8-9-2010 Florida:
Joseph Mortimer and his wife took out an equity loan on their longtime Richmond Heights house during the real-estate boom, fell into foreclosure in February and then got scammed for $3,000 at a loan-modification seminar.
But their recession story has a twist: Mortimer can't move to another nearby home because he was convicted of a sex offense in 1993.
Mortimer's problem illustrates a quirk in the Miami-Dade county ordinance that bars sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of a school, park or playground.
Because Mortimer lived in his house before the 2005 ordinance was passed, he was allowed to stay there despite its proximity to two schools. But the location of his newly purchased house -- which is about one block away -- violates county law.
``I don't know what to do,'' said Mortimer. ``Every time a new law comes out, it's like I'm being convicted all over again.''
Mortimer, 44, pleaded guilty in 1993 to attempted sexual battery on a minor for molesting his girlfriend's 15-year-old daughter. He has since married the girl's mother, undergone therapy and completed probation in 2002.
He received a withhold of adjudication, meaning no felony conviction appears on his record, and holds a job as a heavy equipment operator with Miami-Dade County.
In court recently, Mortimer begged Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jorge Cueto for help. The judge said there was nothing he could do.
``The man is doing really well. He's been a productive citizen for years,'' Cueto said in court. ``But I don't have the power to change the law.''
Critics of Miami-Dade's controversial ordinance say it leaves offenders with few places to live.
``It's tragic that a family would be placed in this position because of the complete lack of thoughtfulness invested in enacting this ordinance,'' said Jeanne Baker, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who advocates the county adhering to the state's less restrictive 1,000-foot law.
The law spurred the creation of a sex offender shantytown under the Julia Tuttle Causeway, located just outside the 2,500-foot limit. The now-dismantled camp gave Miami-Dade an international black eye and forced authorities to scramble to find homes for scores of convicts.
In the 1990s, Mortimer said, he and his girlfriend, Leslie Washington, were unemployed and addicted to cocaine and marijuana.
Her teenage daughter from a previous relationship told police that Mortimer had been sexually abusing her. He confessed to Miami-Dade police.
``I was on dope,'' Mortimer said of the episode. ``I really didn't care about nothing.''
In 1994, he was sentenced to 10 years of probation and psychological counseling. He said he quit drugs, got a job as a grave digger and eventually went to school for his commercial driver's license.
He married Washington, and the family went through counseling, though at first his stepdaughter lived with her grandmother, also in Richmond Heights.
In 1995, he and his wife put $1,000 down to buy a $56,000 house in the 14500 block of Jackson Street. In April 2002, with a recommendation from his psychologist, Mortimer's probation was terminated.
Nevertheless, Mortimer checks in four times a year with Miami-Dade police as required by law, which he said he has done dutifully.
The family's fortunes declined in 2006, when he and his wife took out a home equity loan to help pay for their son's college tuition and medical expenses for Mortimer's 22-year-old daughter, who has lupus.
By early this year, their monthly mortgage had ballooned to $1,900, not including taxes and insurance. They said they paid $3,000 to an Oakland Park ``loan modification'' company that vanished without helping them.
The tide turned in June, however, when a woman agreed to sell them a similar house on Monroe Street, just around the corner -- with payments directly to her, not a bank -- totaling $750 each month.
Mortimer acknowledges he never thought about checking to see if the house violated the distance ordinance. When the measure was passed in 2005, offenders such as Mortimer were ``grandfathered'' in -- exempt because they already lived where they lived.
``I just thought it was a blessing, that it was the grace of God,'' he said of the new house.
Mortimer did not find out the new address violated the ordinance until he checked in with police and was told it was off-limits.
``He's broken the chain and he is out. . .You cannot re-grandfather the grandfather,'' said Ron Book, one of the ordinance's chief architects and the head of Miami-Dade's Homeless Trust, who helped find housing for the Tuttle camp offenders.
Distraught, Mortimer called Judge Cueto's division and asked to be seen. His stepdaughter, the victim in the case, even wrote a letter forgiving Mortimer and asking for the judge's help.
For now, Mortimer is living in the foreclosed house; the case is still mired in the backlog of the Miami-Dade court system and he has yet to be evicted.
``After all this happened, he's only looked forward, to better himself, to excel,'' his wife said. ``We've lived like any other American family.'' ..Source.. DAVID OVALLE
August 9, 2010
Convicted of sex crime in 1993, man loses house to foreclosure but can't move
February 22, 2009
OK- Sex offenders leave city for country
2-22-2009 Oklahoma:
State restrictions on where they can live leaves them with fewer choices. Others just don't register.
Some registered sex offenders who once lived in Tulsa are moving to neighboring rural counties while others appear to be moving underground, a Tulsa World analysis of Department of Corrections data indicates.
Since 2005, just before the state imposed tough residency restrictions, the number of registered sex offenders in Tulsa has decreased from a high of nearly 600 to about 350.
Conversely, business is booming at the sex-offender registration units in the sheriff's offices of neighboring counties.
Of the 443 sex offenders who are registered in Rogers, Creek, Wagoner and Osage counties, 60 lived in Tulsa County in 2005, records indicate.
Osage County Sheriff Ty Koch said, "What we're finding is people are moving out of the cities because they are having a hard time finding a place to live under the statutes."
The number of sex offenders who live in Osage County has increased 190 percent since 2005, when only 40 were registered.
"I just registered 10 this last week," said Jeanie Brown, a warrants specialist for the Osage County Sheriff's Department.
Osage County now has 116 sex offenders registered "and more coming in every day," Brown said.
Why Osage County?
Brown's answers: "Because it is a rural area. Because they can move into a place where there is no school or any kind of restriction. Its proximity to Tulsa."
The migration of registered sex offenders follows a series of state laws that have made it harder for them to live in metro areas.
The laws prevent sex offenders from residing within 2,000 feet of schools, parks or day-care centers.
Koch said the influx is taxing his staff. "The more we get here, the more manpower it takes to track them," he said.
Some offenders are trying to skirt the law, he said, adding, "Many are giving invalid addresses."
Koch's office visits sex offenders' homes at least once a year to ensure that they are living where they say they are.
One registered sex offender, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said he moved from a Tulsa apartment to a relative's house in rural Osage County after the stricter residency laws took effect.
He said he likes his current home.
"I like looking out in the morning and seeing all the deer," he said.
The offender's home is 3.5 miles from the closest school. And although he regularly reports to the Sheriff's Office, he has never had a deputy visit his home, he said.
"I see them drive by every now and then," the offender said.
He still commutes to Tulsa, driving almost 40 miles to work there, he said.
Although he doesn't plan to move, he said, it would be difficult for him to return to Tulsa because of the residency restrictions.
He warned against adding more "safe zones" to the residency restrictions.
"I think if they keep making more restrictions, then people are not going to register," the offender said.
"I think if they change it a little bit, more people would register. It's better to know where people's at than not."
Although the number of sex offenders has dropped in Tulsa and Oklahoma counties, law enforcement officials warn that many are just going underground.
Since 2005, the number of registered sex offenders in Tulsa County has decreased 39 percent, from 800 to 491 registrants.
Tulsa Police Sgt. John Adams attributes much of the decrease to the stricter residency restrictions.
About 85 percent of the city is now off-limits to sex offenders because of the many so-called "safe zones," Adams said.
Most of the 352 offenders who legally live in Tulsa are allowed to stay in their homes because they were there before the new restrictions were passed, he said.
Still, although the number of registered sex offenders who live in Tulsa has decreased, Adams' unit has seen a large increase in residency violations.
"They are still living here," Adams said.
More often now, they are living in Tulsa illegally.
Adams said his unit is currently working 77 cases involving violations of sex offender registration law.
Before the tougher restrictions were imposed, the unit usually received five or six cases a month, Adams said. About two-thirds of the cases involve offenders who either have failed to register or who have given bogus addresses, he said.
Offenders who move to rural areas are subject to less oversight than those in urban areas.
Offenders in Osage County may face a visit from a deputy once a year. In contrast, Tulsa police make visits four times a year, Adams said.
Department of Corrections data point to many metropolitan area offenders moving underground.
Of the nearly 900 sex offenders whose whereabouts are unknown, 157 committed their crimes in Tulsa County and 144 were convicted in Oklahoma County.
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New park in Sapulpa clears out offenders
It’s been a year since the city of Sapulpa notified dozens of registered sex offenders who were living in a cluster of motels near the Turner Turnpike entrance that they had to move out.
The city had just built a small park within 2,000 feet of some of the motels, and that meant the city could force the o?enders to move.
State Department of Corrections data from April 2007 indicate that about 100 offenders reported living at one of several low-rate motels in the area.
Today, of the 27 sex offenders who are registered within Sapulpa’s city limits, just two list addresses at one of the motels.
The exodus of sex offenders has reduced the workload for Sapulpa police, which handles sex offender registrants in that area, Sapulpa Police Capt. Nate Norton said.
“That’s cut our work down,” he said.
The department assigned officers to check on the offenders regularly to ensure that they were still living at the motels.
Still, the department sees offenders attempting to move into the motels.
This month, two offenders who were registering with police said they lived in one of the motels, unaware that it was within 2,000 feet of a park.
“I had to basically tell both of them: ‘Hey, you are living inside a safety zone, and consider yourself evicted. You need to move,’ ” Norton said.
Although the administrative workload has decreased, Norton said, he couldn’t connect the offenders’ absence to a change in the crime rate in the area.
“The actual offenders were not listed as suspects in a lot of crimes we had,” he said.
“There may have been a witness or two or maybe even a victim, but very few of them were actually responsible for a crime, that we were able to tell.”
Of the 100 former residents, about 75 percent have reregistered at other addresses.
The rest are now considered by the Corrections Department as delinquent in maintaining their registration requirements, which means that their whereabouts are unknown to the state.
Of those who did list a new address, 20 are in Tulsa County.
Ten offenders listed addresses in Creek County — in some cases, Sapulpa.
The remaining offenders have scattered across the state to areas including Okmulgee, Osage andWagoner counties. ..News Source.. by By CURTIS KILLMAN World Staff Writer
March 27, 2008
IA- Iowa Woman Jailed For Violating Sex Offender Rules
Shows everthing that is wrong with these laws! The laws ignore today's circumstances and rehabilitative efforts of registrants. The laws focus ONLY on the point of the crime which can be decades ago. SEE ALSO
Family Needs Place To Live
3-27-2008 Iowa:
ATLANTIC, Iowa -- Iowa's sex offender residency law has landed an Atlantic woman back in jail.
Jennifer Lower was convicted of a misdemeanor sex offense in Ohio seven years ago. After moving to Iowa, and then moving her family to a town with no schools or day cares -- which she can't live near under Iowa law -- she's learned that she is still in violation of the law.
From the Cass County Jail, Lower, 29, said she's frustrated. Lower is a married mother of three. She already moved her family to try to comply with Iowa's sex-offender residency law that bans sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or day care. She said she can't find a home that complies.
"It's not fair. My rights are basically gone, it seems like," Lower said.
Forced out of Atlantic, Lower and her family moved 5 miles west to Marne, Iowa. There are no schools or day cares in Marne, so Lower said she thought she and her family were safe.
Then Marne passed a new ordinance, making it illegal for sex offenders to live within 2,000 feet of a park or school bus stop. Lowers' home was a couple blocks from the park and less than a block from a bus stop, so once again, a court ordered Lower to move.
She refused and a judge put her back in jail.
"My landlord don't even think I'm a threat," Lower said.
This time, she's lost her children, who are now in foster care.
"The only thing I need to get my kids back is have a stable home," Lower said.
Cass County Attorney Daniel Feistner said Lower's sex crime was a misdemeanor and she may not be much of a threat to the community, but he said he has to enforce the law consistently.
"Unfortunately, as a prosecutor, I don't have the luxury of looking at her individually and say I can apply the law to her or not to her and to someone else," Feistner said.
The Iowa Legislature has discussed revising the law to focus on true predators, but no revisions are expected any time soon.
To get out of jail, Lower must find another new place to live.
"Hopefully, somebody will see this and help us find a house or something so I can be with my family," Lower said.
The judge sentenced Lower to 30 days in jail and told her that if she finds a suitable place to live, he'll review her sentence and possibly let her out early.
She is due back in court on Thursday. ..more.. by KETV7
