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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Ind. Decisions - "Two Lafayette sex offenders told they can go home"

Sophia Voravong reports today in the Lafayette Journal Courier:

For more than two years, Robert Rawles' bedtime routine meant leaving his Lafayette home and driving roughly three miles to sleep at Devon Plaza.

A three-time convicted child molester, Rawles was prohibited by a July 1, 2006, Indiana law from living within 1,000 feet of schools, public parks or youth program centers.

Now under recent Indiana Supreme Court rulings, Rawles and one other Tippecanoe County sex offender who victimized children can return home. Thursday was Rawles' last night at Devon Plaza.

"I've still got kind of a chip on my shoulder for the past two years and all the money wasted," he said. "I've got to work through that for myself. It just devastated me financially."

Rawles' attorney, Ken Falk with the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, recently received a letter from Tippecanoe County Prosecutor Pat Harrington stating that residency restrictions for certain sex offenders no longer applied to Rawles.

That's because Rawles' owned his childhood Lafayette home before the restrictions took effect on July 1, 2006.

"It was based upon recent decisions by the Indiana Supreme Court ... that the residency restrictions no longer applies to him," Harrington told the Journal & Courier.

"My office follows the law in Indiana, and the law says it doesn't apply to him.

"We will continue to follow Supreme Court cases and decisions."

More specifically, Harrington's letter references a Supreme Court ruling issued in late June for Anthony W. Pollard, a Blackford County sex offender who died last December.

The 5-0 opinion found that Indiana's residency restrictions violated the Indiana Constitution by retroactively punishing Pollard, who had owned his home 10 years before the 2006 legislation took effect.

Rawles was one of 28 Tippecanoe County sex offenders who were told to move when the sheriff's office and prosecutor's office began enforcing the residency statute in 2007.

Sheriff's Detective Greg Haltom, who maintains the county's registry, said the Pollard decision affects Rawles and one other registered offender. That man's name was not released. * * *

In Tippecanoe and surrounding counties, at least four sex offenders filed civil lawsuits arguing the statute's constitutionality.

All were initially dismissed by local judges.

"It's become very difficult dealing with this issue," Haltom said. "There have been several different levels and layers as it moves forward in the legislature and the judiciary."

Indiana legislators have repeatedly said the residency restrictions were meant to protect youths from child sex offenders. The law itself, however, does not prohibit those offenders from visiting schools, public parks or youth program centers.

In Rawles' situation, it meant only that he could not physically sleep at his Lafayette home.

Here is the ILB summary of the Pollard opinion, and here is a list of related entries. The ILB intends to publish an overview of Indiana sex offender laws and decisions.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 14, 2009 06:06 AM
Posted to Ind. Sup.Ct. Decisions