U.S. court affirms Meza entitled to sex offender hearing

10-21-2010 Texas:

Convicted child killer still held under miminum security in Travis County as state ponders appeal

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to reconsider a decision that Texas improperly placed sex offender conditions on convicted Austin child killer Raul Meza, affirming an earlier ruling that criticized the way Texas' parole officials handled the case.

In a two-page order issued Tuesday, the court refused to reconsider a May decision by a three-judge panel that said parolees must be given a hearing before they can be labeled as sex offenders and forced to comply with stringent rules limiting their freedom, even if they have never been convicted of a sex crime.

Such hearings would allow parolees to challenge that designation, a process not allowed previously in Texas and one that state parole officials have argued would be expensive and cumbersome to manage.

The decision, if it stands, could force parole officials to hold hearings for several thousand parolees who have been classified as sex offenders, after years of official resistance to such a process and despite numerous court rulings ordering them to do so.

Tom Kelley, a spokesman for Attorney General Greg Abbott, said a decision has not yet been made on whether to appeal the ruling.

The three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based court in its May decision had ordered parole officials to provide Meza and the other affected parolees with a written decision listing the evidence they relied upon and the reasons for attaching conditions to their parole under mandatory supervision.

The May ruling upheld an order in 2009 by U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel of Austin, except the appeals court said convicts like Meza were not entitled to a lawyer when they challenge their classification as a sex offender.

Texas officials had appealed the May decision, asking that all 16 judges on the appeals court reconsider the ruling by the three-judge panel.

In its Tuesday order, the court declined to do so.

"The Circuit's decision clarifies the due-process rights of some 1,000 people whom Texas treats as sex offenders, even though they were never convicted of a sex offense," said Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project and one of Meza's attorneys.

Harrington said the ruling didn't surprise him as much as "how hard the state has resisted" giving the affected inmates hearings.

Rissie Owens , chairwoman of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles , could not be reached for comment.

Meza was convicted of killing 8-year-old Kendra Page at a Southeast Austin elementary school playground in 1982.

He was sentenced to 30 years in prison and later received another four years for obtaining a smuggled weapon in prison.

Meza was released from prison in 1993 when his time served and good-behavior time equaled the length of his sentence. He was first put on parole, then returned to prison in 1994 for a curfew violation.

In 2002, when he was scheduled for release from prison, he was instead transferred to a minimum-security part of the Travis County jail system . He has remained there since.

In court filings, Meza's lawyers have argued that parole restrictions imposed on him — Meza must be escorted by a parole officer and cannot approach or cross "child-safety zones" such as schools and day cares — have made it impossible for him to find a job.

Without a job, Meza cannot find a place to live, requiring him to remain incarcerated past the end of his sentence, the lawyers have said.

Early this year , Meza was charged with violating terms of his parole by making a terroristic threat and attempting to obtain a pistol. In March, the parole board voted to continue his supervision unchanged, according to parole officials. ..Source.. Mike Ward AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF