Registry process questioned

Stella Gilbert
January 7, 2015
Louisiana needs more electricity tor industry
January 8, 2015
Stella Gilbert
January 7, 2015
Louisiana needs more electricity tor industry
January 8, 2015

Kerry Carter of Houma has never watched his son play a football game at school, nor witnessed his daughter in an elementary school recital, like other parents do.


Jamie Paul Dardar of Isle de Jean Charles has had to explain to his grandchildren why his face is on a wall of shame at their elementary school.

Both men are among convicted Terrebonne Parish sex offenders required to comply with registration and public disclosure requirements they and their families say are unduly harsh.

Most people might see no reason to extend sympathy toward nor shed a tear for offenders whose crimes are viewed as vile and generally unforgivable.


Some advocates for change say judges or special state or community boards should decide whether some non-violent offenders should make the call on who ends up on sex offender lists and for how long, rather than inflexible and increasingly harsh laws seemingly etched in stone.

Questions about whether registration requirements as mandated by federal law are not being raised by local officials. But the Council of State Governments is among the voices raising doubt as to whether the current scheme makes children safer, or uses resources that could make a bigger difference.

DOES ONE SIZE FIT ALL?


The subject is delicate and laced with strong emotion. Local legislators polled on the question of whether Louisiana should revisit its rules to better determine cost-effectiveness and victim-protection payoff either refused to comment, did not respond at all to detailed messages or said they didn’t know enough about the issue to make a statement.

An examination of offender registries in Terrebonne and Lafourche shows a total of 806 listed sex offenders, more than half of whom are at the “Tier 1” level, requiring registration for 15 years.

The statutory range of crimes in that category is wide, including violent and non-violent offenses. Some offenses do not involve sexual contact or sexual context. Among the Tier 1 offenses are carnal knowledge of a juvenile, interference with child custody, false imprisonment with a weapon of a victim under 18, and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile.


Some public officials have been willing to provide opinions on the question of who should register as a sex offender and for how long.

“I have always been on the side of using discretion, because no fact pattern is the same as the other,” said Terrebonne Parish District Attorney Joe Waitz Jr. “If there are specific requirements in the law it takes discretion away. But now we see a movement to go back to the judge, not in violent crimes, but in those cases where there may have been a technical sex offense at an early age. That is something that needs to be looked at and considered by the judge. What the Legislature has done because of problems in the past is take a one-size-fits-all approach. The vast majority fit the current protocol. But in some cases discretion should be allowed by the judge.”

ENFORCEMENT SPLIT


Terrebonne Sheriff Jerry Larpenter is among local officials who do not see the system as needing change.

“We track all of the offenders, we have personnel that work on that, and we don’t have a problem with it,” he said.

Lafourche Sheriff Crag Webre is among officials who see the potential benefits of adding layers of discretion, also favoring addition of approaches on the tougher end in Louisiana, including civil commitment after incarceration of offenders deemed a continued threat to the community.


There are those cases, he acknowledges, where once a trial or plea results in a conviction, or after a period of compliance with the registry rules, a hearing could determine if continued inclusion on a list is warranted.

“I am strongly in favor of and support the registration requirements and also believe in the practice where some states do hold someone civilly,” Webre said. “But I am also thinking of the classic situations involving consensual sex by someone who is of age with someone who is just under age, or even if they get married. A person who is not a predator, in the sense of a traditional predator. There are opportunities in these efforts to protect the public where there are people who are required to register that but for generalizations in the law would not be people who pose a threat.”

Perhaps, Webre said, a professional assessment of a person in certain circumstances, followed by a hearing, could result in a more efficient and just system.


In 2011, Louisiana repealed a requirement that persons guilty of solicitation – primarily prostitutes – would have to register upon conviction.

Situations have occurred where people on the list sought hearings to have registration requirements removed, with varying success.

TRYING TO DO RIGHT


The limited success of one case – involving Kerry Carter – could potentially lead to future appeals for judicial intervention, essentially creating a case-by-case analysis. Carter, the 46-year-old owner of machine repair business, pleaded guilty on May 3, 2000, to carnal knowledge of a juvenile. Louisiana’s equivalent of statutory rape.

At the time, state law required Carter to register as a sex offender for ten years. The law was later changed, requiring registration for 15 years. The woman Carter had relations with when she was a teen – whom he stated was his girlfriend at the time, although their ages were disparate – later became the mother of his children.

They share parental responsibilities, although for Carter, the sex offender label and requirements make for a big handicap. Carter says he wants to be a good father, but his status makes things difficult.


“It takes me away from the things that the community wants me to do,” Carter said. “We want fathers to be fathers. I am a dad, and I am an active father to my children, a parent who is part of their lives. I try to do the right thing. I cannot register my sons for Boy Scouts … my little girl wants to be in the Girl Scouts. Society looks at someone on the list and they just hear the words, ‘sex offender ‘and immediately there is a frenzy. They figure because you have this label on you, that you are a predator.”

Because his children were reaching a crucial year in their educations and because he was approaching a registration landmark, Carter went to court in October, seeking to have his restrictions, which end in May, set aside.

The reasons for seeking relief were partially emotional and partially financial. In addition to wanting to see his son play football and attend other important school functions, Carter was approaching the time when he would be required – as offenders are every five years – to send out notifications to people in a square-mile radius of his home and work that he is a sex offender.


UNIQUE CIRCUMSTANCE

Offenders interviewed for this story say the task is financially taxing. In addition to getting lists of residents who must be notified, they are also required to buy their own stationery and postage, as well as to have photos of themselves made for inclusion with the packet that gets sent to neighbors.

Carter’s attorney, Louis “Bubba” Watkins, filed a petition seeking relief from requirements for his client’s last year on the list.


District Judge Timothy Ellender granted a request for an injunction, which bars the sheriff’s office, the Louisiana Attorney General and other agencies from enforcing registration requirements until the case is heard.

A hearing was scheduled for December, at which neither the Terrebonne sheriff nor the District Attorney planned to object.

Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, whose office enforces the registration laws along with the Louisiana State Police, was also notified of the pending action.


But the Attorney General, according to attorneys, did not receive notice of the hearing and so it has been postponed until June.

The matter will become moot at that time, as Carter’s registration requirements will be void.

Laura Gerdes, a spokeswoman for Caldwell, said the Attorney General has no plans to appeal Ellender’s initial injunction. Carter’s registration, she said, is being viewed in the light of a provision in the law that allows some offenders to seek removal from registration requirements after 10 years.


“He had been registering,” Gerdes said of Carter. “Our office gets notifications, which say whether an individual complies. Our office will look at it and say we have an objection if we do not feel the person has complied. We will contest it with the court. If not we usually tell the DA’s office we don’t have a problem and it is up to you. That’s only in those very specific circumstances.”

Carter and his family were able to piece together the legal fees required for the petition, but many other offenders say they don’t have those resources. And petitioning the courts is no guarantee of prevailing.

CHANGE OF LIFE


Jamie Paul Dardar of Isle de Jean Charles can’t afford an attorney. And while he has no children with school events to attend, he attests that his requirement to register as a sex offender indelibly changed his life, more than his 2012 plea of guilty to carnal knowledge of a juvenile.

The 41-year-old Dardar maintains his innocence, and says that prosecutors and his defense attorney warned him of the risks involved if he would have gone to trial, particularly the likelihood of a hefty prison sentence if convicted.

Prosecutors who work with child molestation cases say the assessment of re-offense risks can often be divined from a look at the sentences of those who plead guilty.


Dardar was given no prison time; he had probation requirements which he long ago met. But the registration continues, and will right through 2016.

“I lost my job and cannot find another job,” Dardar said. “I had to move out of my house. When you are on that list your life does not continue, your life ends.”

EDITOR’S NOTE:This is the first of a two-part series on the offender law.


Jamie Dardar has been on the list of Louisiana sex offenders since his 2012 guilty plea to carnal knowledge of a juvenile. The Isle de Jean Charles fisherman says he tried getting other work, but that his status prevented him from doing so.

JOHN DESANTIS | THE TIMES