Remembering Megan

How one little girl’s legacy is helping protect people from sexual predators across the nation.
By Kimiko Martinez
Lifestyles Editor 

She didn’t panic at first.

Like most 7-year-olds, Maureen Kanka’s daughter Megan had most likely lost track of time while playing with friends.

Now three hours late getting home, Maureen began checking with neighbors and friends to track down her overdue daughter. But as evening descended on the Hamilton Township in Western New Jersey, she began to worry. One neighbor, Jesse Timmendequas, who lived diagonally across the street from the Kankas, said he’d seen Megan earlier while working on his car.

But Megan had never made it home.

After calling the police to report her daughter missing, volunteers and police officers began combing the suburban neighborhood for signs of Megan. Police honed in on 33-year-old Timmendequas’ house when they learned two sex offenders resided there. Within 24 hours, however, it was Timmendequas who confessed and led police to the weeded area of a nearby park where he’d dumped Megan’s body, after raping and killing her.

He had two prior sex convictions.

WHO KNEW?

Unfortunately, Megan’s story is not an isolated incident. As more and more child abduction and sexual abuse cases are coming to light, parents are searching for ways to protect their children.

Certainly Maureen Kanka would have been more concerned for her daughter’s safety on the summer evening in 1994 had she known three sex offenders were living nearby.

But parents aren’t the only ones who need to be concerned. Combine an increasingly busy society full of people who don’t have the time or interest to know their neighbors, with approximately 20,000 sex offenders in Los Angeles County, and the chances of becoming a victim increases.

“Sex offenders will reoffend if we give them the opportunity,” said Sgt. Dan Scott, a Los Angeles County Sheriff who’s been with the Family Crimes unit for 15 years. “It’s up to citizens, not me as a cop, to protect themselves.”

Luckily, Americans have a weapon to help aid in their defense. Just two years after Megan’s death, Congress passed legislation requiring states to pass their own versions of “Megan’s Law,” which demands sex offender registration and some type of community notification, leaving decisions regarding the risk level of offenders and the type of notification up to individual states.        

Currently, there are three options for locating sex offenders in a given area. Anyone can call the California Sex Offender Information “900” Line to inquire about specific sex offenders by providing key information such as an offender’s name, birth date and drivers license number. People can also go to their local law enforcement agency to search the Department of Justice database of registered sex offenders, updated daily, by using the name, county or zip code. The system provides the name, a photo (when available), known aliases, description of the offender and what their offenses are.

An online, map-based system also shows how many registered sex offenders are in a particular area. Locally, http://lacounty.info has registered sex offender location information listed under a Public Alerts tab, which is searchable by city/community, zip code, address, library, school and park. Offenders, however, can only be tracked down to within a few blocks of their actual address to prevent harassment or any possible infringements on privacy rights. Currently, however, it is not possible to find out specific information, such as that provided by the Justice Department, for the individuals represented as dots on the map system.

HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?

And there is some debate as to how much information should be released to the public. More than 25 states provide online the information Californians can only obtain at law enforcement stations and Megan’s Law viewing stations. Additionally, many of these states provide full or partial addresses of offenders as well as their identifying information and criminal offenses.

Legislation that would have provided Californians with Internet access similar to that of many other states was shot down Monday in a 5-2 vote by the Assembly Public Safety Committee.

According to Brian O’Neel, press secretary for Assemblyman Tim Leslie, who co-authored the bill AB 26, the current system is insufficient to provide the public with the information it needs to protect themselves. While the data provided on the Internet currently gives users a general location, it doesn’t give a face or name. And it doesn’t let users know what street the offender lives on, which the bill’s proponents say is information many people would like to know.

Junior broadcasting major Louise Hay agreed.

“I would want the maximum information available,” the 22-year-old said. “And I would like to be informed without seeking the information. But I’m merciless when it comes to that sort of thing.”

In addition to making Megan’s Law available online, AB 26 would have also provided a sex offender’s home address, car registration information, a photograph and work address.

But the bill’s opponents, mainly the American Civil Liberties Union, contended that the current level of information was enough for the public to protect themselves, adding that putting expanded information about sex offenders online would give residents “the illusion of protection.”

O’Neel, however, sees it a different way.

“They think this bill is unnecessary,” he said. “They think that being able to see a bunch of pinpoints on a map is enough for parents to protect their children. They care more about convicted sex offenders than children.”

But junior Jillian Gibson can see where the ACLU is coming from.

“I don’t think you should be told where they live,” the advertising major said. “But if people want to take it upon themselves to educate themselves about who’s around them, then it should be available.”

Junior Jonathan Medrano, however, thinks that the public interest should come first.

“I don’t think you have any rights once you’re a convicted sex offender,” Medrano said. “I think the state has a substantial interest in protecting the safety of the public, which outweighs any slight interest the state might have in protecting sex offenders.”

REAL ACCESS

According to 1995 Department of Justice statistics, on any given day more than 200,000 offenders convicted of rape or sexual assault are under the care, custody or control of corrections agency. And about 60 percent of these sex offenders are under conditional supervision in the community, which means they’re living on some street, in some city, in someone’s neighborhood, and have the potential to offend again.

And despite the availability of Megan’s Law at law enforcement stations, Scott said the Sheriff’s Department averages only about 1,300 visitors per year.

“That’s countywide, for 8 million people,” Scott said.

Although lawmakers and legislators could interpret those numbers as meaning the system is not serving the public in the way it was intended, Scott believes that would be an inaccurate reading.

Scott, who’s been with the L.A. Sheriff’s Department for 22 years and lectures across the county, said when he asks people, the No. 1 reason why they don’t access Megan’s Law is because they don’t like to visit a police station.

“We need to change the system and make it more user-friendly, Internet-based,” Scott said. “Then I think people will use it. My guess is there would be thousands of hits on the first day.”

But he’s quick to add that the system has come a long way since its inception more than 50 years ago. California has actually had registration laws for convicted sex offenders since 1947, and was the first state in the nation to establish such laws, according to the California Attorney General’s Office. California followed the national mandate to establish state Megan’s Laws in 1996.

“We didn’t have the technology that we have today,” Scott said. “When they started this system about five years ago, they came through with a CD-ROM and update it every couple of months. Now it’s constantly updated. It’s not perfect, but it’s getting better. And as long as there’s constant concern and pressure, it’s going to continue getting better.”

WHO’S OUT THERE?

Under current laws, released sex offenders are required to register within five working days of moving to a new residence or when they change their name. “Transient” offenders are required to update their registration every 60 days, and sexually violent offenders every 90 days.

Of the 20,000 or so registered sex offenders in Los Angeles County alone, a handful reside in Malibu and its surrounding communities.

A visit to the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station and the Los Angeles Police Department Pacific Division Station this past week revealed seven serious sex offenders in the 90265 zip code (Malibu), four in 91302 (Calabasas), five in 91301 (Agoura Hills), four in 90290 (Topanga) and eight in 90272 (Pacific Palisades). 

And as Scott reiterated, many of them are likely to reoffend.

“Criminals released from prison repeat a lot,” he said. “I don’t know if (sex offenders) are more or less likely to re-offend than (other) offenders, but from my personal observations, you don’t change a child molester or rapist.”

And although the debate as to how much information to release continues, most agree that at least a basic information should be provided to the public.

“If I knew I was coming in contact with a sex offender, I would want to know,” said Gibson, who interacts with many locals on a regular basis at her job in Malibu.

But she also added that she wouldn’t want their past to affect their present.

“People can change and it’s hard to find that out and be prejudiced against them,” she said. “But some people don’t change.”

And that assumption is most likely why some people are calling for even stricter laws and broader notification.

Medrano admitted he might consider having signs being posted in front of sex offenders’ homes, and Hay said she would want something mailed to her if an offender moved into her neighborhood.

“I would like to be informed without having to seek the information,” Hay said.

Gibson disagrees.

“I think it should be asked for and not just publicized.”

Looking at the recent vote on AB 26, it looks like the chances of California’s Megan’s Law being expanded from the current system is highly unlikely.

Although the California Assembly’s Public Safety Committee did pass a modified Internet Megan’s Law measure, it would only make the information currently available at law enforcement stations available online.

“The bill they passed out is a fig leaf so they can say they’re doing something,” Leslie said. “When are they going to get serious about protecting our children and grandchildren from these predators?”

When asked why California is lagging behind other states in putting additional sex offender information online, especially considering that California had been at the forefront of sex offender registry, O’Neel said simply: “I would answer your question with four simple letters: A-C-L-U. California is a very liberal state, and the more liberal a state, the more power a group like the ACLU is going to have. The chances of passing a (state) bill with any teeth in it is pretty slim in the current political climate.”

That’s a relief to some, but a huge worry for others.

But whether or not the information goes online or not, Scott suggests people get down to the viewing stations and see who’s out there.

“Look at the pictures, and find out who’s hanging out in your neighborhood, at the park, with your kids,” Scott said. “We can’t be everywhere, and people need to be able to protect themselves.”

April 03, 2003