designed to keep a leash on them.

The law, one of the nation’s toughest, tracks most offenders until they die, dictating where they can live and work.

But the law has a peculiar twist: There are a growing number of registered sex offenders in Georgia who did not commit a sex offense. The law applies to anyone convicted of kidnapping or false imprisonment of a minor, regardless if a sexual act was committed.

At 17, Darnelle Harvey took part in the robbery of a Dairy Queen in Chamblee. Brandishing a gun, he ordered a 16-year-old to lie down as the holdup progressed. This got him a false imprisonment conviction, and because the victim was under 18, Harvey became a sex offender.

Now 36, he acknowledges his mistakes.

“I’m no saint, I know that,” Harvey said recently. “What I did was bad, stupid, and I spent years in prison regretting it every day. But I’m not a sex offender.”

Some legislators agree.

The law was drawn so broadly that it has triggered another: the law of unintended consequences, Sen. Seth Harp (R-Midland) said.

“We’re trying to clarify it,” he said. “We need to concentrate solely on those who really are sex offenders so we know where they are to keep them away from children.”

Harp’s legislation amends a number of provisions, including requiring those convicted of kidnapping or falsely imprisoning a minor to be on the registry only when their crimes involve a sex offense. The bill recently passed the Senate by a 52-2 vote. It is now before the House.

Rep. David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) said lawmakers initially passed the provision with the belief that anyone convicted of committing crimes of force and violence against minors should also receive the same fate as sex offenders. But Ralston said last week he was open to revisiting the issue.

The sex offender law has encountered legal setbacks. The Georgia Supreme Court has struck down certain provisions, including mandatory life sentences for offenders who failed to register a second time.

The kidnapping and false imprisonment provisions also face a court challenge.

A Fulton County judge recently heard arguments on behalf of a man convicted of false imprisonment during a May 2000 drug robbery in Gwinnett County.

“Doesn’t it sound screwy what’s going on here?” Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter asked, when told Jake Rainer is a registered sex offender who committed no sex crime.

For Harvey, the distinction is not a small one.

When convicts serve their sentences, their debts are paid, and they are generally free to live and work wherever they can find shelter and employment.

But the sex offender registry is a kind of life sentence. Those on it cannot live or work within 1,000 feet of places children congregate, such as parks, schools, rec centers and swimming pools.

Harvey must now report every three days to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office and provide a location where he stays, a requirement of those who are homeless, as he is.

His journey to the sex offender registry began with the 1990 robbery of the DQ.

Before the restaurant closed that night, Harvey and his co-defendant, Eddie Montgomery, waited nearby in the woods, watching.

Harvey told Montgomery he didn’t want to go through with it. But Montgomery pointed his gun at Harvey and said he had no choice, Montgomery said during his guilty plea. Harvey complied.

A 16-year-old boy, the first to emerge from the DQ, was ordered to lie down — the basis of the false imprisonment charge. When the others walked out, Harvey and Montgomery robbed them at gunpoint and fled with the cash. They were arrested two weeks later.

Harvey pleaded guilty and spent seven years in prison.

Harvey learned welding after getting out of prison, but he could not accept a job as a welder last year because he had to leave the state. He recently got a job doing repair work at Big Boot Ranch in Ellenwood, but he had to leave that because the ranch hosts parties for children.

“He wanted to work, wanted to move his life along,” ranch owner John Sturdivant said.

“If you can’t work, you can’t take care of yourself. When you can’t do that, it might lead to robbing or stealing. What’s left?”

About 90 people are on the sex offender registry for false imprisonment convictions and another 90 are on it for kidnapping.

Prison records indicate at least 33 of those offenders committed a sex crime when they kidnapped or falsely imprisoned their victims.

Donnie Lee Boone is not one of them.

In 1994, Boone and two others held up an Augusta restaurant. Because the men moved four employees, one a 17-year-old, from one part of the restaurant to another, they were convicted of kidnapping.

After serving nearly 12 years in prison, Boone was granted parole in 2006. But the parole board refused to release him because he could not meet the sex-offender residency requirements.

The board said he could not move in with his mother because her home was within 1,000 feet of a park, a church and a rec center. In 2008, Mica Doctoroff, an investigator for the Southern Center for Human Rights, determined that the church and park were 2,000 feet from the woman’s home. The rec center didn’t exist.

In April 2008, Boone was released — two years after being granted parole — and moved in with his mother.

Boone, 40, is now taking online computer college classes to earn an associate’s degree in business.

“I had to serve additional time for being a sex offender when I didn’t commit a sex crime,” he said. “It’s still unbelievable to us.” ..News Source.. by BILL RANKIN, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution