Bill Signed to Let Police Tell of Sex Offenders’ Whereabouts

Gov. Pete Wilson on Wednesday signed legislation authorizing police to publicize the whereabouts of registered sex offenders, and enabling citizens to use police computers to find out whether the sex offenders live in their neighborhood.

“Every Californian has a right to know if a dangerous sex offender is living within striking distance of their children and their families,” Wilson told a solemn Capitol bill-signing ceremony attended by families of crime victims.

Starting Jan. 1, local police and sheriffs will be allowed to notify schools, day care centers, parents, previous victims and others of the arrival in a community or neighborhood of a registered sex offender.

The legislation authorizes the alert when law enforcement officers reasonably suspect that the safety of the public is at risk.

In addition, citizens will be able to call a 900 telephone number at the state Department of Justice in Sacramento and confirm whether someone is a convicted sex offender.

They also will have access to the information on CD-ROMs or other electronic equipment at police stations in cities of at least 200,000 population.

State officials estimate that there are 66,000 registered sex offenders in California, including 38,000 whose crimes involved children.

Since last year, the state has operated a 900 hotline with which citizens can track sex offenders who prey on children. The new law will expand the listings to include offenders whose victims were adults.

“With this bill, our people will be far better armed with information that can prevent brutal assaults [and] shatter lives,” Wilson said.

The law, sponsored by state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren and carried by Assemblywoman Barbara Alby (R-Fair Oaks), is based on a recent federal statute known as “Megan’s Law,” in memory of 7-year-old Megan Kanko. The New Jersey child was sexually assaulted and murdered, allegedly by a twice-convicted sex offender who lived in her neighborhood.

The federal law requires local police to release “relevant” information about registered sex offenders in their communities.

Most states have adopted implementing laws, but New York’s statute was dealt a setback in federal court Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin of Manhattan ruled that New York state officials are prohibited from releasing the names and addresses of sex offenders who were convicted before the law took effect Jan. 21.

The judge said that disclosing such information is an illegal extension of punishment because it interferes with an offender’s ability to rehabilitate himself.

Last summer, however, a federal judge in New Jersey upheld that state’s law.

The bill Wilson signed Wednesday will apply to California registered sex offenders regardless of when they were convicted.

Lungren’s spokesman, Steve Telliano, said the attorney general is confident that California’s law would withstand a challenge similar to New York’s.

He said the “key difference” between the two laws is that California authorizes police to publicize the whereabouts of an offender when he “poses a specific threat to public safety.”

Telliano said the New York law requires authorities to make broad notification, regardless of the offenders’ threat to the community.

California’s swift enactment of “Megan’s Law” was hastened, in part, by the murder May 16 of Michael Lyon, an 8-year-old Yuba City second-grader who was kidnapped while walking home from school. His savagely slashed body was found near a riverbank. A twice-convicted child molester, Robert B. Rhodes, was charged with the crime.

Wilson and Alby said the California version of “Megan’s Law” could just as well be known as “Michael’s Law”--or “Polly’s Law,” for murder victim Polly Klaas.

Michael’s mother, Sandy, who flanked Wilson at the ceremony, warned parents that vigilance is the best protection for children.

“Just because this bill has passed, in no way should anybody think that our children are safe. It is merely a tool for our defense,” she said.

Marc Klaas, father of Polly, advised parents to rear their children “as if there is a molester living in their neighborhood.”

In other action, the governor also signed the following bills:

* A measure by Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) that allows the Los Angeles Unified School District to increase its charter schools from 10 to 22.

* Legislation by Hayden and Assemblywoman Jackie Speier (D-Burlingame) making it illegal to steal human eggs and requiring written consent of donors before reproductive materials can be taken. The bills were in response to the fertility scandal at UC Irvine.