SALT LAKE CITY—A bill that is working its way through the legislative session has stirred up some controversy among lawmakers and also the public. SB155 Sex, Kidnap, and Child Abuse Offender Adjustments, sponsored by Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, seeks to make changes to the sex offender registry database. Families of those on the registry are at odds with families of victims.

“This is a stinky, disgusting bill,” said one woman during the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Committee meeting. 

“It blows me away with all that is going on in the world that you’re wasting time with this,” said one man. “It’s insulting. My wife was molested by her grandfather. Victims never recover. They literally can’t function. It’s a wreck for them for life. It’s disgusting that you’re even putting this bill forward.”

“Utah created the sex offender database in the 1980s,” said Weiler. “Like many other states today, we have approximately 11,000 people who are part of that database which requires them to update their address if they move.”

Everyone on this committee, everybody in this room has sex offenders in their neighborhood, he said. “Some of those people are a danger to our children and to our families. Those people should absolutely have been on that database. Some of those people I believe are not a danger.”

This bill would allow a judge to decide this, said Weiler. “We have a 10 year and we have a lifetime database. Those are the two designations. Some other states have five, 10 and 15 years. What this bill does is change 20 years out of prison to 12 years. Right now they have to wait eight years before they can apply (to remove their name) again. This bill changes the eight year wait to a five year wait.”

Weiler said a few years ago he passed a bill that says after 20 years on the registry they can raise their hand and ask the judge to review the case. “There have been 61 out of 11,000 that have been removed from the database.”

Generally what they do is go to a psychiatrist or therapist, someone who is trained in the field who does a risk assessment, he said. “The judge reviews the case and makes a determination whether they should be removed.”

This doesn’t let people out of jail, Weiler said. “The neighborhood knows who is on the registry. If they’ve been out in the community for 12 years and haven’t reoffended that says something.”

Weiler said he’s been approached by many senators, many legislators and many grandmothers and mothers and wives of a sex offender and the story is the same. “‘My loved one made a mistake. It was 25 years ago. They’ve gone through treatment. They’ve changed.’”

They have children now and they can’t even take their children to a park, even if no one else is in the park, he said. “If they do that, as I understand it, that can move them from the 10 year database to the lifetime database.”

There are many people who believe that every offender on the database has raped a young child, said Weiler. “Now some of them have and that is reprehensible behavior and I’m not going to defend that at all.”

“I’m a victim of childhood abuse,” said Deondra Brown at the hearing. “You can’t police me for the rest of my life. Part of my relief is that my father is on the registry. I won’t have to warn the community. I would just urge you to remember the victims. What about our hope? We don’t get a break from that. There are real life victims. Suffering never ends for us.”

“Deondra’s father should be on the roster for life,” said Weiler. “He raped all three of his daughters. I don’t see them letting him off. My concern is the few that don’t pose a risk. They should be able to raise their hand and ask a judge to revisit their case.”

As of press time, SB155 was on the Senate 2nd Reading Calendar.