City Council Moves Toward More Bans for Sex Offenders

They listened to a deputy district attorney, the co-author of Jessica's Law and a woman whose 14-month-old son was photographed at a park by a registered sex offender.

And the four City Council members of Rancho Santa Margarita were in agreement. They want to drop the hammer on child predators in city parks.

Their plan is to model a city ordinance after the one unanimously adopted by the Orange County Board of Supervisors in April that bans registered sex offenders from parks, beaches and recreation areas, generally defined as "where children regularly gather." City Attorney Greg Simonian is expected to draft the ordinance in time for the July 13 meeting of the council.

Although Councilman Steve Baric, a former deputy D.A., took the lead in bringing the subject to the table, retired Costa Mesa police lieutenant Jerry Holloway went a step further and asked Simonian to research the options for providing stiffer penalties than those currently in place for violators who venture into county parks.

"Right now a first time offender could get up to six months in jail and/or a $500 fine," Holloway said of the existing county ordinance. "The bottom line is you have to have a penalty that's a true deterrent."

Westminster last month approved an ordinance that mirrors the county law, and council members in Irvine are also considering it.

What might be distinctive about an RSM law is that it may include buildings, such as the city's public library, which is a county property. It was the site where registered sex offender Robert Bruce Engel, 67, was allegedly masturbating in front of teenage girls under cover of a newspaper.

Engel has pleaded not guilty to one count of indecent exposure with prior convictions. With Engel's arrest in May, Simonian said he hoped there would be a conviction that could be used to support an expanded scope of areas "to not only include parks, whether city owned, but also our library." 

One possible sticking point is that the city does not actually own the city parks; Baric acknowledged that SAMLARC—the RSM Landscape and Recreation Corp.—should be included in discussions, "but I don't think that's a serious impediment."

Among the three speakers who addressed the council, Kelly Hagins of Lake Forest, a former RSM resident, implored the council to "lead by example" so that other cities such as hers could follow suit.

"The debate on whether this infringes on their constitutional rights after they've been released is ridiculous," Hagins said, noting there are 1,830 registered sex offenders in Orange County. "There's already a state precedent set that affects their rights after conviction. You can't own a gun, you can't vote, you can't serve on a jury, you have to disclose it on a job application. There's no difference—our children should come first, period."

Brian Fitzpatrick, a senior deputy district attorney for Orange County, assured the council that the county ordinance was constitutional because it is, as required, "narrowly tailored to an important government interest ... because it only applies to those places where children regularly gather."

He also said there is a "permission provision built in" that, among other things, allows offenders to apply through the sheriff for permission to enter such areas if they need to work or have a specific purpose.

But one of the compelling points made by Fitzpatrick is that "if someone is required to register for these offenses, it's because the judge has decided based on the facts of the case that they need to be registered" because there's a threat that they will repeat their offense: "This person has committed a crime where they pose a lifetime risk of recidivism."

Added Baric: "During the disposition phase—the negotiations between the D.A., the defense attorney and the judge—the defense moves heaven and earth to allow the defendant to plead to anything that doesn't (require registration). ... When someone pleads to something that requires registration, from what I've seen, the facts are usually overwhelming."

Campaign for Child Safety's Jeff Gibson, who co-authored Jessica's Law—Proposition 83—said that a federal study of prisoners in 2002 "tracked every sex offender in the federal system, and they had a self-reported recidivism rate of 97 percent."

"According to the California state Parole Board," Gibson said, "a felon of that type generally commits 22 to 30 like crimes before they are caught and re-incarcerated."

It was Gibson, of Coto de Caza, who authored the term "location where children regularly gather." He said the 8th and 9th federal circuit courts and Florida courts "have all upheld [the] narrow government interest and it's constitutional ... and it has been refused by the United States Supreme Court to be reheard."

If that's the case, the council members were clear: They're going for it.