Earlier this month the forces of decency and common sense won a small victory when three judges in a state appellate court reversed a ruling of a lower court that said Nassau County could not ban convicted sex offenders from living near schools if they were no longer under supervision.
In the case in question Michael Diack, 36, a level one registered sex offender who had been convicted in 2001 of possessing child pornography, was arrested in 2011 for living 500 feet from the Lawrence-Woodmere Hebrew Academy in Woodmere.
Although he was no longer under the supervision of probation or parole, he remains on the list of convicted sex offenders. His attorney, Kathy Manley of Albany, argued that state law, which excludes perverts no longer under supervision, cannot be “superseded” by the tougher local law.
She said she will appeal the decision of the appellate court.
As a level one sex offender, according to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, Diack will be on the list of registered sex offenders for the rest of his life. And, according to the Division of Criminal Justice Services Web site, if level one, two or three sex offenders want to relocate, “they must … notify the local police department where they have moved that they are now living in that area and comply with whatever sex offender requirements exist in the new jurisdiction.”
Nassau County enacted a law in 2006 that bars offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools and 500 feet of parks and playgrounds. To make her case, Manley would have to argue that state law “supersedes” the mandates of the state Division of Criminal Justice Services? That doesn’t make sense.
We agree with Nassau County Attorney John Ciampoli who called the appellate court decision, “a complete and total victory.” We are not sympathetic with convicted pedophiles although we understand that it may be difficult for people like Diack to find a place to live. Too bad.
The people who produce child pornography subject innocent children to the worst kinds of abuse. They make a profit by trying to satisfy the perverse appetites of the world’s pedophiles.
It is difficult for the young victims to get over what has been done to them. Their childhood has been stolen. They will live with the scars of this abuse for a lifetime.
The Division of Criminal Justice Services , which is part of the state legal system, says local jurisdictions have the right to tell sex offenders where they can and can’t live.
Case closed.
