New Jersey Supreme Court allows juvenile sex offenders to get off Megan's Law registry

In New Jersey, the state that pioneered the sex-offender registry, some people convicted of sex crimes as youths no longer will be on the offender list for life.

The state Supreme Court has ruled that people convicted of aggravated sexual assault and related crimes before their 18th birthday can petition a court to be removed from the state's registry of about 16,000 sex offenders. About 4,300 people convicted of the most serious sex crimes are in the public Megan's Law database.

Under the Supreme Court ruling, someone convicted of a sex crime as a youth who has committed no new sex offenses for 15 years can be removed from the registry. The case involved a man who had been found guilty of sex acts with his adopted brother when the man was about 15 years old.

"Being a lifetime sex offender registrant has negative consequences in so many ways," said James Maynard, the Morristown lawyer who represented the man, whose name was given as CK in the ruling. "It affects a young person's self-identity, how they perceive themselves."

A spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office declined to comment.

The Supreme Court ruling did not spell out how many people convicted of sex offenses as youths are now eligible to be removed from the registry, and Maynard said he didn't know the number.

CK was never on the public Megan's Law database. His identity as an offender was known only to law enforcement, but Maynard said his status meant he didn't seek job promotions that would require a thorough background check, and CK declined to travel to states like Florida with stricter reporting requirements.

Maynard said his client was damaged psychologically by periodic requirements to re-register as a sex offender.

Maynard, who specializes in sex crimes, said the most onerous requirements of Megan's Law were born of misperceptions about the likelihood of sex offenders to commit new sex crimes. He said people convicted as youths have very little chance of re-offending, especially after undergoing therapy.

History of Megan's Law

Megan’s Law arose from tragedy in 1994, when 7-year-old Megan Kanka of Hamilton Township was raped and killed by Jesse Timmendeques, a neighbor

Timmendeques, then 33 years old, was a juvenile sex offender twice convicted of molesting children. But the Kankas were unaware of his dark past, despite his living across the street in their Mercer County neighborhood

The murder attracted national attention and spurred an outpouring of support across the state. Outraged citizens, looking to support the young victims of sex crimes, signed petitions and wore pink flowers.

Legislators responded quickly. On Oct. 31, 1994, Gov. Christie Whitman signed into law rules requiring authorities to notify residents when dangerous sex offenders moved nearby.

The package of bills also established a system to gauge the risk a sex offender posed to the community, and required repeat and compulsive sex offenders to register with local police. It also changed the penalties for certain sex crimes, demanded sex offenders give blood samples to create a sex crime database for future investigations and mandated Department of Corrections supervision for sex offenders released from prison.

Whitman praised the bills for breaking “new ground in public protection.”

The laws survived myriad legal challenges from civil libertarians who said the community notification policies violated privacy rights and amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.

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Two years later, Megan’s parents, Maureen and Richard, stood behind President Bill Clinton as he signed into law a federal version of the state statute named for their daughter.

Clinton lauded the bill, saying it would “tell a community when a dangerous sexual predator enters its midst.”

For Maureen Kanka, it was the end of a tumultuous journey.

“I can’t believe that it has finally happened,” Maureen said after Clinton’s signing. “We’ve worked so hard for this.”