Forum: In the News

Thread (Discussion): [KOMO TV] Issaquah to adopt tough new sex offender rules

What's fair and reasonable is to have a safe community for our children to grow up in."

ISSAQUAH -- An ordinance that places the toughest restrictions yet on where sex offenders can live after they've served their time in prison was approved Monday night by the Issaquah City Council.

A first for Washington state, the Issaquah ordinance prohibits Level 2 and Level 3 offenders -- those considered to be at a moderate and high risk to reoffend, respectively -- from living within 1,000 feet of any public or private school or day-care center.

It also prohibits landlords or property owners within that radius from knowingly renting or otherwise allowing those offenders to live on their properties.

So, is it fair that my 3 children can't play in their front yard or ride their bikes down our dead end road because of what these 2 people might do to them?

"This is a proactive, thoughtful, measured approach," said Councilman Fred Butler. "While we hope that sex offenders don't reoffend, there's no guarantee of that."

Tacoma officials are looking north to a small King County city for a new approach to severely restrict where sex offenders can live.

Mayor Bill Baarsma asked the council’s Public Safety and Human Services Committee to take a look at a copy of a groundbreaking law passed Monday by the Issaquah City Council.

The Issaquah ordinance, spurred by community outrage over two sex offenders’ plans to move into a residential neighborhood, is the stiffest in the state.

[snip]

That’s more restrictive than recently enacted state law that prohibits some sex offenders from living within 880 feet of a public or private school.

Issaquah’s ordinance, designed “to promote the safety of children and other members of the community,” has captured the interest of officials in a number of Puget Sound-area cities.

[snip]

Tacoma Councilman Tom Stenger said he sees both the Iowa decision and the Issaquah ordinance as good news for people worried about sex offenders.

Stiffer restrictions on where registered sex offenders can live would be welcome in Tacoma, which already is “taking more than our fair share” of felons, Stenger said.

raped a 9 year old little girl

However, you should be supervising them as a parent anyway

The measure was passed to because of two level 3 sex offenders living in Issaquah.

ISSAQUAH -- Level 2 and 3 sex offenders who live in residential neighborhoods in Issaquah will have to move out by Sept. 1.

Michele Forkner, the city's code compliance officer, confirmed that letters of noncompliance were sent to the three sex offenders in the city living in those neighborhoods.

``They are being asked to move to those approved sections of the city,'' Forkner said.

If the offenders don't leave, they can be fined up to $250 a day until they do.

Under a new ordinance passed Aug. 15, Level 2 and 3 offenders, those judged to be at moderate and high risk of reoffending, can live only in certain commercial, industrial or rural zones, and not within 1,000 feet of any public or private school or day-care center.

Two city councils in Snohomish County plan to discuss laws preventing sex offenders from living near places where children gather following the recent passage of such a measure in Issaquah.

In Monroe, Mayor Donnetta Walser said she will let the city attorney research the Issaquah ordinance and pitch a similar law to the City Council.

"This is something I've been very concerned about," Walser said.

In Edmonds, resident Jeremy Steiner has gathered about 50 signatures on a petition urging the city to set rules to keep sex offenders from places where children congregate, such as parks and day care centers.

You don't know me! Nor do you know what type of a parent I am or how much I supervise my children!

since moving into the neighborhood 2 years ago

I love it when posters do this. They get REAL upset when you get judgemental towards them. Too bad they forget that when they start ranting about RSO's.

Curious if the guy across the street was already there, or did he just recently move in?

What's sad is that apparently if the guy across the street WASN'T an RSO, you wouldn't care one bit about him and his puppies. And you wouldn't think twice about your kid walking down to the end of the road.

EDMONDS - First it happened in Issaquah, now three more cities are making the push to get rid of sex offenders in neighborhoods.

The new law on the Eastside forces registered sex offenders to live in designated zones. Other cities like the idea and are thinking about doing the same thing.

Take Edmonds for instance. There's one neighborhood just around the corner from Yost Park that is filled with lots of kids. It's 6/10 of a mile from an elementary school.

The Shell Park neighborhood is also home to the only registered Level 2 or Level 3 sex offender in the Edmonds City limits.

to be quite frank, I'd feel safer without TWO Level 3 offenders within 2 blocks of my family, plain and simple.

The mother called, voice shaking. She had been watching the events in Issaquah like storm clouds headed her way.

Someday soon, her community could follow the Issaquah City Council's lead and rule that Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders have to live in a certain part of town, or move.

That would be the beginning of the end for her son.

The city of Issaquah has notified two sex offenders sharing a basement apartment in a neighborhood of single-family homes that they must move by Sept. 1 or face fines of $250 a day.

Kyle Lewis, 28, a Level 3 sex offender who spent five years behind bars after being convicted of first-degree child molestation, said yesterday he doesn't know where he's going to live now. He and his roommate, John Weber, a Level 2 offender also convicted of child molestation, are thinking of "packing up a moving truck and driving to a friend's house somewhere," Lewis said.

"The harsh reality is that nobody wants to rent a place to a sex offender," he said.

Lewis and Weber ignited community protest when they moved to 865 Highwood Drive in June. Residents spoke out at council meetings, saying the Squak Mountain neighborhood had been transformed from a place where children played freely outside to a community enveloped in fear.

In response, the City Council passed a law Aug. 15 restricting Level 2 and 3 sex offenders — considered to have a moderate and high risk, respectively, of reoffending — from living within 1,000 feet of schools and day-care facilities. The law effectively limits them to living on about 15 percent of the city's developable land, mostly in office and commercial zones. About 260 housing units are available in those areas.

The local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit against the city of Issaquah to overturn its ordinance that prevents sex offenders from living in certain neighborhoods.

The ACLU of Washington took the action on behalf of a mother whom the ordinance would force to evict her son from a house she owns.

Mary Lou Lewis owns a property in the 800 block of Highwood Drive. Her son, Kyle Lewis, is a Level 3 offender who was convicted of child molestation. Kyle and his roommate, John Weber, a Level 2 offender, moved into the house in June.

The announcement from the police that they had moved into the house prompted a community uproar that led the City Council to pass the ordinance as an emergency measure.

KING COUNTY - Thursday was deadline day in Issaquah.

This was the day the city said sex offenders had to move -- but they didn't.

Kyle Lewis and John Weber are both convicted sex offenders. They moved to Issaquah in June so they could live in a basement apartment in a home owned by Lewis' mother.

But last month, prompted by neighbor complaints, the city council passed a new law restricting where sex offenders could live. It's the toughest in the state.

ISSAQUAH -- A new Issaquah ordinance tightening housing restrictions on sex-offender housing has been challenged in court by the American Civil Liberties Union.

"Laws that make it virtually impossible for sex offenders to find housing do not make us safer," said Kathleen Taylor, executive director of ACLU of Washington.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington has challenged a new Issaquah ordinance that tightly restricts where sex offenders may live, calling it inconsistent with state law and unlikely to improve public safety.

The national civil-rights advocacy group filed suit in King County Superior Court yesterday on behalf of Level 3 sex offender Kyle Lewis, 28, and his mother, Mary Lou Lewis.

The ordinance, the suit claims, wrongfully imposes additional punishment on individuals who already have been punished under state law.

"Laws that make it virtually impossible for sex offenders to find housing do not make us safer. Society is not safer if former offenders live on the street," ACLU of Washington executive director Kathleen Taylor said in a news release.

The American Civil Liberties Union this week withdrew a motion in King County Superior Court that sought to bar the city of Issaquah from enforcing an ordinance restricting where sex offenders can live.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit last month on behalf of Kyle Lewis, a Level 3 sex offender, and his mother, who owns the property where her son lives. The Issaquah ordinance passed last month also makes it illegal to rent homes to sex offenders in prohibited areas.

Last week, a court commissioner denied an ACLU request for a temporary restraining order to block the ordinance until the preliminary-injunction hearing date of Sept. 23.

OLYMPIA - Restricting where sex offenders can live may not stop a lot of crime, but the practice is still valuable because it makes Washingtonians feel safer, some members of a state task force believe.

A law that took effect in July bars offenders convicted of certain sex crimes against children from living within 880 feet of schools while under state Department of Corrections supervision. The ban sunsets after one year.

The measure's sponsor, state Rep. Jim Clements, R-Selah, said Monday that such sex-offender-free zones will supplement a public notification system that may not always fulfill its obligations.

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