PORTSMOUTH, NH – Public Pool Ban for Sex Offenders Unconstitutional
A request to ban a registered sex offender from swimming in a community pool has been declined.
City officials said they can’t legally ask him to leave.
“Unless this gentleman should do something out of the ordinary, in terms of being a pool user, he has the right to continue to use that pool,” said Robert Sullivan, attorney for the city of Portsmouth.
The Portsmouth indoor pool is open to the public, including children.
Residents have been raising concerns over the presence of registered sex offenders at the pool.
“I went to the pool several times,” Sullivan said. “I interviewed a number of people about the observations they might have made about this person. For example, I asked them if they had seen him perform any lewd acts – that kind of investigation.”
Sullivan also contacted the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire. The organization indicated it would protect the offender’s legal rights, saying: “The concern in these types of cases is that there is an equal protection clause problem. That would be the case if regular members of the public are able to access these public facilities, but a sex offender is precluded from accessing these facilities. The sex offender would be being treated unequally.”
Officials agree banning the man would be unconstitutional.
“I concluded that it would be violative of the man’s constitutional rights if the city were to prohibit him from using the public pool, merely because of his status as a registered sex offender,” Sullivan said.
The city pool is adjacent to Portsmouth High School, but police said the sex offender is not breaking any laws or conditions.
Officials said that while they can’t do anything to ban the man from the pool presently, if anyone witnesses the man doing anything wrong, they should contact the city.
Woo Hoo! Good for them!
As it should be
“Officials said that while they can’t do anything to ban the man from the pool presently if anyone witnesses the man doing anything wrong, they should contact the city.”
And they should report anyone they see doing stupid behaviour; for example, a lifeguard texting while on duty, a cashier slipping money into their pocket, people using drugs, stealing from lockers, etc…..
I will bet someone accuses him of something that will result in banishment from the pool. Nothing more than an accusation will be necessary to do this. Everyone will be watching him. Maybe people need to get a life so they can focus on whats real and not some made up hype. So truly sad indeed! Abolishing this sickening registry has to happen.
You are right about that. We live in a sad time in America where an accusation is all that is needed to ruin a life!
Sadly this is what happened to so many of us and resulted in us being a this damn travesty of reality called the sex offender registry!
Anyone accused of a so-called “sex crime” in the United States of America is seen as guilty until proven innocent! Unfortunately most of us could not afford decent legal advice and settled for plea deals after being threatened with the decades of jail time.
I can tell you that I was innocent but ignorant of the system and received bad legal advice. I took a “deal” and did not go to trial where I could have easily won but I was scared shitless and let my shady (since disbarred) lawyer railroad me 20 years ago!
So yes, I do hope that this is the start of some sanity but I have to admit that I am NOT optimistic in the long term that anything will change…America is just too conservative of a country to ever deal with sex on a mature level.
What about being banned from a grocery store, restaurant, auto supply store, pharmacy, neighbor’s home, etc. as the Brevard County Ordinance 2006-31 does even though the the RSO has done nothing questionable, offensive, or illegal in any of the premises?
Finally, law enforcers that understand the constitution and aren’t feeding into the hysteria. Just ban all sex offenders from everywhere and the problem goes away, right?
Or do you just get to feel better about yourself for a few minutes because you “did something” and the same offenders (close family and family friends of the victim without previous sexual convictions) continue to offend.
I wonder if this same argument could then be made on the ban in Santa Rosa County that bans all sex offenders from county or city parks, or park property. As it is, a registered offender can’t go to Navarre Beach, or any of the businesses that are located there because the land itself is classified as “county Park Property” that the businesses have a long term lease on. Thus preventing a registered offender from going to the beach, or even eating at a restaurant, or stopping at the Tom Thumb gas station. I always said that it seems unconstitutional. Hopefully someone locally could see this and be able to do something about it.
I am in total agreement. How can something be un-Constitutional in part of the country and not be un-Constitutional in all parts of the country? Is this not “one nation”?
Bill, we live in the same area. Have Anita get us in touch with each other so we can do some planning with FAC.
Mike, I don’t know how to go about doing that. Feel free to take that step if you do know how.