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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Sex Offenders Fight|Lifetime Supervision

LAS VEGAS (CN) - Nevada's lifetime supervision of sex offenders is unconstitutional double jeopardy, often making it impossible for them to find work and comply with terms of their punishments, 16 John Does claim in Federal Court.

Sex offenders sentenced to prison in Nevada are also sentenced to a lifetime of state supervision. Attorney General Adam Laxalt and seven other top officials are defendants in the Aug. 25 lawsuit.

The 16 John Does served their time and now are subject to lifetime supervision. They make 10 constitutional claims for themselves and another 1,000 unknown Does.

Attorney Robert Draskovich said his clients seek to nullify the lifetime supervision provisions that make it virtually impossible for many to find jobs, go to school, see their children, or even abide by the terms of their supervision.

"The big thing is the constitutional violations," Draskovich said. "They were already punished. Lifetime supervision is a second punishment."

Nevada in 2007 enacted a law that created the "special sentence of lifetime supervision," including restrictions on residence and movement - and applied the law retroactively, the Does say.

A legal challenge to the retroactive application failed in 2012 at the Ninth Circuit, which found that the "retroactive application is constitutionally sound" and overturned a district court ruling that retroactive lifetime supervision is the "equivalent of a new punishment tacked on to the original sentence," according to the complaint.

But Draskovich said the additional punishment violates due process by subjecting his clients to 21 special provisions, including being home by 6 p.m., attending and paying for monthly rehabilitation sessions, obtaining permission to move, staying away from computers and other devices capable of accessing the Internet, among others.

These provisions make it hard for his clients to attend and pay for mandatory sessions, get a job, or move on with their lives. To top it off, Draskovich says, many of his clients are innocent.

"A lot of them passed polygraph tests that said they didn't do it, but wound up settling to get it over with," Draskovich said.

He said that in most cases, the offenders were convicted of relatively minor violations or were falsely accused, but did not have the means to defend themselves in court and settled to end it.

The hardcore pedophiles are "few and far between," Draskovich said - but sex offenders are not a group that generates public sympathy.

Most people find the subject distasteful. Even attempts to study it have met with resounding denunciations, though the topic is a widespread public safety concern. There were 604,550 registered sex offenders in the United States and its territories in 2012, according to Parents for Megan's Law and the Crime Victims Center.

Without drawing hard lines, psychologists sometimes classify child sex offenders as either fixated or regressed. Fixated offenders are preoccupied with children, and are considered a greater risk of re-offending. Regressed offenders have "normal" sexual impulses but may resort to children or other victims during times of stress. Their behavior is characterized as situational, opportunistic and impulsive, rather than fixated.

Rapists are another category, whose violent predilections may be characterized as primarily motivated by anger, power or sadism.

The 16 John Does want enforcement of lifetime supervision enjoined as unconstitutional: violating due process, equal protection, free speech, cruel and unusual punishment, double jeopardy, ex post facto prohibitions, the Contract Clause, the separation of powers, and bill of attainder prohibitions. They also call it fraudulent misrepresentation.

Officials with the Nevada Department of Public Safety did not respond to a request for comment.

The defendants are Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, Public Safety Director Chris Perry, Parole and Probation Chief Natalie Wood, Records and Technology Chief Patrick Conmay, Las Vegas Metro Police Sheriff Joseph Lombardo, North Las Vegas Police Chief Alexander Perez, Clark County District Attorney Steven Wolfenson and Henderson Police Chief Patrick Moers.

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