California Megans Law

Sex Offender Ban in San Juan Moves Forward

At the request of Mayor Sam Allevato—a retired police officer—the City Council will soon discuss at length the possibility of banning sex offenders from city  parks .

Allevato on Tuesday night gauged the council's interest in such a law, and all of the members said it's something they would very much like to consider.

The ordinance would likely mirror one adopted recently by the Orange County Board of Supervisors. A handful of other cities in the county have followed suit.

"San Juan Capistrano has many rules about its parks," said District Attorney chief of staff Susan Kang Schroeder, who lobbied the City Council in favor of a ban. She listed existing rules, such as horses not being permitted in parks, and said: "If you can prohibit things such as that, certainly the city should join the county."

The D.A. helped draft the measure enacted April 5 by the Board of Supervisors .

California law bars serious sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of parks. It also restricts them from visiting parks, but only while they are on parole. The county law extends the restriction on park visits indefinitely and to all registered sex offenders in unincorporated areas.

This is a "serious enough issue that we should agendize it for a future meeting," Allevato said. It would be an "extra tool for law enforcement to have, to use if they come in contact with someone loitering in the vicinity of children."

However, San Juan Capistrano's chief of police,  John Meyer , said sex offenders loitering in parks in town isn't currently an issue.

Of the more than 1,800 registered sex offenders identified on California's Megan's Law , 17 live in San Juan.

City councilmen Larry Kramer and Derek Reeve did raise some concerns, including:

Staffers will take these concerns under consideration when drafting a proposal for the council. A date for the next discussion hasn't yet been scheduled.

The Jessica's Law Nightmare in California: Megan's Law Update for CA

Legislation passed by the Assembly’s public safety committee would allow counties to send email alerts notifying residents when a convicted sex offender moves into the neighborhood. Residents who sign up for the service would get messages with the name, photo, offense and address of local registered sex offenders delivered directly into their inboxes. Names and addresses of sex offenders have been available to the public since 1996 in California, under what’s commonly referred to as Megan’s Law. The notification law is named after Megan Kanka, a seven-year-old girl who was murdered in 1994 by a convicted registered sex offender who lived across the street. New Jersey, where Kanka lived, was the first state to adopt the law, and most states quickly followed suit. Anyone can e-mail me at: innocentrso@hotmail.com , but I am banned from any contact from RSO's while on parole, so please if you are a RSO DO NOT contact me. I will be on parole until 2014 and comply 100% with all of my parole conditions. I am truely sorry, but I do not put myself at risk any longer. 20 + years of being in prison, escaping prison, jumping parole, refusing to register, and living as a fugitive I am tired of going back to prison and I always get caught anyway. I have got to stay out to find some kind of a life (which is almost impossible under Jessica's Law) and to help overturn Jessica's Law.

California's Megan's Law

California's Megan's law

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Tenants' Rights in California