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Virginia's Violent Sex Offender Registry has flaws Date published: 5/8/2005
Some area sex offenders don't live where a state police registry says they do RELATED: Sex offender report yields calls, updates
LOG ON to the Virginia State Police Violent Sex Offender Registry and search for Fredericksburg residents. Thirty-five names appear. Roland J. Danner, 41, is listed as living in a Cowan Boulevard apartment, less than a quarter-mile from Hugh Mercer Elementary. But Danner lives in Spotsylvania County, according to a woman who answered the door at the city apartment. Wesley A. Becker, 40, is listed at Payne's Motel on Princess Anne Street. But Becker doesn't live there, according to a clerk. David J. Sykes, 43, was living at the Fredericksburg motel in March--even though the registry placed him in Spotsylvania. Police say he'd been at Payne's Motel for two months by the time he was charged with molesting a 9-year-old girl he was baby-sitting there. The registry says repeat offender Clyde E. Bryant is in prison in Culpeper County. He died two years ago. James F. McLein, 59, is incarcerated at the Rappahannock Regional Jail, according to the registry. But he was released in 2003 and never reported his whereabouts as state law requires. State police have a warrant for his arrest, but never flagged him as missing. The registry is the public's only tool for checking the whereabouts of convicted rapists and child predators in this area. More than 5 million people have searched it since it came online in 1998. But flaws in the registry are prompting lawmakers to call for an overhaul. Like many states, Virginia began registering sex offenders after the 1994 death of Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old New Jersey girl raped and killed by a convicted sex offender living--unbeknownst to her parents--across from her house. After the recent kidnapping and killing of Jessica Lunsford, a 9-year-old Florida girl, lawmakers there are looking for ways to ensure the information reported is accurate. Florida authorities have charged a previously convicted sex offender who was not registered in her county. Keeping track of sex offenders is a problem in Virginia, too. From Orange to Westmoreland, 24 violent sex offenders are wanted for failing to re-register.
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