The state Supreme Court has been asked to weigh whether a sex offender who was found guilty as a juvenile is required to list his sex offender status on his driver’s license or state-issued identification card.

The question arose out of a case in Calcasieu Parish. A man who was 16 when he was found in June 2012 to have committed aggravated incest was told by a member of the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office in July 2013 that he would have to obtain a driver’s license or ID card that read “sex offender” to comply with the law, according to an opinion from the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal.

“It’s our job to protect the citizens and if our deputies felt like we were within the law to make him register, then they were doing what they thought was in the best interest of the public,” Calcasieu Sheriff Tony Mancuso said. “That’s why we have a court system and if the court system says that he does not have to register, then we’re going to have to abide by the court system.”

The man, who is now 19, appealed, saying the requirement conflicts with exemptions for juveniles. State district court Judge Guy Bradberry granted the motion.

The 3rd Circuit agreed with Bradberry, but prosecutors from both the Calcasieu Parish District Attorney’s Office and the state Attorney General’s Office have asked the state Supreme Court to overturn the lower courts’ rulings.

The prosecutors and defense attorneys from the Calcasieu Parish Public Defender’s Office and the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia argued their respective cases before the Supreme Court on May 4.

“The state believes that juvenile sex offenders are required to list their sex offender status on their licenses and IDs,” prosecutor Carla Sigler said. “This does not violate any constitutional rights, and it is an important measure for public safety.”

Louisiana law requires sex offenders’ status to be denoted on their driver’s licenses or ID cards.

That would seem to require the man to have “sex offender” on his license or ID, Judge Gene Thibodeaux wrote in the 3rd Circuit’s opinion. But, Thibodeaux said, the state Supreme Court has “explicitly stated” that juvenile adjudications are not convictions.

Because the language of the law “gives rise to two conflicting interpretations in regards to whether their requirements apply to adjudicated juveniles, the statutes are ambiguous on their face,” Thibodeaux wrote.

Similarly, Bradberry wrote that the requirements for juvenile sex offenders are “ambiguous.”

Thibodeaux said the Legislature never intended for juveniles to be subject to the driver’s license requirements, pointing out that the requirements for sex offender registration in the Children’s Code do not state that the status must be noted on driver’s license or ID cards.

The “explicit exclusion” of the requirements “must be considered purposeful,” Thibodeaux wrote. Furthermore, juvenile proceedings are confidential and to have “sex offender” written on a license or ID card would undermine that confidentiality.

Bradberry wrote that his ruling followed the same rulings in three other cases by fellow district court Judge Lilynn Cutrer. Despite Cutrer’s previous rulings, the juvenile was still required to have his status listed on a license, defense attorneys King Alexander and Necole Williams wrote in a brief to the Supreme Court.

The man’s privacy, right to make a living and ability to form social bonds are impaired by the requirement to have “sex offender” written on his ID, they wrote.

(MGNonline)