Wyoming Senate Advances Bill To Bar Sex Offenders From Living Near Daycares

A bill seeking to bar adults on the sex offender list from living within 1,000 feet of daycares cleared the Wyoming Senate by a 25-6 vote Friday, sending it to the state House of Representatives.

Detractors argued Friday on the Senate floor that Senate File 88 heaps another government mandate onto offenders who’ve been caught in the sex offender registry’s broad net, but who aren’t a danger to society.

Proponents said those detractors are complicating the discussion and distracting from a simple change, and a moral duty.

As written Friday when the Senate sent the bill to the House, SF 88 would bar any registered sex offender 18 or older from living within 1,000 feet of a childcare facility — unless the person was already established in his home before July 1 of this year.

The bill would cover any government-run childcare facilities and other daycares licensed by the Wyoming Department of Family Services. It adds to other bans on sex offenders, like being within 1,000 feet of a school — with some exceptions for parents of school children — or driving a school bus.

Violators would face up to six months in jail and $750 in fines.

“I would ask us to resist this bill,” began Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, “I know it sounds awful good and it would probably play well in the election, but Mr. President, it’s not fully thought out.”

Case pointed to the broad scope of Wyoming’s sex offender registry.

If a person was convicted of third-degree sexual abuse for having sex with a 15-year-old when he was 19, for example, he’d be required to register and fall under the list’s various bans.

Case said sex crimes are generally abhorrent, but the laws made to capture them may also capture more unique, complicated relationships, causing a perpetrator who isn’t a danger to small children to fall subject to bans like SF 88.

“(This bill) doesn’t just cover crimes against children,” said Case. “If it did, I might be more open – because that makes sense to society.”

But the bill is a ban associated with the whole sex offender registry, he noted, calling it poorly reasoned.

“And I know it sounds really good, that you can go home and say you protected daycare centers from sexual offenders,” said Case. “But honestly, I don’t think we’re doing that, Mr. President. I think we’re trying to look good for the election.”

Senate President Bo Biteman, R-Ranchester, who was moderating the debate, warned Case about breaking decorum.

“Let’s try not to question people’s motives on the floor,” said Biteman. “Stick to the issues.”

Bill sponsor Sen. Tim Salazar, R-Riverton, countered.

“If ever a bill needed to have ‘common sense’ on it, this would be it,” he said. “I do not want to wait for a tragic incident to happen. This helps prevent that.”

Salazar said he’s not received a single call or noted a single email of anyone opposing the bill.

Sen. John Kolb, R-Rock Springs, said the debate convinced him even more of the bill’s merit.

“I believe it’s what we have to do,” Kolb said. “I’m morally obligated, for that reason, to support this.”

Sen. Dan Dockstader, R-Afton, said, “I feel like we’re trying to make this too complicated. It’s not complicated. It’s not an election issue. I stand in full support of the bill and the sponsor’s work on it.”

Do The Work

Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, said Case’s argument didn’t attack the concept of the bill but the fact that Wyoming’s sex offender registry bears some inconsistencies.

Including people who may not be a danger to society or to small children on the registry dilutes its efficacy, said Rothfuss, making life difficult for “people who probably shouldn’t be on it in the first place,” and decreasing the public’s ability to use the list to gauge real dangers.

“I think what we want collectively — what my constituents want — is an accurate database that tells them useful information about what individuals they should actually be concerned about,” said Rothfuss. 

The list doesn’t yield that information now, he said, because it’s difficult and in some cases impossible to have one’s name removed from it.

“But it’s not politically expedient to tackle that problem,” Rothfuss said. “Because at that point, a group of us has to get together and say, ‘Hey, maybe some of these people don’t belong on the sex offender registry.’ And that is politically unpopular.”

 Roll Call

In the third-reading roll-call vote to send SF 88 to the House, those in favor were Republican Sens. Jim Anderson (Casper), Eric Barlow (Gillette), Brian Boner (Douglas), Barry Crago (Buffalo), Gary Crum (Laramie), Dockstader, Ogden Driskill (Devils Tower), Tim French (Ralston), Lynn Hutchings (Cheyenne), Larry Hicks (Baggs), Bob Ide (Casper), Stacy Jones (Rock Springs), Kolb, Bill Landen (Casper), Dan Laursen (Powell), Taft Love (Cheyenne), Troy McKeown (Gillette), Jared Olsen (Cheyenne), Tara Nethercott (Cheyenne), Stephan Pappas (Cheyenne), Laura Pearson (Kemmerer), Salazar, Wendy Schuler (Evanston), Cheri Steinmetz (Torrington), and Biteman.

Those opposed were Sens. Evie Brennan, R-Cheyenne; Case; Ed Cooper, R-Ten Sleep; Mike Gierau, D-Jackson; Rothfuss; and Charlie Scott, R-Casper.

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.