N.H. House passes bill preventing communities from limiting sex offenders

2-19-2010 New Hampshire:

CONCORD — A bill that would prevent communities from establishing residency restrictions for sex offenders has passed the state House of Representative and is on its way to the Senate.

House Bill 1484, which would prohibit any political subdivision of the state from adopting an ordinance or bylaw that restricts the residence of a sex offender or an offender against children, passed the House without any discussion, according to state Rep. Beth Rodd, D-Bradford.

Rodd proposed the bill in response to a district court ruling regarding Dover's former ordinance, City Code 131-20, which prohibited registered sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of a school or day care center. Judge Mark Weaver ruled the ordinance unconstitutional in August after a 2008 challenge by the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union.

Rodd said she is confident the bill will make its way through the state Senate and eventually end up in the governor's office to be signed into law because there has been much testimony about how such residency restrictions discourage sex offenders from registering.

"It's dangerous to restrict residency for sex offenders because it diminishes law enforcement's ability to track these offenders," she said.

The passing of this bill could be a blow to HB 1442-FN, which would bar offenders against children from living within 2,000 feet of a public or nonpublic elementary or secondary school or a child care facility anywhere in the state.

That bill will be on the House floor March 3, but doesn't have the support of the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.

State Rep. Alfred Baldasaro, R-Londonderry, sponsor of HB 1442-FN, didn't return a call seeking comment Thursday.

Rodd said she doubts that bill will make it to the Senate, as her bill already has passed.

The issue of sex offender residency restrictions began to garner statewide attention in 2008 when the NHCLU filed a motion on behalf of registered sex offender Richard Jennings to dismiss Dover's ordinance.

Jennings violated the ordinance in November 2007 when he moved within 1,200 feet of a kindergarten on Locust Street. He was also charged with felony-level failure to register as a sexual offender for allegedly not notifying police when he moved from Portsmouth to Dover. The ordinance was ruled unconstitutional in August 2009 because it violated Jennings' equal protection rights and the city failed to prove the ordinance accomplished its intended purpose of protecting children.

"Even if the State could establish that restricting where convicted sex offenders live will reduce the likelihood that they will re-offend, the State has failed to show how a 2,500-foot buffer zone is substantially related to protecting children, as opposed to 1,000 feet or 500 feet," the ruling said.

Dover immediately stopped enforcing the ordinance after the District Court decision came out.

The decision only affected Dover's ordinance and didn't stop the towns of Franklin, Tilton, Northfield and Boscawen from enforcing similar ordinances in their communities. ..Source.. Aaron Sanborn