On Dec. 15, the California Department of Justice released the new Megan's Law website. Now, citizens can access information about registered sex offenders—including their names and, in some cases, photos and street addresses—from home computers. Previously, the information was only available at law enforcement offices.

With a click of the mouse, users can locate sex offenders who live in their area by entering a county, Zip code, city, address, park or school. The registry lists 95 residents in Sunnyvale, 75 of them listed with full addresses.

Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety Detective Eric Fuji—who handles crimes including domestic violence and sex crimes—said that while the registry has made the community feel safer because residents can now identify registered sex offenders in their area, being safe means more than looking at a website.

"The downside with putting something like this up is that people get a false sense of security because they think they only need to worry about the people on the list," Fuji said. "People have to understand that even though they know where a registered sex offender lives, their kids won't be safe if they just avoid that house. They still need to teach their children how to be aware and be safe."

According to Fuji, while 95 offenders are listed on the Megan's Law site, there are actually close to 160 sex offenders associated with Sunnyvale. The unlisted ones are either transient and do not permanently stay in town, or they are offenders with crimes that do not qualify for the registry.

A person convicted of felony sexual battery, lewd and lascivious acts with a minor within the family or misdemeanor child molestation can file for exclusion from the registry, and therefore may not appear on the website. In addition, because there are so many degrees of sex offenses—from exposure in public to violent sex crimes—many of the less-severe crimes do not qualify for registration

According to a spokeswoman for Assemblywoman Nicole Parra—who authored Assembly Bill 488 that made the registration public—lewd acts with a child within a family, considered incest, do not require the offender to appear on the online map. This is done to protect the victim's identity.

Of the 160 sex offenders associated with Sunnyvale, Fuji said he or one of his colleagues has interviewed almost 155 of them. Offenders must register each year on their birthday, and each time they change residencies. When they come in to do so, Fuji said he tries to talk to each of them.

Fuji said he sees little recidivism in the sex offenders in Sunnyvale.

"In a year and a half of doing this, I've seen one offender get arrested for a sex crime, or at most two," Fuji said. "Maybe one in ten offenders say that they still have an interest in their crime."

The new website is the result of a California law that passed in August 2004. But Nathan Barankin, the state Attorney General's communications director, said the office of the Attorney General had advocated for years to put the information online.

Fuji said people would occasionally come into the Department of Public Safety before the registry went online, to view registered offenders in the area, but the process was inconvenient.

"The old way people had to view the information was so difficult, no one bothered to look up if there were registered sex offenders in their neighborhood," Fuji said.

But since the site went up, Fuji said he has gotten a number of calls from residents who wanted to report that they knew one of the offenders or had contact with someone on the list.

"We knew the public had a strong interest in this information, but the physical requirement of appearing at a law enforcement office made it difficult to access," Barankin said. "That's why Attorney General Bill Lockyer thought it would be appropriate to put this information on the web."

Because it has been up for less than a month, Fuji said there are still some kinks in the system to work out. He has gotten calls from several registrants who are listed for crimes they did not commit.

However, Barankin said the office had also considered some of the potential problems that could arise out of making sex offender's personal information available to the public.

"[We considered] the prospect of sex offenders being able to network by accessing each other's information," he said. "Also, there was some concern about the public's response. Some people might be irresponsible with the information available to them. Those are concerns that are brought up repeatedly, and are not unique to the Internet. But we haven't seen those problems in the past, and we don't expect them to occur now. And there is a great benefit to making public information available to the public."

In addition to the registry, the website has tips for families to better protect themselves from potential sex offenders in their area.

"It's not as simple as looking at the faces on the web page, parents still need to talk to their kids about how to be safe," Fuji said. "The highest number of crimes against kids are not committed by strangers, so the old saying "Don't talk to strangers," doesn't really help here."

Megan's Law itself—enacted in 1996—was named after seven-year-old New Jersey resident Megan Kanka, who was raped and killed by a known child molester who, unbeknownst to her family, moved across the street from her home. The law requires information of individuals who are convicted of specified sex crimes to be released to the public.

"It's a great thing for law enforcement and for the community," Fuji said.

To view the registry, or for more information on sex crimes or what families can do to be safe, visit http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov.

Local man is arrested
for sex with a minor

San Jose police officers arrested a 23-year-old Sunnyvale man on Jan. 7 for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a minor he was coaching at Notre Dame High School.

John Flores—a volleyball coach at the Catholic school—was arrested for what a police statement said was a sexual relationship with one of his 16-year-old players between October and December of last year.

Investigators believe there may have been additional victims who have not been identified yet, but nothing had been confirmed at press time.

Anyone with information on the case or Flores is asked to call San Jose Police Detective Jason Herr at 408.277.4102. Anonymous calls can be made to Crime Stoppers at 408.947.STOP.

Liquor store robbery
suspect still at large

Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety officers are still looking for the suspect in a liquor store robbery on Dec. 21, and they're asking the public for help.

On Dec. 21, a white male—about 5-feet, 4-inches tall, 120-pounds—robbed Fiesta Liquors at 672 N. Fair Oaks Avenue with a handgun. He fled the scene in a beige or light brown America-made midsize sedan. Public safety investigators believe the man lives or works in the area around the liquor store.

Anyone with information on the robbery, or who thinks they may be able to identify the suspect, should call the Department of Public Safety Investigations Unit at 408.730.7120.