Even though local laws regulating where convicted sex offenders can live have been overturned by courts, the Batavia City Council wants more information on what sort of laws it can pass regulating sex-offender residency around daycare centers, parks, schools and churches.
The issue is being pushed hardest by Councilwoman Rose Mary Christian, who has received complaints about a Level 3 sex offender in her ward.
"Our preliminary investigation shows a strong leaning in the courts -- because there is such an extensive body of state statute dealing with this matter -- there is a strong feeling in the courts that this is an area that the state legislature has preempted," said City Attorney George Van Nest. "It would be beyond the ability of local municipalities to create a whole other body of regulations."
A Web page maintained by David Hess, pastor of the West Henrietta Baptist Church in West Henrietta, tracks local sex-offender laws and writes that such laws have been thrown out in Schuyler, Albany and Rensselaer counties.
"We need to do something to protect our children," Christian insists.
Council President Marianne Clattenburg suggested the city ask the New York Conference of Mayors if any local laws have been upheld. Those might be the model for Batavia, she suggested. Then the council can better direct Van Nest on any draft laws or other action.
Three residents spoke in favor of creating tighter local regulations on where sex offenders can live, including Tara Pariso, a mother of three children who is also executive director of CASA, an agency that acts as advocates for children caught up in the legal system.
Pariso discovered while searching for daycare for her own children that one daycare center in Batavia is operated by the wife of a Level 2 sex offender who lives in the house next door to the facility.
"I have no trust left in our state that they’re protecting our children," Pariso told local media after the meeting. "They have no licensing requirement that there are no sex offenders in their neighborhood. I would not trust the state to tell me who is safe and who is not, and the licensing really means nothing to me at this point. I have to do my own background investigation to figure out who I can trust my children with."
The home Pariso is concerned about is Teddy Bear Day Care, at 25 Pearl St., Batavia.
The New York Office of Children and Family Services lists Marsha Coy as the operator of Teddy Bear Day Care.
Ronnie Coy, a Level 2 sex offender, lives at 27 Pearl St. He was convicted in 2002 of promoting sexual performances by a child and served more than a year in prison. According to local law enforcement officials, Coy has not been in any trouble since his release from prison.
A Genesee County database indicates Ronnie and Marsh Coy purchased 27 Pearl in March, 1983.
The owner of 25 Pearl is another Batavia resident, so Marsha Coy apparently rents the location of Teddy Bear Day Care.
According to the state site, the daycare business was first licensed in June, 2003. It's current license runs through June 2011. It was last inspected on Jan. 25. There have been no state enforcement actions against Teddy Bear since it opened in 2003. There are no pending complaints against the facility, which is licensed to handle 10 children ages 6 months to 12 years old, and two additional school-aged children.
Teddy Bear's only signage on the house is hand-painted and hanging from a window by the front door.
In researching this article, we found Hess's Web site, mentioned above, and he asserts that local laws restricting where sex offenders can live are counterproductive.
The common view is that the recidivism rate is high among sex offenders. It is not. New York regularly publishes 3-year follow-ups of all those released from state prisons. Between 1985 and 2002 a total of 12,863 sex offenders were released. Only 272 of these (2.1%) were returned to prison for new sex crimes within three years of their release. (2002 Releases: Three Year Post Release Follow-up, State of New York Department of Correctional Services, p.16)
This corresponds with an Associated Press story from 2003 that states that only 5.3 percent of sex offenders are arrested for the same offense after their release. Wikipedia also has a good summary of studies and stats about the very low recidivism rates among convicted sex offenders.