Wisconsin Sex Offender Registry specialists speak to concerned Colfax residents

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX  — About 60 people attended an informational meeting to find out more about the Wisconsin Sex Offender Registry and to voice their concerns about registered sex offenders living in Colfax.

The Colfax Village Board held the informational meeting at the Colfax fire hall March 26.

The concerns of Colfax residents were prompted by several registered sex offenders who had moved into the village or were in the process of buying a house in Colfax.

Certain convictions, such as the first degree sexual assault of a child under a certain age, or multiple convictions of sexual assault, require the convicted offender to register with the Wisconsin Sex Offender Registry, said Sarah Aho, a Wisconsin sex offender registration specialist with the Department of Corrections.

Wisconsin has 23,000 sex offenders. In Dunn County, there are 93 sex offenders, and 40 of those are on supervision, she said.

Depending upon the conviction, some offenders are required to be on the registry for 15 years after their period of probation or extended supervision has ended, although many convicted sex offenders in Wisconsin are required to be lifetime sex offender registrants, Aho said.

If someone has been convicted of a serious child sex offense, that person cannot work with children under Wisconsin statute 948.13, she said.

The statutes do not contain any prohibitions about sex offenders being in the vicinity of minors unless a village, city or township has an ordinance, Aho said.

If the convicted offender is not on supervision and the municipality does not have an ordinance, nothing prevents a sex offender from living in any community, she said.

A person on the sex offender registry cannot change his or her name or cannot go by another name. And if the person is going to be on school grounds for some reason, perhaps because a relative is participating in a school function, the registrant must notify the principal of the school, Aho said.

A principal cannot prevent a registered sex offender from coming onto school grounds, and schools are not obligated to notify parents, she said.

The Wisconsin state law that prohibited sex offenders from photographing or video taping minors has been repealed, Aho said.

Judges do have a certain amount of discretion in placing someone on the sex offender registry. For example, fourth degree sexual assault is one of the discretionary offenses, and a person who was urinating in public could be charged and convicted of fourth degree sexual assault, Aho said.

Letter system

The Wisconsin Sex Offender Registry operates on a letter system.

A letter is sent to the registered sex offender on his or her birthday, and the person has 10 days to return the letter and report any changes in address, vehicle or Internet identifiers, Aho said.

If a letter is not returned on time, Aho investigates, and usually a letter is not returned for some innocent reason, such as the letter was misplaced or it was not delivered by the post office in a timely manner or a family member put the letter somewhere, and the registrant was unable to find it, she said.

If the failure to return the letter is not credible, then Aho turns the case over the appropriate district attorney for charges.

Non-compliance with the Wisconsin Sex Offender Registry is a Class H felony.

The only way for a lifetime registrant to be taken off the registry is through death or if the conviction is set aside, Aho said, noting that a pardon does not expunge the requirement of registering.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled anyone who accepts a pardon is admitting to being guilty of the crime.

Notification

Law enforcement officials can notify communities about sex offenders and can determine what the notification will be, Aho said.

For a Level 1 sex offender, all police chiefs are notified. For a Level 2 sex offender, notification of the community is discretionary. For a Level 3 sex offender, a media release is prepared, she said.

If a registrant moves from Wisconsin to another state and does not notify either Wisconsin or the state where the registrant is moving, it can be a federal offense, Aho said.

Statistics

Statistics show that between 7 and 14 percent of the victims of sexual assault come forward, said Sue Klemman, also a Wisconsin sex offender registration specialist with the Department of Corrections.

In those cases where the sexual assault is reported, many times the defendant plea bargains with the district attorney so the offense is changed to something less than the original assault or there is a deferred prosecution agreement, she said.

To put it in perspective, 90 percent of the sex offenders are “still out there and are unknown,” Klemman said.

Of those people who are on the Wisconsin Sex Offender Registry, 3 percent of the victims did not know their perpetrator, Aho said.

Since most of the perpetrators are known to their victims, the sex offender could be a coach, a choir teacher, a family friend or a family member, she said.

Ordinances

Many of the people who attended the Colfax Village Board’s informational meeting were in favor of Colfax passing an ordinance about where registered sex offenders can live in the village and to restrict their ability to be in certain places.

Recidivism drops when sex offenders have a support system in place, Aho said.

The most effective sex offender ordinances set up “child safety zones” that restrict a sex offender from loitering within so many feet of a park or a playground or a school or a licensed daycare or other places where children are likely to be, she said.

Under those kinds of ordinances, the registered sex offender can still live in the community but cannot hang around children, Aho said.

Questions & Answers

Those who attended the informational meeting had a number of questions for Aho and Klemman.

• Who makes the decision on placement of a sex offender?

The probation agents do residence checks to see if there are licensed daycares or schools in the area, and if the offender is on supervision, the agent and the supervisors will decide where the sex offender can live. The offender must return to the county where he or she was convicted. If the offender was convicted in Dunn County, then the offender must come back to Dunn County, Aho said.

• Repeat sex offenders should be sentenced to life in prison. Why are they being let out?

The Department of Corrections has nothing to do with sentencing. People should talk to their local judges and local district attorneys, Aho said.

People can also talk to their local legislators about mandatory minimums for sexual assault. The Wisconsin sex offender registration specialists have no control over judges or district attorneys, Klemman said.

• Does Colfax law enforcement receive notification of registered sex offenders moving to the community?

If the offender is on supervision, then the offender is required to check in with the local police station. The offender’s probation agent also must notify the local police department, Aho said.

Colfax Police Chief William Anderson said the last notification he received about a registered sex offender moving into the community was a month ago.

Police Chief Anderson said in the time he has worked in Colfax, “one or two have moved in.”

Several people in the audience said that as many as 13 registered sex offenders have been living in or around Colfax at one time.

• Is Colfax the only town in Dunn County without a sex offender ordinance?

Menomonie and Boyceville do not have an ordinance. Elk Mound does have an ordinance, Aho said.

• Are there other stipulations about being a convicted sex offender, such as no weapons or drugs?

Convicted felons are not allowed to have weapons. Other restrictions may be ordered by a judge, Aho said.

• Is Colfax a “soft target” without an ordinance?

Aho said they have seen instances of “ordinance wars,” that is, when one community passes an ordinance, many of the surrounding communities do as well, and then it becomes difficult for registered sex offenders to live anywhere in the area.

More registered sex offenders will be living in larger communities, such as Eau Claire or Menomonie, rather than Colfax, Klemman said.

Shawano has an ordinance that allows registered sex offenders to live in the community if they fit a certain set of criteria. A review board looks at the criminal history and the convictions and then gives the person permission to live in the community, Klemman said.

Aho and Klemman both cautioned people in the audience to remember that what is on the conviction record may not be especially indicative of the crime involved.

Someone who committed a serious first degree sexual assault may have gotten it plea bargained down to third degree sexual assault, and someone convicted of second degree sexual assault of a child may have been a high school senior and his 16-year-old girlfriend, they said.

Klemman said she does not believe there are more sex offenders in society now, but rather, people have gotten better at reporting sexual assaults and better education is available about what constitutes a sexual assault.

Special meeting

The Colfax Village Board also held a special meeting on March 28 to consider the possibility of an ordinance.

“We need to do what is legal,” said Gary Stene, village president, at the informational meeting on March 26.

Stene said he understood residents in Colfax did not want any sex offenders living in the village but that it would be illegal for the village to prohibit all sex offenders from moving to Colfax.