MI- MI court looks at homeless sex offender

8-8-2009 Michigan:

Sex offender homeless; can't register

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - A Michigan appeals court will consider whether a homeless sex offender who lives in abandoned buildings and city parks can be punished for not registering an address or giving his whereabouts to law enforcement.

Randall Dowdy, 61, visited a Lansing shelter off and on until 2006 when he was told he could no longer go there because he was a convicted sex offender.

Dowdy was charged with not reporting a change of address within 10 days of moving, not verifying his address every three months and not paying a registration fee -- all violations of the Sex Offender Registration Act.

A local judge dismissed the charges in 2008, finding it impossible for Dowdy to comply with the law since he is homeless.

The Michigan Court of Appeals declined to hear the appeal after the prosecution missed a deadline. But the state Supreme Court, on a 6-1 vote released Friday, ordered the appeals court to take the case anyway.

"It is a thorny matter. We need some resolution," said Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III, who wants the Legislature to clarify a "gaping hole" in the law. "If not, the courts will."

Michigan has nearly 26,000 non-incarcerated sex offenders on the registry who must verify their address. Dunnings could not estimate how many are homeless but said it is not uncommon.

The case seems likely to reach the high court again because the justices -- while ordering the appeals court to take a crack at it first -- differed on whether the charges should be tossed.

"To hold that individuals who have no residence or domicile must abide by the requirement to register or report one's residence or domicile is an unlawful and absurd proposition," dissenting Justice Diane Hathaway wrote.

Chief Justice Marilyn Kelly said the charges may have been thrown out correctly because Dowdy "simply had no residence to register."

But Justices Maura Corrigan, Stephen Markman and Robert Young Jr. said the charges should not have been dismissed.

"There is nothing 'absurd' about the state's requirements that persons convicted of sexual crimes periodically inform police of their living arrangements, even if they are homeless," Young wrote.

If sex offenders cannot show documents showing their address or domicile, he said, it is up to the state police to find another way to verify their whereabouts.

The Michigan Public Sex Offender Registry says Dowdy was convicted of kidnapping and 1st-degree criminal sexual conduct. His court-appointed attorney, Patrick Eagan, said Dowdy went to prison in 1985, was paroled at some point and later sent back to prison.

He was released in 2002 after serving his full term.

The address Dowdy listed when leaving prison was the Volunteers of America shelter in Lansing, which later turned him away after learning of his sex offender status. His most recent address, verified in early July, is at another local shelter. ..Source.. by WOOD TV.com