September 3, 2010

Florida Sex Offenders Must Register With New Permanent or Temporary Address

The insanity of law. Follow the highlights, if a RSO visits their parents home for an aggregate days in a calendar year, then s/he is deemed to live there. And, must change driver's license and any other ID's they may have (like Internet ID's etc.) for each visit? Courts should deem this unconstitutional because it is over breadth and more control of lives than generally, probation or parole of other crime types. The "key" is the word "routinely."
9-2-2010 Florida:

There are certain crimes in Florida that require the defendant to register as a sex offender for the rest of his/her life after a conviction. This sex offender status confers fairly rigid requirements on a person, and failure to comply can lead to an additional serious felony criminal charge in Florida. For instance, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will likely send an annual letter to a person's registered address asking the person to verify that he/she still resides there. If the letter is not answered in time, the police may come looking for that person. If the police determine that the person has changed his/her address, permanently or temporarily, without notifying the proper authorities, that person will likely face a new third degree felony charge.

Under the Florida career sex offender law, a person must register with the Department of Corrections within two days of establishing a permanent or temporary residence. The definition of a permanent residence might sound a lot like a temporary residence. A permanent residence is a place where the person "abides, lodges or resides" for 14 or more consecutive days. A temporary residence will include any trip of four days or more or just about any series of trips to the same location. A temporary residence is defined under the Florida criminal laws as a place where the person "abides, lodges or resides" for 14 days in the aggregate in any calendar year that is not his/her permanent residence or a place where the person "routinely abides, lodges or resides" for a period of 4 or more consecutive days or nonconsecutive days in any month which is not his/her permanent address. For example, if a person likes to visit a friend at the same location one weekend each month, that would qualify as a temporary residence and need to be reported.

Any time the person changes or establishes a permanent or temporary residence under the Florida law definitions above, he/she needs to report that information to a Florida driver's license office within two business days.

The residency definitions are very strict in terms of reporting. If a person goes on vacation for four days, technically, he/she has to report that address as a temporary residence. Basically, any time a person visits the same location for four consecutive days or spends four or more separate days at a particular location in a month, the safe thing to do is to follow the reporting requirements in order to avoid the additional felony charge. ..Source.. Shorstein & Lasnetski Lawfirm

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This ios why i hate Florida politics.

kiokwus said...

One of the main reasons we left Florida. Also the main reason we have not returned to visit relatives living in Florida to include our grand daughter for fear of being arrested just from our presence in the state of #$$%^. Florida is well known for having the most corrupt police and judicial system in this nation as I have experienced both more than once. I left more than 5 years ago and have not been treated badly by anyone where we moved to.

Just another SO said...

So, if I got to Florida on vacation for a week, I have to change my driver's license, and registration; and then change it all back when I return home? Can we say unconstitutional. This is discrimination, pure and simple. By creating this law, they have made it nearly impossible for a RSO to visit the state for any reason.
What if a member of someone's family dies and the RSO travels to attend the funeral? Is the state going to harass that person during their time of grief?

Just another SO said...

So, if I got to Florida on vacation for a week, I have to change my driver's license, and registration; and then change it all back when I return home? Can we say unconstitutional. This is discrimination, pure and simple. By creating this law, they have made it nearly impossible for a RSO to visit the state for any reason.
What if a member of someone's family dies and the RSO travels to attend the funeral? Is the state going to harass that person during their time of grief?

Anonymous said...

You can thank John Walsh and Mark Lunsford for this insanity. I'm sure they receive their share of death threats..