Lyons – Tonight, officials in this small town on the doorstep of the Rockies will consider whether to become the latest city in Colorado to place restrictions on where sex offenders can live.
Town Trustee Kris Hicar, the mother of two children, brought up the idea at a meeting last month, after her husband read an article about how such laws are forcing more and more sex offenders across the country into small towns and rural areas – places like Lyons.
“I saw it as a way to pad our door, so that if Longmont or Boulder passes something, we could be ready,” she said.
But as Hicar and others in this town soon learned, emotions and opinions run high on both sides of the issue. Dozens of people have called her and other town leaders. The state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has taken an interest.
“It kind of took on a life of its own,” said Town Manager Gary Cinnamon.
Indeed, Lyons – population 1,680 and only a square-mile in area – has found itself quite unexpectedly involved in the national debate over whether to limit where sex offenders live.
Proponents of residency restrictions – most such laws include buffer zones around schools, parks and other areas where children gather – say they keep the community safe.
“Common sense tells you that if you can keep sexual predators physically away from children, then they are going to victimize children less often,” said state Rep. David Balmer, R-Centennial, who sponsored a residency restriction bill in the legislature this year that died in committee.
But critics of the laws argue that they isolate sex offenders in places where they can’t receive treatment, broadly group all sex offenders regardless of the details of their crimes and may force more sex offenders to go underground.
“It is not making the children any safer,” said Cathryn Hazouri, the executive director of Colorado ACLU. “It is a feel-good move. … All it does is prevent the person from living in a particular area. It doesn’t prevent the person from being in a particular area.”
Twenty-seven states and hundreds of cities have laws limiting where sex offenders can live. Last year, Greenwood Village became the first city in Colorado to pass such a law.
At the time, the city had four sex offenders, but two offenders have since moved out. One offender attempted to move into the city but was told he couldn’t live where he intended to, said Greenwood Village Detective Michelle Ponikiski. He registered in another city.
“It’s pretty much been a nonevent for us,” said Greenwood Village Police Chief Donnie Perry.
Aurora is considering an ordinance to restrict sexually violent predators and sex offenders whose crimes involved children from living near schools or parks. The proposed ordinance is scheduled to go before a City Council committee this month and could be approved by the full council this summer.
“I think that we found a good balance between providing a zone of protection around where kids congregate and being so restrictive that we create an incentive not to comply with the registration law at all,” said City Councilman Larry Beer.
Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle wrote Lyons trustees a letter outlining several concerns he has about such an ordinance. Among them: that such a law would not only uproot sex offenders but also the family members they live with, and that the ordinance could cause some offenders not to register.
There are five registered sex offenders – three of them juveniles – in Lyons. Since the town board began discussing a residency restriction ordinance, one adult sex offender said about a half-dozen people have come to his house to meet him. Some, he said, have been confrontational, while others have been cordial.
“I did everything Colorado asked of me, and I feel like now they’re trying to add to my sentence,” said the offender, who asked that his name not be used because he feared retribution for his status. “That’s what it is – it’s an additional sentence. You’re punished for life.”
He pleaded guilty in 2003 to attempted incest. He now lives about two blocks from an elementary school.
All the controversy has Hicar and other Lyons trustees rethinking whether a residency restriction ordinance is a good idea.
“My concern is that I don’t want to offer a false sense of security,” Hicar said.
Lyons Mayor Nick Angelo said having such a debate come to town has been eye-opening.
“This is an incredibly sensitive issue,” he said. “So we’re going to have our full discussion. Everybody will lay out the issue on Monday night, and we will decide where to go from there.”
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.
