Federal Court Backs State’s Sex Offender Registration

Federal appellate justices Wednesday upheld California’s requirement that a sex offender must register with local police after release from prison, overturning a lower court ruling.

“The purpose is so law enforcement knows where convicted sex offenders live and can check up on them,” said Supervising Deputy Atty. Gen. Robert Foster, applauding the ruling.

The ruling came in the case of Avelino Mendez, now 39, who was convicted of attempted rape in Victorville in 1982 and required by law to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

He was detained for marijuana possession in 1996 and, as a result, was charged and convicted of failing to tell police about his most recent move. The conviction was a third strike for Mendez, who was sentenced to 25 years to life.

Mendez’s attorneys persuaded a federal judge last year that he should not have been returned to prison for failing to register because he had provided his current address during an earlier arrest.

With his conviction overturned, he was released from prison and deported to Mexico.

Mendez’s attorneys argued that he had followed the law because he had given his new address when arrested in April 1995 for spousal abuse.

Michael J. Brennan, a clinical law professor at the USC Law School who argued today’s case before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, said that arrest fell within the time limit for notifying authorities that Mendez had moved.

Brennan argued that under Wednesday’s ruling, Mendez, when released from custody, would have had to leave the sheriff’s station, then immediately return and provide the same background information to the deputies who had booked him.

“The deputies would have laughed at him,” Brennan said.

At that time, state law required sex offenders to notify the local law enforcement agency with whom they were registered within 10 days of changing their home address. They now must register annually.

“A reasonable person would know that there is a difference between merely stating one’s current address and providing notice of a new address,” states Wednesday’s ruling, was written by Judge Barry G. Silverman with Judges Arthur L. Alarcon and Johnnie B. Rawlinson.

The federal appellate court, Foster said, made it clear that providing authorities with an updated address during a routine booking procedure for a new crime is insufficient under state law.

“I think it reflects how seriously we consider sex crimes,” Foster said, noting that sentencing judges and prison officials advise sex offenders that they must register their whereabouts for life.

The 9th Circuit opinion noted that a California appellate court in 1999 had upheld Mendez’s conviction on an earlier appeal.

That opinion, however, was overturned last year when U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Timlin in Riverside found that Mendez’s due process right was violated.

The judge concluded that Mendez had not been given fair notice of what the sex offender registration law required.

Mendez, a Mexican citizen, was then released from prison and deported, his attorney said.

With the new ruling, a warrant will probably be issued for his arrest if he returns to the United States, Brennan said.