TX: More than a dozen sex offenders in Lamesa ordered to move
More than a dozen registered sex offenders are living too close to children, that’s according to the Lamesa Police Department.
The chief of police confirmed that 19 residents received notices stating they were in violation of the city’s code of ordinances.
Eugene Gaspar is a registered sex offender who said the department gave him 90 days to move, or face a fine of up to $500 a day. Gaspar said the notice came as a surprise because officers at the Lamesa Police Department approved his address when his family purchased their home more than two years ago. Gaspar said he has registered at the Lamesa Police Department every 90 days for the past two years, with no problem, until now.
Mary Sue Molnar is the founder and executive director of Texas Voices for Reason and Justice, a volunteer organization that provides support for sex offenders and their families. Molnar said she was contacted by multiple registered sex offenders in Lamesa who had identical stories to Gaspar’s.
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I believe in my own response to this ordiance to relocate would be to sue the committee who’s trying to make this new law an permanent one on the books. I’d have my legal team do research as to when these other establishments came to be built so close to your residence, since you told you could live at this address and have been reporting in as required, I’d propose that the community buy you out that value of your home & money you invested into rebuilting home for yourself because I’m sure your civil rights were reinstated once again.
While Michigan recently removed residency restrictions for a lot of us in our last lawsuit, RPs were grandfathered into the law when it was originally amended to add residency restrictions. In other words, if you had already been living there, you could stay there.
The police department needs to do the right thing and let those people stay because they were all already told it was ok.
What troubles me is there are no State restrictions there, yet individual cities can pass ordinances like this? It makes no sense. What also troubles me is the word “private” when referring to a swimming pool. So if an RP has a vengeful neighbor, all he has to do is install a swimming pool in his back yard to try to force the RP out? What difference does it make where an RP lives, especially if he or she has their own minor children? Why would his own children be considered safe, but the children at the local playground are not? The whole misconception that RPs are after everyone’s children is ignorant and needs to stop. Ignorant laws like this have nothing to do with “protecting” the public. They’re banishment.
I’m sorry, but if the cops tried to force me out of my home like this, I’d hope the whole city burned to the ground.
I agree with Disgusted in Michigan. This witch-hunt to move RP is unjustified. Why aren’t all criminals treated this way?
Really sad that our governance has come to this. Texas Voices for Reason and Justice ought to be stronger element in this. Cannot the Texas Attorney General’s Office weigh in? There should be accountability for the status quo and ordances that have been enforced or not enforced previously. The local courts should address this matter without cost. Residents ought to be educated that proximity has NO bearing on children safety, that crimes requiring regististration often have little to do with crimes of violence, and recidivism rates of those released from jail are low. Registrants cannot be expected to defend themselves, given the public climate of offenders, but residents and those sworn to support the Constitution, life, liberty, and justice for all, do deserve civic representation from lawmakers, police, and other public servants.