Convicted of sex crime in 1993, man loses house to foreclosure but can't move

8-9-2010 Florida:

Joseph Mortimer and his wife took out an equity loan on their longtime Richmond Heights house during the real-estate boom, fell into foreclosure in February and then got scammed for $3,000 at a loan-modification seminar.

But their recession story has a twist: Mortimer can't move to another nearby home because he was convicted of a sex offense in 1993.

Mortimer's problem illustrates a quirk in the Miami-Dade county ordinance that bars sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of a school, park or playground.

Because Mortimer lived in his house before the 2005 ordinance was passed, he was allowed to stay there despite its proximity to two schools. But the location of his newly purchased house -- which is about one block away -- violates county law.

``I don't know what to do,'' said Mortimer. ``Every time a new law comes out, it's like I'm being convicted all over again.''

Mortimer, 44, pleaded guilty in 1993 to attempted sexual battery on a minor for molesting his girlfriend's 15-year-old daughter. He has since married the girl's mother, undergone therapy and completed probation in 2002.

He received a withhold of adjudication, meaning no felony conviction appears on his record, and holds a job as a heavy equipment operator with Miami-Dade County.

In court recently, Mortimer begged Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jorge Cueto for help. The judge said there was nothing he could do.

``The man is doing really well. He's been a productive citizen for years,'' Cueto said in court. ``But I don't have the power to change the law.''

Critics of Miami-Dade's controversial ordinance say it leaves offenders with few places to live.

``It's tragic that a family would be placed in this position because of the complete lack of thoughtfulness invested in enacting this ordinance,'' said Jeanne Baker, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who advocates the county adhering to the state's less restrictive 1,000-foot law.

The law spurred the creation of a sex offender shantytown under the Julia Tuttle Causeway, located just outside the 2,500-foot limit. The now-dismantled camp gave Miami-Dade an international black eye and forced authorities to scramble to find homes for scores of convicts.

In the 1990s, Mortimer said, he and his girlfriend, Leslie Washington, were unemployed and addicted to cocaine and marijuana.

Her teenage daughter from a previous relationship told police that Mortimer had been sexually abusing her. He confessed to Miami-Dade police.

``I was on dope,'' Mortimer said of the episode. ``I really didn't care about nothing.''

In 1994, he was sentenced to 10 years of probation and psychological counseling. He said he quit drugs, got a job as a grave digger and eventually went to school for his commercial driver's license.

He married Washington, and the family went through counseling, though at first his stepdaughter lived with her grandmother, also in Richmond Heights.

In 1995, he and his wife put $1,000 down to buy a $56,000 house in the 14500 block of Jackson Street. In April 2002, with a recommendation from his psychologist, Mortimer's probation was terminated.

Nevertheless, Mortimer checks in four times a year with Miami-Dade police as required by law, which he said he has done dutifully.

The family's fortunes declined in 2006, when he and his wife took out a home equity loan to help pay for their son's college tuition and medical expenses for Mortimer's 22-year-old daughter, who has lupus.

By early this year, their monthly mortgage had ballooned to $1,900, not including taxes and insurance. They said they paid $3,000 to an Oakland Park ``loan modification'' company that vanished without helping them.

The tide turned in June, however, when a woman agreed to sell them a similar house on Monroe Street, just around the corner -- with payments directly to her, not a bank -- totaling $750 each month.

Mortimer acknowledges he never thought about checking to see if the house violated the distance ordinance. When the measure was passed in 2005, offenders such as Mortimer were ``grandfathered'' in -- exempt because they already lived where they lived.

``I just thought it was a blessing, that it was the grace of God,'' he said of the new house.

Mortimer did not find out the new address violated the ordinance until he checked in with police and was told it was off-limits.

``He's broken the chain and he is out. . .You cannot re-grandfather the grandfather,'' said Ron Book, one of the ordinance's chief architects and the head of Miami-Dade's Homeless Trust, who helped find housing for the Tuttle camp offenders.

Distraught, Mortimer called Judge Cueto's division and asked to be seen. His stepdaughter, the victim in the case, even wrote a letter forgiving Mortimer and asking for the judge's help.

For now, Mortimer is living in the foreclosed house; the case is still mired in the backlog of the Miami-Dade court system and he has yet to be evicted.

``After all this happened, he's only looked forward, to better himself, to excel,'' his wife said. ``We've lived like any other American family.'' ..Source.. DAVID OVALLE