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The Manchester Times, February 18, 2017, Page 7
Little Egg Harbor Allowed To Notify Neighborhood Of Sex Offender
Peter McAleer, communications manager By Chris Lundy bors when a known sex offender moves LITTLE EGG HARBOR – After months into an area. They are assigned a tier rating for the Supreme Court, said it was unfair of not being able to legally notify people based on their likelihood of re-offending. to blame the bail reform for this, since a of a sex offender living in a neighborhood, Tier 3 people are most likely to re-offend. lot of factors go into the judge’s decision police were finally able to go door to door Tier 1 people are least likely. Then, the to set bail. “The Public Safety Assessment is merely a to tell residents, officials said. neighborhood is notified if needed. The situation became public last month However, the suspect’s tier rating was tool that a judge uses to make his decision. when Little Egg Harbor Police Chief Rich- stuck in appeals, so police were not able to It is not binding by any means,” he said. ard Buzby posted an intentionally vague notify the neighborhood when he moved in, Changing Megan’s Law There is one warning on Facebook for parents to keep an Officials Pushing For Changes To Megan’s Law: major flaw with Megan’s Law, eye on their children • Criminals are “tiered” according to the law. officials said. A because there was a sex suspect is put in offender who was likely • Residency currently impacts tier. a tier after they to reoffend in the area. • Bill wants tier decided before criminal released. a r e r el e a s e d . Police officials said at the time that this was a situation in which police said. Then, he allegedly re-offended Therefore, they can potentially re-offend Megan’s Law did not provide the protec- at the end of 2016. He was arrested and before local police can even warn residents tions it was supposed to. The suspect reof- charged. The prosecutor’s office attempted that the offender is in their neighborhood. This is because the offender’s residency is fended before neighbors could be notified. to keep him in jail. On February 8, police were able to go Due to the new bail reform, he was not a factor in what tier they are placed. door to door to provide the notifications assigned bail, Buzby said. He was free to “It gives residents nothing in terms of needed. A spokesman for the Ocean County go on January 25. The prosecutor appealed protection while we wait. It’s been an utter Prosecutor’s Office said that the county’s the decision, and applied for an emergency failure for that reason,” Buzby said. Years ago, legislation was introduced to appeal was successful and the suspect was consideration of bail. The state Supreme placed in Tier 3, meaning he is most likely Court told him to go through the appeal change this. It was originally started by the to reoffend. process as normal. However, it could take late Sen. Leonard Connors (R-9th), but is now promoted by his son, Sen. Christopher Megan’s Law was created to notify neigh- months to go through an appeal.
Connors (R-9th). The bill would assign offenders a tier before they are released. The bill has been sponsored in the law and public safety committee on the senate side (S-253), and the judiciary committee on the assembly side (A-1142). Despite how many years the bill has been around, it never seems to move forward, Chris Connors said. He said that the only good thing to come out of the Little Egg Harbor situation is that it could prompt lawmakers to act on making this bill a law. On the assembly side, Assemblyman John McKeon (D-27) chairs the judiciary committee. He said last week that the bill will be presented to his committee at their next meeting. “I’m committed to put it on the agenda and I’m sure we’ll get it out of committee,” he said. Connors’ office has pushed for the bill to be moved forward, and worked with the governor’s office so that the bill will be signed if it ever comes across his desk. A spokesman with the governor’s office said that they would never comment on legislation until the final bill is on the governor’s desk and they’ve had time to review it.
Lakehurst In Need Of First Responder Volunteers LAKEHURST – Like every small town, volunteers are needed for everything from fire departments to the first aid
squad. According to the township website, the volunteer fi re department and the fi rst aid
squad are in dire need of volunteers as staffi ng in both organizations has reached an extremely critical level. More residents
are needed. Training is provided. Please consider joining – Lakehurst needs help. Call 732-657-4141 for more information.
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