State Sen. Rich Funke on Monday announced the Senate passed a bill that would make it a felony for a sex offender to fail to appear at a court hearing to determine the offender's risk level.
State Sen. Rich Funke on Monday announced the Senate passed a bill that would make it a felony for a sex offender to fail to appear at a court hearing to determine the offender’s risk level.
Funke said he sponsored the bill, S.4765, as well as another bill, S.4776, which would expand the information available on the State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) sex offender registry’s website.
"Funke stated that both bills passed with bipartisan support and have been sent to the Assembly.
In addition to making it a felony for a sex offender to fail to appear at a risk-level determination hearing, S.4765 would also eliminate a defense currently available to a sex offender who fails to annually verify his or her address with DCJS. Currently, if the sex offender has not changed his or her address, and does not annually verify his or her address, it is not a violation of the Sex Offender Registration Act. This bill makes any failure to annually verify a class E felony.
S.4776 would address a failure in the current Sex Offender Registration Act that does not require all information about sex offenders to be accessible on the state Registry’s website, Funke stated. Instead, a person must call the 800 number to learn of low-risk offenders in their community.
“While the 800 number has proven to be useful to businesses and volunteer agencies seeking to screen employees, the number is not available outside normal business hours and the caller must have extensive details such as the sex offender's name and either the offender's exact address, date of birth, social security number, or driver's license number,” Funke stated. ..Source.. by Julie Sherwood
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