Sex offender law questioned after 2 are re-arrested BY MICHAEL GORMLEY The Associated Press
At least two of New York’s nine most dangerous sex offenders freed under a twoyear old civil confinement law have faced arrest on sex charges again, including one who this week shot a police officer then killed himself. State lawmakers said they’ll study the law, designed to restrict and monitor some sex offenders after they leave prison, to see if it’s too easy for some offenders to be returned to the streets. The latest was Ken-Tweal Catts, who was freed from civil confinement by a jury in September, about a year after his release from prison. Catts was picked up Wednesday and was being charged with rape when he grabbed a Dutchess County detective’s pistol and fired a shot that grazed the officer’s head. He then holed up for three hours in the county building before shooting himself. The first sex offender freed in the jury stage of the 2007 state law, Douglas Junco of Washington County, was accused of rape and kidnapping a woman in Georgia a year ago. That was eight months after a jury found there wasn’t enough evidence of a mental abnormality, as required under the law, to confine him or order him to be strictly supervised in the community. “The question is, what does the jury really know?” said Assemblyman Joel Miller, a Dutchess County Republican. “Judges normally do that and it’s only when we play this game when people claim mental illness that we fool the jury. This isn’t supposed to be a game. People with competence should make the decisions, not turn it over to lay people.” The Republican said he will seek changes in the Democrat-controlled chamber to improve the sex offender management law because of the shooting. “Frankly, I don’t like any part of the current system,” said Miller, noting that it provides a false sense of security. “I think we created a charade that misleads the public.” The state now confines 81 sex offenders in mental health facilities. They can petition a court for release annually. The next highest level of “civil management” under the law is to require “strict and intensive supervision” in the community. The state has put 65 offenders in that category so far. Of them, 29 violated the conditions of their release and 10 were charged with sex-related violations or new offenses. Of those, five did not involve physical contact, according to state records. “It’s a new law and a new experience and we are constantly monitoring and evaluating it,” said John Caher, spokesman for the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. “I don’t believe there are any concrete proposals on the table at the moment to effect any major changes.” There was no immediate comment from the Democratic majorities in the Senate and Assembly, or Democratic Gov. David Paterson. “We have big concerns,” said Sen. Dale Volker of Erie County, who was part of then-Republican majority in the Senate that supported the 2007 law. “The reason we passed the civil confinement law is because there are some people you need to keep in confinement. We’ll look into this.” ...............>>>>...............>>>>.................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01202
The next highest level of “civil management” under the law is to require “strict and intensive supervision” in the community. The state has put 65 offenders in that category so far. Of them, 29 violated the conditions of their release and 10 were charged with sex-related violations or new offenses. Of those, five did not involve physical contact, according to state records.
I'd say that it is almost a 50% failure rate. Doesn't anyone think that it is time to make stricter laws for these scumbags?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
That is too freakin' funny......they get community confinement after their 'issue' and the rest of the folks(not caught) are punching into work with a BIOS clock via fingerprints and eye scans......what the HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MINORITY REPORT.....we must be careful when to 'complain' and see who cries uncle first......
the 'legislators'/politicians will bandstand on this and drum up sooooo much fear and 'righteousness'(Spitzer) that we will ALL be criminals first and Americans second......everyone duck because the pendulum of innocent until proven guilty is swinging back to the dark age 'witch hunts' and the head of the snake will be cut off........dont forget about those pesky 'illegal immigrants' who drive and text and cause accidents, take jobs etc etc........
feel 'safe' yet??????????
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
State trumps Rensselaer County sex offender residency law
By CAROL DeMARE, Staff writer First published in print: Thursday, July 9, 2009
TROY -- In line with other rulings this year, a state judge has knocked out the Rensselaer County sex offender residency law because local legislation on the issue is pre-empted by state laws.
The county's local law enacted in 2006 "is unenforceable," acting state Supreme Court Justice Henry Zwack stated.
Albany attorney Terence Kindlon, on behalf of registered Level 2 and 3 sex offenders, has brought legal challenges to residency laws in Albany, Rensselaer and Washington counties. The Albany and Washington county laws are pending.
Rensselaer County Attorney Stephen Pechenik agreed the county would not enforce the law until the court challenge was resolved, Kindlon said. The law is tougher than surrounding counties. It prohibits registered sex offenders from residing within 2,000 feet of a school or child care faciltiy. Other counties restrictions are 1,000 feet.
His clients in the lawsuit are John Doe, Richard Roe and Melvin Moe. In seeking summary judgment -- asking Zwack to decide the case on the briefs and evidence, without a trial, because the facts are not in dispute -- Kindlon referred to a governor's message attached to 2008 state laws.
Those laws required state agencies to issue regulations on housing options for certain sex offenders. The governor stated, "this bill recognizes that the placement of these offenders in the community has been and will continue to be a matter that is properly addressed by the state."
Kindlon said it wouldn't surprise him if that message was a response to the onslaught of residency laws passed by county legislatures.
In his seven-page ruling late last month, Zwack referred to the governor's memorandum and said after considering New York's comprehensive laws regulating registration of sex offenders and their management, treatment and residency restrictions, he sided with recent court opinions that the state laws trumped local ones.
In January, a state judge in Rockland County struck down a local law on the pre-emption issue. The following month, Albany City Court Judge Thomas Keefe dismissed a charge against a sex offender accused of violating the county law. His ruling ran counter to Judge Rachel Kretser's who last year upheld charges based on the law.
In Albany County, the challenge by Kindlon is before acting state Supreme Court Justice Roger McDonough. The local law passed in July 2006, with the 1,000-foot requirement, is being enforced by police agencies.
Kindlon calls it "a confused situation" in Albany. "Judge Kretser ruled against us. Judge Keefe ruled for our position. It's a split of authority in City Court."
Yet he feels the county is meddling where it shouldn't. "It's almost as if every county wanted to issue its own driver's license, and you would need a Rockland County license to drive in Rockland County and a Cayuga County license to drive in Cayuga County," he said............>>>>..........>>>>..........http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=818091
Local sex offender law shot down Judge says Albany County residency law is invalid because state statute preempts it
By CAROL DeMARE, Staff writer First published in print: Wednesday, July 15, 2009
ALBANY -- A state judge has struck down the Albany County sex offender residency law, declaring it invalid because it's preempted by state statue, and, in effect, halting enforcement of it.
The long-awaited ruling by Acting State Supreme Court Justice Roger D. McDonough -- signed Friday and made public Tuesday -- paves the way for the three-year-old county law that prohibits convicted Level 2 and 3 sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools or child care facilities to proceed to the next phase of the legal challenge.
Both county lawmakers who support the measure and Albany attorney Terence Kindlon who challenged such laws in Albany, Rensselaer and Washington counties want to see the issue played out in the state's appeals courts.
McDonough's ruling comes just days after a decision by Acting State Supreme Court Justice Henry Zwack in Rennselaer County that knocked out that county's law on the same basis -- that state statute preempts the local law. The Rensselaer law was tougher, restricting residency to 2,000 feet of a school or day care center.
The Albany Police Department's Children and Family Services Unit has been enforcing Albany County Local Law No. 8 since its passage by the County Legislature in July 2006. The three convicted sex offenders on whose behalf Kindlon sued the county were all charged with violating the law, a misdemeanor.
"We haven't had a chance to read the ruling, and, obviously, it's something we want to talk with the district attorney about regarding further enforcement down the road," city police spokesman Detective James Miller said Tuesday.
Attorney Kathy Manley, an associate of Kindlon's who worked with him on the lawsuits, said, "It's becoming more and more clear that the counties and towns can't pass their own laws, when it's up to the state to act ..."
"Now the law is invalid in Rensselaer and Albany counties, so it can't be enforced," she added.
Manley said local laws push people "into motels away from treatment, away from services where they can walk and away from families."
County lawmakers on both sides of the aisle want an appeal.
"I'm really let down over this," Albany Democrat Daniel McCoy said. A city firefighter and father of three, he was a lead sponsor of the measure after learning a convicted sex offender lived near his kids' elementary school.
He said the next step is to appeal immediately to the Appellate Division.
"I'm gong to ask the county attorney tomorrow to start an appeals brief," McCoy said, noting he's also "going to check with the state Senate and Assembly to see what they have and what bills may contain sex offender legislation."
Christine Benedict of Colonie, Republican minority leader, agreed. She favors an appeal and a review of the state law. "I think that the state should take another look at theirs."
She said the original law proposed by former Gov. George Pataki "was really strong," and it passed the Senate but not the Assembly. Eventually, a watered-down version passed both houses...........>>>>.............>>>>...........http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=819959
Kosiur and Susan tried to make laws that protected the kids but the right wing and Amedor shot them down and fooled everyone with repub lies NOW YOU WORRY DONT YOU?
Kosiur and Susan tried to make laws that protected the kids but the right wing and Amedor shot them down and fooled everyone with repub lies NOW YOU WORRY DONT YOU?
It's a state law you twit! Looks like Kosiur and suzies legal advisor didn't know the law!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Ruling could doom sex offender laws Court says state regulation pre-empts local restrictions Friday, July 17, 2009 By Justin Mason (Contact) Gazette Reporter
CAPITAL REGION — A state Supreme Court determination invalidating the sex offender residency legislation in Albany and Rensselaer counties could ultimately strike down a similar law passed by Schenectady’s Legislature in 2007. In his ruling Tuesday, Justice Roger McDonough found the state Legislature had made an attempt at regulating where level 2 and level 3 sex offenders can reside, thereby preempting the Albany County law established in 2006. Essentially, the ruling found that the state Legislature’s regulation of sex offender residency pre-empts any sort of local law aimed at governing the residency of both supervised and unsupervised sex offenders. Three weeks earlier, a similar sex offender residency law was struck down in Rensselaer County. Acting state Supreme Court Justice Henry Zwack found the local laws were superseded by the Legislature, which “impliedly and expressly preempted the regulation and management of sex offenders, including residency restrictions.” Schenectady County Attorney Chris Gardner said the ruling won’t immediately affect the county Legislature’s contentious 2007 law, which prevents convicted level 1 and level 2 sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of facilities that cater to children. He said authorities have worked to ensure sex offenders are properly located throughout the county and the legislation hasn’t been challenged. “There’s been no need for any arrests,” he said this week. “In talking to police, it seems there’s been voluntary compliance.” But the fate of Schenectady County’s law will ultimately depend on whether the recent state Supreme Court rulings are challenged in higher courts. If either the Rensselaer County or Albany County decision is challenged at the appellate level and subsequently upheld, Schenectady County’s legislation or any sex offender law in the Third Judicial District would become invalid. If these cases percolate into the state Court of Appeals — New York’s highest court — the decision would ultimately govern all local sex offender residency laws across the state. Gardner said that means Schenectady will need to wait and see how or if the recent decisions are challenged. “The high courts will issue a ruling one way or another and the people will live with it,” he said. Thomas O’Connor, the attorney who represented Albany County in the case, said an appeal is certainly possible. He said the Albany County Legislature will have up to 30 days to file a case with the Appellate Division once the decision is filed with the county clerk sometime in the coming week....................>>>>..................>>>>........................http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2009/jul/17/0717_offenders/
Carl Strock THE VIEW FROM HERE Sex-offender mania takes another hit Carl Strock can be reached at 395-3085 or by e-mail at carlstrock@dailygazette.com.
Sex-offender residency laws in New York state continue to take a drubbing. First it was Rockland County’s law that got clobbered, then Rensselaer County’s, and now Albany County’s. The way our court system is configured, similar laws in Saratoga and Schenectady as well as many other counties remain on the books, waiting for the Appellate Division and perhaps ultimately the Court of Appeals to have a higher say, but it’s pretty clear they have no future. Not because they are silly and counter-productive but simply because they are “pre-empted” by state law. The state has its own Megan’s Law regulating the activities of convicted sex offenders, and the Division of Parole has its own regulations on where they may live, therefore localities cannot presume to intrude on that territory and adopt their own laws and regulations, especially if they conflict with the state’s. It’s the doctrine of pre-emption. There is no doctrine of idiocy or these local laws might have had a harder time of it from the get-go. They were the product of a popular hysteria cynically nurtured by elected officials, with no demonstrable relation to crime prevention — Do we bar bank robbers from living near banks? — but they were wonderfully popular a couple of years ago. Every town board and county legislature wanted to demonstrate its eagerness to protect children, so they competed with each other in barring people who had been convicted of sex offenses from living within 1,000 feet or 2,000 feet of schools, playgrounds, daycare centers, parks, swimming pools and so forth, on the premise that sex criminals — predators, they called them — were people of uncontrollable impulses who would necessarily do it again. Never mind if the first offense had been against a child or against an adult. Never mind, even, the gravity of the offense or how long the person had led a straight, crime-free life since getting out of the slammer. Never mind studies by the U.S. Department of Justice showing sex offenders had a lower recidivism rate than other types of criminals. They were all equally predators, all equally to be banished. Where they were to go, where they were to live was not a consideration. (In Miami-Dade, Fla., they famously live under a bridge.) It was like a Fourth of July parade for local politicians, and with one or two honorable exceptions, they were absolutely busting with righteousness. They were, after all, protecting children. Now they are understandably reluctant to see the parade end, and some of them are calling on the state Legislature to adopt statewide the same sort of measures that won them so much glory locally. If the state is going to pre-empt the locals, then the state should do it right, which is to say irrationally, like us, and not with any namby-pamby regard for where the phantasmagoric predators will find shelter, or work, or social services, such as Gov. Paterson has suggested. So we’ll see how this plays out. I don’t believe we’re finished. .....................>>>>................>>>>>..........http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01100
By DENNIS YUSKO, Staff writer First published in print: Thursday, April 1, 2010
An Albany sex offender and the first person tried under the state's civil confinement law was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday in Georgia for the brutal rape and assault of a family member that occurred six months after a Washington County jury released him, ruling he wasn't a threat, prosecutors said.
A Savannah, Ga., jury found Douglas P. Junco, 42, guilty of rape, kidnapping, incest, aggravated sodomy, sexual battery and other felony charges, Chatham County Assistant District Attorney Isabel Pauley said. The former Albany man with an extensive criminal background received life in prison plus 50 years for the sexual and physical assault, which took place in his mother's Savannah home the morning after the Super Bowl in February 2008, Pauley said. "The facts of our case are horrific, brutal and unimaginable against any female citizen, but doubly so because the victim is the defendant's own (family member)," Pauley said in an interview from Savannah Wednesday.
The circumstances surrounding the sexual assault in Georgia were similar to those Junco was convicted of in an attempted rape in downtown Albany in 1992, Pauley said. In both cases, Junco got drunk, beat up and nearly strangled the women to death after appearing calm and rationale, law enforcement officials said.
Junco received 15 years in state prison for the Albany attack on a woman who agreed to drive him home from a bar. Two men rescued her after hearing her screams off Madison Avenue. Junco was convicted of attempted first-degree rape and second-degree assault.
At the end of his jail term in Fort Ann in 2007, Junco became the first "test case" of the state's Sex Offender Management and Treatment Act, enacted that April.
The civil confinement law permits the state to continue to hold or monitor sex offenders after their prison sentence if state mental health experts and a jury find they have a psychological disorder that predisposes them to repeat offenses. When sex offenders near release from prison, the state Office of Mental Health conducts clinical evaluations. If the office determines a mental defect, the state attorney general's office brings the decision to a civil court proceeding.
In 12 months from Nov. 1, 2008 through Oct. 31, 2009, the state Office of Mental Health reviewed 1,722 sex offenders and recommended 63 for civil management, according to a 2009 annual report.
About 1.6 percent of referrals that were not recommended for civil management were re-arrested for a sexual offense within a year of their release, while 3 percent were re-arrested at the two-year mark.
Junco went free in August 2007, when a 12-person jury in state Supreme Court in Washington County ruled that he did not suffer from a mental problem and wasn't a threat. Conflicting testimony from mental health experts played a big part in the decision, observers said, and the judge in the case did not permit the Albany victim to testify, according to the office of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
"We are gratified by the decision of the jury in Georgia," Cuomo's Chief of Staff Steven Cohen said. "We believed in the case that was presented in New York."
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