An organization that works to reform sex-offender laws in Florida is suing Seminole County and Sheriff Don Eslinger, alleging that a decade-old county ordinance is so restrictive that it prevents registered sex offenders from traveling to a grocery store, eating out at a restaurant or, in some cases, even leaving their homes.
According to Seminole’s ordinance, sexual offenders or predators in most cases are not allowed to “travel through or remain within” 1,000 feet of schools, parks, day care centers or playgrounds.
“That’s the problem. You could literally just be shopping at a store, such as Publix, and violate the ordinance if it sits within that 1,000 feet,” said attorney Peter Sleasman, a Newberry attorney who is representing the non-profit group Florida Action Committee.
“The law is vague in terms of where a registered sex offender can go…So unless you’re driving around town with a survey map, you have no idea where the 1,000-feet line is. Just by driving down the road, you could be violating the ordinance.”
The ordinance even prevents a registered sex offender from attending a Seminole commission meeting, Sleasman said, because the county administration building sits adjacent to a private playground and across the street from a park in downtown Sanford.
Sheriff officials declined to comment about the suit, filed Sept. 15 in federal court in Orlando. County attorneys did not return calls.
The organization is not trying throw out the county’s entire ordinance, Sleasman said. Rather, it is asking a judge to do away with the section that restricts where registered sex offenders can travel.
Florida Action Committee, based in the Sanford area, has about 650 members across Florida, including roughly 30 in Seminole County, according to the suit. Many of FAC’s members are required by state law to register with local law enforcement agencies as sexual offenders or sexual predators.
Organization officials did not return calls to comment on their suit.
According to the group’s web site, FAC’s mission is to “educate the media, our legislators and the public” about sex-offender issues.
“Our current policies for sex-offender management are failing,” according to the web site, floridaactioncommittee.org. “We need to fix our broken system to create a safer Florida.”
Seminole’s ordinance was enacted in 2005 at a time when governments across Florida were putting in place tough laws restricting sex offenders. Many Central Florida cities have since passed rules that prohibit sex offenders from living within a certain distance of schools, playgrounds, parks, day care centers and, in some cases, school bus stops and churches.
But Seminole’s ordinance goes a step further by establishing exclusionary zones around those areas. Sex offenders who are stopped within an exclusionary zone would have to explain to law enforcement as to why they are there, according to the ordinance.
Sleasman cited an example of a sex offender who asked to remain anonymous who has had “a clean record for 20 years. But he can’t drive out of his neighborhood without going into an exclusion zone if he were to strictly adhere to the ordinance,” he said. “It is basically a form of house arrest.”
Still, sex offenders have certain exceptions to travel or “reside” within the 1,000 feet, including attending a church service, receiving care at a medical facility or going to work, according to the ordinance.
Sorry to comment on an old thread, but I was looking up stuff on this ordinance, which my court ordered therapist said has been challenged. The municipal code site says this ordinance is still active as of Sept 2002. Have there been any updates or new challenges to this?
For update, scroll down two messages or so.
The above should say 2022, not 2002. My typo.
Hello, does anyone know what happened with this lawsuit? Was the law ever changed or is it still in effect? Thanks.
The plaintiffs dropped out after they were not allowed to remain anonymous.
We would LOVE to bring another, but need plaintiffs willing to put their names out there.
Since she has posted on this thread I thought I would post the information here that it would appear that V. Parkhurst has passed away.
https://www.meaningfulfunerals.net/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?CFID=00a9b53b-57da-44ec-b443-e57f485f3df0&CFTOKEN=0&o_id=3824523&fh_id=13599
I am not a “registered sexual offender”, but wrongfully labeled one, by Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) who in July 2009, re-opened my “Closed: 1986- Sanford Florida Case ( NO. 86-2463-CFA) and “retroactively” imposed newly revised “sexual predator/offender Registration Restrictions, for life, that is now considered, punitive in nature and has caused considerable harm, without allowing for a new trial or open and transparent Hearing.
According to Florida Attorney General, Pam Bondi, who is now on Court Record, saying Florida can withhold the Constitutional rights of any individual, if it servers a legitimate purpose – had successfully convinced , Florida Attorney and now Federal Judge, Roy Bale Dalton Jr., in her Legal Brief’s to ignore all Federal laws of , res judicata, time-barred, ex post facto (retroactivity), double jeopardy, Rules of Stare Decisis…… and of the U.S. Supreme Court and Congress to err on the side of political correctness, for the State of Florida.
Currently I am in the Florida Supreme Court (Case SC15-1576) as their is creditable evidence, the merits of my Case will show an orchestrated and wrongful conviction by Seminole County Prosecutor, Robert B. Fisher, who became personally involved in my Case. The incredible true story is, he actually assisted my x-wife in orchestrating a wrongful convictions of me, by blocking the taking od depositions and defense evidence, while she sued me for a divorce, involving alimony, our Cadillac and ownership of our new 5-bedroom home, on a one-acre home site, in Longwood , Fl.
After four years of multiple re-trials by Seminole County, which ended in July 1990 as I was declared indigent and then goaded into accepting their ten-year Plea Contract, at retrial #5, while under continuous threat of additional retrials. if I failed to accept.
I successfully completed all court ordered sanctions , in July 2000.
As of July 2009, the FDLE, again chose to breached the State of Florida’s Completed and Closed 1990-Contract …and to reopen my Case and retroactively, impose additional punishment. for life, back 28-years, before there were any known laws requiring Registration and their reason; was to discredit my Wrongful Conviction Complaint, where it had been reported, Prosecutor Robert Fisher, resigned his position, when he was seen having sex, in the State Attorney’s Office, after hours.
I believe I can assist your current attorney of record, by sharing my “Case Law(s)” and my learned, “28-years” of being prosecuted, without any “Constitutional Rights” to protest, making me a “political Probationer” in Florida.
If additional Information is desired, please feel free to contact me at XXXXXXX or e-mail me and I can attach an abundance of creditable case documents, for your review.
Respectfully Submitted,
Earl Meggison
And Ms. Parkhurst what would be your solution? Leave it the way it is and hope that no over zealous cop decides to arrest someone for violating the ordinance? I have news for you – the living restrictions are also unconstitutional and they will be gone one day …the registry also is unconstitutional (in its present form) and will be gone one day. So your efforts would be better spent (that is if you really care about the children) to concentrate on the the real necessities – such as educational programs about abuse within the family and circle of friends (which is the true high statistic). And that is just one example –
I have read your definition of exclusionary zones Gail, and I am not oblivious to the differences. I am also not oblivious to offenders taking those so called “exclusionary zones” (quote) such as banking, “”visiting family and friends”””, grocery shopping, or the countless other perfectly lawful activities citizens do in their daily lives–without violating the ordinance. sex offenders have “certain exceptions” to travel or “reside” “within the 1,000 feet”, including attending a church service, receiving care at a “medical facility” or going to work, according to the ordinance” (quote) and weasel clausing them into “residency issues. I am rather alert to offenders being arrested or violated in Florida and in all my years I have yet to read one for an offender going to publix. No Gail even with our exclusionary zones your precious offenders still find time to be where they are not suppose to be and doing what they are not suppose to be doing and with the recent influx and lackadaisical credentialing for sober houses (medical facilities) popping up in every neighborhood in the state, I don’t trust YOU or your attorney’s or that pathetic “soundbite” you give as a description of your suit. So if its all the same to you, I will attempt to persuade the public , your idea is a horrific idea for Florida’s Families.
Thank you for sharing your point of view on our site, Valerie. We are happy you read our forum.
The definition of exclusionary zones is not Gail’s. It Seminole County’s and is contained in Sec. 228.2 of their Code of Ordinances, which says, “No sexual offender or sexual predator shall travel through or remain within the 1,000 foot buffer zone surrounding any school, daycare center, park or playground”
Our lawsuit has nothing to do with residency issues and certainly nothing to do with sober houses or anything to do with housing at all, for that matter.
If you don’t think our lawsuit has merit, we have a challenge for you… Take the map that Seminole County provides of all the exclusionary zones (you can find it here: https://www.seminolesheriff.org/external/..%5Cadministration%5CSiteData%5CSiteDocs%5CPages%5CSEMINOLE%20COUNTY%20MAP%20Restrictions.pdf)
NOTE: YOU WILL NEED TO COPY AND PASTE THE ABOVE AND CONNECT THE URL
and see if you can do 2 things:
(1) add in all the public and private playgrounds (which the County does not include in the map, but are off limits to registrants) and the buffer surrounding them.
(2) see if you can find a path from one end of the county to the other, without traveling through any of the buffer zones. (After all, traveling through a buffer zone would constitute a violation of the ordinance and subject a registrant to arrest).
If you can do that; we will post whatever editorial you want on the front page of the FAC website and keep it up there for a whole week!
Just wanted to point out that the link for the map doesn’t quite work. To navigate to it, just click the link provided and use the tab at the top of the site “Staying Safe.” Then choose “Sex Offenders and Predators” from the drop down menu. The link the the map is at the bottom of that page.
Valerie, I have not heard of an SO being arrested for going to Publix either, but the ordinance in Seminole County does give the police the ability to do so, since grocery shopping does not qualify as one of the permitted activities:
https://www.municode.com/library/fl/seminole_county/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=CH228SEOFSEPR_S228.2RECEACSEOFSEPR
Apparently the law enforcement interpretation of ‘familial obligations’ does not allow for the purchasing of groceries for oneself. See paragraph 61.
http://floridaactioncommittee.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/FAC-v-Seminole-Complaint.pdf
Regardless if it is actually being enforced or not, it is on the books and has the potential to be enforced. I’m hoping you can see the problem with that.
LOL, due to the recent comment by “Vindicated” (above), I came across this Parkhurst monster again. I celebrated the day it left this Earth. Today, I laugh about it.
Just remember, “people” like this monster that support the Registries are, nearly always, truly dumb, hateful, awful “people”. Decent, moral, responsible, freedom-loving Americans do not support Registries. Registry Supporters want governments to grow ever huger and to hold their hands all through their lives to “help” them.
Never forget that many enemies to you and all good people in America, live in America. They live next door to you. Real, mortal enemies that will harm your family. Never give a Registry Supporter any break.
If someone cannot go from Point A to Point B without breaking a “law” then what is really happening, Valerie, is that the person who cannot got from Point A to Point B is having his or her rights violated, per Amendments III, IV, V, IX and XIV. I will not quote them to you, as you obviously need to do some boning up on your own Constitutional law.
The fact is, as these laws are written and allowed to remain on the books, behind them are coming similar programs designed to make a Drug Registry, an Assault and Battery Registry and so on, as it is so profitable. This is the tip of a very paranoid and profitable iceberg and lawmakers depend on their constituents to either not care, nor look very closely at the particulars of the bill being passed. Go back and read the Constitution, or better yet, sign up for some remedial Civics class somewhere and learn about how government is “supposed” to work. This isn’t it.
Now isn’t this convenient, abolish the residency restrictions so Sex offender Transitional housing units can POP up in every neighborhood? Face it Gail, you do not have a philanthropic bone in your body. It appears you are jumping on the bucks for a bed bandwagon and the people of Seminole County should know it.
Not sure what you are referring to Valerie. This lawsuit concerns proximity ordinances in Seminole County, not residency restrictions. It has no impact on housing and there are no bucks to be earned here.