You know how you can ask probation one thing and be told something else by the Sheriff’s office? Or you’ll call the County and they will give you one answer but the FDLE tells you something else?
Well here’s a case where a registrant got permission to move to a location, bought a home, moved in and then was told he couldn’t live there. Instead of bending over, like many registrants would, he chose to fight back by filing a lawsuit!!!
Good for him!!! We wish him good luck and all our support.
I hope they win – i think for once the media was very fair! -Except when at the end he says the offender has to know if they are in compliance – we have no way to know that – none
Most ordinances place the burden of measuring distance on the registrant.
Most registrants don’t have access to GIS tools, a civil engineering degree or property appraiser maps to identify boundaries and definitively identify the buffer limits. “As the crow flies” is also difficult because you can’t take a measuring tape and climb over buildings and across rivers – not that they make 2500 foot tape measures.
What’s also absurd, is this burden would put the onus on the offender to know where all the swing sets are. Can you imagine a “registered sex offender” walking around a neighborhood peeking in back-yards to see if there’s a swing set?!?
If the police and probation can’t get it right with their training and resources, how can they expect someone who is broke, has no access to the internet and shouldn’t be looking for playgrounds to begin with, to do that job? It’s f-ing absurd!
We reached out to this guys attorney and invited him to join our call tomorrow. Hopefully he will so we can show him and his clients some support!