Sex Offender Laws Dominate Session

BERLIN – The Maryland General Assembly session reaches its halfway mark today in terms of calendar days, but state lawmakers still have several weighty issues to resolve, not the least of which are the dozens of bills related to strengthening sex offender laws.

It was standing room only this week during House Judiciary Committee hearings on no less than 31 pieces of legislation aimed at tightening nearly every aspect of Maryland’s existing sexual predator laws.

Worcester County’s representatives in the House, Delegates Norm Conway and James Mathias, were right in the center of the debate, spurred largely by the tragedy in late December that claimed the life of 11-year-old Sarah Haley Foxwell, whose body was found near Delmar on Christmas day.

Earlier this month, Thomas James Leggs, 30, a registered sex offender in both Maryland and Delaware, was indicted on first-degree murder charges in the death of Foxwell and the tragic case has promulgated renewed scrutiny of Maryland’s sexual predator laws.

Dozens of bills have been introduced in the General Assembly in both the House and the Senate, including pieces of legislation sponsored by Mathias and Conway as well as a Sexual Offenders Omnibus Act of 2010 sponsored by the entire Eastern Shore delegation in Annapolis.

“We were front and center during the hearing on the many sexual predator laws this week because we had the horrible misfortune to have that tragic incident take place in our district,” said Mathias this week. “We presented our various bills and participated in the lively debate on about 31 total bills on the subject. It was a good hearing and just about everything is on the table. I think we’ll see substantive changes in our state laws come out of this.”

The primary bill introduced by Conway and Mathias would bring state law into compliance with the national Adam Walsh Act, a bill passed in 2007 to strengthen federal sex offender law. Three years later, Maryland has not adopted all of the components of the Adam Walsh Act and is at risk for losing federal law enforcement grants.

The Eastern Shore delegation’s 27-page omnibus sex offender act of 2010 covers practically every aspect of the state’s existing sexual predator laws. For example, the bill calls for convicted sex offenders to undergo psychological evaluation upon release from prison to determine if they are safe to return to society. Another aspect of the bill would require some sort of identification on the driver’s licenses of certain convicted sex offenders.

“Just about every aspect of this is covered in these many bills,” said Mathias. “My hope is that some real change will come out of this debate. If that tragic case in our district has taught us anything, it’s that we need to keep closer tabs on these known offenders.”

Meanwhile, little action has been taken on the myriad of other bills circulating in the General Assembly as the session reaches its halfway mark. Committee hearings have been held for most of the bills submitted in both the House and Senate, but few votes have been taken as the session draws along.

“I’m getting the sense the pace is starting to pick up,” said Mathias. “The calendar says we’ve done about half of the time, but we’ve only accomplished about 10 percent of the work. That’s the way this usually works. We’ll do about 90 percent of the work in the last couple of days. I just hope some of our bills don’t get bogged down on those last days.”

Mathias said much of his time in recent days has been devoted to unemployment insurance reform. With the economy still struggling and the number of Marylanders on the unemployment rolls still increasing, there has been a severe strain on the pool of funds from which benefits are paid. Mathias said several bills have been introduced to ensure benefits are available without putting an undue burden on the backs of small businesses.

“The reality is the unemployment insurance fund is being stretched beyond its means,” he said. “There are several bills circulating that could change the formula for how employers contribute to the fund, but some of them are fairly onerous.”

Mathias said the unemployment issue is acute in Worcester because of the seasonal nature of much of the county’s employment base.

“Even in a stable economy, Worcester has the distinction of having the highest unemployment rates in the state and a lot of that is because of the seasonal nature of the industrial base,” he said. “I have a commitment to look at the seasonal element for Worcester County. What we’re trying to do is make this less onerous and more palatable to small business, which often doesn’t have a voice in the discussion.”

Other bills of local importance appear to be mired behind larger issues such as the budget and the economy. For example, Mathias said he continues to work the bill that would allow limited slot machine gambling in county service clubs.

“Not a day goes by that I’m not working the phones or setting up meetings on that one,” he said. “It doesn’t appear to be moving, but I’m still hoping it comes out of committee by the end of the week.”