Few Turn Out for Megan’s Law Viewing in O.C.

California residents had their first crack Tuesday at the Megan’s Law database of about 64,000 sex offenders, but only a few people in Orange County turned out to see if their neighbors were listed.

Those who made the effort, however, had a mission.

“I’m here for my children and I want to know, I want to know if they are in my neighborhood,” said Cheryl Fitzgerald, a San Juan Capistrano resident and mother of two girls, ages 4 and 6. She arrived at the Orange County sheriff’s substation with pen and paper to take lengthy notes on as many offenders as she could within the 15-minute limit.

Fewer than 20 people viewed the database in Orange County, while more than a dozen others called local law enforcement agencies with questions about the program and hours of availability.

The release of the CD-ROM database, accessible to the public at some area police and sheriff’s stations, caps months of waiting and speculation over the effect of Megan’s Law, named for a 7-year-old New Jersey girl who was raped and slain by a paroled child molester.

The database is intended to list the name of every Californian convicted of a serious sex offense since 1944, along with their ZIP Code--not address--and a photograph, if available.

As expected, there were some glitches:

Santa Ana police turned away a few residents because their disc contained a program error that could enable “any person who knows computers” to have access to information restricted to police.

La Habra and Costa Mesa police said they received the disc too late for the 10 residents who had arrived earlier in the day to look at it.

Elsewhere, at the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Los Angeles station, the CD-ROM erroneously displayed the home addresses of sex offenders. At the department’s Central Division, the computer screen froze as Charles Chapman, a 32-year-old father of three, looked at pictures of convicted sex offenders in his San Pedro neighborhood.

Chapman had to return to work before the system could be fixed.

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In Long Beach, police found deceased and incarcerated offenders on the list, even though they had asked state officials weeks ago to remove the individuals from the database.

The low turnout in Orange County wasn’t a surprise to some law enforcement officials.

“I think this is going to be a typical response,” Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Ron Wilkerson said. “The public isn’t nearly as concerned or interested in this as the media would like to believe.”

Since September 1996, California police have been able to use Megan’s Law to warn residents about sex offenders. In most cases, the offenders fled due to neighborhood protest or media scrutiny. Indeed, three Orange County cities Monday had notified residents of about 17 sex offenders, and at least one neighborhood protest was held Tuesday night to drive the molester out.

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But Tuesday marked the first day the database was available in police stations.

Many residents who did peruse the database gave it mixed reviews.

Some wished the offenders were identified by street address rather than by ZIP Code, while some were frustrated that the information on offenses didn’t contain more details.

“What does ‘lewd and lascivious’ mean?” asked Mona Palmer, who looked up sex offenders at the Costa Mesa Police Department. “What did he actually do? This tells me nothing.”

Some residents were frightened by the information at their fingertips.

Fitzgerald, who lives in a gated community and generally feels safe in South County, said that reviewing the list made her more fearful. While no molesters in her neighborhood were listed, Fitzgerald counted 60 people convicted of sex crimes in San Juan Capistrano, Dana Point and San Clemente.

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“I’m more scared now than when I went in,” she said. “I had no idea there would be this many.”

Fitzgerald said some men in the photographs were scary looking, while others “just looked like your basic guy who could be wearing a white shirt and tie.

“It was really sad,” she said. “I’m going to stay really close to my kids.”

Law enforcement officials said they were concerned about the accuracy of the information on the CD-ROM. In Anaheim, for example, the database shows 22 high-risk sex offenders in the city. But police said only seven high-risk sex offenders live there; the rest have moved, are back in prison or have died.

State officials hope to fix those problems with regular updates from law enforcement agencies throughout the state.

The error rate disturbed La Habra police enough to develop their own computer-generated city map that approximates the locations of each serious sex offender--of which there are about 50.

Capt. John Rees said the department plans to give residents access to the map before they look at the database, which incorrectly states that La Habra is home to four high-risk offenders--those who have committed several crimes, including violent acts.

“We’d rather have them look at the map we’ve created, and know to be accurate, so we can point to their street and show them whether or not they have a neighbor they should be concerned about,”’ Rees said. “One of the reasons we’re offering the information is to give residents a tool to protect their families. They have to know what’s out there in order to do that.”

Dave Pauley of San Clemente took off from work at midday Tuesday, concerned that a large turnout would keep him from reviewing the database at the Sheriff’s Department.

“I expected a line out the door. I was very disappointed to hear how few people came here,” said Pauley, who has two children, ages 10 and 6. “I guess it’s apathy, but it’s really too bad.”

Most of the South County residents who came to the Aliso Viejo substation were more matter-of-fact about what they found.

“The others were generally pretty calm and just gathered their information,” said Joe Homes, a sheriff’s sex crime investigator who was helping the public use the database Tuesday. “Nobody actually stopped and said, ‘Hey, this is my neighbor.’ ”

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Despite the flaws in the database, despite the anxiety among some police and civil libertarians that the wide release of this information will spark vigilantism, Tuesday was still a happy day for some concerned residents.

For example, a 35-year-old Lomita mother, who declined to give her name, jotted down the names and descriptions of the 30 sex offenders listed in her ZIP Code and said she would distribute them around her neighborhood.

“These people are going to be harassed,” she said, “and they need to be.”

Even more disturbing to the Lomita woman and several others across Southern California were the sheer numbers of convicted sex offenders listed. The 63,920 offenders, who are overwhelmingly rapists and child molesters, represent one out of every 150 adult men in California, according to state officials. (Virtually all of the offenders are male.)

Attorney General Dan Lungren acknowledged in a press conference last week the fear the numbers can generate. “I don’t want people to panic,” he said.

Even seasoned law enforcement personnel were reeling from the sheer numbers of offenders.

At the Carson sheriff’s station, one person to use the database was Deputy Terenna Rivera who checked her neighborhood and didn’t like what she saw. “I need to move,” Rivera said.

In San Francisco, only five people--including two reporters--had used the database by late afternoon.

Said San Francisco Police Lt. Tom Bruton: “Maybe people don’t want to know.”

Times staff writers Andrew Blankstein, Jeff Leeds and Nicholas Riccardi and correspondents Nick Green, Joseph Hanania and Scott Steepleton contributed to this report.

* ALERTED Garden Grove neighbors begin printing fliers after finding that a molester lives near them. A23

* COOPERATION Sheriff’s Department will join a team that seeks to reduce child sex assaults, exploitation. A23