Indystar.com: Indiana Appeals Court Upholds Sex Offender Ban.
Plainfield, Indiana has won the latest round in the long-running lawsuit filed by a convicted sex offender who was banned from the town’s parks. The Indiana Court of Appeals today released a 20-page ruling that upholds the town’s 2002 ordinance prohibiting persons on the state registry of sex offenders from going into Plainfield parks and recreation facilities.
While the ban on sex offenders in the parks does have a punitive aspect, the court said it is not unconstitutional, as the plaintiff, identified only as John Doe, tried to claim in his suit.
The appeals court said Plainfield did not violate the portion of the Indiana Constitution that guarantees rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to everyone.
Plainfield Town Manager Rich Carlucci said today that the purpose of the ban on registered sex offenders in the parks is to keep them away from children playing in the park.
The appeals court decision upholds a ruling in March this year by Hendricks Superior Court Judge Robert W. Freese, who had granted summary judgment for Plainfield and upheld the town’s ordinance.
Doe and his son visited Plainfield parks and recreation areas in 2004 and 2005, according to the court.
Doe sued Plainfield in November 2005, which began nearly three years of twists and turns in the legal case.
This is unbelievable; making walking in a park illegal for certain groups of people is outrageously unconstitutional in every way.
