Brian Dickerson: Nonviolent sex offenders ensnared in state's red tape
When his name went on Michigan's Sex Offender Registry for having consensual sex at 17 with a fellow student at Bloomfield Hills' Andover High School, Justin Fawcett despaired that his life was over.
Who would ever hire him? Who would want to date him?
David and Gayle Fawcett had spoken to other parents with children on the registry and knew Justin's fears were not exaggerated. But David Fawcett implored his son not to give up hope.
"I told him people had begun to recognize that it made no sense to put people like him on a registry that was meant for sexual predators," David Fawcett recalled. "I told him that he needed to be patient. ... The law would be changed."
David Fawcett was right: The law was changed, and late last month, the Michigan State Police mailed Justin a letter informing him that, as of June 30, his name would be removed from the public registry.
The letter said he might even be eligible to get completely off the list.
There's just one problem: Justin Fawcett has been dead for more than seven years.
Justin Fawcett never shared his father's confidence that Michigan would change its sex offender registration law before the stigma of being publicly branded a sex criminal had ruined his prospects for a normal life. His
parents found him dead of an overdose in his bedroom when he was 20.
Now, you'd think a state police department that prides itself on knowing every little thing about the movements of Michigan's 40,000 sex offenders -- where they live and work, what kind of car they drive, when and where they go on vacation, whether they've recently joined Facebook -- would notice when one of those people ceases to exist.
And you might think that the police agency would be especially attentive when the thing that triggers a registered sex offender's death is the shame and stigma associated with that status, particularly when the dead teenager's father testifies before the state Legislature and his son's well-publicized death becomes a rallying point for citizens, lawyers, judges and lawmakers seeking to change the registry law.
But if you thought either of those things, you've overestimated Michigan's capacity to keep track of its sex offenders -- an ever-expanding polyglot that includes everything from promiscuous teens like the late Justin Fawcett to public urinators to violent rapists.
Karen Johnson, the manager of the Sex Offender and Registry Enforcement Unit who signed the letter addressed to Fawcett, did not respond to my repeated requests for an explanation. But State Police spokeswoman Shanon Banner said a deceased offender isn't removed from the department's master registry unless the offender's family mails a death certificate to the registry enforcement unit -- a step she speculated had not taken place in Fawcett's case.
"There's no process by which a name is automatically removed from the registry when the offender dies," she said.
Nor are Justin Fawcett's parents the only victims of the state's sloppy record-keeping. The letter dispatched to their deceased son is just one particularly embarrassing miscue in an administrative meltdown that has left most of the state's registered sex offenders in a dangerous bureaucratic limbo for the last month -- publicly flagged as "non-compliant" while an overwhelmed State Police department sorts out their obligations under Michigan's newly amended registration law.
All those offenders are affected by statutory changes that state legislators adopted earlier this year to assure that Michigan remains eligible for millions of dollars in federal funding.
The changes in Michigan's law provide some offenders, including teenagers who landed on the registry for nonviolent offenses like Justin Fawcett's, an opportunity to petition the court for an early exit.
But they also require all registered offenders to provide police with additional information, including phone numbers and immigration documentation. In addition to offenders' addresses, the registry will soon list the addresses of their employers and the make and model of their cars.
Registered offenders who fail to report any change in their living arrangements, employment, vehicle ownership, or educational status within three business days are subject to arrest.
But lawyers and offenders I talked with this week say that local police departments were unprepared for the resulting deluge, and that many offenders who complied with the new requirements in a timely way are still identified on the public sex offender registry as "non-compliant."
In a random search of more than 100 offenders in four metro Detroit ZIP codes Thursday, every single offender whose file I reviewed was identified as "NON-COMPLIANT" or "ABSCONDER."
"What's an employer supposed to think when he finds that the State Police have publicly identified one of his workers as a non-compliant sex offender?" asks Cheryl Carpenter, an Oakland County attorney who said she has taken calls from more than a dozen offenders concerned about inaccurate Web site listings.
"We did underestimate the volume of information we had to process," State Police spokeswoman Banner conceded. "We underestimated how well (offenders) were going to carry out their new duties."
Banner said the enforcement unit had designated every sex offender in the state "non-compliant" when the new law took effect July 1 and had intended to change their status as their information was updated. Late Thursday, after I noted that every offender whose file I examined was still listed as non-compliant, Banner told me that the enforcement unit had changed all their statuses to compliant -- a change my own inspection confirmed.
Carpenter said the State Police have been courteous and helpful in correcting errors she has brought to their attention. Barb Lambourne, co-founder of a support group called Citizens for Second Chances, echoed her assessment.
"The State Police have been very cooperative," she said. "I think this has just been an administrative nightmare for them."
Banner said the overhaul required by the new law has enabled the State Police to identify many errors in the registry, including the inclusion of deceased offenders.
"Obviously, the registry is only useful if the information listed there is accurate," she said. "If anything positive comes of this, it is that this process is cleaning up a number of problems."
BRIAN DICKERSON is the Free Press' deputy editorial page editor. Contact him at 313-222-6584 or bdickerson@freepress.com.
Who would ever hire him? Who would want to date him?
David and Gayle Fawcett had spoken to other parents with children on the registry and knew Justin's fears were not exaggerated. But David Fawcett implored his son not to give up hope.
"I told him people had begun to recognize that it made no sense to put people like him on a registry that was meant for sexual predators," David Fawcett recalled. "I told him that he needed to be patient. ... The law would be changed."
David Fawcett was right: The law was changed, and late last month, the Michigan State Police mailed Justin a letter informing him that, as of June 30, his name would be removed from the public registry.
The letter said he might even be eligible to get completely off the list.
There's just one problem: Justin Fawcett has been dead for more than seven years.
Justin Fawcett never shared his father's confidence that Michigan would change its sex offender registration law before the stigma of being publicly branded a sex criminal had ruined his prospects for a normal life. His
parents found him dead of an overdose in his bedroom when he was 20.
Now, you'd think a state police department that prides itself on knowing every little thing about the movements of Michigan's 40,000 sex offenders -- where they live and work, what kind of car they drive, when and where they go on vacation, whether they've recently joined Facebook -- would notice when one of those people ceases to exist.
And you might think that the police agency would be especially attentive when the thing that triggers a registered sex offender's death is the shame and stigma associated with that status, particularly when the dead teenager's father testifies before the state Legislature and his son's well-publicized death becomes a rallying point for citizens, lawyers, judges and lawmakers seeking to change the registry law.
But if you thought either of those things, you've overestimated Michigan's capacity to keep track of its sex offenders -- an ever-expanding polyglot that includes everything from promiscuous teens like the late Justin Fawcett to public urinators to violent rapists.
Karen Johnson, the manager of the Sex Offender and Registry Enforcement Unit who signed the letter addressed to Fawcett, did not respond to my repeated requests for an explanation. But State Police spokeswoman Shanon Banner said a deceased offender isn't removed from the department's master registry unless the offender's family mails a death certificate to the registry enforcement unit -- a step she speculated had not taken place in Fawcett's case.
"There's no process by which a name is automatically removed from the registry when the offender dies," she said.
Nor are Justin Fawcett's parents the only victims of the state's sloppy record-keeping. The letter dispatched to their deceased son is just one particularly embarrassing miscue in an administrative meltdown that has left most of the state's registered sex offenders in a dangerous bureaucratic limbo for the last month -- publicly flagged as "non-compliant" while an overwhelmed State Police department sorts out their obligations under Michigan's newly amended registration law.
Lots of information required
Nearly everyone convicted of a sexual offense in Michigan is required to register their address, employment and other personal data with their local police department and verify it in person at least once a year. Much of that information is listed, along with the offender's photograph and details of his or her crimes, on a public Web site maintained by the State Police.All those offenders are affected by statutory changes that state legislators adopted earlier this year to assure that Michigan remains eligible for millions of dollars in federal funding.
The changes in Michigan's law provide some offenders, including teenagers who landed on the registry for nonviolent offenses like Justin Fawcett's, an opportunity to petition the court for an early exit.
But they also require all registered offenders to provide police with additional information, including phone numbers and immigration documentation. In addition to offenders' addresses, the registry will soon list the addresses of their employers and the make and model of their cars.
Registered offenders who fail to report any change in their living arrangements, employment, vehicle ownership, or educational status within three business days are subject to arrest.
Red tape from updates
The letter Justin Fawcett received was one of tens of thousands mailed by the state to alert registered offenders that they needed to update their files in person no later than July 15.But lawyers and offenders I talked with this week say that local police departments were unprepared for the resulting deluge, and that many offenders who complied with the new requirements in a timely way are still identified on the public sex offender registry as "non-compliant."
In a random search of more than 100 offenders in four metro Detroit ZIP codes Thursday, every single offender whose file I reviewed was identified as "NON-COMPLIANT" or "ABSCONDER."
"What's an employer supposed to think when he finds that the State Police have publicly identified one of his workers as a non-compliant sex offender?" asks Cheryl Carpenter, an Oakland County attorney who said she has taken calls from more than a dozen offenders concerned about inaccurate Web site listings.
"We did underestimate the volume of information we had to process," State Police spokeswoman Banner conceded. "We underestimated how well (offenders) were going to carry out their new duties."
Banner said the enforcement unit had designated every sex offender in the state "non-compliant" when the new law took effect July 1 and had intended to change their status as their information was updated. Late Thursday, after I noted that every offender whose file I examined was still listed as non-compliant, Banner told me that the enforcement unit had changed all their statuses to compliant -- a change my own inspection confirmed.
Carpenter said the State Police have been courteous and helpful in correcting errors she has brought to their attention. Barb Lambourne, co-founder of a support group called Citizens for Second Chances, echoed her assessment.
"The State Police have been very cooperative," she said. "I think this has just been an administrative nightmare for them."
Banner said the overhaul required by the new law has enabled the State Police to identify many errors in the registry, including the inclusion of deceased offenders.
"Obviously, the registry is only useful if the information listed there is accurate," she said. "If anything positive comes of this, it is that this process is cleaning up a number of problems."
BRIAN DICKERSON is the Free Press' deputy editorial page editor. Contact him at 313-222-6584 or bdickerson@freepress.com.
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