NH- ACLU wants to bow out of suit over sex-offender ordinance

6-9-2009 New Hampshire:

The lawyer for the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union has asked a Merrimack County Superior Court judge to release her from representing a convicted sex offender who is challenging the city's sex-offender registration restrictions.

In a motion filed June 3, Barbara Keshen, the only staff attorney for the N.H.C.L.U., said her organization and Frank Singleton III have had "a difference of opinion with respect to the goals of his lawsuit," which has led to an "irreconcilable difference with respect to strategy in this case."

It was in March when Singleton, currently incarcerated at the State Prison for failing to register as a sex offender in both Tilton and Northfield, filed suit against Police Chief David Goldstein and Mayor Kenneth Merrifield in an attempt to stop them in their official capacities from enforcing Franklin's Code 247, which prohibits a registered sex offender from living within 2,500 feet — or about one-half mile — from any school or other place where children gather.

Singleton has been eligible for parole since January. But according to court documents, he has been unable to file an acceptable parole plan with his probation officer — one that includes an acceptable residence. His girlfriend and his three children live in an apartment at 50 West Bow St. — an apartment his girlfriend said was outside the proscribed area, according to MapQuest.

The city contends the apartment is within the proscribed area, which measures distance between boundary lines, and that it is too close to the Franklin High School on Central Street.

His suit claims the ordinance violates his right of due process because it "is so vast that it cannot be rationally related to any legitimate governmental objective" and that it violated the equal protection clause because it discriminates against one class of citizen — sex offenders. Singleton also said the "city is acting beyond its authority."

When reached for comment, Keshen said she couldn't say anything beyond what was stated in her motion to be relieved as counsel, but did say the N.H.C.L.U. was not charging Singleton for their services. Keshen's motion said a second attorney, Richard Samdperil, also asked to be removed as counsel.

Keshen said should the court grant her wish, Singleton could go forward as his own attorney or hire another lawyer to continue with the case.

Franklin Attorney Paul Fitzgerald said as of Monday, Singleton's girlfriend still lives at 50 West Bow St. and he doesn't know why Keshen and Samdperil wish to be removed from the suit.

While Fitzgerald declined to comment on the specifics of Singleton's suit, he said at some point he expects some person will challenge some community's sex offender ordinances to the point where the New Hampshire Supreme Court must rule.

"Then we would have some clear direction in the matter," he said.

Other state communities with sex-offender registration restrictions include the city of Dover, whose code is the model for Franklin's, Tilton's and Northfield's. ..Source.. by GAIL OBER