IL - Chicago police fail to register sex offenders 601 times in just three months

Original Article (Audio available)

05/28/2014

By Rob Wildeboer

On February 13 of this year, _____ went to the Chicago Police Department Headquarters to register as a sex offender. He was one of 22 people who were turned away that day because the office was simply too busy. That’s according to police records. A month later, on March 21, _____ was approached by Chicago police officers on the West Side of Chicago.

According to an arrest report, _____ wasn’t doing anything illegal but was “loitering in an area known for narcotic activity.” Officers ran _____’s name and found he had failed to register. _____ told the officers he had tried to register on February 13 but had been turned away. He was arrested anyway and is now in the Cook County Jail, where it costs taxpayers $52,000 a year to house him.

I first heard about sex offenders being prevented from registering a few months ago. I spent several days waiting in line with offenders outside the criminal registration office at Chicago police headquarters. I couldn't believe it when officers came out of the office and told dozens of men who had been waiting for hours that they might as well go home because the office was too busy to register them all. Then the officers warned the men that they could be arrested for failing to register even though they’d just waited for hours in line to do just that.

I went back several times and saw the same scenario play out.

'Setting people up to be violated'

“It’s like they’re purposely setting people up to be violated to go back to jail. You can’t conclude nothing else but that,” said _____ as he tried to help his brother register back in February.

Another frustrated man who just gave his name as Terry said, “We’re the guys that are trying to do the right thing. We’re showing up here, we’re trying to do the right thing; we’re trying to follow the law to the letter of what’s on that piece of paper and they turn us away and say, sorry, but you can still be arrested. Yeah, well, how are we supposed to feel?”

Police records detail the failure

As officers turned offenders away, they wrote down the names of the offenders who had shown up. Using the Freedom of Information Act, WBEZ got copies of those lists. The lists have fields for name, date, time, several other things and then one space for “reason for being turned away.” In the first three months of this year the office turned people away 601 times, and in that space for the reason it put “capacity.”

In the first three months of this year the office turned people away 601 times and in that space for the reason it said, “capacity.” On some days, like January 14th for example, no one was turned away. But on February 14, 31 people were turned away because the office was at “capacity.” On March 4, 34 people were turned away; on the 5th, 27 people; on the 6th, 26 people.

A semi-reluctant advocate

“These registrants try and follow the law. They try and report and register and fulfill their duties but the police department doesn’t let them and the police department isn’t fulfilling their responsibility to the public,” said attorney Patrick Morrissey in a recent interview in the lobby of the Cook County criminal court building at 26th and California. He had just come from a hearing where he was representing a sex offender who is currently in the Cook County Jail for failing to register.

A year and a half ago Morrissey was in his law office when he got a call from a sex offender who was having trouble registering with the Chicago Police Department. Morrissey was outraged, though his boss, who happens to also be his dad, was not too interested in getting involved in the issue. Morrissey pushed ahead anyway.

“By the City of Chicago refusing to register people and causing them to walk the streets unregistered subject to arrest, is unconscionable,” said Morrissey. “You know it doesn’t only harm these people who have to register and who are subject to arrest, but it harms the public because it detracts from what this law is about, about keeping track of people.”

It’s also costly, not for the police department, but for the taxpayers who have to fund the county jail where it costs $52,000 a year to house inmates. Morrissey has a client who went to the Chicago police registration office and was turned away and then later arrested for failing to register.

“He was in the Cook County Jail from about July of 2011 until April of 2014,” said Morrissey. “I think there’s a lot of people who are currently in the Cook County Jail on a failure to register charge.”

Morrissey is right. According to the Cook County Sheriff’s office, on April 25 of this year, there were 190 people in the jail on failure to register charges.

One of them was _____, the guy I mentioned at the top of the story, who wasn’t doing anything illegal but was approached by police, and when they ran his name they found he had failed to register even though he’d tried to register.

In another example of penny wise but pound foolish, on January 22, police records show that _____, a homeless man, was turned away from the registration office because, not surprisingly, he didn’t have the hundred dollar fee sex offenders have to pay once a year. He was arrested less than two weeks later, February 3, for failure to register and is in the county jail, where he’s costing taxpayers $143 a day.

Or take _____. He went to police headquarters March 4, 5, 6 and 7. The records show that each time the Chicago police refused to register him because they were too busy. Finally on March 10 he made it into the office and he was arrested because something called an investigative alert had been issued for him. The Chicago police had been looking for this guy and for a week he’d been standing in a line outside CPD headquarters.

Just one more example: On March 4 _____ went to register and was turned away. He returned on the 5th but police failed to register him again. The note on the police sign in log says he was turned away because he needed a sign language interpreter. So he wasn’t registered. He’s since been arrested and is now in jail for failure to register.

Little information and some misinformation from Chicago Police

For several months WBEZ has repeatedly requested an interview with Police Supt. Garry McCarthy to have a substantive and thoughtful discussion about this complicated issue and for several months, he has refused, and he continues to refuse. Instead of insightful conversations we’ve gotten dismissive emails. We’ve also gotten written statements containing misleading information that minimizes the extent of the problem.

For example, in February, department spokesman Adam Collins sent us a 14-sentence statement saying the police department proactively sends the names of registrants who were turned away to the “Illinois State Police so they know the individual came in to register and he or she should not be subject to arrest.”

According to Tracie Newton with the Illinois State Police, which maintains the sex offender registration, that list from CPD is absolutely useless. Newton says CPD just started sending lists over one day without any discussion or explanation and there’s nothing in the statutes that allows the state police to do anything with the lists.

This past week, Collins sent another email statement saying the department is expanding the registration office and construction should be done by August. Collins provided no details about how much the project will cost or whether there will be additional officers detailed to that section. He also provided no explanation for the hundreds of men that have been turned away from the registration office and have been arrested or are subject to arrest.

FL - Senate panel votes to create absconder "strike force"

Original Article

This is just another politician trying to make a name for himself by exploiting registrants and fear. You have probation, parole and police officers who need to do their jobs, enforce the laws. You don't need another law to create yet another "strike force" to go after those who are not obeying the draconian and unconstitutional laws!

04/07/2014

By Bill Cotterell

A Senate committee swiftly and unanimously approved legislation Monday to create a statewide "strike force" to hunt down sex offenders who don't register with police and submit to required supervision.

Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Jacksonville, said there are 746 registered sex offenders who have absconded from parole supervision or other law enforcement oversight.
- Woah, when did Mr. Bean start making laws?

"We just don't know where they are -- or, more importantly, where they are going to strike next," he told the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. The panel voted unanimously for his bill (SB 1416, PDF) that sets up the task force.
- Oh come on... Sex offenders have the lowest recidivism rate of all other ex-felons, but that doesn't stop politicians from fear-mongering now does it?

Attorney General Pam Bondi would chair the team, with Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey serving as vice-chairman. The heads of the Departments of Children and Families, Parole Commission and Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles would also serve on the task force.
- So what does Highway Safety and motor vehicles have to do with this?

Bondi would appoint two sheriffs, two police chiefs and one state attorney to the panel, formally known as the Sexual Predator and Sexual Offender Absconder Strike Force. It would have a $101,000 appropriation to start its four-year work.

The task force would coordinate efforts of city, county and state law enforcement agencies to locate absconding sex offenders, who are required to register with local police when they get out of prison. The state would work up lists of known absconders and maintain them with all police agencies.
- You already list absconders on the online sex offender hit-list, so why do you need another list?

Bean's bill now goes to the Senate Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Subcommittee, then to the full Appropriations Committee. A companion House measure (HB 1105) by Rep. Janet Adkins, R-Fernandina Beach, is has cleared two committees and is pending in the House Judiciary Committee.

TX - ‘Failure to register’ nets sex offender 60 years

Original Article

This punishment is extreme and doesn't fit the crime! He did not sexually assault anybody, and this is more punishment than if he did! He could have murdered several people and got less than this, and this for not registering an address?

03/12/2014

A Willis man was convicted to 60 years in prison Tuesday for failure to register as a sex offender.

A Montgomery County jury in the 435th District Court found _____, 59, guilty of failure to register as a sex offender Monday, and District Court Judge Michael T. Seiler sentenced Smith to 60 years in prison on Tuesday.

“We are very pleased with the jury’s verdict and the judge’s sentence,” said assistant prosecutor Shanna Redwine. “Both the jury and the judge obviously appreciate the danger of having a convicted sex offender just roaming about in Montgomery County unsupervised.”

Redwine prosecuted the case along with assistant county prosecutor Tyler Dunman.

In June 2012, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office was assisting the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement agencies in conducting a random sex offender compliance check throughout Montgomery County, when it was discovered _____ had relocated away from the location where he had previously registered as a sex offender. _____ failed to notify the Montgomery County Sex Offender Compliance Unit prior to his move.

During a follow up investigation, MCSO detectives discovered that several months prior _____ had moved from his then registered address in Conroe to separate addresses in Willis and in Spring.

_____ was previously convicted of felony aggravated sexual assault in 1989 for the brutal rape of a Harris County woman.

Following parole from prison for his 1989 criminal conviction, _____ was required to register as a sex offender for life and ordered to follow certain regulations and laws applicable to sex offenders in the state of Texas.

Those regulations included providing law enforcement with information about where he lived and, if he decided to move, he was also required to notify and meet with law enforcement prior to any move. _____ failed to comply with either requirement.

“Sex Offenders are the most dangerous types of offenders and it is paramount that they follow the rules placed upon them for if or when they are released from prison,” said Redwine.
- Not based on facts!

Monday was not _____’s first ‘failure to register as a sex offender’ conviction. In 2006, _____ was convicted and sentenced for failure to meet with and provide information to law enforcement as required by the sex offender law.

In addition, _____ has prior convictions including aggravated assault, possession of a controlled substance, driving while intoxicated, and other offenses.

_____ had been to prison three other occasions prior to committing his most recent felony offense.

PA - Many Pennsylvania sex offenders are due relief from Megan's Law glitch

Original Article

02/17/2014

By BRETT HAMBRIGHT

_____’s newly-found freedom might just be the tip of the iceberg.

_____ was relieved last month from a 6-to-12-year prison sentence due to a flaw in Megan’s Law, a database which includes the registration system for convicted sex offenders.

Now, prosecutors across the state are surveying how many other offenders will benefit from a recent state Supreme Court ruling that deemed part of the registration system “unconstitutional.”

Numerous others could be owed the same relief as _____: dismissal of felony charges.

“I can’t imagine there aren't others out there,” Lancaster County First Assistant District Attorney Christopher Larsen said last week, while perusing local cases.

Not all sex offenders will be getting relief.

The high-court ruling only affects failure to register under Megan’s Law charges, not actual sex crimes.

And only offenders under specific registration requirements that were charged with failure to register between 2005 and December 2012 are eligible.

However, locals say, that could be quite a number of cases.

Larsen estimates “under 50” Lancaster County sex offenders will be eligible for relief, although prosecutors are still sifting through cases for an exact number.

It’s unclear how many of those locals are currently serving prison terms for the charges under review.

“It’s going to be a case-by-case determination,” Larsen said. “If there’s another avenue we can argue [to avoid dropping charges], then we’ll take it.”

That wasn’t an option in _____’s case. Charged in 2010 with two counts of failure to register, the local public defender’s office appealed on _____’s behalf. He was freed on Jan. 27 — and spared of up to 10 more years behind bars.

Lancaster County is home to more than 450 convicted sex offenders who register under Megan’s Law, which is now supplemented by Adam Walsh Act. An estimated 15,700 offenders live in Pennsylvania, according to a state police database.

All are required on at least an annual basis to notify police of their whereabouts.

In December, the state Supreme Court ruled that revisions to Megan’s Law made by lawmakers in 2004 are, essentially, no good. Those revisions included registration rules for certain offenders, the high court ruled.

The opinion opened the door to the review of seven years worth of charges lodged against sex offenders under Megan's Law.

“It can be argued that (Supreme Court decision) creates a complete defense to an ongoing prosecution ... for an (applicable) offense that was committed before December 20, 2012,” Lancaster County Chief Public Defender James Karl said, after his office won the _____ appeal.

It’s unclear what will happen in cases in which an offender has already served a sentence for failure to register between 2005 and 2012.

Prison is often the penalty for those convicted of failing to register. The charge carries a mandatory minimum prison term of between 2 and 7 years, depending on the offender’s prior conviction, according to Karen Mansfield, senior prosecutor in the district attorney’s special victims unit.

The high court stayed its ruling to nullify pre-existing Megan’s Law for 90 days, giving police and prosecutors a head start to deal with the affected cases.

_____, convicted in 2003 of aggravated indecent assault of a minor, will still be required to register his whereabouts under the new system.

And so will others affected by the Supreme Court decision, according to State Rep. Bryan Cutler, a Peach Bottom Republican.

“The registration requirements are still in effect,” Cutler said last week.

Mansfield said the charge of failure to register also will remain.

Cutler and State Rep. Ryan Aument, of Landisville, pointed out that HB 1985 — a revision of law that keeps those registration requirements in place — recently unanimously passed the state House.

Both representatives are optimistic the new registration laws will stick.

Meanwhile, potentially hundreds of offenders statewide are getting a chance to capitalize on the state Supreme Court ruling.