Tuesday, March 23 2010 9:18 PM EDT2010-03-24 01:18:53 GMT
The parents of Chelsea King are joining forces with Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher to make a new push for stricter sex offender laws.
The parents of Chelsea King are joining forces with Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher to make a new push for stricter sex offender laws.
SAN DIEGO, Calif. (CBS 8) - Megan's Law may have been a start, but many parents are upset that it does not go far enough to protect kids from predators. A public forum in Escondido was underway Tuesday to talk about Megan's Law's problems and how to fix them.
Public outrage is intensifying over the perceived failure of legislation like Megan's Law to protect young lives such as Chelsea King's, allegedly murdered by convicted sex offender John Gardner.
Megan's Law requires the state to provide online access to a registry of sex offenders, alerting residents to where they live.
Despite seven violations, Gardner was already released from parole supervision when King was murdered. He'd registered in Lake Elsinore, although he was staying with his mother in Rancho Bernardo in the days leading up to his arrest.
A News 8 Investigation found the state's Megan's Law web site mapping out sex offenders' reported addresses to be a confusing sea of blue dots, showing hundreds of sex offenders with the same vague charge as Gardner's -- "committed a lewd act against a child" -- without explaining the circumstances or flagging the most violent offenders.
For that a courthouse records search is needed, but News 8's Jeff Zevely demonstrated that often yields no additional information. So what needs to be done?
"The number one thing that would help protect our children in this county is if the police could direct their attention like a laser beam on the highest risk offenders and not spend their time working on the medium- and low-risk offenders. That would be more productive," former district attorney Paul Pfingst said.
Pfingst acknowledges that the concern is if a low-risk ex-con reoffends, the justice system will be criticized for not focusing on them. John Gardner's lewd and lascivious act was violently beating and molesting a 13-year-old girl in 2000. Pfingst and others believe he should have been classified a high-risk offender.
Tuesday, June 18 2013 10:22 PM EDT2013-06-19 02:22:49 GMT
Authorities disseminated a sketch Tuesday of an unidentified assailant who jumped and sexually assaulted a UC San Diego staff member as she was jogging at the La Jolla campus.
Authorities disseminated a sketch Tuesday of an unidentified assailant who jumped and sexually assaulted a UC San Diego staff member as she was jogging at the La Jolla campus.
Tuesday, June 18 2013 9:25 PM EDT2013-06-19 01:25:01 GMT
As summer vacation gets underway, a childhood virus is hitting the local health front that will have some youngsters delaying the celebration of the end of the school year.
As summer vacation gets underway, a childhood virus is hitting the local health front that will have some youngsters delaying the celebration of the end of the school year.
