Brookhaven enacts landmark sex offender ruling

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/suffolk/ny-lisexo065790533aug06,0,5155612.story

BY PATRICK WHITTLE |patrick.whittle@newsday.com

August 6, 2008

Brookhaven Town enacted a landmark measure yesterday that makes it illegal for more than two registered sex offenders to live in the same single-family home.

The ordinance, which town officials and child protection advocates have said is the first of its kind in the state, is designed to break up clusters of sex offenders, such as the one in the Homestead Drive area of Gordon Heights. According to a state registry Web site, more than 40 registered sex criminals live in that roughly half-square-mile area.

The town board unanimously approved the measure last night after a public hearing. One resident, Timothy Timms of Coram, which adjoins Gordon Heights, asked the board to pass it because he fears "my children aren't safe on the street."

Other residents questioned whether the law is strict enough and will hold up in court.

Just before the vote, Councilwoman Kathleen Walsh, who proposed the measure, said she was confident the town had created "something enforceable" that will "create an environment where we can keep our children safe."

Proponents have said the measure, coupled with existing laws that prevent sex offenders from living near schools, parks and playgrounds, will help families take back communities such as Gordon Heights. The law imposes a fine of up to $2,500 per week on any registered sex offender who does not comply within 45 days of being notified. It also holds landlords accountable with a fine of up to $2,500 per week.

But some civil liberties advocates have said it might infringe on fair housing laws and sex offenders' right to associate with people of their choice. Sex crime experts have also questioned the wisdom of breaking up offenders who are supporting each other in rehabilitation.

Councilman Tim Mazzei said town officials believe the measure is within the confines of the law. "Any time you restrict individuals' liberty to travel, to live, to house, you are going to have objections," Mazzei said.

The biggest change is a ban on more than two offenders living in one single-family home, but town officials have said they might later tweak the law to include multifamily homes.

Last night's hearing came two months after the town increased the distance a sex offender must live from a school, park or playground from 1,000 feet to a quarter-mile. The town made the change to make local laws as strong as Suffolk County laws.

Parents for Megan's Law representatives have said the ordinance would be the state's first "saturation statute."

Laura Ahearn, the group's head, has said offenders will still need greater supervision and help finding jobs to reform. Town Supervisor Brian X. Foley said the clustering issue will eventually require a change in state law.

Opinion: Why does it always take a 'tard with a name like Foley or Walsh to pass the most stupid laws out there?

Ok, so towns have been passing restrictions on where sex offenders can live, quickly pushing them farther and father towards a mutual center, they then are 'shocked' and 'surprised' that they have two or more living in the same house? Go figure.

When brains were passed out these cats are in the other line. Why does it take that one government rocket scientist to figure out that if you relocate, move, BANISH sex offender that it might one day lead them to HAVE to live together due to housing issues that arise because of your exposte facto and double jeopardy laws? Let me see, if you disallow the people from housing in the majority of an area, and only give them a highly restrictive criteria to search and secure housing, how is it again that you are surprised that you have multiple SO's living in the same structure?

Once, when I was a child, I actually believed in the government. I thought they were intelligent, bright, and generally looked out for the betterment of all people and citizen's of the United States. Now that I have grown older, and are subject to the laws they create, I understand. They are smart, bright and Intelligent. They know exactly what to say, and do to keep themselves in office. They know precisely what to lie to the American people about to have their own agenda's met.

In Sex Offenders, they have found the one item where they will guarantee themselves votes. And they are not about to allow this cash cow out of the fields.