Two level 3 sex offenders to move in to group home in Danby
More than 130 people signed a petition to prevent two level 3 sex offenders from moving into a group home in the town of Danby.
Megan Hall, who lives in Danby, started the online petition on Change.org, asking Unity House, a nonprofit that works with people with mental disabilities, not to move the registered sex offenders into a home at 168 Nelson Road near two schools.
“I think everybody’s main priority right now is to stop it,” she said.
But, neighbors and the town board have their hands tied because of a February ruling in New York’s highest court. A unanimous ruling Feb. 17 by the New York Court of Appeals overturned more than 100 local ordinances across the state that restricted where sex offenders could live. As a result, it is legal for the two level 3 sex offenders to live in the Nelson Road house, which is less than a mile from Ithaca Waldorf School.
“The town has no laws prohibiting this. It’s just dictated to us by the state,” Town Supervisor Ric Dietrich said during a March 16 town hall meeting.
There is no legal requirement that Unity House notify residents that sex offenders are moving in either. The organization, however, said it opted voluntarily to notify residents by distributing postcards and talking with immediate neighbors on Nelson Street.
“I understand what the concerns are, and I understand this is a highly emotional topic,” Elizabeth Smith, executive director of Unity House, said.
The sex offenders are expected to move in between late March and early April. Level 3 is the most severe sex offender designation.
Unity House will employ at least 9 direct-care counselors, she said, who will help supervise the two sex offenders, and a third man, 24/7 to prevent them from leaving the home on their own. At least two staff will be on duty at all times, and all doors and windows will also be alarmed to prevent one of the men from sneaking out, Smith said. Both the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Department and Unity House said an individual had never escaped from one of their facilities and reoffended.
Unity House took questions from Danby residents during the packed meeting at town hall, but the answers did not quell many residents’ fears.
“You’re using our friends and neighbors as bait,” Danby resident Raymond Mayo said.
Hall, who has two young children, said she won’t walk by the house with her kids anymore.
“It’s a sensitive issue,” she said. “We have a neighborhood where there are kids, families and nobody wants pedophiles living in your neighborhood.”
But, Hall and others said their biggest grievance was a lack of transparency on the part of unity house and that the postcards were not enough.
“Unity House should have been transparent from the beginning—at least to give the community and opportunity to get together, to inform them,” Hall said.
Neither of the two sex offenders has been given a “sexually violent offender” designation, which would be attached to their level III statuses. However, it is unclear what crimes either man committed. The sheriff’s department will publish that information after the men move to Unity House.
While Unity House said one of the men’s crimes was committed roughly 20 years ago and the other’s committed about three decades ago, the organization will continue to speak with residents and answer questions in an attempt to make everyone feel safe and comfortable in the community.
“We will go back to the agency and have a lot of discussion about what we could have done better,” Smith said.
Stephen Adams 