GPS devices to be removed from many Missouri sex offenders

ST. LOUIS -- A court ruling requires Missouri to at least temporarily remove GPS monitoring devices from some sex offenders after officials recently required they wear the appliances.

Cole County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Green granted the injunction Monday as part of a lawsuit against the state on behalf of a sex offender from St. Charles County, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

"We are hoping to have a permanent injunction," said Matt Fry, the offender's attorney.

The Department of Corrections Board of Probation and Parole said it installed more than 360 GPS ankle monitors on sex offenders in April because of new security requirements passed by the Legislature. Lifetime monitoring was not part of the offenders' original sentencing agreements.

Officials told the offenders the monitoring requirements are part of a revised Missouri criminal code that went into effect in January. Offenders who were found guilty or pleaded guilty to various sex crimes committed on or after Aug. 28, 2006, were subject to the new requirements.

"Those portions were supposed to deal with people sentenced to lifetime monitoring," said Republican Sen. Bob Dixon, who co-sponsored the bill that updated the criminal code. "If they try to apply it to everybody else, then of course that's not right."

The lawsuit was filed by the offender, who is named only by initials "D.G." for security reasons, after he found out the new requirements also pertained to about 500 others who already completed state supervision. D.G. pleaded guilty to a sex crime and completed five years of probation in 2016. He found out about lifetime monitoring in March.

Green said the temporary injunction will allow for more discussion of the new restrictions.

Department of Corrections spokesman David Owen said the department will comply with the injunction and remove all the monitoring devices from offenders not previously under lifetime supervision within 30 days.

"I just want to clarify that this was an issue created by the Missouri Legislature, not the Missouri Department of Corrections, Probation and Parole, or the attorney general's office," Fry said. "I'm very proud of all three entities for doing the right thing today."

Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com