TX- In Texas Legislature, not all bills seek tougher rules for sex offenders

5-18-2009 Texas:

AUSTIN — Some state lawmakers want to tweak how Texas deals with sex offenders, sparking a thorny debate over how to strike the right balance between protecting children and allowing low-risk offenders to avoid a lifetime of shame.

Bills this session would regulate how sex offenders use the Internet, bar them from certain jobs and require homeless offenders to report regularly to law enforcement agencies.

There is also a pushback of sorts from those who feel that the current laws may go too far.

Rep. Todd Smith, R-Euless, filed what he has called his "teenage lovers bill" in March. The bill would let defendants petition a judge to exempt them as a registered sex offender under a strict set of circumstances: the age-based offense was consensual, the victim is at least 13 years old and the defendant is no more than four years older than the victim.

Smith’s bill first met some resistance. After he and other supporters made it clear that it would not stop convicted offenders from being punished for their crimes, the bill passed the House nearly unanimously and is now awaiting a vote in the Senate.

Democratic Rep. Chris Turner of Arlington was among a handful of members who voted against the bill.

"If a 17-year-old has an inappropriate relationship with a 13-year-old, I was concerned about the consequences of relaxing those restrictions," Turner said.

The overall impact of Smith’s bill would likely be minimal, said Sgt. Cheryl Johnson, head of the Fort Worth Police Department sex crimes unit. About 1,400 people in Fort Worth are on the sex offender registry. Smith’s bill would likely allow fewer than 10 of them to petition to get off the list, she said.

"A lot of the cases that we see that are truly 'Romeo and Juliet,’ there’s usually more than a four-year difference," said Johnson, who added that she wasn’t opposed to the bill.

Background

Texas began requiring sex offenders to register in 1991. In recent years, lawmakers have beefed up the restrictions and surveillance.

Phillip Taylor, a Dallas therapist who has treated sex offenders, questions the value of closely monitoring low-risk sex offenders.

"The assumption seems to be that there’s a zero-sum game and any law that makes things more difficult for someone who is labeled a sex offender somehow benefits society or benefits the victim," Taylor said. "It’s an odd notion."

This legislative session, groups such as San Antonio-based Texas Voices, which supports Smith’s bill, have been out in force at committee hearings advocating for changing the laws to put less of a burden on low-risk offenders.

Allison Taylor, executive director of the Council on Sex Offender Treatment, has said that she would like to see the state switch to "risk-based registration" that takes into account that not everyone on the registry is a child predator.

A Parker County woman is among many relatives of registered sex offenders watching how the Legislature alters the offender tracking system. She asked that her name not be used to avoid drawing attention to her son’s placement on the registry. Under current law, he will be on the registry for life after being convicted of two counts of indecency with a child for relationships he had with two teenage girls when he was 19.

She said the burden of having a relative on the registry, especially the distance requirements from places children gather, falls on the whole family.

"If he’s with me, I have to stop and think about everything I do," she said. "He can’t go to McDonald’s."

She said she hopes lawmakers consider whether everyone on the list should be treated as a threat to children.

"I’m not proud of what he did, but for him to pay the rest of his life is ridiculous," she said. "He’s not a child molester."

Muddied message

Tom Gaylor with the Texas Municipal Police Association said the support for Smith’s bill has affected the debate on some bills focused on high-risk offenders.

"From a law enforcement standpoint, I think the message is getting a little muddied," Gaylor he said. "Law enforcement isn’t interested in tracking someone who is a Romeo and Juliet case. We want to know about the predators."

Gaylor pointed to an effort by Rep. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, to require sex offenders with victims 14 or younger to have RSO (short for "Registered Sex Offender") printed on the back of their driver’s license for 20 years.

He said it would help police in various situations when they cannot easily look up whether a person is on the registry.

Parker proposed the measure as an amendment to another bill last week. Some lawmakers questioned whether the bill would improve public safety or make life more difficult for sex offenders.

"One of the next steps I suppose is maybe we ought to tattoo these people," said Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston. "Therefore everyone would know who they are, and that’s what frightens me about this. Sometimes I think government reaches too far, and I think this is one of those times."

The amendment failed. Parker said he wasn’t sure whether all members understood whom the bill targeted and how it would aid police and other groups.

"The bill would specifically focus on the child predators, not the Romeo-and-Juliet-type cases," Parker said. "It’s certainly a critical issue."

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Sex offender bills SB 492: Would ban sex offenders from working as emergency medical service personnel. From Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound

Status: Passed Senate, in House

SB 689: Would require sex offenders to register their e-mail addresses, Internet accounts and cellphone numbers with law enforcement. From Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano

Status: Passed Senate, in House

SB 1181: Would bar amusement parks from hiring anyone convicted of a sexual offense. From Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston

Status: Passed Senate, in House

HB 2153: Would require sex offenders who are homeless to provide a geographic location for their address and report to local law enforcement every two weeks. From Rep. Chris Turner, D-Arlington

Status: Passed House, in Senate

Source: www.legis.state.tx.us ..News Source.. by AMAN BATHEJA