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The search for Jessica Lunsford
Girl's death inspires tracking bill
Some legislators want offenders to wear devices that could alert officials if they near a school or child's home.
By ABBIE VANSICKLE and CARRIE JOHNSON
Published March 23, 2005
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[Times photo: Ted McLaren]
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John Couey, 46, appears at the Citrus County jail in Lecanto before Judge Mark Yerman via a video link to the Citrus County Courthouse in Inverness early Tuesday. Couey was designated a sexual offender in 1991, but county probation officials say they didn't know that.
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 Related 10 News video: Funeral services set for Jessica Lunsford |
TALLAHASSEE - Outraged by the murder of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, state lawmakers are rushing to introduce legislation that would require sexual offenders to wear tracking devices.
The devices could be programmed to alert law enforcement agencies if a sex offender went near a school or the home of a child.
"I think it's absolutely essential we have that control over anyone who is a sexual offender," said Rep. Charles Dean, R-Inverness, who plans to introduce legislation today in the House Criminal Justice Committee. "Particularly if the crime involves children."
Senate President Tom Lee and House Speaker Allan Bense have expressed support for the Global Positioning System devices, which are already used in some Florida counties and several other states, including Massachusetts and Georgia.
But Lee stressed that he did not want a "lynch mob mentality" to take hold in the Senate and wanted members to gather facts and "take our time."
Legislators still must determine who would be required to wear the devices, which include ankle bracelets and a machine resembling a large pager.
With some 50,000 sexual offenders and predators in Florida, it was unclear whether the devices would be used for all offenders or only sexual predators, who are judged likely to repeat their crimes.
Also unclear is whether offenders would be required to wear the devices only while on probation, or for an indefinite period.
The push comes just days after John Couey, 46, was charged with capital murder by Citrus County authorities in the death of Jessica Lunsford.
Couey has an extensive criminal record and was designated a sexual offender in 1991 after a conviction for an attempted lewd act on a 5-year-old girl in Kissimmee. Couey was on probation for a different crime when he was arrested in Jessica's murder.
Dean, the former sheriff of Citrus County, said he was outraged Couey was allowed to roam so freely. Couey failed to check in with probation officials in November, but wasn't tracked down until after Jessica was murdered.
County probation officials say they didn't know he was a sex offender.
Couey also was allowed to work as a mason at the Homosassa elementary school Jessica attended.
Dean discussed his ideas in a meeting Tuesday with House Speaker Bense, R-Panama City, and said he had Bense's support.
Jessica's father, Mark Lunsford, has been clamoring for legislative reform since his daughter's death. He handed out petitions Sunday afternoon trying to collect 100,000 signatures demanding harsher sentences for sexual predators of children.
Citrus Sheriff Jeff Dawsy plans to go to Tallahassee early next week to look at options for tracking sex offenders, said sheriff's spokeswoman Gail Tierney. She said Dawsy wants to make sex offenders "more accountable for their actions and whereabouts."
Sen. Nancy Argenziano, R-Dunnellon, has organized a meeting with Lee on Monday to discuss a legislative response to the Lunsford case. Among those invited are Dean, Dawsy, State Attorney Brad King and Attorney General Charlie Crist.
"I think they should lock this guy up and throw away the key," Argenziano said. "I think he's a dirtbag and he needs to go away."
Sex offender tracking is not a new concept for the Citrus County Sheriff's Office, where information director Bill Reach has pushed for GPS tracking for five years.
The devices decrease the chance that sex offenders will commit more crimes, he said, but funding for such monitoring programs hasn't come through.
"We want to see a law that requires every registered sex offender in the state of Florida to wear one of these bracelets while he is under active supervision," Reach said.
The county was among five singled out for a 2000 project by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to track offenders with GPS.
Last year, Citrus and other counties lobbied for $8-million for another tracking program. They got $2.4-million, he said, which is enough to track only 500 to 600 people statewide.
None of the 202 registered sex offenders and predators in Citrus are monitored with the GPS devices, he said.
Rep. Everett Rice, R-Treasure Island, the former Pinellas County sheriff, has seen the devices firsthand and said they are an effective deterrent.
Satellite-based GPS units are used by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office to monitor inmates on work release. The inmate wears an ankle bracelet and a transmitter around the waist that sends signals to the Sheriff's Office. This creates a computer record of where the inmate has gone every day and when.
"It's not just a theory," Rice said. "It's a proven product. It's working in Pinellas County." He said a person's movements can be compared to incidents of criminal activity to help make cases.
GPS tracking programs generally don't violate civil liberties if they are used as alternatives to incarceration or during parole or probation, said Larry Spalding, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.
The problem would come if the tracking devices were required for people who had completed their court-ordered sentences.
"Once you've served your time, you've served your time," he said.
Times staff writer Alisa Ulferts and researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this report.
[Last modified March 23, 2005, 01:21:30]
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