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Judge: Parts law restricting sex offenders on Halloween will not be enforcedTuesday, October 28, 2008A federal judge ruled Monday that registered sex offenders in three Missouri counties, including Cape Girardeau County, will not be forced to comply Friday with certain parts of a new Missouri law restricting their movement and behavior on Halloween. U.S. District Judge Carol E. Jackson listened to more than three hours of arguments in a lawsuit concerning the provisions in the statute, signed into law in June of this year, before deciding to uphold the sections requiring sex offenders to leave their outdoor lighting off during evening hours and post a sign at their home stating "no candy or treats at this residence." The first two sections of the law, those barring any registered sex offender from having any Halloween-related contact with children and instructing them to remain inside their home from 5 to 10:30 p.m. Oct. 31, should not be enforced this Halloween in the three counties where the four plaintiffs reside, Cape Girardeau County, Pike County and St. Louis County. Those parts of the statute, Jackson said, were so vague they not only created problems for registered sex offenders in knowing what they were allowed to do but also for law enforcement in trying to enforce them. As worded, Jackson asked if the statute could prohibit Halloween-related activities to carving a pumpkin in the privacy of one's home with their own 5-year-old child. By failing to outline exactly what the law requires, Jackson said, she said enforcing it would violate due process by not giving the plaintiffs reasonable notice of what was considered illegal. American Civil Liberties Union attorney Dave Nelson argued that the vagueness of the law was illustrated by a letter one of the plaintiffs, named as Jane Doe II, who resides in Cape Girardeau, received from the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department. The letter explained that she would not be allowed to engage in any Halloween-related contact with children for the entire "Halloween season." "If you ask Macy's, Halloween season begins after the Fourth of July," Nelson said. In order for Jackson to grant the motion so early in the lawsuit, the plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU of Eastern Missouri, had to show they would suffer "irreparable harm" if the law in its entirety were to be enforced Friday. Since all four plaintiffs are either custodial parents, stepparents or have grandchildren for whom they frequently care, Jackson said preventing them from having contact with children on Halloween could be a serious problem. "Halloween is a big deal for children -- we all know that. It could be very hurtful for a parent to have to tell their own child, 'I'm sorry, I can't take you trick or treating, and we can't even have a Halloween party at home,'" Jackson said. Chris Quinn, representing Attorney General Jay Nixon and Gov. Matt Blunt in the lawsuit, argued the purpose behind the statute was "crystal clear," that it was seeking to protect children from sexual predators trolling the streets on Halloween and handing out candy to children. "Everyone knows what Halloween-related contact is: dressing up in costume and asking for treats," Quinn said. Each plaintiff was asked to sign a declaration outlining what they planned to do Oct. 31, and Jane Doe II said she wanted attend a public trick-or-treat event with her child, an event Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle, named as a defendant in the suit, called a "smorgasbord of other people's kids." Swingle said he believed that was the exact thing the legislature intended to prevent. "It's too bad it wasn't worded clearly enough to survive a constitutional challenge," Swingle said. 388-3635 Have a comment? Log on to semissourian.com/today Comments  Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. If you feel that a comment is offensive, please Login or Create an account first, and then you will be able to flag a comment as objectionable. Please also note that those who post comments on semissourian.com may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
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This is the price you pay for being a Sex Offender. I
don't feel sorry for any of these people, They should have thought about the consequences of sexually assaulting a child. These people abused those children and took their innocence and they what to whine about being apart of Halloween activities. "HOW DARE THEM"
You will all be very happy and relieved to know, that there has NEVER been a Halloweener in the history of the United States that has ever been molested by a registered sex offender.
Both Halloween and Election Day are coming. So, we’re not at all surprised that politicians across the nation are once again posing as Heroes in the fight against the Great Sex Offender Trick-or-Treat Bogeyman. Under the banner of protecting children, they’re restricting the actions of all sex offenders on Halloween, and sending out hordes of probation officers to make sure they stay in their homes (and, in some states, target themselves by posting “No Candy Here” signs), while expecting sheriff and police officials to monitor sex offender compliance on an already especially busy night.
blogs.law.harvard.edu/ethicalesq...
It amazes me that it can be proved with government statics that there has NEVER been a case where a REGISTERED sex offender EVER molested a trick or treater at their door. Or harmed them in any way. So what is the problem here.
Well, politicians are the real scary ones out there. They and the news media for ratings and votes will do and say anything. That’s the bottom line.
When I grew up, I heard some of my elders tell me not to drink in that fountain because a black man or woman would drink from it. I always asked why could I not drink there? Would I get germs??? Would it make me sick??
In today’s society, the politician’s have lied to the public about the recidivism rates of sex offenders. Politician’s have lied to the public about “stranger danger” as most offenses occur between a family member or someone the victim knows. These are facts not just spouting’s.
Parents do need to keep an eye on their children as they always have, but there is no reason to believe that someone is lurking around the corner or behind every bush that is going to take an hurt your child.
Happy Halloween. Beware of politicians. They are the scariest of them all.
Only one who is inherently interested in fear mongering would use Halloween to petrify the public into thinking that Halloween is unsafe because of the presence of RSO’s. To calculate risk in epidemiology, you divide the number of cases divided by the population of interest. In this case it would be 1/650,000. The risk is so incredibly low that my calculator gives the division an error!!!!!! ” That is only for 1 year, now times that by say, 50 years. OH MY! Fear mongering is what the entertainment news media and politicians are MORE concerned about than protecting children.
MSLGWCEO at www.cfcoklahoma.org
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/rsorp94pr.htm
Highlights include the following:
* Released prisoners with the highest rearrest rates were robbers (70.2%),
burglars (74.0%),
larcenists (74.6%),
motor vehicle thieves (78.8%),
those in prison for possessing or selling stolen property (77.4%),
and those in prison for possessing, using, or selling illegal weapons (70.2%).
* Within 3 years, 2.5% of released rapists were arrested for another rape,
and 1.2% of those who had served time for homicide were arrested for homicide.
* The 272,111 offenders discharged in 1994 had accumulated 4.1 million arrest charges before their most recent imprisonment and another 744,000 charges within 3 years of release.
US Department of Justice, 2003
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/rsorp94pr.htm
• Sample size – 9,700 sex offenders
• Length of time – 3 years
• Re-offense trigger – reconviction (Doesn't mean a new sex crime)
• Results – 5.3% sexual offence. 3.3% child molestation.
www.cfcoklahoma.org
I love the arguments that the state is making about the need to protect children from sex offenders on Halloween even though there's not been a case in Missouri of a sex offender using the ruse of Halloween to molest children.
If you want my opinion, a law should be passed requiring Missouri legislators to be under house arrest on Halloween. Or have we forgotten that Lt. Governor's former chief of staff Eric Feltner made the news and pled guilty for soliciting sex from who he thought was a 13-year-old girl and former Missouri Representative Scott Muschaney is under indictment for allegedly sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. With two high profile politicians making headlines for sex crimes in Missouri, it seems to me that they are as much of a danger to children as those on the sex offender registry (and lets not forget that former Florida Reo. Mark Foley made national news for hitting on teenage aides).
In summary, the law is stupid, but it passed (easily) because it's better and easier for politicians to look like they're tough on sex offenders than to actually think about the laws they pass.
Linda Wagner,
I agree with you, these laws will stop nothing, so I propose that all child sex offenders receive life in prison without the possibility of parole or probation. I see this as the only way to stop these individuals from harming other children.
Linda,
You know, one can always make more money, replace items stolen in a burglary or buy another car so I am not so much interested in statistics and recidivism, but where do you go to reclaim the innocence of a child? I agree with others, lock pedophiles up for life and the recidivism rate will be zero.
“While children's safety is important, the concern far outweighs the real danger. There is no reason to
think that sex offenders pose any more of a threat to children on Halloween than at any other time. In fact,
there has not been a single case of any child being molested by a convicted sex offender while
trick-or-treating.
These measures are popular and well-intentioned—but ultimately ineffective—publicity stunts offered by
police and politicians to placate parents. They provide a false sense of security, since there is no evidence that the policies actually make children any safer. Any opportunistic sexual predators who would attack children will simply wait until the next day.
Ironically, a group of children dressed in costume at a sex offender's doorway are probably safer than at
many other places they could be, including their own homes. This is because, contrary to popular
belief, most released sex offenders do not re-offend, and because most attacks on children occur in
their own home by someone they know.
Furthermore, the simple logistics of trick-or-treating make an assault very unlikely. A sex offender would
have great difficultly molesting a child who is in costume, outside his or her front door, and in front
of other people and witnesses.
Of course, the knowledge that such an attack has never happened and is very unlikely to ever
occur won't calm the hysterical concern.
The Predator Panic surrounding Halloween and sex offenders can be called “Halloweenitis.”
Halloween-itis is a coined term used to describe a mental abnormality often occurring in public servants
and politically aspiring persons who can pass this psychological disorder onto others, generally
occurring around holidays and elections.
The disease is characterized by abnormal delusional
visions of perceived horrific events creating an aura of public fear; these doomsayers get their
rewards by painting a picture of "the sky is falling" and alienating the public.
Significant harm is caused by people so afflicted because the objects of their obsession are persons which society already looks down on (including their family members), and the collateral harm caused society is truly a tragedy.
Halloweenitis is a subset of offenderitis, and both are incurable social diseases because these
people refuse to face reality, or facts and statistics which prove them wrong, they discount these
facts and statistics because in their minds they only see horrific events in everyday life circumstances.
Those afflicted with Halloweenitis, fear based, focus on denial of civil rights of other persons under the pretext of public safety.
Why are you talking about the innocence of a child? Most children lose their innocence by the time they are 13 or 14.
I agree that 1) sex offenders should receive automatic life in prison without possibility of parole; 2) logistics make it unlikely that harm from an RSO will occur to your child while trick-or-treating. HOWEVER, 1) as a society we are way too soft on sex offenders so life in prison isn't in the cards; and 2) the point of this legislation is to prevent FUTURE harm to your child because the sex offender spots and singles out your child as a future victim. A good benefit of this legislation is to isolate this perv from getting ANY kind of sexual satisfaction from interacting with or even looking at your child. It is a terrible shame that these same sex offenders go to the mall and the movies on Friday night just for the purpose of scoping out their prey and we as a society are so consumed with protecting their rights over our children. Yes, if harm is brought to children by someone they know or by family members as is often reported, then the only real answer is to lock these pervs up for the rest of their lives or sentence them to death. It is well known that there is 0 chance for rehab with these kind of people.
Addressing the recent comment about this being a publicity stunt and providing a false sense of security - not true. There is no sense of security. Raising 3 girls myself, I have witnessed 40+ year old men in the mall glancing and staring at my teenaged daughters, who by the way, are dressed appropriately. Obviously these people are not there to shop. It is ridiculous that we give these people any opportunity at all to clog out court system with such frivolous lawsuits when the law in the first place is crystal clear about expectations of the sexual offenders.
And speaking to the re-arrest rates for other crimes and the relatively low re-arrest rates for sexual offenders - seems to me that the laws we put in place for sex offenders are working - we are diligent in giving the pervs 0 opportunity to harm our children. This is why we should make similar laws for all felonies.
livesound,
It is obvious that you are an idiot if you equate sexual contact with an age "appropriate" individual with their "consent" and being sexually assaulted by an adult.
Long Live the Queen,
Family members of sex offenders are their strongest supporters.
It is apparent that you have more education than brains or knowledge. And again I agree, this law may very well be useless which is why I am in favor of life without the possibility of probation or parole for pedophiles and if a a nation we do not have the stomach for this we will continue to have more and more victims.
I would like to know what Morley is planning on doing regarding this lady in Cape who wants to co-mingle with innocent children? Is there going to be some surveillance trailing her? She has admitted her plans, so it does seem like 1) she turns her child over to foster care for the evening so her child can enjoy the festivities; or 2) law enforcement trails her and documents her every move.
Statistics are interesting, but sometimes they can be as misleading as they are informative depending on your viewpoint. There is a difference between reoffending and being arrested. If you can have an honest discussion with a pedophile they will tell you that there are many more victims per arrest than with any other type of crime because child sex abuse, like many other sex crimes is the most under reported. There are a variety of reasons for this including shame, feelings of responsibility, fear of the perpetrator, family pressure not to report a family member or friend and others.
For over thirty years I dealt with felons of all types including those convicted of sex crimes. I spoke with victims and the families of victims as well as offenders and their families which were all too often the same. I attended MSOP groups with sex offenders and spoke regularly with MSOP Group Facilitators and Counselors. In all those years, I spoke to only one Counselor who would even speak of “rehabilitation”, all others acknowledged that pedophiles are not a group that could be considered to ever be “rehabilitated or cured”. If you find a child sexually attractive as opposed to an age appropriate individual, you will always find them attractive and will never be able to change the object of this attraction. Pedophiles also often have even weaker impulse control than most offenders.
I don’t have much faith in these laws having a significant impact, but if they make some people feel a little better I have no real objection, just be sure not to let your guard down at other times. I too am in favor of a life sentence for pedophiles as nothing else has shown to work and to me when dealing with children, anything other than a zero rate of recidivism is not acceptable.
the problem with the people here is your lumping all sex offenders together. And if your SOOOO concerned with your kids safety then why are you only looking at sex offenders. Why not drug dealers, murderers, and all other crimes that can hurt children? I am sure there are more kids hurt from drugs and alchol then sex.
So what if some one goes out to the mall and looks at your daughter? if you watch your kids then you should not need to worry.
I am good friends with someone in the johnson county, ks sheriffs office. She has said in the past that 99% of all sex offenders just come and register and do the time they register and never reoffend. She said most are compliant and the biggest issue to reoffend is not seeing young kids its just they need the chance to move on.
She says if you murder someone, if you commit manslaughter or burglery you are done. She said she use to live next door to a sex offender and down the street from a burgler and ex drug dealer. She said she is more worried about the drug dealer then the sex offender. sex offender is just a decent guy and he has a very good job his house is always well kept the lawn always mowed and you hardly ever see him he is always working and he is now married and has kids of his own.
Drug dealer is always out front on his porch is the nosiest guy around always asking where the kids are.
She said that if people would just get on with thier lives and quit sticking thier nose in everyone elses business most people would be just fine.
I agree with her when she says sure some sex offenders have issues. BUt jail is not the answer to the problem. They need help and REAL rehabilitation. The sad part is she says is that they are told they will never get better during treatment programs now and they are told how horrible they are and they are sick. It has been shown that positive influnce will help someone get better far better then negative.
This is all fear. How many thousands of sex offenders are out there who did something we all did as kids? Gosh i remember people streaking at high school games, people mooing others while driving down the road and people just laughed. Ray stevens even had a hit out of the streak. Now days oh my gosh it would be jail time rehabilitation and RSO for life because of that.
I think beaker has some underlying issues she wont tell us.
The problem is very very few sex offenders ever pry on little kids. and if they were just given a chance to get better and worked with rather then stuck in a corner and left for dead they might get better.
I have seen people completley turn their lives around. God can do anything.
And the other funny thing is EVERY little kid that we hear about walsh, meagen and others were all prevntable. If they were just watched and not left alone to play with no supervision they would be alive today.
Again you can not put a streaker, a guy who had sex or made out with a girl a few years younger and in some cases married her. or other cases like that in the same pile as a peophile who needs help.
you wanting life in prision and wanting to kill them all makes you no better then them.
the problem with the people here is your lumping all sex offenders together. And if your SOOOO concerned with your kids safety then why are you only looking at sex offenders. Why not drug dealers, murderers, and all other crimes that can hurt children? I am sure there are more kids hurt from drugs and alchol then sex.
So what if some one goes out to the mall and looks at your daughter? if you watch your kids then you should not need to worry.
I am good friends with someone in the johnson county, ks sheriffs office. She has said in the past that 99% of all sex offenders just come and register and do the time they register and never reoffend. She said most are compliant and the biggest issue to reoffend is not seeing young kids its just they need the chance to move on.
She says if you murder someone, if you commit manslaughter or burglery you are done. She said she use to live next door to a sex offender and down the street from a burgler and ex drug dealer. She said she is more worried about the drug dealer then the sex offender. sex offender is just a decent guy and he has a very good job his house is always well kept the lawn always mowed and you hardly ever see him he is always working and he is now married and has kids of his own.
Drug dealer is always out front on his porch is the nosiest guy around always asking where the kids are.
She said that if people would just get on with thier lives and quit sticking thier nose in everyone elses business most people would be just fine.
I agree with her when she says sure some sex offenders have issues. BUt jail is not the answer to the problem. They need help and REAL rehabilitation. The sad part is she says is that they are told they will never get better during treatment programs now and they are told how horrible they are and they are sick. It has been shown that positive influnce will help someone get better far better then negative.
This is all fear. How many thousands of sex offenders are out there who did something we all did as kids? Gosh i remember people streaking at high school games, people mooing others while driving down the road and people just laughed. Ray stevens even had a hit out of the streak. Now days oh my gosh it would be jail time rehabilitation and RSO for life because of that.
I think beaker has some underlying issues she wont tell us.
The problem is very very few sex offenders ever pry on little kids. and if they were just given a chance to get better and worked with rather then stuck in a corner and left for dead they might get better.
I have seen people completley turn their lives around. God can do anything.
And the other funny thing is EVERY little kid that we hear about walsh, meagen and others were all prevntable. If they were just watched and not left alone to play with no supervision they would be alive today.
Again you can not put a streaker, a guy who had sex or made out with a girl a few years younger and in some cases married her. or other cases like that in the same pile as a peophile who needs help.
you wanting life in prision and wanting to kill them all makes you no better then them.
Look, I don't care if it's Yom Kipper day. A child abuser is a child abuser. They have no right to be with
or around ANY CHILD. I'm sure that I'm over protective
of my children,However as a parent I should be. When we
are out they know that we stay together at all times.
They know that there are people that aren't very nice and they could hurt them. This issue goes way past a
night of trick-or-treaters.Child abusers and others like them should have no rights when it comes to a child,teenager,young adult however you want to say it.
And so the justice system fails us once more. What a surprise.
And so the justice system fails us once more. What a surprise.
Thank you Luvthatdirt, I agree. What are these sex offenders doing as custodial parents. As for the comment, "The problem is very very few sex offenders ever pry on little kids" - this is because the laws in place keep this from happening. Expand the laws to include all other felonies then we will be moving in the right direction. I don't understand the hesitancy to implement something that is good. If you steal, you have a lifelong propensity to steal. If you murder, it is more likely you'll murder again.
When you think of a sex offender what is the first thing that pops into your head? Some violent person that raped a child, right, and yes those kind of perple should be punished for what they did and have to pay for there crime. But no of days, if there is someone, like one said, that moons someone else or flashed them, and they are cought doing that, there is a good chance they will be convicted of indecent exposure and they to are put on the sex offenders list and have to regiter, Should they to be punished for the rest of there lives and not be able to have holloween with there family and children? I dont think so. What if it is a boyfried and gilfriend situation and one of them is just at that age(18)and the other is say (16), and while they are together they are sexuly active and it is consentual, untill something happend and they brake up and the younger of the two, is upset and talking to mom about it. she finds out that they had sexual contact and she call the authorities. The older party is now convicted of a sexual crime and now to has to register as a sex offender, and now can't have holoween with there own family and kids becuse of somehting that happend when in a relationship years ago while young adults,(still kids).
I do believe that this should be inforsed for the most violent sex offenders, but not the ones that made that one mistack while they were younger.
I have three kids of my own and two stepchildren, so i know the fear that parent have of protecting there kids, and if you are that warred, then go with them and be the parent that you should be.
The laws today are named for one, Megan Kanka, who was seven years old when Jesse Timmendequas, a repeated violent sexual offender who lived across the street from her, kidnapped, raped and murdered her.
We have the RIGHT to know who they are and where they are! We don't want them anywhere near our children or in our children's lives! The registry works and our children deserve it.
If you don't want to be on the registry then just keep your filthy hands to yourself!