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Monday, April 19, 2010

Ind. Law - Confusion continues about the local and state Indiana sex offender registries and the updates required by Wallace v. State

This ILB entry from Feb. 26, 2010 included quotes from a story by Jeff Neumeyer, posted Feb. 25th on the Fort Wayne Indiana News Center's website re the sex offender registry:

Indiana's attorney general says a uniform computer system would aid Hoosier officials in the big task of removing hundreds of names from the state's sex offender registry list.

The job has to be done, because of an Indiana Supreme Court ruling in 2009.

Indiana's high court last year agreed with attorneys for Richard Wallace, who argued the one-time child molester should not have to register as a sex offender in Indiana, because the list wasn't even in existence in the 19-80's when he committed his crimes.

The ruling said that the current provision violates the prohibition on “ex post facto” laws in the Indiana Constitution.

The decision impacts somewhere around two-thousand offenders statewide. * * *

Attorney General Zoeller says it may take close to a year to get the statewide registry updated to reflect the recent court ruling.

This weekend, numerous papers around Indiana carried an AP story that reported:
The Indiana Sheriff's Association is looking for new software to help it keep better track of the state's registered sex offenders, including those who are homeless.

The registry's Web site is updated daily, but new data doesn't always appear on the site immediately. That means some offenders are erroneously listed as failed to register, while others might not appear in the system yet after arriving in a county.

Sheriff's Association executive director Steve Luce says the software purchased in 2006 is no longer adequate.

"It was a good solution then, in 2006. That's kind of what we're trying to fix now, four years later," he said.

The association hopes to decide on a new software in the next few months that will help law enforcement agencies and the Department of Correction communicate with each other while providing real-time updates on the Web site.

"It's going to help track them better and give them better reminders" of when to check in with local law enforcement or attend scheduled appointments, Luce said.

Registered sex offenders, including those who are homeless, have 72 hours to report to local law enforcement when they arrive in a new county. Those who don't have a primary or temporary residence must notify law enforcement where they are staying at least once every seven days.

"If they're living under a bridge, and that's their address, they need to tell us that exact location," Luce said.

Police say it can be more difficult to keep information on homeless offenders current.

"Sometimes, it's hard to find them because they are transient," said Sgt. Jeff Canada of the Bloomington Police Department.

Failure to register as a sex offender is a Class D felony; it is charged as a Class C felony in subsequent offenses.

Oddly, the Feb. story quoting the attorney general made no mention of the legislation, SB 224, then pending (and since enacted), aimed at addressing some procedural aspects of implementing the Supreme Court's ruling in Wallace v. State. (Here is a list of ILB "Wallace" entries.)

Compounding that, yesterday's story quoting the Sheriff's Association makes no mention either of updating the registry to reflect the April 30, 2009 Wallace ruling, or of reconciling or synchronizing the sheriff's registry and the IDOC registry.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 19, 2010 08:56 AM
Posted to Indiana Law