Residences of young sex offenders under scrutiny

By Joe Schoenmann

Tuesday, June 21, 2011 | 1:55 a.m.

As many as 30 young sex offenders live in five group homes throughout Clark County, but you won’t find them on Nevada or Metro Police’s sex offender websites.

The reason is simple: The five homes are for juveniles and the state doesn’t require juvenile sex offenders to register. Historically, too, information about juveniles in the criminal justice system has been kept from the public and is usually stricken from their criminal records after they turn 18. In addition, group homes for juveniles who commit nonsexual crimes aren’t listed, either.

But the level of concern about sexual crimes prompted Clark County commissioners two weeks ago to postpone a vote on whether to fund Eagle Quest of Nevada, which operates the five group homes for juvenile sex offenders.

Debate continued Tuesday morning, as Commissioner Steve Sisolak questioned why residents can’t know the addresses of group homes for young sex offenders. He said he was concerned Clark County would be liable if a resident of one of the homes committed an offense against a neighbor.

“(Neighbors) don’t know what kind of offenders are in there,” he said.

Family Court Judge William Voy said in the eight years that he has overseen juvenile sex offender cases, none of the children put into one of the groups homes has ever committed an offense against a neighbor. Most of the children are in the homes as a result of offenses committed within their families.

Young sex offenders don’t have the same characteristics as adult sex offenders, he added. Of the hundreds of children who have gone through his court over eight years, he said he could count on one hand the number he thought were “deviant and there’s nothing we can do about it.” While the recidivism rate for adult sex offenders is 40 percent, the rate for juveniles is about 5 percent, he added.

“These kids do not offend because they have deviant thoughts, which is why we can help them,” he said.

Voy had a sense of urgency because the $840,000 needed to renew a contract with Eagle Quest of Nevada was due before the current contract expires June 30.

“I’m telling you right now, these children need this help, the community is safer by these children being in these places,” he added. “I’ve got to make that call, with a lot of folks helping me get to that point, but I do that every day … If I don’t have this, I have a couple hundred children, and what am I supposed to do with them? Just keep them in the detention center?”

A day before the meeting, Commissioner Lawrence Weekly shared Sisolak’s concerns, but after talking to Voy he said “I believe the courts would do the right thing.”

The judge doesn't want the group home addresses made public out of fear that people would harass the juvenile offenders or that it would provoke other reactions from people on “a very emotional situation that often involves inner-family offending — it pits brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles.”

The state’s searchable sexual offenders database was created after a vote of the Nevada Legislature in 1997. Joining other states, Nevada enacted laws requiring adult sex offenders to voluntarily register with police agencies after President Bill Clinton signed Megan’s Law in 1996, named after 7-year-old Megan Kanka of New Jersey. Kanka was raped and murdered by a man twice convicted of sexual offenses with children. The man lived with two other sex offenders across the street from her home.

Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani served 16 years in the Legislature and remembers when the sex offender registry law passed.

“It was focusing on the adult,” she said. “The issue of notification for juveniles did not come up.”

She sided with Voy against publicizing group home addresses, saying “I don’t want to create a problem where one may not even exist at this point.”

The five Eagle Quest homes are seeking renewal of a contract at the rate of about $76 per juvenile per day, with the annual total estimated to be $840,000.

The five homes are scattered throughout the Las Vegas Valley, with two in North Las Vegas, two in Las Vegas and one in unincorporated Clark County.

Nevada registry lists 15,691 adult sex offenders. But 8,934 of those are “inactive,” meaning they have moved out of state, are behind bars, deported, hospitalized, failed to register or were registered as visitors. The remaining 6,757 are “active,” meaning they have registered with local law enforcement and are complying with state laws.

About 1,760 sex offenders are registered within Metro’s jurisdiction. Located everywhere from Laughlin to Mesquite, the majority reside in the valley, with the highest concentration around downtown’s Fremont Street, not far from Las Vegas City Hall.

The five homes for juvenile sex offenders are not on the list. The Sun elected not to print the addresses of those five homes because the individuals involved are juveniles.

Sisolak said the public should know. Or the group homes — and he includes the places that house juveniles convicted of nonsexual crimes, too — should be moved out of residential neighborhoods. “Why can’t they be along Industrial Road, in the same places that Erin Kenny and Dario (Herrera) and all those guys were,” he said, referring to former county commissioners convicted of bribery who spent time in halfway houses after being released from federal prison.

Those homes, it was noted, are in industrial areas sometimes also zoned for adult businesses such as strip clubs. Should children be near places like that?

“I don’t know,” Sisolak replied. “I just don’t think they should be in a neighborhood. I don’t want neighbors to get a false sense of security because they know nothing about who’s living next door.”

The commission voted 5-1, with Sisolak dissenting, to continue funding Eagle Quest.