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Subject: Sex offenders living in your association

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SueW1
(Texas)

Posts:26

04/22/2008 11:24 AM
I had heard as well as another board member of an association disallowing sex offenders. I think this is so close to a legal issue, I almost do not want to address it let allow participate in any voting. What are your thoughts on this. Do any of you here have anything like this in place?

BrianB
(California)

Posts:1748

04/22/2008 11:30 AM
I would not want a church in my HOA either.

BradP
(Kansas)

Posts:1742

04/22/2008 12:43 PM
Sue: I think Sex Offenders should be near the bottom of anyone's worries, they have to register, you know where they live and you can keep an eye on them. What worries me is the person or persons in my neighborhood that are ticking timebombs that will become sex offenders. No one knows who they are, where they are and if they will go off. We have one that is near us, although not in our neighborhood. He doesn't concern me that much. I would make sure your association attorney signs off on doing this, don't know how legal it is.

JackieB
(California)

Posts:121

04/22/2008 1:22 PM
In CA there are rules to how close to school and parks an offender can be/live. I think it is a mile? I tend to agree with Brad about the "loose cannons" we don't know about until the 5 o'clock news. I would check with the local Police Dept to see what is the law in your city or county? Or is it a state law? Check it out before you vote. good luck. Jackie

BrianB
(California)

Posts:1748

04/22/2008 1:54 PM
Just remember, there is a difference between a ban on sex offenders and a ban on registered sex offenders. depending on the state, REGISTERED sex offenders may have done nothing sexual, illegal, or have actually been convicted of a crime (Ohio, for one, wants to list people who MIGHT have committed a sex crime, even though they were never arrested or convicted by a court). You may also get the fun of telling a homeowner that they must sell their home and move from your HOA, because their 17 year old son got a picture on his cell phone from his girlfriend, or that two 16 year olds had sex after jr prom, etc.. Just be prepared to be sued, and to sue.

SidneyP
(Florida)

Posts:292

04/22/2008 1:58 PM
Brian is right....we had a young man (18) be placed on the sex offenders list because he was caught having sex w/a 17 year of girl....They ended up getting married a few months later and he is still on that list...

MaryA1
(Arizona)

Posts:2505

04/22/2008 2:27 PM
I believe the courts feel they have a right to live where ever they choose. And, although I wouldn't want one living near me -- or my grandchildren! -- I don't have the right to make them move and I don't believe your HOA does either. And, it is true that not all registered sex offenders have really done anything wrong. I just recently heard of a case where a young guy will have to wear that title for the rest of his life because he had sex with his girlfriend and her daddy didn't like it -- I think he was 18 and she was 17!

BrianB
(California)

Posts:1748

04/22/2008 2:31 PM
And, much like the NSA/TSA/DHS terrorist watch list/no fly list, there is no mechanism to ever be removed from a sex offender list, once placed on it. Short of congressional intervention (and even then, it may not happen),you cannot get off either list once you are placed on it. the exception being the Oklahoma State Sex Offender registry, which until this month, was open content to anyone with a web page and some HTML skills. You could go into it, add names, delete names, or change names all you wanted. It was only fixed after someone added the names of every local politician and city worker to the list in an attempt to get it fixed. The scary thing is that any OTHER offender list that may have accessed the OK registry in the four years it was open source content will have those names recorded, permanently.

SueW1
(Texas)

Posts:26

04/22/2008 3:21 PM
Yes, I agree. The degree of offence is another thing. Our society is producing them at record speed. Is it in the water or is our system become so absurd and bored they began to create another thing to worry about. Maybe a bit of both. Well, I suppose my first kiss at age 14 with a 17 year old would have done the boy in, these days. This is exactly the reason and hope nothing else is said. The term sex offender is way too broadly used.

MicheleD
(Kentucky)

Posts:1866

04/22/2008 7:16 PM
Well, I know that for the one or two or even 5 who are on the list for "minor" (no pun intended) offenses, the vast majority are for pretty heinous acts, many of them involving violence as well. At least that's the way they read in the list in our state. We have an apartment complex in a nearby zip code that has over 20 sex offenders living there. Most of them in their 40s or 50s, and most for offenses involving younger girls and boys. We have NO idea why they have congregated in that one complex. The local police have assured us it is not a "half-way house" of any kind, but they also say they keep a close eye on it. It's probably about 10 miles from our subdivision. I know that the constitutionality of the restriction of living within XX feet of a church or school has been upheld in Kentucky, but I think I read something a little while ago about how they cannot ban them from living in certain areas outside of that sort of restriction. In other words, I don't think a ban on a sex offender living in our subdivision, say, would be upheld here.

KarenS11
(Florida)

Posts:145

04/23/2008 7:43 AM
I don't think that would fly- and it would be soooo expensive. I would first explore restrictions that may currently be in place for him. We got rid of a registered sexual predator because he was violating the conditions of his probation by living too close to a park. Now- because the GIS map didn't show our park, his probation officer told us that if it was not on the map, it didn't count. She was wrong, of course, so we then went to the state attorney with hard data. It was very easy and our only expense was to print out the pix showing the home in relation to school bus stops and the park. In FL you can go to the clerk's office and see their file, so can see what the conditions are, as well as finding out who the probation officer is. And in our experience, the staff of the clerk's office was incredibly helpful.

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