City Council approves facility for sex offenders

Sito Negron

Thursday, Jan. 22, 2004 | 9:19 a.m.

Some sex offenders can be treated in a controversial facility near the intersection of Rainbow and Charleston boulevards, the Las Vegas City Council decided Wednesday after hearing from a few neighbors who opposed the proposal and advocates who said the patients need counseling and are properly supervised.

"One of the facts life is there are going to be sex offenders in Clark County," said Mike Compton, a supervisor with the state's Department of Probation and Parole. "We depend heavily on counseling services like FACT to supervise them."

FACT, Family and Child Treatment of Southern Nevada, is the group seeking the permit from the City Council.

Victoria Graff, executive director of the group, which has a full range of counseling services, told the council that people enrolled in the group treatment must arrive no more than 10 minutes before the session and leave immediately. She, and Compton, said the offenders are given regular polygraph and other tests meant to keep track of their behavior.

They also noted that sex offenders who use or threaten force or violence and have more than one victim are not eligible for treatment in the program.

That wasn't enough for Juanita Clark, a board member of the Charleston Heights Neighborhood Preservation Association.

"This is a neighborhood area and not a place for these court-ordered people to come," she said.

Her group has fought hard against a proposed state mental hospital in the area, at Jones and Oakey boulevards.

The neighbors have said that the area is a dumping ground for politically unpopular projects. A rezoning to allow powerful developer Irwin Molasky to build a Social Security building on Buffalo Drive passed several weeks ago, over the angry objections of Ward 1 Councilwoman Janet Moncrief, who also represents the area under discussion Wednesday.

In this case, she said, the use was not out of character with the other services already provided by the center, at 1050 S. Rainbow Blvd.

"It's a needed facility," said Moncrief, who noted an argument brought forth by supporters of the permit, that the unknown sex offenders are the true danger. "If we don't treat the ones we know about, what will happen to our city?"

The vote to approve was 5-1, with Ward 2 Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald, who has been at odds with Moncrief over several issues -- including the vote on the Social Security building -- voting no.