12-31-2010 Washington:
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Wash. - Ed Gonda and his family moved to Bainbridge Island upon hearing it was a pastoral "laid back, forgiving" kind of place.
After finding a rental, he and his wife enrolled their daughter in school.
As Christians, they found a local church they liked. They made friends with neighbors and island residents.
But eventually, word got out.
Gonda had a criminal past. And not for burglary or drug possession, but for a sex offense.
The news traveled fast, and people who they thought they knew well acted swiftly. His daughter could no longer play with friends down the street, he said. The church pews around them were vacant on Sundays. They more or less stopped going out anywhere on the island.
"We're treated like we're diseased," his wife said.
Having a daughter, Gonda can empathize with islanders. He would never want a pedophile around her, and he has family members who were the victims of sexual abuse.
Gonda didn't go to prison for being a pedophile. In 1995, when he was in his early 30s, he had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl he lived with at the time.
Gonda pleaded guilty to his charges and did about four years in state prison. He participated in and paid more than $10,000 for sex-offender treatment. He has committed no new crimes since he got out of prison about a decade ago, according to a check of his criminal history. As sex offenders go, he is considered a "Level 1" by law enforcement, the level least likely to re-offend. He said that just to be safe, he avoids places where teens close to his victim's age congregate.
"I admit, I was wrong," Gonda said. "But I've changed. Why are people still looking at me for something I did 15 years ago?"
Law enforcement makes a determination of how likely a sex offender is to re-offend and rates them on a scale of 1 to 3.
But the public often fails to see any nuance.
"People look at them in a bucket," said Bainbridge Island Police Commander Sue Shultz. "They say 'Any kind of sex offender is a sex offender, and always will be a sex offender.' "
The registration of sex offenders in Washington state was one of three components of the Community Protection Act of 1990, passed in the wake of two tragic and brutal killings. It's a popular measure with the public, and the Legislature has strengthened and spent more money on the laws surrounding sex offenses. Lawmakers have also bolstered penalties for failing to register as a sex offender.
There is also a national registry for sex offenders.
The subject of debate is who is included in the registries, who is not and how often should they be checked on.
While extremely rare, recent horrifying crimes committed by sex offenders have galvanized lawmakers to act.
Kitsap County Prosecutor Russ Hauge uses the analogy of an airplane crash.
"It doesn't happen very often," he said. "But when it does, it's a tragedy."
Hauge chaired a task force convened by Gov. Chris Gregoire in the wake of the killing of Zina Linnik, a 12-year-old girl abducted and murdered by Terapon Adhahn, a Level 1 sex offender. A result of that task force was the creation of a sex-offender policy board that reports to the governor, and the creation of a pot of grant money awarded to local law enforcement to make face-to-face contact with every sex offender in the state.
"Nobody knows how much of a safety factor it adds," Hauge said. "But a murder of a young girl damages the community in an incalculable way."
Thomas Weaver, a defense attorney who handles sex cases, questions the indiscriminate nature of a sex offender registry. While lower-level sex offenders might not have their pictures in the paper like Level 3 offenders do, they're still on the list, he said.
Weaver also wonders about a slippery slope in registration. For example, why not enact a burglary offender registration to notify the public when such convicts are released, he wonders.
A kidnapping registry was created in the wake of Washington's sex offender registry, he said. Nevada has a registry for convicts of many different crimes. And there have also been calls in some states for a registry of arson offenders, a crime that also often involves an underlying psychological component.
Where to draw the line?
As a sex offender, Ed Gonda can understand why people would be afraid of Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders. His family's few options of places to live are apartments and houses that accommodate sex offenders. But he doesn't want to go to those places out of fear for his wife and daughter.
Other landlords, however, won't rent to him because of his status.
"So where can we live?" he wonders.
While in prison, he changed his name. He still feels blessed to have found a family and for the neighbors on Bainbridge Island that do accept him.
"God gave me a family, a wife and a new start," he said. "I just wish someone would give us a chance." ..Source.. Josh Farley
December 31, 2010
Sex offender registries ruin many lives
September 17, 2009
VT- Vt. Sex Offender Registry to Expand
If any registrant/s can be removed -for reason (whatever that be)- then every registrant should have the right to contest their presence on the registry! To increase the registry -by retroactivity logic (a logic based on time and dates)- then every registrant should be able to claim their -registry start date- began when the crime was committed, and the term calculated from that date forward; hence, many should be removed immediately. It is a violation of equal protection clauses to allow the state a system, and deny registrants the same system. eAdvocate
UPDATE: In response to a reader's comment: Whether or not a right exists under a state constitution, every state has ratified the U.S. Constitution. In the U.S. Const. states are commanded to provide its citizens all rights outlined in the U.S. Const., Equal Protection under the laws is but one.
9-17-2009 Vermont:
Vermont authorities are putting the final touches on a dramatically expanded version of the state's online sex offender registry. It will include photos and key information about more than 2,000 registered sex offenders.
Until now only one in five of Vermont's 2,500 convicted sex offenders-- 350 to 400 of them-- have been classified as dangerous enough to be included in the public online version of the state's sex offender registry. The identities of the other 2,100 are confidential and revealed only to authorities.
But that all changed last year when convicted sex offender Michael Jacques was charged with the rape and murder of his 12-year-old niece Brooke Bennett. State lawmakers responded with tough new laws aimed at protecting the public from sexual predators, including a dramatic expansion of the online registry.
Under the new law four in five registered sex offenders will now qualify.
"Instead of having only 400 on the internet site we'll now have close to two-thousand," said Shari Englert, who is in charge of registry.
Englert says the new entries will be up and running right on schedule on October 1.
"We'll still have 400-- about that-- that are not going to be on the internet site. They'll still be required to register but not on the internet site," she said.
For now only the offender's town and county of residence will be available. But next July the specific street addresses of the most dangerous offenders will also become public.
Those convicted of the most serious offenses remain on the registry for life-- less serious for only ten years. So far about 400 have reached the maximum. The names have been removed. Nevertheless there are still about 2,500 sex offenders on the list at any one point.
But authorities point out that expanding the list and adding the specific addresses of the most dangerous sex offenders like Michael Jacques does not automatically increase public safety. Authorities point out that Jacques was already on the online registry when police say he murdered his niece.
"Law enforcement can give you all the information that it's allowed to by law. Ultimately what you do with that information is up to you," Englert said. ..Source.. by
