Tighter Restrictions For Registered Sex Offenders Under Proposed County Ordinance Amendment

Convicted sex offenders could be barred from attending festivals or handing out candy to trick-or-treaters on Halloween under restrictions proposed Tuesday by a Riverside County supervisor.

Supervisor Jeff Stone wants to amend the county's sex offender anti-loitering ordinance to add prohibitions on where they can be and with whom they can associate.

"This ... will restrict sexual registrants from being on any Riverside County property where children may congregate and hence further protect our youth from becoming potential victims of a registrant's heinous activities,'' Stone wrote in his proposal.

The supervisor said he wants to stop convicted sex offenders -- who must register with law enforcement annually and whenever they relocate to a new residence -- from being at:
   -- county parks, recreation centers or pools;
   -- the Riverside County Fair & Date Festival, the Temecula Balloon & Wine Festival, or any other county-sponsored festivals, air shows, fairs or parades.

Stone said a house or other dwelling where a registrant lives should be off limits to children on Halloween "or any other holiday which allows the sexual registrant to use an 'attractive nuisance' to gain contact with children.''

The supervisor said similar prohibitions recently enacted in Orange County served as an inspiration for his proposal.

An estimated 3,500 convicted sex offenders reside in Riverside County.

County Counsel Pamela Walls noted that many of the restrictions requested by Stone had been incorporated into the anti-loitering ordinance passed as an emergency measure by the board last July.

That ordinance makes it a misdemeanor crime for a convicted sex offender to be within 300 feet of a day care center, library, park, playground, public swimming pool, school or anywhere else that provides "classes or group activities for children.''

The ordinance also prohibits a registrant from residing within 2,000 feet of a school, park or other facility catering to kids.

The board directed Walls to research amendments to strengthen the ordinance by adding several of Stone's recommendations. A public hearing will be held whenever the proposed amendments are drafted and brought back for consideration. --City News Service