‘SILLY’ POLICY SHELTERS OFFENDERS (Level 2 sex criminals exempt from state’s online registry)

bostonherald.com

The state's Level 2 sex offender, from rapists to child porn purveyors, are not listed onany online registry because some lawmakers are throwing up a roadblock in the name of protectingprivacy right of convicts, advocates charge.  The move is also costing Massachusetts hundredsof thousands in lost crime-fighting bucks and not even Gov. Deval Patrick has been able to convincethe holdout legislators to act.  We have lawmakers saying out loud that these dangerouscriminals, who are more likely than not targeting defenseless children, are entitled to privacy sowe can't know who they are.  On what planet can a decent human being make an argument that hisshould be private information?, said Wendy Murphy, a victim's advocate and professor at NewEngland Law in Boston.  Patrick's bill, which would bring Massachusetts in line with thefederal Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act to create a national sex offender database toreplace the patch work of registries across the country, has languished in the Joint JudiciaryCommittee for more than a year.

The state only posts Level 3 sex offenders online.  Yet, the record is deepwith previously convicted Level 2 sex offenders, accused of committing later sex crimes:

- William Frank Andrade, 56, was indicted in Suffolk Superior Court earlierthis month on multiple counts of rape and indecent assault and battery on a child after police saidhe sexually assaulted a friend's 13 year old daughter for two years while showering the victim withgifts and cash.

- Camilo Pizarro, now 47, was sentenced to two years in prison in January 2007after he was found guilty of multiple counts of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 orolder.  He worked as a Framingham Salvation Army handyman when he was accused of molesting a14 year old girl in a supply closet.

- Kenny Higgin was sentenced to 10 years in prison in September 2007 forviolating his probation on earlier child porn related offenses after he asked an elderly neighborto hold on to DVDs, tapes and a computer with depictions of adults raping children.

A listing of Level 2 sex offenders is only available at police stationstown-by-town.
(Massachusetts)