A convict's neighbors say federal statutes need to match the state's to keep sex offenders from living near children.
By STEPHEN HEGARTY
Published September 1, 2004
WESLEY CHAPEL - A group of Meadow Pointe residents, alarmed that a sex offender lives in their neighborhood, collected signatures Tuesday hoping to change federal laws and prohibit sex offenders from living near schools and day care centers.
The residents who live in the Grasslands community in Meadow Pointe began their campaign to change the federal law after learning that a sex offender recently released from prison was living on their street, Midnight Star Loop. Last week, several residents picketed along County Line Road, notifying their neighbors that Raymond Webb was living in their neighborhood.
After serving 16 months in federal prison for downloading pictures of naked boys into his home computer, Webb recently moved back to his home on Midnight Star Loop.
"We're not trying to target someone. We're not trying to violate anyone's rights," said Vanessa Gray, who lives down the block from Webb. "We just disagree with the law, and we think it needs to be changed."
Specifically they want the federal law to prohibit sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school, a day care center, a park or playground "or other place children regularly congregate." Webb lives near Sand Pine Elementary School. Gray said state law includes such a prohibition, but federal law does not. Because he was using a computer and the internet, Webb was convicted under federal law.
Gray and her group spent about nine hours in front of the Meadow Pointe I clubhouse on election day, catching voters going in and out to cast ballots. Before being rained out in the late afternoon, they estimated they collected about 250 signatures. Their goal is to collect 1,000 and take their case to lawmakers.
