Lee residents to have say on sex offenders in hurricane shelters

Should convicted sexual offenders be allowed to stay in hurricane shelters along with everyone else seeking refuge from the storm?

Lee County residents will get a chance to weigh in on that question Tuesday during a public hearing on a proposal to segregate sex offenders in separate shelters. Convicted sex offenders who weathered a storm in a non-approved shelter would risk a $500 fine and up to 60 days in prison.

Current policy allows those convicted of a sexual offense to stay at any of the county's several dozen shelters, but they are supposed to identify themselves as offenders and be kept in a specific area of the shelter.

Assistant County Attorney Scott Coovert, who drew up the proposed ordinance, said the new policy would help keep other residents safe and could spare the sex offenders ridicule and harassment from others in a regular shelter.

"If people find out that these people are sex offenders or predators, you never know what they're going to do," Coovert said. "(Sex offenders) have rights too. They have to carry that badge with them, and some have done their time and are now good, law-abiding citizens."

Chris Beddoes, emergency services director for Lee County's chapter of the American Red Cross, said shelter operators already are trained to screen refuge-seekers to see who is a convicted sex offender. Lee County has about 300 registered sex offenders.

Beddoes said cross-checking the list with the 6,600 residents who used a hurricane shelter during Hurricane Wilma last year did not cause problems or delays.

Sheriff Mike Scott, though, notes that Wilma's long stay off the Yucatan Peninsula meant residents streamed into shelters for days rather than all at once. A storm that emerges more quickly might cause complications, meaning some sex offenders might have to stay at a main shelter under supervision.

"If winds are blowin' and trees are falling, what are you going to do? Tell (sex offenders) they have to go?" Scott said.

Regardless, Scott said, the Sheriff's Office will be able to keep track of sex offenders. The county's sex offenders must check in with the Sheriff's Office every month, and they will be given ample information on where they need to go during an emergency, Scott said.

During Hurricanes Charley in 2004 and Wilma in 2005, shelters had signs instructing sex offenders to make their status known so they could be separated from the general population, said Lee County Public Safety Director John Wilson.

Wilson said the proposed ordinance was designed simply to keep residents safe and was not prompted by a specific event in Lee County nor by media reports of rapes and assaults inside the New Orleans Superdome during Hurricane Katrina last year.

A similar ordinance was recently passed in Hendry County, and Highlands County also is considering requiring separate shelters for sex offenders.

Hendry County Sheriff Ronnie Lee said his county's plans call for housing its 43 registered sex offenders at the jail — though not in cells — during an emergency.

Lee County has not yet picked a location for housing sex offenders, but some justice centers have been looked at, Scott said.

The public hearing is scheduled for 5 p.m. Tuesday at County Commission chambers, 2120 Main Street, in Fort Myers. Commissioners are scheduled to vote on the ordinance after the hearing.

If approved, the ordinance could go into effect as early as July 1.