Local sex offender registrations
up for November but seen as fluke
By Jeff Warren
Under a Georgia law that took effect in July, a photograph and identifying personal information of any convicted felony sex offender is posted in a permanent display at the courthouse and other county administrative buildings in the county where the offender resides.
And under the same law, a photo and identifying information also appear one time in the county organ newspaper whenever a felony sex offender is newly registered in a county. State law requires that felony sex offenders register in the county where they live and renew their registration each year on their birthday.
A flurry of new registration photos in the Progress during November sent a reporter to seek an explanation. Deputy Jim Adams answered questions about the numbers on Thursday, December 7. Adams is sex offender registration enforcement officer with the Pickens County Sheriff's Office.
"The influx this last month was several coming from other counties moving here," Adams said. One came from Cobb County, one from Paulding and four from Cherokee, Adams said.
Asked if offenders might be moving here from metro counties because of changes to state law that now require sex offenders to live at least 1,000 feet from school bus stops, Adams said he doesn't think so.
"I don't see that tied to any of it," Adams said. "The only thing I can see is they moved here [to live] with family who were already here, or were released from jail [prison] and came back to Pickens County. I don't think any of them came here without family here. They have moved in with family members."
The distance requirement by state law involving school bus stops and sex offenders is currently undergoing a court challenge.
Practically speaking, it is hard to see how living in Pickens County would offer any advantage to a sex offender over a metro county in regard to the law. In this county, school busses stop at the end of each student's driveway. A sex offender residing the prescribed distance from a bus stop could suddenly find himself right beside one if a family with school-aged children moved in next door.
This difficulty for sex offenders under our school transportation set-up would probably discourage sex offenders from relocating here. Adams believes the recent spike in registrations is coincidental.
"November may have been a fluke in that we had that many show up in the county," Adams said. "There may be months when we don't have any."
In May Pickens County's registry included 39 registered felony sex offenders, Adams said. "Between May and September we only increased by four. I look at November as probably a fluke month, but I will keep a close look to see if there's any reason for them to come here that I'm not aware of," he said.
"Our total number that's registered in the county is 57," Adams said. "Four of those 57 are actually incarcerated--in jail."
He explained that whenever a registered sex offender is convicted of a crime (any type crime) and sentenced to prison, the prisoner remains on the sex offender registry of their county of residence when convicted, until prison officials transfer registration to the county where the prisoner serves his or her sentence.
Adams said seven prisoners currently on Pickens County's sex offender registry should come off the local list after their transfer to the state prison system.
Adams mentioned one case where a name was removed from the local list and the state's sex offender registry. "I've had one removed because he shouldn't have been on there in the first place," Adams said. "He was convicted of sexual battery--touching a woman inappropriately--but the victim was a 27-year-old adult"
Sexual battery against a minor is a felony sex crime, Adams explained. Sexual battery against an adult is a misdemeanor. In this case, the offender's probation officer had erroneously added the man's information to the sex offender registry. Adams caught the error and worked to have the name removed.
At least one offender on Pickens County's registry remains classified as a felony sex offender, though his crime, if committed today, would not be a felony crime. The man was convicted some years ago for statutory rape with his underage girlfriend. Today the perpetrator and victim are married and have a family together, Adams said.
Changes in the law now keep offenders convicted in such cases from going on the registry, Adams said. A new "Romeo and Juliet clause," he said, stipulates that if the age difference between lovers is but four years, and the younger is at least 14, the crime is only a misdemeanor.
Had his case been governed under the new clause, the Pickens County man would have been spared from his posting on the sex offender registry. He was essentially grandfathered on to the list by committing the crime when he did.
"If he had been convicted after July of this year," Adams said, "he wouldn't be on the registry."