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Published on 10/26/1998 All articles from this issue

Peeper listed by mistake as 'serious' sex offender

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

A Los Altos man, who was arrested in Palo Alto on peeping charges in September and was a registered sex offender, had been erroneously listed on the Megan's Law CD ROM as a serious sex offender, police said last week.

"He was put in the 'serious' classification by mistake," said Los Altos police Sgt. Mark Macaulay.

The state department of justice confirmed with Macaulay that the man will be reclassified into what's called the "other" category, Macaulay said. All information about him will be removed from the CD, Macaulay said.

After the man's September arrest, the Town Crier began searching court documents to discover what this man had done to become a registered sex offender. The only information in the court system on him showed parking offenses and two non-traffic misdemeanors.

Macaulay had no answers as to why the man was listed as a serious offender - which are felonies - when only misdemeanors appeared in court records.

So Macaulay contacted the state department of justice. Eventually the classification error came to light.

Had the alleged peeper been correctly classified in the "other" category, which is not available to the public, the fact that he was a registered sex offender would not have been known.

"That does not diminish the fact that as a neighbor I am concerned," said a father of two who asked that his name not be used. He organized a meeting between neighbors and Los Altos Police Chief Lucy Carlton upon learning a registered sex offender lived in his neighborhood. "But the intensity of the reaction would be less," he said.

The CD, which lists information about the 70,000-plus registered sex offenders in California, is updated quarterly. Currently there are eight serious sex offenders in the 94022 and 94024 zip codes, according to the July 1998 CD. This includes the Los Altos area.

Megan's Law is named for a New Jersey 7-year-old who was murdered by a sex offender who lived in her neighborhood. The law mandates that information about two classifications of sex offenders - high risk and serious - be available to the public.

Information about a third type of sex offender - called "other" - is available to law enforcement officials only.

This man grabbed a woman's buttocks in Palo Alto in December 1997, a misdemeanor sexual assault, according to court documents. And he put a camera up a woman's skirt in Mountain View in 1996, a misdemeanor tumultuous conduct, according to court documents.

Neither qualifies him to be a serious sex offender. Peeping is not a registerable sex offense, Macaulay said.