Sex Offender Restrictions Could Tighten

(Bill Cegelka)

Posted on Thu, Jan. 19, 2006

Sex offenders' restrictions could tighten

PROPOSED FAYETTE ORDINANCE WOULD INCLUDE LOITERING BAN

By Michelle Ku

HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

Registered sex offenders would no longer be allowed to live or loiter within 1,000 feet of a Lexington public park, pool or playground, under a proposal that will be considered today by an Urban County Council subcommittee.

The push in Lexington echoes a similar effort in the General Assembly and attempts across the country to protect children by tightening restrictions on sex offenders.

Kentucky lawmakers have filed a number of statewide bills that would ensure that more sex offenders spend their lives in prison, locked in mental wards, publicized on the Internet or chemically castrated.

Last month, an ordinance barring child molesters from parks and prohibiting them from living within 1,000 feet of parks and playgrounds was introduced in Louisville. That ordinance has drawn objections from civil liberties groups.

In Lexington, Councilman Bill Cegelka plans to propose restrictions on sex offenders at a council subcommittee meeting today.

Currently, state law prohibits supervised sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school or child-care center.

Cegelka said his proposal would close a "loophole" in the state law by extending the residency restriction to include public parks, pools and playgrounds -- all places where children gather.

"If we're concerned about where registered sex offenders live, and it's already illegal for them to live near schools and day-care facilities; it should be illegal for them to live near playgrounds where children congregate," he said.

Fayette County Sheriff Kathy Witt, whose office is responsible for monitoring sex offenders in the county, said a provision adding public parks to the list of places near which sex offenders cannot live is already part of a bill before the General Assembly.

The park provision is part of wide-ranging sex offender legislation backed by Lt. Gov. Steve Pence, Witt said.

But Pence's legislation goes a step further than Cegelka's because it would prevent all sex offenders from living near a public park, not just the ones who are under supervision (meaning they are required to regularly check in with law enforcement officials), Witt said.

As of yesterday, 251 registered sex offenders lived in Fayette County, according to the Kentucky Sex Offender Registry.

Of that number, between 80 and 90 are under supervision, said Maj. Jim Sanders with the Fayette County Sheriff's Office. Sanders was the sheriff's compliance officer for Megan's Law for seven years.

Cegelka, who is running for county attorney against Larry Roberts, said a geographical study of sex offenders in Lexington showed that 88 registered sex offenders live within the 1,000-foot buffer zone he is proposing around parks, pools and playgrounds. It's unclear how many of those offenders are supervised and whether they would have to move if the ordinance passes.

Cegelka said he's introducing the tighter regulations in an attempt to proactively protect children, not in reaction to a specific case. Nationwide, many communities have pushed for stricter sex offender laws after a spate of highly publicized cases in Florida and other states in which children were abducted or murdered by convicted sex offenders.

Cegelka's proposal includes one provision that Pence's does not -- it would prevent sex offenders from loitering within 1,000 feet of a public park, pool or playground.

"The goal of the law is to prevent sex offenders from repeating their crime and the best way to do that is to prevent them from loitering near places that children congregate and play and go to school," he said.

Witt said she would most likely support that idea, but she questioned whether sex offenders would comply with the law and how enforcement would be handled.

"They have broken the law in such a heinous way to get them identified as a sex offender," Witt said. "We need laws to check their compliance because they just don't play by the rules."

Some cities have all but banished sex offenders from their communities by enacting strict regulations on where they can live, said Fayette Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Larson.

Cegelka's proposal could have a similar effect in Lexington, Larson said. "Enacting that kind of ordinance is a way to do it because there are very few places in the city that aren't 1,000 feet from the property line of a school or a day-care or a park."