FL- Strict Miami-Dade sex-offender law to remain in place (Says local judge)

9-18-2009 Florida:

A judge ruled that Miami-Dade's strict sex-offender residency law is valid and is not superseded by state law.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida failed to persuade a Miami-Dade judge to undo strict local ordinances that forced a group of convicted sex offenders to live under the Julia Tuttle Causeway.

In the suit, filed against Miami-Dade County, the ACLU argued Thursday that the county's ordinance banning sex predators from living within 2,500 feet of schools conflicts with a 1,000-feet state statute.

The ACLU claimed there was an ``implied preemption'' by the Legislature that local municipalities' ordinances would fall in line with the state's law.

But Miami-Dade Attorney Tom Logue countered that, if true, the Legislature would have clearly inserted the preemption language into the statute. He pointed out that lawmakers have tried and failed over the years to agree on whether local ordinances should follow state law.

That effort -- and its repeated failure to pass the Legislature -- demonstrates there was nothing in the original statute that would prohibit municipalities from drawing up their own restrictions.

The ACLU, however, implored Judge Pedro P. Echarte Jr. to consider that the law was designed to protect children from convicted sex offenders and predators.

They and others have long claimed that the stricter ordinance makes it impossible for the predators to find a decent place to live. As a result, it fails to protect children because it forces molesters to disappear and abscond, leaving the public and police unable to keep tabs on them.

``This is a terrible policy and cannot be what the Legislature intended,'' said Maria Kayanan, who argued the ACLU case on behalf of two residents who lived under the bridge.

The ACLU said they would appeal the judge's decision.

The law, while perhaps created with good intentions, has obviously failed, said Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida. ``This is a classic story of unintended consequences,'' he said.

Ron Book, a state lobbyist who fought for the stringent local ordinances, applauded the judge's decision. ``There is no provision in the law that prohibits local municipalities from enacting their own ordinances,'' he said.

In a related matter, the city of Miami and state this week slugged it out over where another lawsuit affecting the bridge dwellers should be heard. City officials want the case heard locally, where local residents have a vested interest in the outcome. But the state wants it tried in Tallahassee.

As the multipronged legal battle winds its way through the courts, Book is fighting to fence off the underpass and clear out the shanties, tents and cardboard abodes -- as well as the 40 or so vagrants who still live there. Some have returned, while a few have moved in -- and many just don't want to leave.

Book, chairman of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust, has been using federal stimulus funds to help the ex-convicts get started in their new homes by paying the first and last months' rent, as well as other necessities. He is working with the state departments of corrections and transportation, which owns the property, to close down the village. ..Source.. by JULIE BROWN