July 2, 2014

Riverside County repealing sex offender rules

7-2-2014 California:

Riverside County is considering repealing a law that for four years has restricted the activities of convicted sex offenders such as going within 300 feet of day care facilities, schools, school bus stops, parks, public libraries and other places where children gather.

The county's Board of Supervisors approved the ordinance as an emergency move in July 2010 after the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation proposed and then withdrew plans to relocate convicted child murderer Donald Schmidt from Santa Cruz County to a group home near Perris that was less than a mile from an elementary school.

Schmidt was convicted in 1988 for sodomizing and murdering a 3-year-old girl. He was 16 at the time.

Supervisors reversed course Tuesday, voting to introduce a repeal of the ordinance, after courts threw out similar rules elsewhere in California.

Supervisor Jeff Stone of Temecula noted his opposition before the board gave the repeal a preliminary OK as part of a vote approving multiple items. The repeal will likely return to the board for a final vote later this month.

Along with setting the 300-foot barrier from schools and other child-friendly sites, the existing ordinance bans sex offenders from living with another offender who is not a relative.

The ordinance was expanded in October 2010 to prohibit sex offenders from answering the door to children trick-or-treating on Halloween.

Violators of the ordinance are subject to a fine up to $1,000 and six months in jail.

California voters in 2006 approved Jessica's Law, which set residency restrictions and other rules for sex offenders. A court ruling in 2012 found that the law's broad restrictions for all offenders were unconstitutional but allowed for rules on individual offenders as part of their parole terms.

Other court decisions earlier this year threw out ordinances in Orange County and the city of Irvine on grounds that state law preempts the local rules.

Since then, 28 California cities have repealed their ordinances, said Janice Bellucci, an attorney and president of the California chapter of Reform Sex Offender Laws, a group that works to change laws regarding sex offenders it says are ineffective and unconstitutional.

About 80 cities and fewer than 10 counties around the state had passed their own ordinances, she said.

Riverside County was the first county Bellucci knew of to begin the repeal process.

Among the problems with letting local governments enact their own ordinances, she said, is it creates confusion for offenders trying to obey the law.

"In one city, you could go to the dog park and, in one city, you couldn't," she said. "In one city, you could walk on the pier and in, one city, you couldn't."

Riverside County noted that several restrictions on sex offenders remain in effect under state law. They include a lifelong registry requirement, bans on entering schools and other sites without permission and a duty to disclose their offender status when seeking employment or volunteer work involving direct and unaccompanied contact with children.

California Reform Sex Offender Laws has filed lawsuits against 13 cities and counties since March pushing for local ordinance repeals, Bellucci said.

The nonprofit sent letters to other local governments warning them that their sex offender rules could open them up to a lawsuit, but Bellucci said a letter had not yet gone to Riverside County.

"They're on our list," she said. "We just hadn't gotten to them yet." ..Source.. by Barrett Newkirk

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