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10131/2016 Community backlash puts freed sex offenders in a Catch-22 - StarTribune.com less surveillance than the handful of offenders released from the MSOP. The three offenders being transferred to Dayton, for example, would be subject to 24-hour surveillance, random searches and would be unable to leave the home without staff, among other restrictions. Studies on sex offender re -offense rates vary widely depending on the time covered and the offenses measured. A 2013 study by the Minnesota Department of Corrections tracked 220 sex offenders who were released from Minnesota prisons in the early 1990s. Within four years, 123 percent were reconvicted of a new sex offense; by 2010, 18.6 percent had been reconvicted. Yet because of MSOP's reputation for holding the "worst of the worst" offenders, the public reaction to releases from the program can be highly charged and even threatening. Piper, the Human Services commissioner, said someone posted a comment on Facebook suggesting the rape of her children after her agency decided in September not to appeal the release of a young man held in the MSOP. A state Supreme Court appeals panel ruled that the man, Eric Terhaar, 26, was no longer a threat to the public and that his confinement was unconstitutional. "°The [Facebook] comment said, essentially, 'Why don'tthey go rape Emily Piper's children,"' she said. "It becomes very aggressive and very ugly and very scary for people who, like me, are trying to defend the constitutionality of the program." Gene Lewis of Le Center, Minn., also found himself on the receiving end of threats. Four years ago, he wanted to rent a room in a fourplex near St. Peter to a Level 3 sex offender from MSOP. When local residents learned of the plan, Lewis said, he received more than 100 telephone calls and threats of violence. In one case, an anonymous caller threatened to go after his grandchildren. Another threatened to destroy his business. Lewis, who owns a title company and rental properties in central Minnesota, said he canceled the plan after several hundred people showed up at a public hearing and residents pointed out how close the property was to homes with young children. 'They'll come at you with pitchforks and daggers," Lewis said. `Where's really no way to explain it, except there was fire in their eyes when they talked about what they were going to do." Twitter: @chrisserres http:/Iwww.startribune.com/freed-sex-offenders-in-a-catch-22-amid-cam m unity-backlas h13991691411 313