Many unaware of sex offenders Many unaware of sex offenders (January 14, 2005)

Several reside near MV schools

By Julie O'Shea

Of Mountain View's 108 registered sex offenders, at least one and as many as nine are living within a half mile of each public elementary and middle school in the city, according to the state justice department.

Police, however, said these offenders have a legal right to live where they want, unless specifically noted in their parole papers. This includes a 58-year-old man with multiple rape and assault convictions living a couple blocks away from Huff Elementary and two others convicted of lewd or lascivious acts with children under 14 living down the street from Landels Elementary.

Such detailed information about California's convicted sex offenders is part of the online Megan's Law registry -- www.meganslaw.ca.gov -- which became accessible to the general public last month.

The Web site, maintained by the state justice department, has information on 63,000 registered sex offenders, including 63 in Mountain View. Some listings include their exact addresses, pictures and crimes. Since the site went public, it has received nearly 30 million hits, state officials reported.

People can conduct searches of their neighborhoods, cities and counties by plugging in their address, ZIP code or school name. The online database will bring up a map pinpointing the exact location of sex offenders living as close as a tenth of a mile and as far away as 2 miles from any specified search area.

Mountain View police spokesperson Jim Bennett said there are currently no "high-risk" sex offenders living in the city. These are individuals convicted of multiple violent crimes with at least one being a violent sexual crime.

The police department does, however, have information on 82 "serious" sex offenders, or individuals with one felony sex-act conviction. The 26 others registered with the police have less serious offenses, such as pornography, exhibitionism or misdemeanor sexual battery, incest or spousal rape. Their files are not available online, and others can petition for the state to not disclose their personal information via the Internet, said a spokesperson with the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office.

"We monitor this very closely," Bennett said. "If they aren't in compliance, we go out and find them."

Bennett said police are confident that they know the whereabouts of every sex offender living within the city of Mountain View. And while it might be unsettling that there are offenders living near the city's nine elementary and middle school campuses, it is against the law to harass them. Sex offenders are permitted to live wherever they wish so long as there is no stipulation in their papers that prevents them for being within so many feet of a school.

"I know that there are criminals everywhere. I am not shocked," said Mountain View-Whisman school board President Ellen Wheeler, the mother of a fourth grader. "I think the benefit of the Megan's Law Web site is that it heightens awareness."

Alicia Henderson, the principal at Landels, wasn't aware there was a "serious" sex offender living down the street from her school campus. She has mixed feelings about the news.

"Part of me thinks we should be putting pictures in the windows, saying 'keep away from this person who lives two blocks away,'" Henderson said. However, as the mother of a young daughter, Henderson said she is aware that these offenders have strict legal rights.

"I am really vigilant about who is on this campus," the principal said. "If they look like they don't belong here, I am on them like a hawk."

For the most part, though, Henderson said she has never run into any situation that has warranted a phone call to police. She said she is a firm believer in educating children on the dangers of strangers.

School district leaders agree that it is important for parents to talk to their children about safety but caution that it's probably best not to give them more information than they need to know.

"You don't want to alarm them," said school board trustee Gloria Higgins, who browsed Megan's Law Web site for the first time this week.

"It doesn't alarm me," she said of the online database. "It makes me more aware that I need to talk to my own children."

Convicted sex offenders have been required to register with the state since 1947. In 1996, California lawmakers adopted Megan's Law, named after 7-year-old Megan Kanka who was raped and killed by a known child molester who had moved across the street from the family's New Jersey home without their knowledge.

The law allows the police to notify public when a sex offender moves into the neighborhood. The notification is left up to the discretion of local police agencies. Mountain View police canvassed the Montecito Avenue neighborhood last summer when "high-risk" sex offender Hector Chavez moved into an apartment complex there. After being pressured by neighbors, Chavez moved out a few weeks later.

E-mail Julie O'Shea at joshea@mv-voice.com

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