Gilroy
– One-third of Gilroy’s sex offenders aren’t listed on the
Megan’s Law Web site, due to a legal exception that keeps some
crimes offline.
Gilroy – One-third of Gilroy’s sex offenders aren’t listed on the Megan’s Law Web site, due to a legal exception that keeps some crimes offline. Their crimes are either less severe than those of listed convicts or were committed as juveniles. As a result, 37 of Gilroy’s 111 sex registrants are known to police, but not to civilians clicking through the list online.
One such registrant is Julian Joseph Martinez, a 30-year-old transient who is required to register with Gilroy police every 30 days, due to a past conviction for statutory rape. Martinez had sex with a teen younger than 16 while he was older than 21, according to court files. Recently, the Gilroy man was arrested again on sex charges – charges that, if proven, could land him on the Web site. But before his most recent arrest, Martinez’ criminal history wasn’t publicly known.
Statutory rape is one of several offenses that aren’t listed on the Megan’s Law site. Others include indecent exposure, incest and distribution of child pornography. In addition, selected criminals can stay off the Web site by petitioning the Department of Justice, provided they have successfully completed probation and are considered by the court unlikely to re-offend. Statewide, about one-fourth of registered sex offenders are legally excluded from public disclosure, according to DOJ records.
Exceptions puzzle, worry some
Few people outside the justice system are aware of the exceptions, some of which were written into the law after California’s Attorney General drafted it, said Janet Neeley, deputy attorney general. The Megan’s Law registry went online in 2005 thanks to AB 488, which added a new section to the state penal code outlining which offenders are listed online, and what information is listed for each.
Some criminals are listed only by zip code: adults who pimp out minors and felony sexual batterers, for example. Other crimes will land an offender’s address online only if they have other sex offenses. A person who rapes a disabled person, for instance, will be listed online by zip code only, unless they have committed another sex crime as well, in which case their full address will be listed. The code is so complex that Daniel Okonkow, who handles sex registrant cases for the District Attorney’s office, referred the Dispatch to the California DOJ to clarify the categories.
“I can’t see any real patterns in the categories,” said Jeff Stein, legislative chair for California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, which opposed putting the Megan’s Law list online. “It was a byproduct of the Legislature mulling. As George Bernard Shaw observed, those who love sausage and the law should never watch either being made.”
But the Web site has been popular with victims’ groups such as Parents for Megan’s Law, a New York-based group that has pushed to make sex offenders’ information more accessible. The criminals that aren’t listed online rankle Laura Ahearn, the group’s executive director.
“We believe very strongly that the more information that is accessible to parents and community members, the better chance they have to protect their children from those known to pose a risk,” said Ahearn, who was particularly distressed that child pornography producers and distributors are left off California’s online list. “It’s a very serious mistake not adding those offenders to the [online] registry. Child pornographers often have a significant number of hands-on victims.”
Stein questioned whether viewing child pornography indicates that a person will assault children, saying that he hadn’t found credible evidence to link viewing and other behavior. Ahearn pointed to a study of 54 child pornographers, cited in a 2005 DOJ Law Enforcement Bulletin, which revealed 1,371 victims of contact sex crimes never before reported to police. In light of those statistics, said Ahearn, parents should be able to know how many child pornographers live in their neighborhoods – and where.
List furthers ‘stranger danger’ myth, some say
Still, some advocates say the public focus on ferreting out sex convicts is misguided, based on “stranger danger” myths about sexual assault. Ninety percent of child victims know their offender, and nearly half are family members, according to the Department of Justice. Among victims age 12 and older, 80 percent know their offender.
“The question is, does this make us safer, or does this just make us feel safer?” asked Robert Coombs, director of public affairs for the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault. “Creating a false sense of security makes the community even more at risk.”
The widespread underreporting of sexual assault means that many offenders are never caught and prosecuted, added Coombs, and therefore can’t be listed online. On California’s Megan’s Law site, one ‘Frequently Asked Question’ reads, “I am concerned that I really cannot tell who is and who is not a sex offender.” The answer reads, “You are exactly right.” Coombs, Ahearn and the DOJ recommend that parents remain aware of their surroundings and communicate openly with their children, getting to know the adults they know. The Megan’s Law site is useful, said Coombs, but ultimately, it provides only limited information – even if the excluded registrants were listed.
Citing such concerns, groups such as CACJ and the American Civil Liberties Union have questioned whether the public safety benefits of posting information online outweigh sex offenders’ privacy.
“The Web site creates an implicit statement that all sex offenders, regardless of the date of the conduct or the type of behavior, are dangerous to everybody,” said Stein. “But people who aren’t known as registrants still can pose dangers to the public.”
Martinez, for instance, was caught with a cell-phone video of him having sex with a 15-year-old girl, who was sitting beside him when Gilroy police pulled his vehicle over on a traffic stop. Later, the man confessed that the two had been dating for at least a month. When police showed Martinez to the girl’s guardian, the woman said she’d never seen him before. The Gilroy man was later arrested on charges of lewd acts with a minor, sodomy with a minor, and encouraging a minor to perform prohibited acts. If convicted of lewd acts or sodomy, Martinez will be listed on the Megan’s Law Web site. But if a guardian has never seen him, it’s irrelevant whether Martinez’ picture is posted online.
New law could change
who appears online
A new national law could eliminate some of California’s exceptions. The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, signed by President Bush last July, will require sex offenders’ information to be listed on a national Web site. Ahearn was unsure of the exact guidelines of the act, which allows local jurisdictions to exempt certain sex offenders, but child pornographers are not included in the exempted category, she noted.
In addition, she said, “most juveniles that are convicted as adults will be on the online sex offender registry.” Juvenile sex offenders tried as juveniles for serious sex crimes, committed at the age of 14 or older, will have to register, but whether they will be listed online remains unclear.
“We feel very strongly that certain juveniles need to be registered,” she said, “but we can’t paint a broad picture and apply the same laws to every juvenile … We don’t want to deter their opportunity to rehabilitate.”
Stein said ultimately the Web site “becomes a question of balance.” As an example, he cited the recent shootings at Virginia Tech University, and asked whether “anyone who’s ever had depression should be on a Web page.”
“It’s just a danger in life,” he concluded.
