CA- La Verne adds penalties to laws regulating sex-offenders living in the city

6-3-2009 California:

LA VERNE - The City Council has revised its city codes to criminalize registered sex offenders who live within 2,000 feet of a public or private school or any park where children regularly gather.

The law, passed Monday night, was created to "protect the citizens of La Verne from sexual predators. That's the ultimate goal," police Capt. Mike Wiggins said.

If a sex offender breaks the rule, the punishment will be a misdemeanor, an arrestable offense, Wiggins said.

Before passage of the ordinance, there was no penalty for violating the law.

Wiggins said he believes the sex offender law is a necessary one and would have prevented 48-year-old Steven J. Napoli about three weeks ago from moving into the 3000 block of Knollwood Avenue less than 300 feet from Las Flores Park.

The Police Department created a special bulletin "sex offender community notification" about the man. The bulletin can be viewed online at The ordinance, which had its first reading Monday, will take effect 30 days after its final passage.

The La Verne law and other similar ones are "pure nonsense," said Paul Shannon, spokesman for an organization (RSOL) that advocates for reforming sex offender laws.

"They have no impact on protecting children and they promote the further demonization of people," Shannon said. "The term sex offender lumps together extremely different types of behavior."

Registered sex offenders can range from youths at 17, 18 or 19 years old who had sex with an underage girlfriends in high school or exhibitionists who are caught urinating in public and seen by someone under the age of 18, Shannon said.

"Residential restrictions or Jessica's Law, they lump all people together who pose no threat to children," Shannon said. "Of those that do, fortunately, the rate of recidivism is one of the lowest of any crime."

Wiggins said there was 35 sex offenders living in La Verne, though California's Registered Sex Offenders Megan's Law site on Tuesday listed 24 sex offenders.

The site had 186 total registrants for adjacent Pomona and 24 for San Dimas.

Unincorporated Los Angeles County and Walnut are among the areas that have passed similar ordinances.

Fear drives the creation of laws for sex offenders, Shannon said.

"People are more afraid of sex offenders than people labeled terrorists," he said.

Ultimately, Shannon said he believes restrictions should be judged on a case-by-case basis with the ultimate goal of re-integration into society.

Shannon said new laws dealing with sex texting, where teenagers in high schools send nude photos of classmates, can also leave people branded as sex offenders.

"The vast majority of people on the sex offender registry in the U.S. pose no danger to children whatsoever," he said. ..Source.. by Wes Woods II, Staff Writer