Forcing Sex Offenders to Publicize Crimes

June 18, 2001 -- Is forcing paroled sex offenders to post a sign publicizing their past crimes a fair punishment or a ruling gone too far?

A judge in Corpus Christi, Texas, ruled last month that some sex offenders must post warning signs in the front yard of their homes reading "Danger! Registered Sex Offender Lives Here!" Similar signs must be posted on their cars as well.

While Judge J. Manuel Bañales and others in the neighborhood argue that neighbors have the right to know where a sex offender lives, the offenders believe it's an unjust ruling.

Convicts: Unfair Branding

"It's a second punishment," says one man who molested a 14-year-old girl. He says the sign — not the crime — has made him feel too humiliated to even go out.

"You're already embarrassed, now you're ashamed," says another offender, John Lee, who pleaded guilty to indecency with his friend's 15-year-old daughter, though he says it was consensual. "It's constantly with you," he says of the bumper sticker on his truck and the sign in his rear window. "You're toxic."

Even worse, says Lee, the sign makes him feel like a moving target for someone with a grudge.

"Someone pointed an imaginary gun to me," he says. "I felt like it's open season for vigilantes to just come over there. That's not a good feeling."

His mother, too, is concerned about the label he is forced to carry. "I'm worried that someone is going to knock on this door and he's going to answer it and he'll be shot."

Changing the Rules

For Lee's initial sentence, he was ordered to spend 10 days in jail every Christmas for three years. He must go to therapy, cannot have alcohol or tobacco, must submit to polygraphs, and because he's allegedly a risk to children, he is forbidden to be near kids — including his girlfriend's daughter.

Then, prompted by two cases in which convicted sexual predators who had served time were involved in additional crimes, Judge Bañales decided to get tougher. He took another look at every sex offender who had ever come through his court, including Lee. Bañales decided to change the rules for the offenders he considered high-risk, tacking on the signs as an additional condition of their probation, saying he was worried about people the offenders might harm in the future.

Sex offenders' names, addresses, photos and criminal records have been advertised in newspapers and are available on a state Web site under Texas' sex offender registration and community notification laws. But Bañales thought that was inadequate because not everyone reads newspapers or has Internet access, he says.

"Whatever I did was not an act against these probationers," says Bañales. "What I did was give … the neighbors of a neighborhood the right to know where a sex offender lives."

In Lee's case, says Bañales, he was ordered to post the danger signs partly because he admitted to probation officers that he had a drink, a violation of the court's orders, but also because the judge was troubled by Lee's response to another question.

"I asked him, 'Is it alright for a 32-year-old man such as yourself to have sex with a 14-year-old girl if she consents to it?' And he could not answer no."

Lee and other probationers are appealing the judge's decision.