NH- Sex Offender Calls Rejected Ordinance Too Broad

8-8-2009 New Hampshire:

Jennings Successfully Fought Dover Residency Restrictions

ROCHESTER, N.H. -- A convicted sex offender who took his case against the city of Dover's residency restrictions and won said Wednesday that he fought the law because the ordinance painted sex offenders with the same broad brush.

Richard Jennings successfully fought Dover's ordinance that prohibited convicted sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of a school or day care. This week, a judge agreed the ordinance violated Jennings' rights and threw it out.

"There are a lot of decent men and women out there who are registered sex offenders," he said. "Very decent people that have just made some really poor decisions in their lives."

The ordinance meant that Jennings couldn't live in a Locust Street apartment with his then-fiancee because it was too close to a kindergarten.

"This ordinance blanketed all sex offenders," Jennings said. "And to me, there's so many levels of sex offenses."

Ten years ago, Jennings admitted, he had sex with a teenager when he was 32. He said that he has owned up to his past. During an interview with News 9, he was quick to correct his wife when she tried to defend what he did as "a simple mistake."

"No, it wasn't a mistake, not a mistake," he said. "It was a poor decision. There's no such thing as a mistake on something like this. There's just not."

But Jennings said Dover's ordinance wouldn't let him move on after serving his sentence. He and his wife now live in Rochester.

Jennings maintains he is not violent. But he and his wife said they did consider the ramifications of sex offenders of all kinds now being able to live anywhere they want in Dover.

"Well yeah, we both did," said his wife, Janice Jennings. "At one point, he almost wanted to drop the whole case because of that."

"The ordinance has basically portrayed to the public that all sex offenders are dangerous -- watch out," Richard Jennings said. "And I think that's really ethically wrong."

City officials have a different take on this. On Tuesday, Dover's police chief said the ordinance was a tool to help protect children, and now it's one less tool police have. He said the city hasn't yet decided whether to appeal the judge's ruling.

There are at least five other communities in the state with similar ordinances that restrict where sex offenders live, including Franklin, Northfield, Tilton, Holderness and Boscawen. Officials in those towns said they are closely monitoring what Dover officials decide to do. ..Source.. by WMUR.com