LAW FOR SEX OFFENDERS HAS SOME LOOPHOLES

BENTON, Mo. -- A 50-year-old Cape Girardeau man who pleaded guilty to promoting child pornography will not be required to register as a sex offender, the Scott County prosecutor said.

Since 1994, Missouri has required certain convicted sex offenders to register with sheriff's departments in the counties where they live. But convictions for crimes involving pornography, including child porn, do not carry the same condition.

When the Scott County prosecutor's office negotiated a plea agreement with William J. Rasmuson Jr., who had originally been charged with two counts of statutory rape and five other crimes, no one was aware that his pornography charge did not require sex offender registration.

"It's the first time in nine years here that we've filed such a charge," prosecutor Cristy Baker-Neel said. "We just don't have that kind of crime here."

If Rasmuson had been convicted of statutory rape, he would have been required to register as a sex offender, Baker-Neel said.

"You'd think that promoting child pornography would require that," she said. "We should have known."

An even larger problem

The omission of certain pornography convictions from the sex offender registry requirement is only one mistake in the law that should be corrected, said Cape Girardeau County prosecutor Morley Swingle. A decision by the Missouri Supreme Court earlier this year found an even larger problem, he said.

In October the court had ruled that a Jackson County man did not have to register as a sex offender. The court based its ruling on a section of the law stating that anyone convicted of a sex crime since July 1, 1979, must, "within 10 days of coming into any county, register with the chief law enforcement officials of the county."

This could be interpreted to mean that if a convict continues to live in the county where his crime was committed, he doesn't have to register.

"This creates a huge loophole when someone chooses to stay in a county," Swingle said.

Swingle is still uncertain how the Supreme Court's decision will affect the registry of sex offenders in Cape Girar-deau County, but he would like to see the law amended by state legislators.

Currently Cape Girardeau County has 98 persons registered as felony sex offenders. Five misdemeanor sex offenders have also registered since a new state law took effect last year forcing them to report where they reside.

In Scott County, 48 are registered as sex offenders. But if those who involve children in pornography are left off the list, it creates a danger to the community, said Sgt. Jerry Bledsoe of the Scott County Sheriff's Department.

"It's very seldom that they do this sort of thing and quit," Bledsoe said.