TX: More than a dozen sex offenders in Lamesa ordered to move
More than a dozen registered sex offenders are living too close to children, that’s according to the Lamesa Police Department.
The chief of police confirmed that 19 residents received notices stating they were in violation of the city’s code of ordinances.
Eugene Gaspar is a registered sex offender who said the department gave him 90 days to move, or face a fine of up to $500 a day. Gaspar said the notice came as a surprise because officers at the Lamesa Police Department approved his address when his family purchased their home more than two years ago. Gaspar said he has registered at the Lamesa Police Department every 90 days for the past two years, with no problem, until now.
Mary Sue Molnar is the founder and executive director of Texas Voices for Reason and Justice, a volunteer organization that provides support for sex offenders and their families. Molnar said she was contacted by multiple registered sex offenders in Lamesa who had identical stories to Gaspar’s.
Lamesa is a town of about 6 sq miles (2m x 3m) and 9000 residents. A classic example of NIMBY, The ordinance was approved in 2009; 13 years later and trying to be enforced by a new Karen/Ken.
It would seem that you’d be grandfathered in.
I hope he wins that very expensive lawsuit against the city and police chief. Hit them where it really hurts – their wallets.
To be clear, the town’s ordinance has nothing to do with proximity to children but proximity to certain places regardless whether there are any children there or not.
Make an issue of the Lamesa PD’s failure to enforce their own ordinance that caused this so-called problem.
I figure that if the registrants there were previously approved at their current residences in error, than the Lamesa PD should be responsible for both finding compliant, comparable housing and paying all associated costs of effecting the changes in residences for all those affected. There’s noting fair or reasonable about holding the registrants liable for the LPD’s failures.
Well if they are going to do that, they better buy your house and pay for all the expenses associated with the move. I don’t believe this will fly imo.
God is good!
Problems like these, should be thrown in the faces of the law maker’s, as this makes virtually ever residency a temporary place. So, technically there would be no permanent residence, if they can simply force you to leave it, because of some change once already approved, and been there for awhile. All states should have a grandfather standard, and the citizen’s and lawmaker’s who don’t like it, can go to Hell imo.
If he thinks the ordinance is ok in general, he deserves it.
Too much of that churchy stuff turns regular people into mush.
That’s number three in the States from Hell for you. On-hand doesn’t know what the other is doing!
They’ll end up going into the meat grinder of TDCJ.
Been there done that.
Jesus Christ,,,,WTF,,,,,,, Nit Wits at their best.
Add a Texas police chief to the registry.
Texas police chief arrested after allegedly soliciting a minor for prostitution
https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-police-chief-arrested-allegedly-soliciting-minor-prostitution
Meanwhile in Oregon, a serial rapist is set to be released from prison this year and will be classified as a “low risk” sex offender rather than a one-size-fits-all “high risk” approach as seen here in Florida.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/oregon-serial-rapist-set-released-prison-this-year
Really sad that our governance has come to this. Texas Voices for Reason and Justice ought to be stronger element in this. Cannot the Texas Attorney General’s Office weigh in? There should be accountability for the status quo and ordances that have been enforced or not enforced previously. The local courts should address this matter without cost. Residents ought to be educated that proximity has NO bearing on children safety, that crimes requiring regististration often have little to do with crimes of violence, and recidivism rates of those released from jail are low. Registrants cannot be expected to defend themselves, given the public climate of offenders, but residents and those sworn to support the Constitution, life, liberty, and justice for all, do deserve civic representation from lawmakers, police, and other public servants.
While Michigan recently removed residency restrictions for a lot of us in our last lawsuit, RPs were grandfathered into the law when it was originally amended to add residency restrictions. In other words, if you had already been living there, you could stay there.
The police department needs to do the right thing and let those people stay because they were all already told it was ok.
What troubles me is there are no State restrictions there, yet individual cities can pass ordinances like this? It makes no sense. What also troubles me is the word “private” when referring to a swimming pool. So if an RP has a vengeful neighbor, all he has to do is install a swimming pool in his back yard to try to force the RP out? What difference does it make where an RP lives, especially if he or she has their own minor children? Why would his own children be considered safe, but the children at the local playground are not? The whole misconception that RPs are after everyone’s children is ignorant and needs to stop. Ignorant laws like this have nothing to do with “protecting” the public. They’re banishment.
I’m sorry, but if the cops tried to force me out of my home like this, I’d hope the whole city burned to the ground.
I agree with Disgusted in Michigan. This witch-hunt to move RP is unjustified. Why aren’t all criminals treated this way?
I believe in my own response to this ordiance to relocate would be to sue the committee who’s trying to make this new law an permanent one on the books. I’d have my legal team do research as to when these other establishments came to be built so close to your residence, since you told you could live at this address and have been reporting in as required, I’d propose that the community buy you out that value of your home & money you invested into rebuilting home for yourself because I’m sure your civil rights were reinstated once again.