PA- Couple seeks to change Megan’s Law restrictions

4-18-2009 Pennsylvania:

Haughwouts feel West Pittston’s residency laws on sex offenders are unfair.

WEST PITTSTON – A man who was deemed a violent sexual predator in 2001 and his wife believe the borough’s six-month-old residency restrictions on sexual offenders are unfair, and that Megan’s Law for Pennsylvania should be amended.

“What about the murderers that can live anywhere they want? What about the drug dealers who live down the street from a school? They can live anywhere they want,” said Muriel Haughwout, of Wyoming Avenue.

Her husband, Guy Haughwout, pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault against minors under age 13 in 2001. The crime is a misdemeanor, and he was sentenced to seven to 36 months in prison along with receiving therapy, refraining from contact with minors and adhering to Megan’s Law requirements after his release.

(eAdvocate Post)

Police said he molested a 5-year-old girl and a 10-year-old girl on separate occasions.

“I don’t minimize my crimes at all. They were heinous acts that no one should have to endure,” Guy Haughwout, 40, said during a recent interview in the couple’s second-floor apartment.

“But I know why it happened, and I know how not to let it happen again. Give me a way to prove to society that I have changed. I maintain my moral sobriety, and I feel I should have the opportunity,” he said.

Haughwout said her husband hasn’t been charged with any sex crime since his 2001 conviction. Court records show two unrelated offenses and a not guilty verdict on a charge of failing to register his address in 2002.

But because his initial offense is one listed under Megan’s Law and an evaluation by the state Sexual Offenders Assessment Board determined he was a violent sexual predator who was sexually abused as a child, Haughwout said he was told he must register as a violent sexual predator for the rest of his life.

Megan’s Law requires sexual predators to register their address with police every three months. State police post the offenders’ names, addresses and offenses on a Web site.

Sex offender recidivism
West Pittston Council adopted a residency restriction ordinance for registered sex offenders in October. It prohibits them from moving into a dwelling within a certain distance of schools, playgrounds and other places children might frequent.

“I believe the reason they have these laws and ordinances around the country is that murderers get locked up for a long, long time,” said Council President Brian Thornton. “A lot of those crimes were very specific and targeted, not random. There’s no reason to expect a murderer to target random victims once he’s released from prison.”

But Thornton said the opposite is true with sexual predators.

“They don’t stop when they get out of jail because of their psychological problem. They continue to prey on innocent sectors of the community. … I’m not aware of any study that shows murderers start murdering again when they’re released. But studies show many sexual predators go back to their behavior,” he said.

Guy Haughwout believes Thornton misunderstands recidivism studies. He said only the recidivism rate of murderers committing the same type of crime is lower than the recidivism rate for sex offenders.

Haughwout said it appears the rate for sex offenders is higher because of many additional parole restrictions put on sex offenders, such as verifying their addresses with police every 90 days and not owning a computer or using the Internet. Any such violation is enough to return a sex offender on probation or parole to prison.

According to a U.S. Department of Justice press release on a 2003 recidivism study, within three years following their 1994 state prison release, 5.3 percent of sex offenders were rearrested for another sex crime.

But sex offenders were less likely than other offenders to be rearrested for any offense – 43 percent of sex offenders versus 68 percent of others.

Amend Megan’s Law?
Muriel Haughwout said the nature of her husband’s crime was not violent, and she doesn’t think a misdemeanor should be among the crimes that require an offender to be considered for violent sexual predator status.

“I’ve been with him 23 years. There’s not a violent bone in his body,” Haughwout said of her husband.

She also believes the evaluator who determines if a sex offender is a violent predator should have “psychological credentials. It shouldn’t be a social worker.” The person who evaluated her husband was a licensed social worker who had a master’s in social work.

Guy Haughwout thinks it unfair that someone who is deemed a violent sexual predator must carry the stigma and associated penalties for a lifetime if that person hasn’t reoffended and has received adequate psychological treatment.

“If there was a way to revisit the board and be reassessed so (the classification) could be downgraded, that would be fair,” Guy Haughwout said.

Greg Warner, counsel to the state Senate Judiciary Committee, said under the current Megan’s Law statute the designation is applied for life, but after 20 years “they’re able to petition the court to have that label removed.”

Lauren Taylor, executive director of the state Sexual Offenders Assessment Board, said evaluators of sex offenders are board members who Megan’s Law requires to be psychiatrists, psychologists or criminal justice experts, each of whom is an expert in the field of the behavior and treatment of sexual offenders.

Taylor said she feels confident that any board member who evaluates an offender is qualified to do so. She said the evaluation is a “cross-breed … between points of law and medical diagnosis.”

Taylor said the phrase “violent sexual offender” is a legal term. By legal definition, a violent sexual predator must have either a personality disorder or a mental abnormality. Evaluators use the Diagnostics Statistical Manual – a tool used nationally by the medical community for diagnosis – to determine if an individual meets criteria for a personality disorder or mental abnormality, Taylor said.

There is a list of other criteria that must also be considered when evaluating whether or not a sex offender should be deemed a violent predator, including prior criminal history, relationship to the victim, nature of the crime and whether multiple the crimes were committed.

As for the types of crimes that require sexual predator evaluations under Megan’s Law and reassessment, Taylor said those are issues that would have to be addressed by the General Assembly.

Muriel Haughwout said her next step in attempting to loosen the restrictions on her husband will be to contact state legislators.

“They don’t realize that they’re taking this person’s life away and they might not need to do that. And this isn’t a sexually violent predator asking. This is the wife … that’s asking.” ..News Source.. by Steve Mocarsky