Last Tuesday, thousands from throughout the state and nation were saddened to hear the news that the body of missing 17-year-old Poway High School student Chelsea King had been found after a frenzied five day search. Those from Poway and the rest of San Diego County were particularly stunned. Many of us had been glued to the story, while holding out hope that she might be found alive, even though a sexual predator had been arrested in the case.
The community at large, many coming out by the thousands to search for Chelsea, grabbed on to the hope that whatever rape- and murder-related evidence the Sheriff’s Department had in its possession might somehow be wrong, lacking an actual body.
The photos of Chelsea on the news and on storefront windows throughout the county represented the picture of all our children, any one of them out for an afternoon run on a nice, lake shore trail in a relatively safe community, only not to return home.
We all gasped to learn that this terrible act was allegedly perpetrated by a known sexual offender, John Gardner, a man who might have still been serving time today had anyone paid heed to his court-appointed psychiatrist’s recommendation of "the maximum sentence allowed by law." The psychiatrist had further described the offender as "a continued danger to underage girls in the community" and an "extremely poor candidate" for treatment.
In the next few days I had more than one person ask me how it was that such a "person" could possibly be in a position to act again, most of them questioning how the laws of our state would allow such a situation. They received an earful from me. Yet, I prefaced my response with those I knew to be self-described liberals, first asking them if they really wanted to know the answer.
Does anyone really want to know the answer?
On Tuesday night, many were memorializing their reaction to the sad news via Facebook, Twitter and other social media venues. I was no different. My Facebook message that evening, while not trying to be too political in the immediate wake of such tragedy…
My prayers go to the King family with the tragic loss of Chelsea. My prayers go to all our families, that some good may come of this. It is unfortunate that often lawmakers only take real note in the wake of tragedy, but that being the case, let’s use this terrible thing to make our children safer.
A nearly immediate response came from my longtime friend Dan Brennan, a former legislative staffer…
How many Project KidSafe bills did we have that were killed at their first committee hearing that would have kept this animal away from that girl? Evidence, sentencing, tracking of registered offenders, etc., etc. I am just sick over this whole thing and my heart breaks for that poor little girl and her family.
I was compelled to react…
Yes, I wasn’t going to get too political tonight, but every one of those bills defeated 5-2 in Assembly Public Safety Committee (similar in the Senate) on a straight party line vote. For years. That’s not political, those are the facts, and if anyone doesn’t believe it, I can show them on-line how to confirm it.
Although Brennan’s experience spans the years prior and since, we were mutually referring to the early to mid 2000s when he worked for Senator Dennis Hollingsworth and I for then-Assemblyman Jay La Suer. The two legislators were leaders in an effort on a package of bills — respectively authored by several Republicans — called Project KidSafe. Ironically, this was taking place during much of the time Chelsea’s alleged murderer John Gardner was serving his shortened five-year sentence for the prior 2000 molestation conviction of a 13-year-old girl.
The inside "joke" during that time I worked in the legislature — if one can really call it that — got to a point that when a constituent asked what happened with this or that bill related to public safety, or asked if anyone had thought of a particular approach to crime, I would answer them this: "Well, let me look it up, but I’m pretty sure that it was defeated in the Assembly Committee on Public Safety on a 5-2 vote, with only the two Republican members of the committee in favor." Then, looking at the result, I would be spot on much of the time.
Close to seven years later, I just now tested my contention. I went to www.assembly.ca.gov, to legislation, to the 2003-04 Session, searched for Jay La Suer’s legislation, and clicked on the first bill listed that appeared to be related to public safety, AB 1439. This particular bill would have required a court of law to give great weight to protecting the identity and rights of the victims featured in child pornography evidence when directing the use of the evidence by the defense, while still taking into account the defendant’s right to prepare for trial.
AB 1439 was defeated 5-2 in the Public Safety Committee on April 8, 2003, with all five Democrats opposed and Republicans La Suer and Bill Maze voting aye. A party line vote.
How about a bill in the same 2003-04 session authored by a Republican Assemblymember known to be a tad more moderate than La Suer, say … Shirley Horton. A random search brings up AB 966. This one I remember, as it was one of the first legislative attempts to put the Megan’s Law Registry of Sex Offenders on the web, instead of requiring that viewing the information be limited to going to the local police station or sheriff’s office…
This bill would require the Department of Justice to operate and maintain a publicly accessible Internet Web site allowing access to information concerning individuals that have been identified as sexual habitual offenders, as specified. The Web site would admonish applicants to view information that the release of information is to allow members of the public to protect themselves and their children and that it is unlawful to use the information to commit any crime or to engage in illegal discrimination as harassment.
What’s ironic about the language is that current law now provides for the very thing described. Yet, remember, this was 2004, before the issue was forced by an irate citizenry, wanting common sense to provide them the ability to protect themselves, if the legislature wasn’t going to provide it for them.
Proving that my 5-2 claim holds little water, this bill to expand Megan’s Law to the Internet was defeated January 13, 2004, in Public Safety Committee on a mere 4-2 vote. Again, the two Republicans were in favor, but this time with only four Democrats opposed instead of five. A straight party line vote. The fifth Democrat was either absent or abstained. Which, by the way, any parliamentary minded soul will tell you is the same as a no vote. Sorry I was so off base.
How about the 2005-06 Session? George and Sharon Runner have had respective legislative careers known for a focus on public safety. Here’s an Assemblywoman Sharon Runner bill, AB 231…
Under existing law, the punishment for kidnapping with the intent to commit any of several specified sexual acts is imprisonment in the state prison for life with the possibility of parole. This bill, to be known as the Sexual Predator Punishment and Control Act … would add rape committed in concert and committing lewd and lascivious acts to the above specified sexual acts.
A no brainer, you say? In Public Safety on April 26, 2005, it went down to defeat, with the two Republicans voting aye, three Democrats voting no, another Democrat absent or not voting, and a vacancy on the Committee. Not 5-2, but for all intents and purposes the same count. Certainly the same result. A straight party line vote.
I could do this all day. I won’t, but don’t think for a second that the Senate is any different, or that things have changed much since then. As they say, you could look it up.
Of course, the passage of any of those Project KidSafe bills from the same time frame John Gardner was serving wouldn’t have kept him from being released in 2005 instead of 2011, as his prosecution and sentencing had already been softened. Yet, in the 1990s, the same type of legislative efforts as described above were also consistently defeated on party line votes. Assemblyman Steve Baldwin, who served from 1994-2000, is working on an article about the history of failed attempts to push through legislation that would have mandated harsher penalties against sexual offenders. Watch for that piece on these pages.
After three decades in law enforcement, and now running for Sheriff in San Diego County, La Suer served in the Assembly from 2000-2006. "One of the most frustrating experiences during my time in the state
legislature," he says, "was the many times the Democrat majority in the Assembly Public Safety Committee defeated so many excellent bills that would have increased sentencing guidelines for all types of sex offenders.
"I carried the first bill for GPS monitoring of offenders and it was soundly defeated in committee. Fortunately the Governor set aside funds for a test of the GPS technology. I was able to convince him to place some GPS units in the San Diego Region.
"The Democrats’ normal response when I or another conservative proposed stricter legislation on sex offenders was that they are not criminals, rather they are sick and should be treated, not punished! Our kids pay the price everyday for such attitudes."
Do we really want to know the answer?
Do we really want to know how the Chelsea King tragedy was allowed to happen? Because the answer isn’t found wholly in trying to identify all of the problems with Megan’s Law or in analyzing John Gardner’s troubled past, which many are doing now.
If we really want to know, in a lot of cases the answer starts and ends with a five-to-two vote.
For those who would accuse me of politicizing a terrible event, the facts — not politics — show differently. Yet, any past partisanship doesn’t now matter. Only the future does.
I reiterate what I wrote a few nights ago. May some good come out of the loss of Chelsea King. Even if the result of tragedy, lawmakers of both parties must take note and respond with action. Let’s use this terrible thing to ensure that all our Chelseas return safely home.
###
All of Barry’s entries.
Barry on Facebook.