If it is true that, you cannot criminalize -mere presence- how does that square with residency laws which declare a RSO's living (presence) in a residence, in a prohibited area, a crime?5-12-2010 Florida:
Panel to hear comments on ordinance on May 25
Lee County commissioners approved for public hearing Tuesday an amended ordinance restricting the movement of registered sex offenders.
Commissioners will hear comment on the ordinance May 25.
The Child Safety Zone ordinance, originally passed in March 2009, was challenged as unconstitutional by two sex offenders in December. The ordinance prohibits registered sex offenders from coming within 300 feet of a number of places such as schools, day cares, video arcades, bus stops, public pools, playgrounds, certain restaurants, zoos, skate parks, beaches or "any other similar type places where children congregate," whether permanent or transient.
Fort Myers attorneys Peter Aiken and John Charles Coleman challenged phrasing in the ordinance, claiming it was too broad and unconstitutional.
Two men - Joseph Comfort, 58, and Jeffrey Israel, 48 - were arrested for being near pools in 2009. Aiken and Coleman argued the men don't know where they can and can't travel based on the ordinance.
Lee County Judges Radford Sturgis and John Duryea Jr. in December determined the ordinance is constitutional but language like "other similar type places" cause the definitions of locations to be overly broad.
Commissioners on Tuesday approved the revised ordinance without the broad language.
"You can't make just presence a crime," Aiken said. "It is absolutely nothing more but a feel-good law."
He said it could still be unconstitutional if it restricts where a person can travel. What if someone is in a park and children show up?
He likened it somewhat to recent Arizona legislation that allows law enforcement to make people prove they are citizens.
"Does it give law enforcement the authority to go up to somebody on the beach and prove they're not a registered sex offender?" Aiken wondered. "How far does it go?" ..Source.. PAT GILLESPIE
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