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Friday, August 08, 2008

Ind. Courts - Jeffersonville's ban on sex offender in park to be tested again

Harold J. Adams reports today in the Louisville Courier Journal, in a story that begins:

A judge said he will decide today whether to grant a Clarksville man an exemption to an ordinance that bans sex offenders from Jeffersonville city parks.

Eric Dowdell, 36, took his case to Clark Circuit Judge Abe Navarro yesterday after twice being turned down in Jeffersonville City Court.

Dowdell, who completed a required 10-year stay on Indiana's sex-offender registry in 2006 following a 1996 sexual battery conviction, wants to attend his son's baseball games at Jeffersonville's Little League complex and his football games in city parks.

Dowdell's lawyer, Gavin Rose of the American Civil Liberties Union, argued yesterday before Navarro that Dowdell has satisfied the conditions to be granted an exemption to the city ban and is not a danger to the community.

But Jeffersonville City Attorney Larry Wilder disagreed, citing domestic-violence convictions against Dowdell in 1999 and 2001 as well as a pending case this year.

The ban on sex offenders in city parks, adopted in 2006, allows offenders who have completed their legal obligations to petition the City Court for an exemption.

City Court Judge Ken Pierce denied Dowdell's petition in April, just as his predecessor, R. Scott Lewis, did last year.

The ordinance says parties to City Court rulings may ask a state court to take a fresh look at the matter, and Dowdell did so.

Wilder and Rose agree that Dowdell has done well on nearly all of the factors that the ordinance says a judge may consider in determining whether to grant an exemption. Those factors include completing any required prison or probation term and counseling.

But the attorneys spent much of yesterday's hearing arguing over whether Dowdell's criminal record after the 1996 conviction means he is a danger to the community and should be kept out of city parks. * * *

In a separate action, Dowdell -- with ACLU representation -- is challenging the constitutionality of the ordinance in Clark Superior Court. That case is set for a hearing Aug. 25.

Here is a list of three earlier ILB entries on the Jeffersonville challenge.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 8, 2008 09:37 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts