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from ModBee.com (fair use)

Our View: Legislature should extend and refine Megan's law

Published: September 29, 2003, 06:17:00 AM PDT

Megan's law, the 1996 statute that requires convicted sex offenders to register with local police and makes serious and high-risk offenders' names public, will expire Jan. 1 unless the Legislature votes to extend it. A bill to do that died in the waning days of the session, victim of a partisan tiff. The governor and the Legislature return to Sacramento today for a special session to deal with the matter.

Extending the existing law makes sense, but legislators need to address several things:

# Assuring that the registry is accurate and kept up to date. An Associated Press report published in January showed that the state did not know the whereabouts of nearly half of the 70,000 sex offenders required to register. An audit in August found that only a couple of thousand of the missing had been located.

Incomplete and outdated information obviously undermines the value of Megan's law, which is to provide residents a way to know when potentially dangerous people are in their midst and to protect their children and themselves. Outdated information also could harm someone who moved into a house where an offender once lived.

# Making the information as accessible as possible to the public, via the Internet as well as through computer terminals at police agencies.

# Seeing that the state law doesn't impose an injustice on minor criminals who are not likely to re-offend. California's Megan law is among the broadest of any in the country. It requires registration for sex offenders who clearly pose a risk to the public, repeat pedophiles and serial rapists as well as "others." "Others" includes many offenders who never made physical contact with their victims, such as someone who may have mooned the basketball team as part of a drunken fraternity prank.

Under current law in California, such low-risk offenders have to register annually, but unlike serious and high-risk offenders, their identities are not made public. Now, to conform with federal law, a subset of the "others" -- low-risk offenders who enroll in college -- would have their names made public.

That makes no sense. It punishes minor criminals who are trying to put their lives in order, and it further burdens local law enforcement, whose time is best spent keeping track of higher-risk offenders.

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from ModBee (fair use)


Extension of Megan's Law OK'd


By ERIC STERN
BEE CAPITOL BUREAU
Published: September 30, 2003, 05:30:18 AM PDT

SACRAMENTO -- The Assembly, meeting in a 90-minute special session Monday, unanimously approved a bill to keep the state's registry of sex offenders open to the public.

The bill already passed the state Senate and Gov. Davis said he will sign the legislation.

When Assembly members adjourned for the year Sept. 13, they left Sacramento without extending public access to a statewide database of 80,000 child molesters and sex offenders. Without the extension, the program would have ended Jan. 1.

A group of GOP lawmakers, including Assemblyman Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, didn't vote on the bill during the final hours of the legislative session to protest their pet projects getting excluded from the budget.

Democratic leaders, in turn, said Republicans were trying to push their expensive causes without supporting tax or fee hikes to pay for them.

Because the Republicans withheld their support, the Megan's Law bill didn't have the minimum number of votes needed to pass. So it died.

Law enforcement officials urged legislators to go back to Sacramento and fix the problem.

On Monday, they did just that. From about 1:15 to 2:45 p.m., Republicans and Democrats bickered about who was to blame for bottling up the bill, then they voted 78-0 to adopt it.

"Every citizen of this state has a right to know whether or not a sexual predator has moved into his or her community," Davis said in a statement. "Megan's Law provides access to critical information and gives parents the peace of mind they need to protect their children."

Reconvening for the day will cost taxpayers up to $25,000 because of travel expenses, a $125 per diem for lawmakers and printing costs, said Jon Waldie, chief administrative officer of the Assembly Rules Committee.

Some lawmakers said they would forgo their per diem.

"I don't think I should be paid to be up here," said Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, R-Orange, who also withheld his vote earlier on the Megan's Law bill. "We did not complete the business of the legislative session."

Assemblyman Dario Frommer, D-Los Angeles, said it was "unconscionable" to take the money.

But Cogdill said he hadn't thought about refusing the $125, as he continued to blame Democrats for boxing in Republicans on the last night of the legislative session.

"They were trying to run the political drill on us," Cogdill said.

Cogdill had been pushing for an extra

$5.5 million for an anti-methamphetamine task force in the Central Valley.

He made a deal with Democratic leaders to support the state budget this summer if they promised to secure the drug-fighting funds later in the year. But when nothing happened, Cogdill and other GOP lawmakers said they felt betrayed and decided to abstain from voting on certain bills, including Megan's Law.

"Believe me, no one did it in order to be eligible for another day of per diem," Cogdill said.

But some people on the sidelines say they weren't impressed by the finger-pointing.

"I don't think they should have been paid for the last six months -- it's pathetic," said Turlock Police Chief Lonald Lott. "I don't have a problem bringing out my fillet knife and whacking both the Republican and Democratic Party."

Rick TerBorch, president of the California Police Chiefs Association, said he was dumbfounded when lawmakers adjourned earlier this month without extending Megan's Law.

"Both political parties were equally guilty of gross stupidity," he said. "They had an obligation to come back today and right the wrong."

In Stanislaus County, where there are 1,200 registered sex offenders, Sheriff Les Weidman said he was "not at all" upset that Republicans took a stand and forced the Assembly to reconvene.

"At least we have it back on the books," said Weidman, who also was involved in the efforts to secure more anti-meth money.

Because of a GOP push, a legislative committee in January is expected to consider a bill that would allow the sex-offender registry to be posted on the Internet.

Megan's Law is named after Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old New Jersey girl who was raped and killed by a known child molester who lived near her home. California passed a law in 1996 that authorized law enforcement agencies to inform communities when certain sex offenders live in their neighborhoods.

Bee Capitol Bureau reporter Eric Stern can be reached at (916) 326-5544 or estern@modbee.com.

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