Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Bañales refuses to annul his order

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Friday, May 25, 2001
Bañales refuses to annul his order
Sex offender says he's been threatened
By Jeremy Schwartz
Caller-Times
   Judge J. Manuel Bañales on Thursday refused to let a 34-year-old sex offender remove warning signs from his apartment and car after the man and his family testified that they had been threatened.
   John Lee, who received five years probation last year after pleading guilty to indecency with a child, asked Banales to rescind his order that required Lee and more than a dozen other sex offenders to put up the signs. Lee's request was the first legal challenge to Banales' decision, which has gained national attention since he announced it a week ago.
   Lee's father, Robert Lee, told Bañales that trouble ensued the night his son was given a sign and put it on the door to the apartment the two shared.
   Robert Lee said that Friday night a stranger pounded on his door and then yelled at him.
   "He said, 'people like you have no business living in this neighborhood, you need to go out and live in a cave,' '' Robert Lee said.
   "He was accusing me like I was a sex offender."
   Lee said that in the morning the sign had been ripped from the door.
   Lee also told the judge that over the weekend he was driving in his car, which had a court ordered bumper sticker on it, when some men in another car pointed an imaginary gun at him.
   "He's afraid he's going to get killed," said Lee's sister, Sharon Lee.
   Lee's attorney, Gerald Rogen, said the sign order was cruel and unusual punishment and was not called for under the state's sex offender registration act, which requires Internet postings and letters to neighbors in some cases.
   Rogen said he would appeal Bañales' decision to the 13th Court of Appeals.
   In denying Lee's request, Bañales said state law allows judges to make conditions of probation public. "Both (state law and sex offender registration act) work together," Bañales said. "And I reject the argument that this is cruel and unusual punishment."
   Internet ban
   Bañales said he decided on the signs after meeting with probation officials and treatment specialists. On Friday he ordered changes in the probation conditions of about 40 offenders, which included writing letters to neighbors informing them of their presence in the neighborhood, not frequenting topless clubs and a ban on Internet use.
   Fourteen were ordered to put signs in their yards reading "Danger! Registered Sex Offender Lives Here" and similar bumper stickers on their cars. The importance of the signs to the community, Bañales said, overrides their effects on offenders' family members.
   Critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, have said the signs could cause vigilantes to attack offenders, their families and property, cause property values to plummet and undermine the offenders' rehabilitation.
   Probation department officials urged Bañales not to rescind his order in regard to Lee, saying he had been deceptive about his address, which officials consider a crucial aspect of the sex offender registration law.
   High risk offenders
   Lee told Bañales he has been staying primarily with his father at an apartment complex on Ocean Drive, but also has stayed with friends. An apartment manager testified she had told Lee's father that his son was not allowed to stay in the apartment because he is a sex offender, and didn't think he had been living there for the past year.
   "It's very crucial for an offender to give an exact address," said Iris D. Davila, supervisor of the Community Supervision and Corrections Department's specialized services.
   Davila said the sex offenders given the signs were selected because they showed a high risk of committing another sex crime.
   "We stand firm on our recommendations," she said. "We work with these individuals on a daily basis, we know the risks they pose. We have to be the advocates for the community, for the children."
   According to court documents, Lee and a 15-year-old girl touched each other's genitals over their clothing in December 1999. In her statement to police, the girl said she and Lee were at the girl's house kissing when the girl's mother found her and slapped her. After Lee left the house, the girl called him to pick her up, according to court documents.
   Original conditions
   As part of his original probation conditions, Lee was ordered by Bañales to spend 10 days in jail during the Christmas season for three years to remind him of his offense and get a taste of incarceration.
   Davila said offenders given the signs were not progressing well through their therapy or were failing parts of their probation. None of the offenders, most of whom committed crimes against children, were given the signs because they had repeated their offense. The signs have had an effect on sex offenders not in Bañales' court. "They're coming in saying they won't be a slacker, that they'll do whatever it takes because they don't want a sign in their yards," she said.
   After the hearing, Rogen said he had hoped Bañales would be moved by Tuesday's overdose of a sex offender who was ordered to put up signs at his apartment complex. Nestor Gutierrez took five or six muscle relaxants, was rushed to the hospital and will be receiving psychological care.
   "I just pray everyone will stay safe until this is overturned by a higher court," Rogen said.

Contact Jeremy Schwartz at 886-3779 or schwartzj@caller.com

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