09/03/2011
By WAYNE GREENE
TULSA (AP) — A Hallett man is challenging the state's ability to force him to register as a sex offender, and if he is successful, scores of registered offenders could be taken off the state's list.
In 1997, [name withheld] pleaded no contest to a Calhoun County, Texas, charge of sexual assault upon a minor child, according to court filings.
He received a deferred sentence and was placed on probation. He completed counseling and was found not to be a pedophile, according to the filings.
In 1998, [name withheld] returned to his home in Oklahoma, and he complied with a state law requiring him to register as a sex offender.
At the time, state law required him to remain registered for 10 years, but subsequently, the state Legislature twice extended the length of that requirement. Currently, state law requires [name withheld] to remain registered for life.
As a registered sex offender, [name withheld] — who has had no further arrests — can't go into parks or schools, which has affected his ability to pursue the sales of American Indian crafts at public art events, attorney James Dunn said.
[name withheld]'s case — which appears to be backed by similar cases ruled on by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals and the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals — argues that the state cannot extend the length of the registration requirement retroactively.
Oklahoma County District Judge Bill Graves ruled in [name withheld]'s favor in May, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court is considering whether to change or affirm that decision.
State Corrections Department spokesman Jerry Massie said the state's position is that the registration requirements are not a part of criminal guidelines.
"It's more of a civil matter, so retroactivity doesn't apply," Massie said.
If the high court orders the Corrections Department not to apply registry requirements retroactively, it would likely lead officials to remove about 60 people from the list immediately, Massie said. Approximately 6,600 people are on the list.
An unknown number who otherwise would have stayed on the list for life would gradually pass off the registry, Massie said.
Dunn said he doesn't know how many people would be eventually released from registry requirements, but he suspects it wouldn't be small.
"I think that the number would be fairly large because the Legislature amends it in one form or fashion every year," Dunn said.
Dunn said he has a broader agenda against the sex registry law that he would someday like to press, if he can find the right case.
"I took Mr. [name withheld]'s case because I don't believe we do scarlet letters
in this country," Dunn said. "At the end of the day when somebody has paid what we call their debt to society, the idea is that the debt has been paid."But sex offenders have become a public whipping boy.
"Ask yourself, 'Why do we tinker with this every year?' " Dunn said. "The (in)escapable reason is because the legislator says, 'Well, I'm going to have to be tough on crime. I need to be tough on somebody, and who is it that nobody likes?' "
On the other hand, Sheriff B.B. Browning in Calhoun County, Texas, isn't inclined to offer [name withheld] any comfort.
"He should have been stuffed away and never seen daylight in my book," Browning said.
