Some sex offenders get registration violations dismissed

3-25-2012 Montana:

A Billings man sentenced to federal prison for failing to register as a sex offender recently had his conviction dismissed after federal court rulings clarified the law’s effective date.

Clifford W. Eagle, 53, who was convicted in September 2008 of failing to register as a sex offender, is among more than a dozen sex offenders in Montana whose convictions are being dismissed because of the issue.

Assistant Federal Defender Steve Babcock, who represented Eagle, said persons accused of violating the Sex Offenders Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) after the law was enacted in July 2006 but before its effective date of Aug. 1, 2008, are having their convictions dismissed.

The dismissals follow a series of rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on the interim period between the law’s enactment and effective dates. The 9th Circuit ruled that the law did not become effective against convicted sex offenders until Aug. 1, 2008.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Montana and the Federal Defenders of Montana recently have filed joint motions seeking to vacate the convictions and sentences in 14 cases, Babcock said.

Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull “got the ball rolling” to correct the cases, Babcock said. And the government also responded quickly, acting “in an unbelievably prompt manner,” he added.

In a Feb. 24 order, Cebull said he had received a list from Assistant U.S. Attorney Marcia Hurd, who prosecutes most of the cases, and the federal defenders of 14 defendants, including Eagle, who had been erroneously convicted. The judge directed the attorneys to file joint requests to vacate the judgments.

Cebull ordered Eagle released March 3 and the next day, Eagle was released from a federal prison in Tucson, Ariz.

Eagle was indicted in April 2008 for traveling to Billings two months earlier and failing to register as a sex offender. Babcock and Hurd said in their motion that Eagle was innocent because failing to register was not yet a crime.

Eagle was convicted in Oklahoma in 2003 of rape involving a child and was sentenced to 10 years in prison with five years suspended, court records said. He was released in 2007, designated an aggravated sex offender and required to register.

Eagle was registering daily with the Oklahoma City Police Department because, as a homeless person, he had a daily registration requirement. Eagle eventually moved to Montana, registered to live at the Billings Rescue Mission in February 2008 to receive help but failed to register with law enforcement as a sex offender, court records said.

Billings police encountered Eagle in February 2008 and learned in a routine warrants check that Eagle was a convicted sex offender. The officers advised Eagle he needed to register. A month later, officers arrested Eagle on an Oklahoma warrant for violating probation.

Eagle pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Billings in September 2008 to failing to register, and Cebull sentenced him to 30 months in prison.

The judge then revoked Eagle’s supervised release in August 2010, about three months after he was let out of prison, for violations and sent him back to prison for two years.

The judge recommended the Tucson prison because it has a sex offender treatment program, court records said.

Eagle served another 19 months before being released this month. In all, Eagle was incarcerated for about three years and eight months.

Although his conviction has been dismissed, Eagle, who is living as a transient in Billings, still has to register as sex offender, Babcock said.

“The cases did not overrule SORNA and make SORNA ineffective,” he said. While the law has generated an enormous amount of litigation, it remains in effect, he said. ..Source.. by CLAIR JOHNSON