NH Sex Offender Registry To Be Tiered

Gov. John Lynch has signed a bill into law reworking the state's registration system for sex offenders, which categorizes the levels of their crimes into three different tiers.

The law, which made its way through the Legislature as House Bill 1640, takes effect on Jan. 1 and breaks offenders into three different categories.

Those in the lowest tier can petition the court to be removed from the list available to the public after five years if they have a clean record. Anyone convicted of crimes that place them in the upper tiers will be subject to more in-depth scrutiny and will have their records made more readily available to the public.

Response to the law — which passed the Legislature earlier this year and was all but assured to win Lynch's OK — has been mixed, although proponents say it is a step in the right direction.

"It ensures information about serial rapists who prey on adult victims is available to the public," Amanda Grady of the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence said. Grady helped draft the bill. "A tier system really gives more information to the public and is one tool families can use."

Grace Mattern, executive director of the sexual violence coalition, pointed to key "victories" in the legislation, including: listing as sex offenders those who commit crimes against adults and moving the categorization of felony incest. "We looked toward a number of provisions that provide enhanced protections for victims," Mattern said.

The state's public list will also be expanded to include all of an offender's criminal convictions and the offender's probation or parole status.

It will include the offender's registration status, whether the offender is compliant, has absconded or whether there is a warrant for the offender's noncompliance.

The Tiers

Tier 1 includes offenses such as sexual touching and violation of privacy.

Tier 2 is used for crimes of nonviolent penetration and sex abuse, including felonious sexual assault or computer pornography or those convicted of any two registerable offenses. This can include those convicted of more than one charge at a single trial.

Tier 3 is for the most serious offenders and includes charges of aggravated felonious sexual assault, kidnapping, capital murder or those convicted of three or more registerable offenses. Other systems New Hampshire's bill comes two years after national legislators passed the Adam Walsh Child Protection Act enacted in 2006.

It calls for a tiered federal sex offender classification system and gives states until July 29 to institute similar systems. An offender's tier would govern whether they appear on a public registry.

In Maine, Gov. John Baldacci vetoed a bill in April that would have narrowed the circumstances under which a person convicted of a sex crime between 1982 and 1992 would be required to register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. Citing Department of Public Safety estimates, the governor's office said as many as 580 currently registered sex offenders would no longer be required to register.

The state's committee on the matter will convene this summer to address the law, which the state's Supreme Court ruled could violate the constitution.

Local impact

Even with the bill passing into law, questions remain about whether it will impact Dover's controversial city ordinance, which prohibits sex offenders — of any level and guilty of any such crime — from living within 2,500 feet of a school or day care.

Although unable to be reached Tuesday afternoon, Police Chief Anthony Colarusso has said he would consider revising the ordinance if "substantive" changes were made to the state's law. But that doesn't mean he'll consider lifting the ordinance, which is now being contested as unconstitutional by the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union.

Lingering concerns

As the bill made its way through the Legislature, state Rep. Jennifer Brown, D-Dover, made an unsuccessful bid to exempt from the registry people younger than 21 who had consensual sex with a minor. She said she made her bid after hearing stories from multiple men, now married with families, who engaged in consensual sex while under 21.

"They all have the same issue. All of the guys were under 21 when they committed their crimes, and they all were deceived by the girls about their ages," Brown said during a past interview. "Some of their wives told me their husbands carded them whenthey met because they were scared."

Brown said she's hearing more of these stories around the state and said it's unfortunate the new legislation does little to deal with the situation.

"The registry is not supposed to be a punishment," she added. "These guys aren't dangerous, and people get confused when they look at the registry and make that assumption. Who doesn't make one mistake before they're 21?"

More information

To see the N.H. Sex Offender Registry, visit www.egov.nh.gov/nsor/ For more on the Adam Walsh Child Protection Act, visit www.whitehouse.gov/new/releases/2006/07/2006072/ 7-7. html For more on the N.H. House Bill 1640, visit www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2008/hb1640.html

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