NC- Judge's ruling in Chatham leads counties to butt heads

A war between officials (court and sheriff) over a sex offender, who needs sex offender treatment, in a locked down facility, which is in a proscribed area due to a residency law; who will win? Unfortunately logic plays no part in the sheriff's thinking related to residency laws...

4-20-2009 North Carolina:

Authorities in Forsyth and Chatham counties are engaged in a high-stakes game of pingpong involving a convicted sex offender who admitted molesting a 4-year-old girl.

The situation could result in more criminal charges if court officials from Chatham County try to follow through on a judge's order to place 16-year-old Carlos Dominguez Moreno in a treatment center in Forsyth County that's close to a day-care center and a school for children with autism.

The legal stalemate boils down to opposing viewpoints.

Officials in Chatham County -- notably Judge R. Allen Baddour Jr. of Superior Court -- clearly believe that Moreno is a young man who might yet be salvaged, someone who could benefit from therapy. Authorities here think that Moreno is a sexual predator, a danger to the community, and a problem to be dealt with in Chatham County.

Right now, the battle over Moreno is at a standoff. Baddour signed an order March 12 to place Moreno in the Old Vineyard Behavioral Health Services facility in Winston-Salem. Forsyth authorities objected, and sent word that Moreno would be arrested for violating sex-offender residency laws if he shows up here.

"To take on responsibility for an individual who, one, would be in violation of the law and two, might jeopardize children ... I cannot allow that," said Detective Paulo Gargiulo, the man who runs the sex-offender registration unit for the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office. "If a court says we have to take him, we will. But we can't just do it blindly or without protest."

(eAdvocate Post)

Too close for comfort

The showdown began Dec. 15 when Moreno pleaded guilty to taking indecent liberties with a child, three counts of sexual battery, felony breaking and entering and misdemeanor stalking.

As part of that plea bargain, he was sentenced to 16 to 20 months in prison for taking indecent liberties with a child and sexual battery, followed by six to eight months for the other offenses. The sentences were immediately suspended, and he was ordered to be on supervised probation for 60 months.

(How a child molester can get a deal like that is a story for another day. Suffice it to say, the arrangement is very generous.)

A month later, court officials in Chatham determined that Moreno could be treated at Old Vineyard and notified Forsyth probation officers that he would be coming Jan. 30.

The response from Forsyth County? No way.

"We found that Old Vineyard is within the 1,000-foot rule," said judicial district-manager Chris Oxendine, referring to a state law that says a convicted sex offender can't reside within 1,000 feet of a school or day-care center. "We advised Chatham County of that."

In his order, Baddour used MapQuest and Google maps to determine that Old Vineyard is more than 1,000 feet away from the ABC School of NC and the Bunny Stop Preschool.

But that's driving distance. The attorney general's office says the 1,000-foot rule is a point to point measure calculated through property-tax records.

To further support his ruling, Baddour came up with two other questionable exceptions to the law governing where sex offenders can live.

He ruled that because Old Vineyard provides "educational services," Moreno could be considered a student, and he wrote that the 1,000-foot rule doesn't apply because Old Vineyard was in its present location before the ABC School and the day care.

"The program out there is to help sex offenders, pre-trial and the key phrase is ‘not convicted,'" said Tom Keith, the district attorney for Forsyth County. "It's a fine point of the law, but this guy has been convicted and we don't think it's appropriate for him to be here."


‘We don't want him'

For the time being, Moreno remains at home in Chatham County under house arrest.

"The reason judicial officials wanted him to go (to Forsyth County) was because it gave him a chance at sex offender treatment in a locked facility," wrote judicial assistant Tammy Keshley in an e-mail sent on Baddour's behalf.

"Mr. Moreno is very young, and one of the other main concerns was regarding what happens after he's off probation."

Gargiulo said he knows of at least seven other similar residential-treatment programs in the state, some of which are closer to Chatham County than Old Vineyard. Baddour's order doesn't specify why Old Vineyard was selected.

"If he (Moreno) is to be successful in rehabilitation, you'd think you'd want him closer to his family or whatever support network he has," Gargiulo said.

Rob McCartney, the CEO at Old Vineyard, said the center will abide by the legal process.

"We understand that we're a member of the Winston-Salem Forsyth County community and we will always take that into consideration, along with what's in the best interest of the patient and our other residents," he said.

Whether you view Baddour's move as a noble attempt to salvage a damaged kid or a ham-fisted effort to palm a predator off on us depends on where you live. Take it from a helpful employee in the Chatham County clerk's office who spoke frankly only under the cloak of anonymity.

"I understand why you wouldn't want him there," the woman said. "We don't want him here, either. I got grandchildren, you know?" ..News Source.. by Scott Sexton | Journal Columnist