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10/31/2016 Community backlash puts freed sex offenders in a Catch-22 - StarTribune.com discharged by state judicial panels but remain under confinement. Another 84, a record number, are moving toward release, in a less -restrictive program in St Peter that prepares them for reintegration into society. In an interview, state Commissioner Piper said the situation is unprecedented. She warned of a possible legal challenge to the local ordinances. The ordinances, she said, are unfair to poorer municipalities that may lack the resources to fight placements. "It's never going to be the'north Minneapolises' of the world that get the first ordinance developed with a cadre of lawyers advising them," said Piper, who grew up on Minneapolis' North Side. "What that does is increase the over -concentration of sex offenders in less -affluent areas of the state." Yet state lawmakers have been loath to address the issue. A Senate bill introduced this year would have required counties to provide appropriate sex offender housing based on the number of offenders committed to the MSOP from their jurisdictions. In addition, Gov. Marts Dayton's bonding bill would have funded two, 20 -bed community facilities at a cost of $12.4 million. Both proposals failed to pass the 2016 Legislature. 'Monsters' The state's dilemma was on display last week at Dayton City Hall, where about 80 residents gathered on Wednesday night to discuss plans by the state to move three convicted rapists to a private group home. One by one, residents approached the front of the room, their voices often shaking with emotion. A mother pointed out that her two young children ride a school bus that travels within two blocks of the proposed house. "A busload of kids is a sitting target," said Erin Prest, the mother. The Wetterling case cast a long shadow over the hearing. "When my children were tittle, the Jacob Wetterling story came out, and you couldn't let your kids walk to the park alone for fear that someone in a van would leap out and grab them," said Anne Ziebell, a city council member who has lived in Dayton since 1988. `Now here we are, 27 years later, and these monsters are moving into our town." As the night wore on, the discussion shifted toward more and more restrictions. A draft ordinance barring offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school, day-care center or park —similar to ordinances passed in other cities —was deemed insufficient. As residents weighed in, multiple "prohibited areas" were added to the measure, including any amusement park, recreation center, youth athletic field, public library, golf course, swimming pool and bowling alleys. The ordinance even prohibits offenders from living within 2,000 feet of "any seasonal pumpkin patch or apple orchard." "If a Chuck E. Cheese opens up in the middle of Dayton, that should be covered," added Tim McNleil, mayor of Dayton. Council members seemed undeterred when Dayton's city attorney, looking uncomfortable at times, suggested that such a far-reaching ordinance could draw a legal challenge. The mood in Dayton is tense in part because residents feel they are in a race against time. A state judicial panel had already approved a plan for moving the offenders to the group home in Dayton. Their criminal histories are familiar to many in this city of about 5,000 residents. One of the men had raped his 6 year-oId niece and admitted to "digitally penetrating" a 3 -year-old girl. Another forced himself into a woman's home and forced her to have oral sex, within weeks after being released from a treatment program All three of the offenders are over 50 and have cognitive disabilities or diagnosed mental illnesses. "Why not put them in the middle of 10,000 acres in northern Minnesota?" asked Dayton City Council member Scott Salonek. "I don't want 'em, period, under any circumstances." How dangerous? State officials note that Minnesota already has 15,775 registered sex offenders living in local communities, and that the 723 inmates at the MSOP are just a tiny fraction of that total. Many of these are Level 3 offenders who have assaulted minors, yet live under far http:IMrww.startribune.com/freed-sex-offenders-in-a-catch-22-am id -corn munity-backlash1399169141/ 213