Sex offender bills called confusing

Lawmaker worries too many are in play

Friday, March 26, 2010

ANNAPOLIS — A package of bills aimed at strengthening the state's sex offender statutes is on a glide path to Gov. Martin O'Malley's desk.

But as lawmakers move to crack down on predators, the chairman of one of the General Assembly's law-and-order committees questioned whether so many proposals would counteract each other.

"When you're trying to do 16 things on one subject you run the risk of screwing it up," said Senate Judicial Proceedings Chairman Brian E. Frosh. "Because one thing conflicts with another or makes it unclear. So there is that danger."

The raft of bills, including legislation backed by Gov. Martin O'Malley, has garnered a renewed awareness among lawmakers since the Christmastime murder of 11-year-old Sarah Foxwell on the Eastern Shore.

Foxwell's body was found on Christmas Day in Salisbury. Police believe she was abducted and murdered by a registered sex offender.

The House of Delegates has passed eight bills that encompass an array of tighter sex offender laws, including legislation that eliminates good behavior credits and establishes lifetime supervision for violent and repeat predators. Another bill increases the mandatory minimum penalty from five years to 20 years for a second degree sexual offense against a child under the age of 13.

"We want to make sure that whatever the Foxwell family went through will never take place again," said House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel), who called the package of legislation "one of the most stringent protection plans for children and their families in the United States."

Frosh (D-Montgomery) said the Senate would pass at least some of the more than 30 bills introduced by lawmakers this year to reform sex offender laws.

"I'm guessing it's going to be quite far-reaching," he said.

But with so many bills under consideration, Frosh and others worry about acting in haste and possibly complicating the statutes.

"I think there are too many bills," said Sen. Lisa A. Gladden after the panel held hearings on more than 20 bills over two days last week.

"I think that we have got to manage, and we've got to deal with sex offenders," said Gladden (D-Baltimore), who serves as Frosh's vice chairwoman. "I just don't think we have the right answers quite yet."

Gladden, an assistant public defender in Baltimore, plans to vote against the measures.

"None of them necessarily deal with protection and prevention," she said. "And that's what bothers me about the bills."

O'Malley (D) has proposed bills to increase the types of crimes that would require convicts to register as sex offenders, mandate lifetime supervision of serious and repeat offenders and reconstitute the state's Sex Offender Advisory Board.

The legislature needs to pass laws that have teeth to them, said Del. Michael D. Smigiel Sr. (R-Upper Shore).

"It's important to actually do something and not just give the impression that we did something," he said.

He cited legislation passed in recent years that the state has failed to fully implement, including the law mandating the advisory board which was created in 2006, but has never met.

"The Republican legislators have been putting in these bills for years and years and years," said House Minority Leader Anthony J. O'Donnell (R-Calvert, St. Mary's).

"We've always been the leader on this issue. The fact that the governor comes to the table in an election year — people can make their own decision on what that means. But I can tell you, he wasn't there in previous years."

Meanwhile, the bipartisan Eastern Shore delegation has crafted an omnibus bill that combines a number of proposals used around the country in a single bill, which was heard Tuesday in the House Judiciary Committee.

Del. James N. Mathias Jr. (D-Lower Shore), who represents the district where Foxwell lived, said he feels "a moral responsibility" to move the legislation forward.

Frosh fears the bills, passed as a whole, could have unintended consequences.

"Many of the bills sweep what could be less serious offenses into the big net," he said.

For example, under proposed legislation, indecent exposure is an offense that could require years of supervision.

While some people indecently exposing themselves could be seen as a threat as sexual predators, others, such as people relieving themselves in public, might not be, Frosh said.

Gladden said she worries that the legislature could act impulsively and pass bills with unforeseen consequences that will take years to undo.

"I think it's unfair to the system to do something because you have to for political reasons," she said.

So why is this the year for such comprehensive legislation?

"Because we've got all these bills before us," Frosh said.

"Because Sarah Foxwell was murdered in December and because it's an election year. There's just a confluence of circumstances that put it on the front burner."

Staff writer Alan Brody contributed to this report

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