Legislation that has been introduced by state Assemblywoman Amy Handlin (R-Monmouth) would, if passed in the Legislature and signed into law by the governor, allow members of the public to access information concerning all sex offenders, regardless of an individual’s risk of committing additional offenses in the future.
The legislation is being supported by Brooke Geringer, a 31-year-old area resident. Geringer said she is advocating for the passage of A-210, which has been assigned to the Judiciary Committee.
Geringer said she is interested in the issue because she was involved with someone for three years and trusted that person. She said the man turned out to be a child predator who forwarded photographs of child pornography to her cell phone in 2012.
“I turned the case in, he was arrested and eventually indicted and sentenced. He was deemed a Megan’s Law offender, which everyone thinks is always public knowledge,” she said. “Once he was released from prison and I tried looking him up on the sex offender database, I found that I was unable to search his name.
“In doing some investigating, I found out that not all Megan’s Law offenders are public record. (What is public record) is based on what ‘tier’ an offender is deemed to be, which all depends on their level of possibly re-offending.
“I would want to know if I was living next door to someone who had been charged with such a crime, but due to the ‘tier’ (that authorities assign) to a person, you may or may not be able to get this information. I was quite surprised when I learned about this, because it was my understanding that all Megan’s Law offenders are indeed public record.”
According to a statement in the Assembly bill, the proposed legislation would require all sex offender registration information to be published on the Internet registry, regardless of their risk of re-offense.
Fletcher Duddy, a deputy public defender and the managing attorney of the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender’s statewide Megan’s Law practice group, said he is concerned with the bill’s “one-size-fits-all approach.”
“It is incredibly unfair to low-risk offenders. Think of the case of a 19-year-old man or woman who engages in consensual sex with an underage person. This type of defendant almost never goes on to re-offend.
“Yet needlessly including them on the sex offender website almost guarantees their life will be forever destroyed, as internet notification directly results in unemployment, homelessness, isolation and extreme depression.
“Placing every offender on the internet undermines public safety. This is because such blanket notification results in a dilution effect, whereby the public is confused and cannot discern between offenders who truly pose a danger and those who do not,” he said.
Duddy also said the bill is unnecessary because Megan’s Law already has rules in place to allow a judge to order internet notification for any registrant, if they believe such notification is necessary.
In addition, he said parole officers “tightly monitor” every aspect of a sex offender’s life, including strict curfews, residency restrictions, internet restrictions and an “array of other conditions.”
“Finally, the bill is unconstitutional. The New Jersey Supreme Court has already declared that Megan’s Law is constitutional only because the scope of community notification is closely tied to one’s risk to re-offend. This bill alters that by providing for blanket notification irrespective of one’s risk,” Duddy said.
