Gainesville commissioners vote to allow sex offenders to live closer to schools, day cares and parks
The Gainesville City Commission passed an amendment Tuesday that allows people convicted of sexual offenses involving children under age 16 to live closer to schools, day care centers and parks, reducing the prohibited radius from 2,500 feet to 1,000 feet.
The amendment also establishes a cut-off date that was previously not recognized by the City of Gainesville, meaning people convicted of this offense before the ordinance was first adopted in 2005 no longer have this restriction on where they live. With these changes, the ordinance now matches the Florida statute.
Interim city attorney Daniel Nee said the amendment was triggered by a legal dispute between the City and an anonymous individual who was convicted of a sexual offense multiple years before the city ordinance or state statute were enacted.
Until now, the individual was restricted from living with his wife within the prohibited radius of a day care center because, without a cut-off date, the city ordinance still applied to him. And the individual argued that the lack of a cut-off date was unconstitutional because the 2005 ordinance retroactively punished him for factors he could not have considered during his case in 1997.
“They might have, for example, pled to an offense, not realizing that this restriction would come to the place later on, whereas maybe they would’ve fought it,” Nee said. “That’s the heart of the due process issue.”
Nee explained that while similar ordinances in Florida have been upheld through expert testimony relating to recidivism rates and residency proximity, a defense would be costly, resource-wise. And some cases have been struck down on the basis of what this individual is arguing. Nee also addressed the issue of the prohibited radius.
“Does it make sense to have a residency restriction that will then, in fact, isolate everyone who have committed these past crimes [and] clump them together in limited numbers of places?” Nee asked the commission at an Oct. 6 meeting. “There are considerations back and forth. I would understand that mimicking the state statute might be a reasonable middle road.”
Commissioner Reina Saco, who was absent from Tuesday’s vote, said at the October meeting that a cut-off date makes sense to her.
“As an attorney, I think that same way: That is not what that person as a defendant agreed to or the context of what was explained. That is a punishment after-the-fact,” Saco said.
Discover more from Florida Action Committee
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Love the headline – those evil city councilmen wanting those dastardly sex offenders closer to your children…
I was thinking the same thing. “allow”…omg, just stop.
MP
OMG, what’s next, allowing women to vote? (Sarcasm)
I am big on being real. Calling someone a sex offender literally means you are ACTIVELY committing sex crimes. So if all of us are sex offenders, we need to turn ourselves in. My incident was 32 years ago. Move on and go after people actually committing current crimes. Pestering people for something they did decades ago is NOT policing it is harassment.
Exactly right. If someone calls you a “sex offender” then you have been given permission to call them whatever you like. I wouldn’t lie like they do though. But I would continue the name calling by calling the person a liar. Just for starters.
Relative to this, I don’t think anyone should repeat big government’s propaganda and call their harassment tool the “Sex Offender Registry”. I think the best and accurate name is “Sex Offense Registry”. The Registry doesn’t list offenders. It lists sex offenses. It lists people who PROBABLY did something illegal years ago, often decades ago. It’s nonsense.
The paper pushers love to call people “offender” as well. I never let that slide. I usually tell them that the only offender here is you. The criminal regimes are the offenders and enemy.