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Sex Offenders' Suit Reveals Error In Registry Law
Vermont Cannot Post Offenders' Names Online
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MONTPELIER, Vt. -- A court challenge to new changes in Vermont's sex offender registry law has revealed a drafting error that will allow some people to avoid being listed on the Internet.
The lawsuit, filed by St. Johnsbury lawyer David Sleigh on behalf of the two men, says the public posting violates the offenders' rights, by punishing them again for a crime for which they've already served time. The convicted sex offenders already on the registry filed suit Monday over plans to post their names on the Internet beginning Oct. 1.
But at a hearing in Montpelier on Wednesday, Assistant Attorney General Keith Aten acknowledged that lawmakers made a mistake, accidentally excluding from the listing provision people who were convicted in other states but now live in Vermont.
State Sen. Richard Sears says the error is regrettable, but that lawmakers will revisit the issue in their next session, making Vermonters with out-of-state sex convictions subject to the Internet listing.
Court documents say the two Caledonia County men were convicted in the 1990s in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Sleigh has requested that the identities of the two men remain anonymous, referring to them only as "John Doe" and "John Roe." The court has granted that request, Sleigh said.
State Sen. Dick Sears, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said legislators had expected a legal challenge.