Alabama court to decide if sex offenders must have a home

Obviously the prosecutor, by suggesting places which are not mentioned or eluded to in the statute as a possible residences, and if he is correct and has proved I (defendant) was not sleeping at any of those places which I assume he has sent police to check, and the court has evidence that I was not sleeping at those places by police testimony, then yes your honor I am guilty. But your Honor, I wanted to sleep on the moon but felt that was too absurd to put as a residence, according to the prosecutor that is also possible under the statute, has the prosecutor presented evidence that the police would go there to prove I was not there? If not, then your honor, I am innocent and the prosecutor has failed to prove his assertions.

8-28-2010 Alabama:

MONTGOMERY — After serving his prison sentence for rape, Jeffrey Seagle tried to find a place to live. But with no fixed address and no family or friends able to take him in, Alabama's sex offender law kept him behind bars.

When it came time for him to leave the Kilby Correctional Facility near Montgomery, he was re-arrested. The reason: He couldn't give officials an address where he would be living.

"This is essentially an eternal prison sentence. It could be a life sentence," said attorney David Schoen, who represents Seagle and three others in similar situations. "It is the ultimate scarlet letter."

Challenged by Schoen, the law was later declared unconstitutional by two Montgomery circuit judges, but the state attorney general has appealed to have it reinstated. State's attorneys say the four inmates could have complied with the law by listing a park bench or even a street corner as their permanent address.

Montgomery County Circuit Judges Truman Hobbs and Tracey McCooey ruled last year in separate cases that the law is unconstitutionally vague. The ruling struck down charges that the four inmates violated the law when they declared that they were homeless and did not provide an address for where they would be living outside prison.

Seagle and the other three inmates were arrested for violating the notification law when they started to leave prison at the end of their sentences. They have since been released after the law was ruled unconstitutional.

Alabama Attorney General Troy King has asked the state Court of Criminal Appeals to reinstate the law, which he said is necessary for law enforcement officers to keep an eye on people convicted of sex crimes like rape. The four men — Phillip Handley, Thornal Adams, Richard Coppage and Seagle — argued in court briefs that they were unable to find a homeless shelter, halfway house or other permanent home.

Under Alabama law, convicted sex offenders are not permitted to live within 2,000 feet of an elementary or high school or college or university.

Although they are now out of prison, Schoen said his four clients are still having a hard time finding a place to live. He said they have stayed in homeless shelters and other temporary locations.

Many states that adopted stringent community notification rules for sex offenders are now grappling with the issue of how homeless sex offenders can comply.

Last year, probation officers in Georgia had to find temporary housing for nine homeless sex offenders who were kicked out of a makeshift tent city they had built in the woods behind a suburban Atlanta office building. The men said the tent city was the only place they had been able to find where they could live and comply with state law.

In a similar case, almost 100 homeless sex offenders in Florida were forced to move earlier this year from a makeshift camp under a bridge on a Miami causeway.

Mississippi has a law similar to Alabama's, but it gives sex offenders 10 days to find a permanent residence after they are released from prison. In California, sex offenders are allowed to register as "transient" if they can't find housing.

Schoen has argued that the Alabama law violates the Constitution because it requires a convicted sex offender, who has "paid his debt to society," to have a roof over his head.

But the attorney general's office has argued in court briefs that the law does not require a specific address and that inmates can say they are going to live on a park bench or under an interstate overpass, as long as they remain the required distance from schools and police know where to find them.

"You can say 'I'm going to live under the overpass on Ann Street," King said, referring to a Montgomery street not far from the Capitol.

Virginia law allows homeless sex offenders to list a street corner, parking lot or other vacant space as their home.

Deputy Attorney General Pete Smyczek denies claims that the Alabama law is an attempt to give homeless sex offenders life sentences.

"We just want them to give us something definitive enough to allow law enforcement to locate them," Smyczek said.

The law passed the Alabama Legislature in a special session in 2005. The House sponsor, former state Rep. Neil Morrison, D-Cullman, said King and some legislators were concerned that "predators were disappearing back into society" as soon as they were released from prison before law enforcement officers could find out where they were living.

"I felt strongly about this. We owe protection to our children," Morrison said.

Schoen said he believes the Legislature intended to require sex offenders to stay in prison if they lack a permanent address and that the argument about living on park benches is being made to improve chances of winning before the appellate court.

But Morrison said that's not the case.

"Nowhere did we say in the law that they have to stay in prison. The intent was to protect children," Morrison said.

In court filings, attorneys for the sex offenders say their clients went to great lengths to abide by the law.

Seagle, who was initially convicted of rape in Montgomery County in 1995, had been in prison for 14 years when he was told he would have to provide an address before he was released from prison and at that time didn't have any relatives or friends he could live with, according to his filing to the appellate court. The filing said Seagle wrote to a number of halfway houses and was only accepted to live in one in Oklahoma City.

But that halfway house later informed him it was full and he could not live there. The filing said Seagle did not have money to rent a house or an apartment and he did not have access to the Internet in prison to help his search. It said Seagle "did not think he could put down that he would be living on a park bench and that if he did, he would probably get arrested again." ..Source.. Bob Johnson

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Ala. sex offenders' lawsuit reinstated

8-12-2010 Alabama:

A federal appeals court has reversed a U.S. District Court judge's decision and reinstated a lawsuit filed by four sex offenders.

The sex offenders say Jefferson County's sheriff should not be allowed to keep them in jail after they finish their sentences just because they don't have a place to call home. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to a lowe court for reconsideration.

Alabama's Community Notification Act requires that before convicted sex offenders can be freed, they must provide an address where they will live after their release.

If an inmate completes a sentence but can not provide an approved address, he or she can be kept in jail.

The lawsuit now goes back to U.S. District Court Judge Scott Coogler. ..Source.. by The Gadsden Times via ReFORM Alabama

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Lawyer for homeless Grand Rapids sex offenders seeks injunction to allow men to stay at shelters near schools

6-10-2010 Michigan:

GRAND RAPIDS -- The attorney for five homeless sex offenders has filed for a preliminary injunction to bar prosecution if they sleep in the city's homeless shelters, which all are within Student Safety Zones -- or within 1,000 feet of a school.

"If a Student Safety Zone law is interpreted to prohibit homeless registrants from accessing emergency shelters, then registrants are faced with a 'do or die' choice," attorney Miriam Aukerman wrote in her request filed this week in U.S. District Court.

"They can commit a crime by staying in a shelter, or risk injury or death by sleeping in the street," she wrote.

The five sex offenders, identified only by pseudonyms, along with Degage Ministries and Mel Trotter Ministries, filed suit earlier this year against Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Attorney General Mike Cox, retired state police Director Peter Munoz and Kent County Prosecutor William Forsyth over a state law that kept sex offenders out of emergency shelters near schools.

Aukerman said the Safety Zone law was intended to keep sex offenders from buying or renting homes near schools, not to prevent homeless from have a safe night's sleep. The issue came to the forefront last year when Thomas Pauli froze to death in a salvage yard after he reportedly was refused shelter because of a 1991 conviction for molesting a pre-teen girl.

Aukerman said her clients did not commit serious sex offenses. Three of them were convicted of high-court misdemeanors, she said.

She maintained that prohibiting sex offenders from staying at overnight shelters amounted to cruel or unusual punishment. She said sex offenders are not prohibited from obtaining services from the homeless agencies in the day, just from staying overnight.

"... (T)here is little sense in barring the homeless from seeking shelter at night, when schools are closed, when those same individuals can obtain other services at the same location during the day. ... Here, plaintiffs clearly face irreparable harm: they must choose between the inability to obtain shelter with the attendant risks of injury or death, or alternately, prosecution and incarceration."

Assistant Attorney General Margaret Nelson, representing the state, urged no action be taken on the lawsuit. In an earlier filing, she said a case before the state Supreme Court "could have a substantial and significant impact on this case, particularly the determination of whether a homeless shelter is a 'residence' within the meaning of the challenged state statute."

A state appellate court panel ruled earlier this year it was not possible for homeless sex offenders to report their residences because they do not have one. ..Source.. John Agar

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Michigan bill aims to track homeless sex offenders

Again we see the legislature focusing on perpetuating the registry rather than solving why folks are homeless. This is typical of Michigan which fails to resolve hundreds of reasons which cause all the wrong people to be included in the registry. ex: Peeing in the park, Romeo & Juliets, etc. all in the registry.

4-30-2010 Michigan:

Homeless sex offenders would be required to notify police when they change where they are staying under legislation approved by the Michigan Senate.

The legislation unanimously approved Thursday next goes to the House.

The legislation would establish registry reporting and notification requirements for homeless people who are convicted sex offenders. They would have to report their address as a homeless shelter or the nearest intersection where they regularly sleep.

The bills come in response to a recent Michigan Court of Appeals ruling that a homeless sex offender shouldn't be punished for not registering an address or giving his whereabouts to law enforcement. The court's reasoning was that a homeless person doesn't have what is considered a residence. ..Source.. MLive.com

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GPS devices considered to keep track of homeless sex offenders

Another dumb bill: In order for this GPS program to work, in a non discriminatory manner, police would have to apply the GPS unit ONLY for the hours that the homeless person sleeps. Remember, anyone with an address IS NOT tracked outside of the hours they sleep.

So police will have to go to where the HOMELESS person is registered -TWICE DAILY- to apply the unit, then come back when the person gets up (he will need a charged cell phone to call police to come remove the unit when he gets up) to remove the unit. So if the state wants to pay for all that, so be it! OH YES, people call a night different times of a 24 hour span, can't forget that.

In addition, how will a homeless person charge a GPS unit? Further, monitoring a homeless person 24/7 is further punishment based on prior crime and the fact that, the person is homeless; criminalizing homelessness. Finally, there is no evidence that homeless registrants commit crimes while non homeless registrants do not commit crimes, except in the mind of that one lawmaker.

12-10-2009 Ohio:

COLUMBUS — Homeless sex offenders would be required to wear global positioning devices to track their whereabouts, under legislation being considered in the Ohio House.

Rep. Clayton Luckie, a Democrat from the Dayton area, offered House Bill 369 after two women in his district were attacked by the same homeless sex offender.

Quite interesting, lawmakers wants to punish ALL homeless registrants for the acts of ONE homeless person, who by the way will be going to prison for those crimes and will not be subjected to the GPS, except maybe if he is paroled. This is typical illogical thinking of many lawmakers.

“There are predators out there that prey on women and children in our society, putting not just the public, but our families in danger,” Luckie told members of the House’s Criminal Justice Committee on Wednesday. “Are there better ways to track and monitor people convicted of major sexual crimes but do not have a permanent address? I believe there is a better way.”

Tier III sex offenders — the category includes those guilty of rape and crimes against children — already are required to register their addresses with law enforcement every 90 days.

But of the 5,586 sex offenders currently being monitored by the state, close to 500 are homeless, Luckie said.

Under his bill, those who do not have home addresses would be required to be monitored via a GPS device until they have a fixed residence.

“I believe this law is necessary to monitor those who are deemed most dangerous,” Luckie said. “No one can foresee who will commit a crime and when they will do it. However, we can take steps to help deter criminal behavior.” ..Source.. Vindy.com

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With no place to stay, he could go to prison

Winter is coming and folks would not want to see a repeat of last year, where Michigan's Tom Pauli froze to death because he did not have a place to stay due to residency laws.

11-29-2009 Georgia:

He’s a handy, articulate and well-dressed 27-year-old man. Friends say he’s a hard worker with his head on straight — the problem is Otto Jabar Orr is also listed as a sex offender.

The crux of the problem is Orr wants to work within the system, and while the restrictions placed upon him chafe, he’s willing to work. But with unemployment rates at more than 10 percent, jobs are scarce. For someone branded as a sex offender, they’re almost nonexistent.

No job equals no residence, and for Orr no residence equals going back to prison.

“I have to find a place by the end of this month,” Orr said. “But, right now it’s hard for me to find a place without a job.”

It’s not a matter of wishing to comply. It’s a matter of being able to comply with the stringent legal requirements in harsh economic circumstances.

“I did that for a long time. I had a job but then got laid off,” Orr said. “And now no one is hiring, especially me with a criminal record and all.”

There’s no halfway house, no homeless shelter, even the friends who would gladly take him in are bound by the legal restrictions of the registry.

He could remain at his current “temporary residence,” but it is within 1,000 feet of a church, a violation of his probation, and Roger Covington — president of a local prison ministry — agreed to let Orr live in his home, but he’s a convicted felon, and that kind of association is also a violation of his probation.

“It makes me upset. I’m trying, but the only thing that keeps me focused is God,” Orr said. “Sometimes I feel like giving up, but I feel like he won’t let me down, and I keep pushing myself every day.”

The 27-year-old said he’s been clean and arrest-free since 2005. Compliance with a job and a residence was difficult, but doable. The problem is after two years of working for a bakery, he was recently laid off.

Since then he’s been applying for jobs and hitting the pavement. But bad decisions made early in life don’t go away.

Changing times

No one is saying Orr is an angel. He’s been in and out of the courtroom — convicted of several other crimes such as drug possession, obstruction and theft by taking.

But his current entanglement with the legal system began at 18 when he pleaded guilty to a statutory rape charge filed against him when he was 17. Although the sex was consensual, the girl was underage.

When the prosecutor offered eight years of probation — he took it. At that time he didn’t have to register as a sex offender. There was some initial counseling but no registration.

A year later Orr was back in court on a drug possession charge.

This time he went to prison, and upon release in 2005 his parole officer told him the law now required him to register as a sex offender.

“I talked to them but couldn’t push the issue, I just didn’t have any money — only the $35 they gave me when I got out,” he said.

Since 2006, Orr’s particular case would be considered a misdemeanor — with no stipulation of registering in the sex offender database. But that change came too late for Orr. He, and many like him, committed what is now a misdemeanor but face a lifetime stigma of being a convicted felon and even worse — a sex offender.

“The system isn’t designed to help. I did wrong, I know I did,” Orr said. “But I’m still serving time every day. … By not knowing what I signed up for, I messed up my life.”

The law concerning statutory rape was amended July 1, 2006. It made consensual sex between teens (at least 14 years old) and a person no older than 18 a misdemeanor punishable by no more than a year in prison and no sex offender registration.

But the legislature did not make the law retroactive.

The sex offender registry is kept with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and according to Georgia law a person classified as a sexual offender must comply with the requirements of registration for life.

Those laws limit where offenders can live and work.

Those who have completed their incarceration or probation for at least 10 years can petition the Superior Court to be released from the registration requirements, according to Georgia Code 42-1-12 (g).

If the court decides the offender does not pose a substantial risk of future offenses, the court can release the person from registry. But for those in Orr’s situation, 10 years as a registered sex offender may mean a life term.

‘Ghetto pastor’

He’s not without help or friends, there are several who’ve stepped forward asking if they could help Orr. But with limited resources, time is running out.

Louise McCluskey, pastor of the Glorious New Jerusalem Church on West 12th Street, said she first met Orr through his grandmother and the self-described “ghetto pastor” said she saw injustice in his plight.

Here was a hard-working man whose faith had made a change in his life, she said, but his circumstances were dire.

That’s never mattered to McCluskey, who has run many prison ministries and is known for walking in among the convicts and making friends.

“You’ve got to love people. Jesus hung out with the thugs. Did you know that?” she said. “This church welcomes offenders regardless of what the law says. The church is a haven to set people free and help them to get to know Jesus.”

She found a residence for Orr to stay until the probation office saw a church in the area, invalidating the residence as a permanent place. His probation officer said Orr could stay there temporarily but gave an end of November deadline for him to move out.

Both McCluskey and Orr say the probation office has worked with him repeatedly, letting him stay out a little later to attend church and striving to help him stay out of prison. But the legislators made the law, and probation officers are sworn to uphold it.

“He has a good probation officer,” McCluskey said. “It’s the law that needs to change.”

But at this point what he needs is a job. He’s done house maintenance, some construction work and refurbished a home for the church on Harvey Street.

“He has worked diligently to restore that house, and it would be a good place to house others like him. But, guess what, there is a church at the corner,” McCluskey said.

He’s not picky at this point. Orr said he’d take any type of job. It’s not money or donations he needs. It’s a job and the ability to live under his current circumstances and hopefully provide for his three children.

For anyone with work available, McCluskey said they can reach her at 706-409-2908.

Although McCluskey said she has faith that God will make changes, she says people must still work for that change.

She speaks with a voice of experience and the surety of someone who has seen miracles happen.

She doesn’t expect people to make a change for the better 100 percent of the time. “When they want to change they’ll change,” she said.

“It isn’t about in here,” she said, gesturing toward the church. “It’s about out there,” she said, pointing toward the streets. ..Source..
by John Bailey

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CA- Authorities: Many Sex Offenders Lie About Where They Live

11-7-2009 California:

SAN DIEGO -- Hundreds of sex offenders in San Diego County are registered as homeless and deceiving authorities about where they really live, 10News reported.

Michael Eugene Lane, a sex offender convicted of lewd acts with a child, was detained in Rancho Bernardo last week, authorities told 10News.

For the last two years, he has been registered as a transient, but last week a tip led authorities to a home near the Oaks North Golf Course in Rancho Bernardo. The home is located not far from a school and a park.

Darryl Heintz, Interim Director of the S.A.F.E. Task Force, said, "The resident of the home confirmed he had been residing there for three months. In our investigation, we learned he was living at another friend's home previous to that -- also in Rancho Bernardo."

Lane is back in custody and faces more than five years in prison for the alleged deception, but authorities said many sex offenders have lied before.

In San Diego, there are about 1,400 registered sex offenders, with 225 registered as homeless amid a tough economy and more laws restricting where sex offenders can live. However, investigators said many are hiding where they live.

San Diego has 1,400 RSOs and 225 are REGISTERED as homeless, 16% are homeless. Many (NOT SUPPORTED by any FACTS) are hiding AND assumed to be lying about being homeless. Tough economy and restrictive laws, could that be the cause, or the police harassment of the homeowner where a RSO lives, as well as his neighbors at all hours of the day or night. Is it any wonder why SOME may lie to get some peace.

Start treating them like any other person in the community and you may get different results. After all, how many murderers, robbers, and other types of former criminals also live in the community which the police DO NOT bother and place the community at greater risk than do former sex offenders.

Heintz said, "Based on the surveillance I've done and the arrests I've made, I'd estimate between 25 to 35 percent are actually not homeless."

Prosecutors said sex offenders typically claim they don't want the addresses of family, friends and roommates on the Megan's Law Web site, and they don't want the harassment.

GPS monitoring covers some of the homeless -- those on parole. Those who are not covered could be anywhere, authorities said.

Phyllis Schess, Deputy District Attorney and Director of the Sex Offender Management Division, said, "When we don't know where people are, we can't watch what they're doing. They could be grooming children or stalking other potential victims."

Schess said the reality is law provides for sex offenders to register as homeless.

Some are campaigning for a new law to require GPS monitoring for all sex offenders, but opponents said it would be far too costly. ..Source.. by 10News.com

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OH- Homeless sex offenders roam city streets

Folks, read this article carefully, "Homeless List Their Address as ____." OK so the public is notified of the WHERE and there is a picture on the Internet. What more is necessary, avoid those areas if the fear-mongering has got you petrified?

Now, a suggestion to resolve this alleged problem: Every police force needs to return to the days of horses and have 24/7 officers riding their horses through those areas screaming "Homeless RSO sleeping at 23rd and 4th," now every home must also now have -and keep filed and fresh- a horse trough (yes, it will draw mosquitoes, buy bug spray), and some carrots for treats. Problem solved, officers will also carry a bag for folks to deposit money for every ride through their neighborhood, after all you'll now need a pooper scooper. It worked back when .......

10-18-2009 Ohio:

Violent sexual offenders list their area of residence near Miami Valley Hospital, UD.

DAYTON — The highest concentration of Montgomery County’s most violent convicted sexual predators have gone unreported to the public and are known to roam around Miami Valley Hospital and the University of Dayton, authorities say.

At least a dozen Tier III sex offenders are among the homeless who list their area of residence within a half-mile radius around Miami Valley Hospital.

State law allows sex offenders to register as homeless as long as they give an area where they sleep.

But their homeless status circumvents another state law that requires neighbors be notified when a Tier III sex offender is living within 1,000 feet of them.

“To me it is a way for them to skirt the system,” Sheriff Phil Plummer said. “If you’re a Tier III sexual predator, you shouldn’t be allowed to live in an area without us notifying your neighbors. Period.”

Plummer’s deputies struggle with who to notify when a Tier III sex offender registers at “various” hotels near the Dayton Mall.

Do they notify everyone within a 1,000 feet of every hotel or motel near the mall?

“He could be staying in a different area every night,” Plummer said.

The neighborhood near Apple and Main streets, within blocks of the area’s largest homeless shelters, was where a Miami Valley nurse was stabbed twice in the neck on Oct. 1 during an apparent robbery. She was released from the hospital less than a week after the attack.

Police arrested James Cundiff, 42, their only suspect in the attack. Cundiff was a homeless Tier III sex offender living in a tent in Veterans Park. Detectives have since charged him with the Aug. 28 stabbing of another woman near the hospital.

“This is a concern that all Dayton businesses and institutions share,” said Nancy Thickel, spokeswoman for Miami Valley Hospital. “It is going to take employers, city and county officials, law enforcement and social service agencies working together to protect citizens and make our community safer.”

A University of Dayton official said campus police constantly monitor Plummer’s sex offender list and have not changed security protocol since the attacks.

“We have no reports and are not aware of any registered sex offenders living in the (UD) community,” said Lt. Randall Groesbeck, a campus security administrator. “No related incidents have been reported on campus that indicate a threat to our community.”

Cundiff was one of 48 Tier II or Tier III homeless sex offenders living throughout the county, according to Plummer’s data.

There are Tier II and Tier III homeless sex offenders who list various streets in Huber Heights, Kettering, Miamisburg and the Dayton Mall as the place where they sleep. ..Source.. by Lucas Sullivan, Staff Writer

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AL- Alabama's sex offender laws challenged

9-25-2009 Alabama:

A Montgomery circuit judge has struck down a portion of the state's sex offender law, saying that a provision that requires indigent offenders to provide a verifiable address as a condition of their release is unconstitutional.

Several homeless sex offenders sought to have the Class C felonies that they were charged with for not complying with the law dismissed citing that the provision violated their rights. But the state's top attorney said he's ready to take the cases to the highest court he can to protect children from pedophiles.

Under Alabama's Community Notification Act, incarcerated sex offenders must provide law enforcement officials a verifiable address where they will live 45 days prior to their release.

Failure to comply with that provision is a Class C felony, and the sex offender is immediately taken to county jail upon release. The offender could face 15 years to life in prison if convicted because of the state's Habitual Offender Act, according to briefs filed on behalf of the homeless defendants.

Lawyers for the defendants in the cases argued successfully that they were being punished for not complying with a law that was physically impossible to abide by, and that they were essentially being re-imprisoned after they had served their sentences.

The defense of impossibility still lives today!

Attorney General Troy King said he is appealing the rulings because an "actual address," which the law requires, can be anything from a homeless shelter to a park bench.


"We have argued in these briefs that homeless sex offenders can comply," he said. "You don't have to live at a house with a street address to comply. The law is broad enough that if you live in a park you can use that as an address."

That's as long as that park isn't within 2,000 feet of a child-care facility, a K-12 school, or a college or university campus. During the 2009 legislative session, lawmakers approved adding college and university campuses to the list of places in Alabama that sex offenders couldn't live near.

King has been a vocal proponent of toughening Alabama's sex offender laws, and he said it's with good reason: Alabama's children must be protected.

"Five years ago, Alabama had a reputation as being a pretty good place to go if you were a sex offender," he said. "Restrictions here weren't severe and punishments weren't harsh."

Lawyers who've represented sex offenders, and law enforcement officials who've had to keep up with them, say it's certainly not that way anymore. But some say communities and children might not be any safer from sexual predators because of Alabama's strict laws.


A dangerous situation

Alabama, like most states, has passed laws restricting where sex offenders can live and work, but instead of making communities safer, some say the laws have allowed truly dangerous people to fly under the radar because they're being forced into remote communities with limited resources.

Tuscaloosa County Public Defender Bobby Wooldridge has worked with people who have been convicted of sex crimes, and he said some of them have committed crimes that he would like to know about if they were moving in his neighborhood.

But he said he doesn't need to know about the man who at 19 had consensual sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend and wound up convicted of statutory rape, particularly if that man is now married to his "victim" and they're raising a family.

In Alabama, a person convicted of statutory rape has to register as a sex offender. That means there are certain places he cannot live, and he can't live in a house with minor children if he is not their parent. His neighbors also will be notified that he is a sex offender.

"It creates these just unbelievable situations that are not productive for the community, and often disastrous for the individual," Wooldridge said. "We've tried to blanket this issue with laws that treat everybody the same, even though the risk is different depending on the individual."

Alabama, like most states, uses the generic term "sex offender" to categorize people who have been convicted of crimes that are sexual in nature. Those crimes can range from a Romeo and Juliet case of consensual sex between an older teen and a younger teen to child molestation and pedophilia.

But the common thread is that all these crimes are treated the same under the state's sex offender laws. Those convicted under those laws are for the most part subject to the same restrictions and monitoring requirements.

"There are some very, very dangerous people out there who have committed some very serious crimes, but they are a minority of the population," Wooldridge said. "Those people need some serious monitoring and supervision or they will re-offend."

Unfunded mandates

Montgomery County has more than 300 registered sex offenders, but Sheriff D.T. Marshall said there are certainly more than that living in the county.

That's because everyone who is supposed to register doesn't, and even if they do register, they might give an address -- that while verifiable -- is one where it is difficult to ensure that the person actually lives there. Marshall said law enforcement often doesn't have the money and the manpower to keep up with sex offenders and all of their other public safety duties.

"These laws keep changing so much that they're hard to keep up with, never mind trying to keep up with the sex offender," he said. "Local agencies are already overburdened and don't have the manpower to verify so many addresses and periodically check up on them."

Marshall said he's fine with lawmakers passing more restrictions on sex offenders, but believes they should also provide the funding to enforce them.

Birmingham attorney David Gespass said that's not likely to happen because many of the existing laws are based on emotion and not reality. He said cases such as that of Jaycee Dugard, who was abducted by a registered sex offender and held for 18 years, grab headlines but the truth of the matter is those cases are quite rare.

Gespass says legislators and politicians often push for such laws so they can appear tough on crime, but whether the population at large is any safer is debatable.

He said the state would be better served by identifying which offenders are truly dangerous and monitoring those individuals more closely.

"Stories are more compelling than dry statistics that show the chance of something like that happening to you is really negligible," he said. "The consequence is just bad laws that cost a lot of money and don't provide much safety."

Wooldridge said he's not surprised that a judge has declared part of the law unconstitutional. He's seeing more and more convicted offenders who are stuck in jail long after they've completed their prison sentences because they don't have anywhere to go.

He said people don't want to hear it, but there are some basic rights that even sex offenders have that can't be violated, and he expects there to be more legal challenges in the future.

King said when his office started pursuing tougher restrictions and penalties for sex offenders, it knew there would be legal challenges. He said being homeless should not make a sex offender exempt from the provisions of the law. King said if the decision is upheld, he will abide by it, but he will bring the issues back to the state Legislature.

"It comes down to the protection and safety of the children of Alabama," he said. ..Source.. by Markeshia Ricks

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WI- AG Van Hollen: Dane County Circuit Court upholds constitutionality of Wisconsin's sex offender registration statute

Throughout the nation there are homeless people, homelessness is not something new. One would think lawmakers would have the mindset to address such a status specifically within these laws; it seems due process would require it. However, there is not one word addressing it in Wisconsin statutes. Given the judge said "registration is harder on homeless folks" I take that to mean they have to register more frequently than registrants with a fixed address.

The only difference between a fixed address and a non fixed address, is that police know where a registrant can be contacted. However, with a fixed address the registrant may or may not be there when the police wish to contact them. Apparently with a non fixed address Wisconsin wants those registrants to contact police more frequently. So the real issue is contact with police. What happens with homeless persons when they do contact police, this cannot be ascertained from the laws as written and the laws do not address a homeless situation.

Accordingly I cannot see how the judge could consider the law, as applied to a homeless person, constitutional; what basis, mere technicality of some sort? It appears clear that due process rights have been violated. i.e., the heart of due process is notice and here it is totally lacking on the part of the state.

Finally, it is well recognized that presence on the registry denies registrants all sort of opportunities to support oneself and comply with laws is included in that, is the omission of lawmakers purposeful, the real intent being to make as many registrants as possible INMATES and in Wisconsin subject to civil commitment (Internment a SMART Office Mission goal)?

5-28-2009 Wisconsin:

Yesterday, the Dane County Circuit Court, Judge Sarah O’Brien, presiding, issued a decision upholding the constitutionality of Wisconsin’s sex offender registration statute, Wis. Stat. § 301.45.

The defendant in this matter, Joseph M. Larue, is a registered sex offender. As a registered sex offender, Larue is required to register his home address with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections Sex Offender Registration Program. The State charged Larue with failing to keep an accurate address on file. In his defense, Larue claimed that he was homeless at the time of the alleged offense, and that his homeless status made the Sex Offender Registration statute unconstitutional as applied to him.

Judge O’Brien disagreed. She ruled that although the Sex Offender Registration statute may bear harder on homeless sex offenders, that effect is an unintentional consequence of the statute, and one that is backed by an important governmental purpose: protecting the public and helping law enforcement by keeping track of where sex offenders reside within the community.

“This decision validates the crucial importance of monitoring and tracking the whereabouts of sex offenders in the community," said Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, whose office participated in the case along with the Dane County District Attorney’s Office. “Although the effect of this decision is limited to this individual case, it serves as a strong affirmation of the Department’s commitment to public safety,” said Van Hollen. ..News Source.. by WI DOJ




Judge: Sex Offender Registry Can Cover Homeless

Law Requires Offenders To Register Their Addresses

A judge said Wisconsin's sex offender registry law does not discriminate against homeless offenders.

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Sarah O'Brien said the law requiring offenders to register their addresses might be harder to follow for the homeless.

But she said that's an unintended consequence and outweighed by the government's interest in letting police and residents know where sex offenders live.

The ruling came in a case involving Joseph Larue, who is charged with failing to report his address to the registry between July and January.

The 43-year-old said he was sleeping outside of a Madison homeless shelter and the law is unconstitutional as applied to him and other homeless offenders. ..Source.. by Channel3000.com

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NY- Locals rally against Steve Levy's sex offender trailers

5-21-2009 New York:

Toting signs that read "Share the Burden" and "Protect our Children," some 45 locals gathered at the Riverside traffic circle Friday to protest the county policy of housing homeless sex offenders in trailers in Riverside and Westhampton.

"It's not fair to be packing such a high percentage of the county's sex offenders in one area," said Kim Yazic of Riverhead, a mother of two, as she spoke over a steady stream of honking horns. "Sure, it's a difficult problem of what to do with these people, but the problem should be shared."

It was also learned Friday that the sex offender shelters -- trailers operated by the county's Department of Social Services -- reached capacity at points last week, forcing some sex offenders into motels in Suffolk.

County legislators Ed Romaine (R-Center Moriches) and Jay Schneiderman (I-Montauk), whose districts encompass the entire East End, speculated at the rally that the overflow offenders were sent to motels in the Riverhead area.

County officials said otherwise.

While they confirmed the trailer in Riverside reached its capacity of 18, and that the Westhampton trailer reached its capacity of eight, they said the other offenders were placed in motels in western Suffolk. They would not say exactly where.

"Periodically, the number of homeless sex offenders exceeds the capacity of the trailers used to house this population," said Roland Hampson, a social services spokesman. "When this occurs, individuals are provided a motel placement. These motels are outside of the Riverhead and Southampton area.

"No Level 3s are placed in motels," he said.

Level 3 offenders are deemed the most likely to re-offend.

When asked by e-mail how it was determined which motels are used to house offenders, Mr. Hampson replied, "We use motels that comply with the laws that restrict where sex offenders may live."

He said no offenders were staying at motels as of Monday night, though according to the New York State Sex Offender Registry, 27 Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders called the trailers home, putting the trailers one person over.

"It is incumbent upon the sex offender to accurately report where they are staying," Mr. Hampson said.

County officials wouldn't comment directly on the protest.

Riverhead area residents have been angry with County Executive Steve Levy ever since a trailer for homeless sex offenders was unhitched in a parking lot outside the county jail in Riverside in mid-2007. At the time, Mr. Levy said that the trailer would be rotated throughout the county. He later reneged on that promise, citing the unavailability of land to house sex offenders due to state and local laws restricting where they may live.

Then, last September, as first reported in the Riverhead News-Review, the county quietly replaced the eight-person trailer in Riverside with one that could house as many as 18 sex offenders.

The larger trailer, though guarded at night by private security teams, sparked a renewed outrage.

Friday's protest at the Riverside traffic circle came about four months after a forum at Riverhead High School, which drew about 250 members of the public. At the forum, county officials and elected leaders fielded questions or expressed concern, but the policy has remained in place.

Thus, the need for Friday's protest, organizers said.

"We're here because we're wanting the sex offenders who do not live here to go where they live," said Laura Brewer of Flanders, whose husband, Mike, helped organize both January's forum and the protest. "We'll take the burden of the Flanders residents, but not upstate or up the island or anywhere else. We're not saying get rid of all of them, just the ones that don't live here."

Ms. Brewer was also joined at Friday's protest by her daughters, Ashley, 17, and Megan, 12.

Ashley said sex offenders from the trailer could be often found loitering at Riverhead Free Library.

"They hang out there," she said. "They stare at you. This one guy was like bald and stuff and he looked really creepy. The entire time he followed me around, even after I went downstairs. And you can look them up on the Internet and their pictures will pop up and stuff. So you know that they are [in the trailers]."

"God forbid something happens to one of my kids," Ms. Brewer interjected. "Then the county will do something."

Carl Iacone of Flanders, 76, doesn't have young children. Still, he said, he felt it was important to join the protesters Friday to fight for what is right.

"We're trying to make Steve Levy understand that what he did isn't fair," he said. "The trailers are just escalating more and more. What are they going to do next, put double-deckers? It's got to stop.

"This is something where something bad could happen," Mr. Iacone continued. "Why should we as a community have to suffer? Let's see if justice can prevail."
..News Source.. by MICHAEL WHITE | EDITOR

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AL- Alabama House completes passage of new sex offender address notice bill

There ought to be a law against electing officials who lack reasonableness, or the ability to see that a proposed law is nothing but stupid! If someone is out of prison even they cannot tell where 2,000 foot markers are so they can rent a proper residence, how the heck are folks in prison going to do it? All squirrels are not in trees. Where is the Alabama ACLU on this?

5-15-2009 Alabama:

MONTGOMERY -- The Alabama House gave final passage Thursday to a bill aimed at easing a burden that the Community Notification Act places on counties where state prisons are located.


The act requires sex offenders to give authorities a residential address that is at least 2,000 feet away from a school, college, university or childcare facility 45 days before their sentence ends.

But when sex offenders leaving prison give an invalid address, they are re-arrested on a felony charge and taken to the jail in the county where the prison is located.

This often has left those counties -- particularly Barbour, St. Clair and Bullock, and Limestone and Escambia to a lesser extent -- with large numbers of sex offenders behind bars, county officials said.

Under the bill approved today, the process for finding a valid address will begin six months before the offender completes his or her sentence and gives them a chance to provide another address if the first is not accepted.

If they're unable to find a valid address or are homeless, the offender would be transferred back to the county where they were sentenced and held in the jail there.

The Association of County Commissions of Alabama has lobbied hard for the changes and Thursday's approval came after two years of trying.

"The legislative process is not always easy but we have some very excited county officials around Alabama right now," Sonny Brasfield of the association, said shortly after the bill passed on a 95-0 vote. It went to Gov. Bob Riley, who is expected to sign it.

When a convicted sex offender serving time at the St. Clair Correctional Facility gave an invalid address several years ago, he was arrested and taken to the county jail for violating the notification act.

He was only there for a short time before he began having serious health problems and ended up needing a heart transplant. Local officials said his medical bills alone cost St. Clair County around $600,000.

That's equivalent to the county's medical budget for all the inmates in a year, commission chairman Stan Batemon said.

"It cost us $600,000 for one man by himself," Batemon said. "We paid it and then we started saying 'Whoa, this is really not right. Something is really wrong with this.'"

State Rep. Blaine Galliher, R-Gadsden, sponsored the bill, which now goes to Gov. Bob Riley to sign into law.

He said the legislation not only eases the burden on counties with state prisons but it also boosts public safety by giving law enforcement more time to truly verify offenders' addresses.

"Forty-five days is just not enough time sometimes for the paperwork to flow and all that to happen," he said. "This is going to help ensure that there's an actual address verification." ..News Source.. by AL.com

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NY- Sex offender arrested at Riverside trailer

OK, here we have a homeless sex offender. Question: How do homeless persons remember what today is, what time it is, or other similar facts? If you were homeless where would you go to urinate or do the other? A reader raised these questions with respect to Thomas Pauli who froze to death in Michigan, here again those questions are relevant. Has the sex offender been unfairly targeted and will he be convicted of what is mentioned?

2-4-2009 New York:

A convicted sex offender staying at the trailer located on the grounds of the Suffolk County Jail in Riverside was arrested by Southampton Town Police last week for failing to register his home address with authorities.

____, 47, of Riverhead was arrested by Town Police at 10:04 p.m. last Thursday, January 29, and charged with failure to register as a sex offender, a felony, according to police. Mr. ___, who is a level three sex offender, was arrested at the trailer, which serves as a temporary shelter for homeless sex offenders. The Riverside trailer is one of two such facilities operated by the Suffolk County Department of Social Services. The second is located in Westhampton.

Southampton Town Police officer Lois Smith, who monitors all registered sex offenders in the municipality, explained that Mr. ___’s registration had lapsed.

“We keep records, we review records, we’re familiar with what everyone is doing and when they’re doing it,” she said. “When someone doesn’t register, we know it.”

Mr. ____ was arraigned Friday at Southampton Town Justice Court. His bail information was not immediately available.

The New York State Office of Sex Offender Management website notes that Mr. ___ was arrested on August 22, 2002, and charged with third-degree attempted sodomy, a misdemeanor. He was later sentenced to nine months in prison. The age and sex of Mr. ___’s victim were not listed on the website.

--Note: What does his past have to do with today's circumstances, what happened today? Nothing, it is raised to taint the offender and to cause the public to be prejudiced against the registrant.

Mr. ____ was also arrested October 20 by Riverhead Town Police after he was observed urinating outside police headquarters on Howell Avenue, according to authorities. ..News Source.. by Jessica DiNapoli

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CA- ACLU Sues Calif. City, Seeks to Protect Homeless from Criminalization

12-28-2008 California (Related):

In a federal civil rights lawsuit filed today by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, the agency says an upscale California seaside community is violating constitutional law and the Americans With Disabilities Act by treating disabled homeless individuals as if they were criminals.

"(F)or all intents and purposes, Defendants have made it illegal to be homeless in Laguna," contends the Central District of California suit (PDF). It seeks primarily injunctive relief, attorney's fees and costs, contending that government agencies of the city of Laguna Beach are violating the 4th, 8th and 14th amendments to the Constitution, as well as the ADA.

"In one instance, attorneys in the case said, a police officer was interrogating a disabled homeless woman and instructed her to put out her cigarette," reports the Orange County Register. "When she did, he cited her for putting it out in the sidewalk."

The Irell & Manella law firm is representing the plaintiffs, along with the ACLU. Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the new law school planned by the University of California at Irvine, is co-counsel. ..News Source.. by Martha Neil

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Young lawyer makes his mark

See earlier article and court decision:

11-9-2008 Georgia:

Public defender wins state Supreme Court case

Not often does a defense attorney less than a year removed from law school get part of a controversial law thrown out by the Georgia Supreme Court.

But that’s what happened after 26-year-old Hall County public defender Adam Levin, with help from colleague Brett Willis, argued the case of a homeless sex offender in front of the state’s highest court.

The case of William James Santos prompted the state Supreme Court last week to declare Georgia’s sex offender registration law as it applies to the homeless "constitutionally vague" and forced lawmakers to revisit how people without permanent addresses can comply with the law.

For Levin, who admits he still is adjusting to his role as public speaker, the prospect of arguing in front of the seven justices in Atlanta was nerve-inducing, but a chance he nevertheless could not resist.

"I just wanted the experience of getting up there," Levin said.

Despite Levin having tried only a handful of cases, Northeastern Circuit Public Defender’s Office Director Brad Morris gave him the job of arguing the Santos case over more seasoned lawyers in the public defender’s office, whose 13 staff attorneys represent poor criminal defendants in Hall and Dawson counties.

"I pestered Brad about letting me take a shot at it, and he was willing to take the risk and let me get my feet wet," Levin said.

Less than a year earlier, Morris was helping Levin adjust his tie for his swearing-in to the bar.

Levin came to the public defender’s office in May 2007 and passed the bar the following October after his graduation from Georgia State University School of Law. He earned an undergraduate degree in music engineering from the University of Miami in 2004, but decided "I was not a very good musician."

"I just didn’t have the ear for it, so as soon as I could I applied to law school," he said.

Levin has legal roots. His father, Jay Levin, is a partner with Powell Goldstein, a large corporate law firm in Atlanta.

But Levin chose the often thankless work of the public defender over the better-paying jobs some of his law school classmates took at places such as prestigious Atlanta firm King and Spalding.

Levin said he discovered the appeal of criminal defense work while in law school.

"The work was interesting, the people were interesting, and I think there’s just something inherently interesting about the underdog, which is who we mostly work with," Levin said. "I’ve always had something for the underdog."

Levin was assigned the Santos case through an alphabetical system and soon found what he said were "some interesting issues." Mainly, how does a sex offender without a home comply with a law that says they must register their place of residence?

The state Supreme Court last April agreed to hear the pretrial appeal and Levin and Willis prepared their legal brief. Levin credits his more-experienced colleague Willis with much of the work compiling the brief and lining up help from old law school classmates and professors to prepare for oral arguments.

"I was sort of spitting out the ideas, and Brett crafted it," Levin said.

Morris said Levin’s modesty aside, the young attorney deserves the most credit.

"I think our office has been fortunate in getting people who are focused in what they’re doing, and who understand that only when you have strong, hard-working advocates is the Constitution protected," Morris said. "Adam, along with a lot of other people here, could have much more lucrative positions elsewhere, but they believe in what they’re doing, and this case is a good example of the work he and other people in this office are doing."

Levin eschews any notion that the big legal win so early in his career is a feather in his cap. While he knows the case was watched closely by other attorneys, he believes the court’s decision in Santos v. State is just one small part of the overriding legal controversy that surrounds Georgia’s sex offender registration requirements.

"It was just a question that everyone wanted an answer to, and our office just happened to have the case that asked the question," Levin said.

Of the outcome, Levin said, "It was satisfying, there was a sense of accomplishment. But I just felt like that was the correct result. That was what should happen." ..News Source.. by Stephen Gurr

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VT- 'The check is in the mail'

10-7-2008 Vermont:

State funds to assist jailed sex offender's release to local motel

BENNINGTON — A case that may have raised constitutional issues about the state's ability to keep sex offenders in custody is moving toward resolution without resolving that issue.

Richard A. Cavagnaro, 58, of Bennington, was scheduled to be released from Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield on Sept. 21. Cavagnaro had agreed to plead guilty to three counts of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child as part of an agreement that said he would serve a year in prison.

However, as a convicted sex offender, Cavagnaro is required to seek the Vermont Department of Correction's approval of his living arrangements. When Cavagnaro was scheduled for release he had no home.

The state filed charges that Cavagnaro had violated the conditions of his probation, but Public Defender Frederick Bragdon argued that Cavagnaro was homeless because of a lack of resources.

The state argued that Cavagnaro had been given some phone privileges starting about six weeks before his release date, but had failed to take sufficient action to find a place to live.

On Monday, Bragdon told Judge John Wesley in Bennington District Court that Cavagnaro was scheduled to receive some money from a Department of Corrections fund that helps inmates reintegrate into society after their release from prison.

Bragdon asked for a brief hearing on Wednesday to report to Wesley on whether or not the money had arrived.

"The check's in the mail," Bragdon said.

Cavagnaro has made arrangements to stay at a motel on Main Street in Bennington as soon as he receives the money. The motel has been approved by the Department of Corrections as acceptable housing for a sex offender.

After the hearing, Bragdon said he didn't plan to raise the issue of whether the state can hold a sex offender past his or her release date if the offender doesn't have a home.

"I'm not going to fight that until I have to. I might lose," he said.

Bragdon said he may raise the issue if the state does not withdraw the probation violation charge once Cavagnaro has a place to live.

Bennington County State's Attorney Erica Marthage said her office wasn't taking a position on the larger question.

Marthage said she believed Cavagnaro's inaction had led to having no place to live which led the state to take action.

During Cavagnaro's hearing in September, Bragdon said Cavagnaro could not return to the home where he lived before his prison sentence because a young child lived there.

Cavagnaro pleaded guilty in September 2007 to three counts of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child, all of which involved touching underage girls. Two other charges for the same offense were dismissed by the state.

Cavagnaro will continue to be held without bail until Wednesday's court appearance by agreement between prosecuting and defense attorneys. ..News Source.. by Patrick McArdle

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FL- Homeless sex offenders register bogus residence

9-27-2008 Florida:

Mission House bans residency

Homelessness is not illegal at the Beaches but transients who are also registered sexual offenders must register a permanent address with police to avoid a felony charge.

But homeless sexual offenders who use the Mission House as a permanent address are committing a crime, Jacksonville Beach police said this week, adding they plan to meet with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, where registration is conducted, to let them know that the Beaches do not have a permanent shelter that sex offenders can claim as a residence.

"It's complicated," Jacksonville Beach Police Sgt. Thom Bingham said Tuesday. "We have conferred with the State Attorney's office regarding our interpretation of the law. There needs to be some type of residence for a person to register. The Mission House is not set up for that."

Bingham said a permanent address is defined by law as a location where an individual resides or sleeps. A temporary address is permitted for registration purposes only when an individual spends more than 14 days at that location in a calendar year.

"The Mission House does not qualify as a residence unless homeless offenders are sleeping on the property," Bingham said.

-Someone misses or misconstrues what a temporary residence is, 14 or more days in a calendar year, qualifies as a temporary residence under the law. However, the police are only allowing homeless registrants to file PERMANENT residences. Maybe a court can settle this..

Executive Director Jan Flager of the Mission House, a day facility that serves with the homeless population with meals and provides clothing, toiletries and free medical care, said clients are permitted to use the address for mailing purposes only and must mark anything using 800 Shetter Avenue for "mailing purposes only." Those who violate the policy and register with the county using the Mission House address are barred from the facility.

"This is never to be used as a residence. If we know, they are not allowed to be here. It is one of our standard rules," he said. "It is one of the things we absolutely stand hard on."

Flager said the case management teams that gather client background information are usually able to flag a past criminal background, including sex offenses. But not all of the clients that the Mission House serves go through the case management process.

"We can't check everybody's background. We do act on it when it comes to our attention," he said of transients who break the rules and stay on the facility's grounds. "There is a huge apartment complex behind us. We are very sensitive to that."

All sex offenders and predators are required by law to register with the county within 48 hours of arrival. In Duval County, registry must be completed through the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. Failure to register as a sex offender is a felony in most jurisdictions.

"That was the intent behind Megan's Law. If someone moves into your neighborhood you should be notified," Bingham said. "It goes against the law when someone wants to camp out behind [a restaurant] and people living in [nearby condos] don't know they have a sex offender living 100 feet away," he said, acknowledging that is sometimes the situation at the Beaches.

-Apparently folks are forgetting the 14 day issue, or that homeless offenders or anyone -police permitting- can sleep anywhere in the state as there is no law prohibiting sleeping anywhere, maybe even on a bus, train, park bench, in a tree, or even on a couch in a store; sleeping is not just confined to residences to be legal. I can see the charge "Illegal Sleeping" in a prohibited area? These laws are riddled with errors...

Megan's Law was enacted in honor of 7-year-old Megan Kanka who was murdered by a repeat sex offender in 1994. The law requires those convicted of sex crimes against children to notify local law enforcement of any change of address or employment.

In Jacksonville Beach, Bingham said investigators are aware of five or six homeless sexual offenders registered in the city using the MIssion House address. Warrants have been issued for those failing to register or update information.

"We don't know how many are failing to register at all in our area," he said. "If they are just passing through, they don't have to. But if they are here more than 48 hours, it's the law."

Flager said of the thousands of people helped by Mission House, very few are sex offenders.

"It is the exception as opposed to the rule with our clients," he said. "I am certainly not trying to belittle the importance of the situation but it is an extremely small element of our population. We just want to make sure folks know that it is not a haven." ..News Source.. by LIZA MITCHELL, Staff Writer

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VT- Sex offender held because he doesn't have a residence

Notice that Cavagnaro is being held based on a violation of probation, not any state law or local ordinance. I wonder if they would charge someone convicted of any other crime type if they failed to have a "residence" when ready for parole? Note: Nowhere in the "Special Conditions of Parole for Sex Offenders (pgs7-11)" does it require them to have a residence.

9-24-2008 Vermont:

BENNINGTON — A sex offender set to be released from prison on Sept. 20 was charged with a violation of probation in Bennington District Court on Tuesday because he does not have a residence.

Richard Cavagnaro, 59, denied a violation of his probation and was ordered held without bail pending a court hearing.

Bennington County State's Attorney Erica Marthage said Cavagnaro is required to find a residence before his release.

"One of the special sex offender conditions is that he have a place to live," Marthage said. "I think the frustration is that no place has been proposed."

Public Defender Frederick Bragdon said Cavagnaro was not intentionally flaunting the probation system, saying his client simply was unable to find a residence.

"Inability is not willfulness," Bragdon said.

Bragdon said his client had been incarcerated for a year, and that he did not have family or other connections upon which he could rely.

Judge John Wesley said he had to "stretch" to find probable cause in the case, and indicated his concern about the matter.

"(Cavagnaro) is conceivably being set up to fail by having no place to stay," Wesley said. "This is going to require significant social work on the part of the Department of Corrections that work, this split sentence could turn into an indefinite prison term."

According to an affidavit by Probation Officer David Jankowski, Cavagnaro was given a 18 month- to 5-year sentence, all suspended except for one year, in September 2007 on three counts of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child.

Jankowski said Cavagnaro served his one-year minimum, and had been scheduled to be released on Sept. 20, but said Cavagnaro was unable to find a residence in the community.

Jankowski said in the affidavit that supervision of a homeless sex offender is not an ideal situation, and that there is the potential for a community risk issue.

Cavagnaro had originally been charged in December 2006 with inappropriately touching two young girls. ..News Source.. by MIKE GLEASON, Staff Writer

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GA- Sex Offender Faces Life in Prison for Being Homeless

8-7-2008 Georgia:

Sex Offender 'Clusters' Are Cropping Up in Georgia

A convicted sex offender in Georgia was pulled off the street and now faces life in prison -- not for committing a crime -- but because he was homeless.

Larry W. Moore Jr., who was convicted of a felony in North Carolina in 1994 for indecent liberty with a child and a sex offender registry violation in Georgia in 2005, could receive a life sentence after violating the state's registry law a second time.

A conviction for the second violation occurred last week, after an Augusta investigator found out that he registered a false address; he actually lived on the street. Under Georgia's new law, this second violation triggers an automatic life sentence.

Georgia's new sex offender law -- one of the nation's toughest to date -- prohibits offenders from living and working within 1,000 feet of not just schools and day care centers, but also churches, public or community swimming pools, public or private parks, bus stops and any other places "where minors congregate."

While many states have registry requirements, Georgia's 2006 sex offender law added school bus stops and churches to the list of places 1,000 feet from which registered sex offenders couldn't live or work, leaving them with only a handful of hotels and shelters to choose from, policy experts said. And although there is a court-ordered hold on the bus stop limitation, the church provision is in place.

Last fall, the Southern Center for Human Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union asked a court to prevent nine elderly and severely disabled offenders who lived within 1,000 feet of a church from being evicted.

The SCHR said that among those who faced eviction were residents of nursing homes, persons with Alzheimer's disease, and a resident of a hospice care facility who was told he had six months to live, according to court documents. They argued that the law incorrectly makes no exception for those who "by virtue of their advanced age and/or physical conditions…are not a danger to anyone." The case is pending.

Among critics of the Georgia law are law enforcement officials within the state, who say the law creates clusters of sex offenders and forces them underground where police can lose track of them completely. In Augusta, only one investigator is keeping track of more than 200 sex offenders, according to Sgt. Ray Hardin, an investigator at the Richmond County Sheriff's department. Hardin said that his office is overwhelmed by the constant flow of paperwork and the same sex offenders who come in "three times a week telling us where they moved to next."

Studies also show that sex offenders have a lower recidivism rate than other types of criminals. Jill Levenson, a professor of human services at Lynn University in Florida, told ABC Law & Justice Unit that there is not one case in the entire United States where a child or adult was not assaulted because of residency restrictions and called these laws "one of the largest wastes of resources and false sense of security things we've done yet."

Policy critics also argue that the wave of recent sex offender legislation gives neither hardship exemptions based on illness or disability, nor laxer sentences for seemingly less serious crimes, like a 17-year-old having sex with a 15-year-old. They argue that the legislation is based on reactionary politics and myths about sex offenders that are not supported by valid research or evidence.

But in a nation where child rape and murders victims like Meghan Kanka, Jessica Lunsford and Polly Klaas are practically household names -- each having had laws passed in their honor -- child predators and sex offenders are hard pressed to find any sympathy from their communities.

In an interview with the L.A. Times, the Georgia law's Republican sponsor Rep. Jerry Keen acknowledged the law would be "an inconvenience" for "some folks" who would have to move. "But," he said, "if you weigh that argument against the overall impact, which is the safety of children, most folks would agree this is a good thing."

Heavy Price for Homelessness

In Georgia, first-time sex offenders can be arrested and face 10-30 years in prison for a single violation of registry requirements. Repeat violators automatically receive a life sentence, legal experts said.

Moore joins 15 other Georgia sex offenders who have violated a provision that requires them to register an address since the law was passed in April 2006, but he is the first of several pending cases where the state has arrested an offender who then tried to use a homelessness defense, said Sarah Totonchi, a public policy director of the Southern Center for Human Rights.

Proper registry means going to the police and telling them where you live, and under law, "homeless does not constitute an address," she said.

The assistant district attorney on the case, Mukty Patel, said that homelessness was not a sufficient excuse. "We only had to prove that he failed to register when he checked out of his hotel," she said.

Critics of the registry say the law places people in a catch-22 by rendering nearly the entire state unlivable for sex offenders, while at the same time insisting that they register a permanent address.

"The law leaves very little recourse for people who are thrown onto streets as a result of this law, and the same residency laws that cause people to lose their homes also deem many of the shelters unavailable," Totonchi said.

According to the SCHR, only one shelter in the state meets the requirements, and it is currently full.

Across the nation, state legislators are enacting similar residency laws that make it difficult for offenders to hold legal residences or remain in a community at all. In addition to residency restrictions on sex offenders, some states require GPS monitoring of sexual predators, and have proposed that offenders use bright colored license plates on their vehicles.

Misguided Measures?

Despite the prevalence of state registry laws, some policy experts said there is no research to suggest a relationship between where sex offenders live and whether or not they'll repeat their crimes, or that these laws are even effective in preventing sexual crimes.

"We should base our laws to protect children on evidence-based research and expert knowledge, but instead lawmakers are responding to 'stranger danger myths,' which make us most fearful of the wrong enemy," said Totonchi of the SCHR. "We tend to be most afraid of strangers when the statistics tell us we should be watching out for family members at the dinner table," she said.

In fact, only 7 percent of sex crimes against kids are committed by strangers, according to Justice Department statistics, while 80-90 percent of sex crimes are committed by a person the child knows.

And contrary to popular belief, studies show that sex offenders have a lower recidivism rate than other types of criminals, re-offending in about 14 percent of cases.

Jill Levenson of Florida's Lynn University told ABC Law & Justice Unit that "ironically, what happens with residency restrictions is that we end up creating exactly the types of risk factors that we know lead to higher recidivism rather than lower recidivism," Levenson said. "In other words, we know that stability, social support and employment are really important factors to help criminals maintain a productive life and not resume a life of crime, so disrupting the stability of criminal offenders is not likely to be in the best interest of public safety."

Georgia isn't the only state where law enforcement officials are publicly opposing the sex offender laws they're expected to uphold.

In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Sheriff Don Zeller said new residency restrictions are forcing offenders into rural parts of the county where they are far harder to keep track of -- or worse, forcing them underground, where they can be lost track of completely.

"We're finding that it's almost impossible to keep track of individuals we have registered in the county,'' Zeller told ABC News' Law & Justice Unit. "Five years ago, we knew where about 95 percent of those individuals were. Now we're lucky if we know where 50, 55 percent of them are.''

And paradoxically, Zeller said, the new restrictions are also creating sex offender "clusters'' -- like the Ced-Rel Motel in Lynn County, where more than two dozen sex offenders lived at one time.

"What if some individual comes in there with a family and decides that they're going to stay there overnight, not knowing that 26 sex offenders are living there? And what happens if then they expose their family because most families will send their kids down to get pop or ice and, unbeknown to them, there are 26 sex offenders living in that same complex?" Zeller said.

Paul Zandbergen, a member of the University of South Florida's geography department, did a study in which he mapped the effects of residency restrictions in his state and found that "if you add up all the restrictions -- almost nothing is left [that people can live in] fairly quickly."

Nancy Sabin is the executive director of the Jacob Wetterling Foundation, named for a Minnesota boy who was abducted at gunpoint in 1989 and never heard from again. The foundation spearheads preventive education programs aimed at protecting children from both stranger predators and sex offenders in their own communities or homes.

"Can you help me understand where all these sexual predators are coming from?" she asked rhetorically. "They're coming from our homes!

"Why do we pretend we don't know where they are?" she asked, adding that Americans "need to see ourselves as part of the solution." ..News Source.. by BRITTANY BACON

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AL- Fed lawsuit challenges AL sex offender registration law, claiming indigent sex offenders are being jailed for not having proof of residence

8-17-2008 Alabama:

Poor jailed if unable to prove residency

A federal lawsuit is challenging the state's Community Notification Act, contending it violates the rights of poor sex offenders who have served their sentences, but are jailed because they cannot provide a valid residence.

The suit, filed in Birmingham's federal court on behalf of three named plaintiffs and similarly situated individuals, said indigent offenders have a hard time finding somewhere to live as a result of the law, which requires sex offenders to give authorities a valid address. If they don't provide an address to authorities, it's a felony.

The law also places restrictions on where a sex offender can live. Under the law, a sex offender can't live within 2,000 feet of a school or child care facility.

Josh Bearden, an assistant Alabama attorney general, said there have been a number of constitutional challenges to the Community Notification Act, nationally and in Alabama.

He said the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as Alabama courts, have determined the state has a "compelling interest" in protecting the public from dangers posed by convicted adult sex offenders.

"Part of the provisions that were designed to protect the public were to ensure we know where the offenders are," Bearden said.

The suit was filed Aug. 8 on behalf of Sidney Gipson, William McGuirk and Timothy Guthery. The suit said the plaintiffs, because of their finances, cannot find anywhere to live, although many of them and their families have tried to find a residence that complies with the law's requirements.

The suit said poor offenders are penalized and jailed after they have served their original sentence if they can't provide a valid address.

"It's a fairness issue," said Kira Fonteneau, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

The suit names Jefferson County Sheriff Mike Hale and the sheriff's office as defendants. The suit seeks to have the process of jailing indigent sex offenders and the Community Notification Act as it relates to indigent offenders declared unconstitutional.

The suit contends the sheriff's office automatically jails poor sex offenders without a hearing to determine indigence.

Hale said any convicted sex offender who does not comply with the law should be jailed. Hale said his deputies go out and check addresses to make sure they are verifiable residences.

"It's a good law," Hale said. "It's worked quite well in Jefferson County."

Hale said he has no sympathy for convicted sex offenders. "I'm not going to help get a sex offender a place to live," he said.

The Community Notification Act for sex offenders became law in 1996. The intent was to let law enforcement and the public know where sex offenders live because they are considered at high risk to repeat their crimes.

The lawsuit said the sex offender law, however, has the unintended effect of causing indigent sex offenders to live on the streets, under bridges, in tents or in trailers without registering because they cannot find an approved residence.

"We're creating an underclass of sex offenders we will not be able to find," Fonteneau said, adding she believes the process is happening in other places.

The Rev. Kevin Higgs, pastor of the downtown Church of the Reconciler, said there are an estimated 3,000 homeless people in metro Birmingham, with as many as 1,000 downtown. The church feeds the homeless and has a community service program for homeless people who are caught in a cycle of being arrested on misdemeanor charges and sent to jail for long periods because they are unable to pay fines.

Higgs said each homeless person's situation is different, but speculated that a small percentage could be convicted sex offenders.

Fonteneau said the law creates a cycle because the inability to provide a residence causes many of them to fail to register, which brings additional convictions and indefinite jail time.

The suit said Gipson was arrested for failing to register as a sex offender on Feb. 27. He pleaded guilty and was given a 15-year suspended sentence on March 26. The suit said Gipson was booked again for failure to register a day later and has not been given a hearing on the new charge.

According to the suit, Gipson is disabled and entitled to Social Security disability benefits, but cannot collect the benefits because he is in jail.

Fonteneau said the process is creating a homeless shelter out of the county jails. ..News Source.. by VAL WALTON, News staff writer

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