Two of eight city-employed sex offenders will be fired or asked to resign after Little Rock adopted a new policy this week that bans the hiring of higher-level sex offenders and restricts the employment of lower-level offenders to certain positions.
The new policy adopted Tuesday states that offenders rated Level 1 and 2 -- considered low risk with no, or very few, prior sexual offenses -- will only be eligible for jobs that do not require the employees to enter private homes, interact with the public in a secluded setting or act as coaches, teachers or caregivers to children or vulnerable adults.
Level 3 and 4 offenders -- considered high risk and having histories of repeat sexual offending or anti-social, violent or predatory personalities -- will not be allowed to hold any position with the city.
The policy also prohibits any sex offender, no matter his rating, from being employed by the Parks and Recreation Department or the Little Rock Zoo because parks and zoos are places frequented by children.
"Without a doubt, we had to do that. We can't expose children that come to our facilities to enjoy our amenities to anyone that is a registered sex offender. We felt very strongly about that," City Manager Bruce Moore said. "People make mistakes, and I understand that, but I think when it comes to our departments that deal with children, you just can't have any tolerance for that past behavior."
Sex offenders were already prohibited from holding positions in the police or fire departments, per state law.
Moore said nothing in particular sparked the policy change, adding that it was just "the prudent thing to do." The city didn't research if other municipalities have similar policies, he said.
The Arkansas Municipal League said it doesn't keep records on which towns have sex offender policies.
Sex offender ratings are assigned by the state's Sex Offender Assessment Committee. Sheri Flynn, administrator of the Sex Offender Screening and Risk Assessment Program, said the ratings were never meant to be used for anything other than to indicate the level of community notification required. The higher the rating, the more the community should know about an offender's history.
While she said she understood why employers set such policies, she cautioned against using a rating to decide job eligibility without knowing the facts of the offender's crime.
"We need to link whatever decision we make in reference to guiding sex offender management to what they do and what their sexual interests are. It would be my preference that [decision] not be based on a number assigned by this office that was never meant to govern those decisions," Flynn said.
Some crimes that result in a person being labeled a sex offender don't actually involve sexual acts, Flynn said. Kidnapping and false imprisonment of a minor and permitting the abuse of a child are two examples.
Certain offenders who are pedophiles or have multiple victims and cannot control their behavior should not be allowed to work around children, Flynn said, but she added that they shouldn't be banned from all work.
"We do not want sex offenders with a lot of time on their hands. We want them to be constructive and have their time filled with doing something positive," she said.
Legal opinion
Little Rock's new hiring practices were recommended in March by Employment Services Manager Kathleen Walker after she conducted a review of the city's background check process, according to a memorandum she wrote that month.
In the memo, Walker asked that a legal opinion on whether the city could implement the new regulations be issued before any policy is enacted. City Attorney Tom Carpenter signed off on the legality last week in an opinion written by Chief Deputy City Attorney Bill Mann and Assistant City Attorney Sherri Latimer.
The opinion stated that the city's new policies are "narrowly tailored," only limiting any sex offender from employment in four departments and only banning the most serious sex offenders from any employment.
Walker declined an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette twice this week, saying she didn't have time with the summer workload to discuss her review that led to the creation of the new policy. She is preparing a presentation on background checks as it relates to sex offenders that she will deliver at the Arkansas Municipal League conference next week.
The new policy will be retroactively applied to the eight sex offenders the city employed before its adoption.
They all work in the Public Works Department -- half at the city's solid waste facilities and half at the Operations Division office, according to information provided to the newspaper under an Arkansas Freedom of Information Act request. Based on the duties of workers at those facilities, the offenders are likely sanitation workers or members of a street crew. Two are classified as Level 3, four are Level 2 and two are Level 1.
One Level 3 offender who is a temporary employee will be fired and the other will be given the opportunity to resign, Moore said Wednesday.
Operations Division employee Leonard Dickerson, 50, was convicted of rape in 1990 when he was 25. Sanitation employee Thomas Lovelady, 43, was convicted of rape in 1995 when he was 24. Neither have been arrested or charged with any criminal offense in Little Rock Criminal Court, Pulaski County Circuit Court or U.S. Federal Court's Eastern District since the mid-1990s, according to a name and date of birth search. They could not be reached for comment Thursday.
"Level 3 and 4 are very high-risk categories. We just feel that we needed to move forward with that," Moore said of the terminations.
Under Arkansas Code Annotated 12-12-901(e)(2), information about a sex offender is public only if the offender is rated Level 3 or 4, or if they are rated Level 2 and were an adult and their victim was age 14 or younger at the time of the offense.
The names and offenses of five city-employed offenders who do not meet that criteria were redacted from the document provided to the newspaper.
Herman Wiley, a 60-year-old Operations Division employee who won't be fired, is rated Level 2 but meets the criteria of public disclosure. He was convicted of first-degree sexual assault and sexual indecency with a child in 2010, weeks before his 56th birthday, according to city records. However, court documents show Wiley was convicted of second-degree sexual assault and sexual indecency with a child that year.
Moore did not respond to follow-up emails, a voice message on his cellphone and messages left with his secretary asking about the distinction between firing certain offenders and not others. He also did not respond to questions about how the offenses of the three employees who are listed on the public sex offender registry were missed during background checks or whether background checks were completed on those employees. He was out of the office Thursday.
Questions raised
Little Rock attorney Jeff Rosenzweig, who has handled cases involving sex offender status, said the city is coming "pretty close, if not crossing the line" in regards to whether the new policy is an acceptable regulation or whether it constitutes a punishment. He noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that sex offender registry requirements are constitutional, but has yet to accept a case challenging restrictions on sex offenders, such as employment or living restrictions.
"The city is painting people with a broad brush when they really shouldn't be," Rosenzweig said. "You don't know how the sex offender assessment people distinguish between a Level 2 and a 3."
Flynn said it's possible someone who was rated at a Level 3 when the assessment program was first created in 1997 could be rated differently now since the procedures have evolved. That rating could be lower, or it could be higher, she said. Assessors take a vast amount of information into consideration when assigning a number, including previous sexual tendencies, the age of the victim and the offender's character.
Under Little Rock's new policy, any city-employed sex offender who fails to register as required by law or who does not notify the Human Resources Department of his status will be fired immediately.
The policy was distributed to department heads Tuesday afternoon. Mayor Mark Stodola said he got a copy Wednesday, though he was notified of the policy Tuesday. He said he initially questioned the firing of two Level 3 offenders who were employed before the policy took effect, but was assured by the city attorney that that was allowed.
"I just had the opportunity to quickly glance at the policy, but it seems to me that once a person is identified on the sex offender registry that it will serve us well to go back and look at the specific acts and that should be what dictates or not whether a person has the ability to work or continue to work with the city," Stodola said. He clarified that he supports the policy distinguishing Level 3 and 4 offenders as high risk and banning their employment.
A section on 06/13/2014