Doe v. McVey

381 F. Supp. 2d 443, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16563, 2005 WL 1941315
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedAugust 9, 2005
DocketCiv.A.01-3639
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 381 F. Supp. 2d 443 (Doe v. McVey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Doe v. McVey, 381 F. Supp. 2d 443, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16563, 2005 WL 1941315 (E.D. Pa. 2005).

Opinion

OPINION

POLLAK, District Judge.

An anonymous plaintiff, hereinafter referred to as “John Doe,” brings this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief with respect to Pennsylvania’s Registration of Sexual Offenders Act (“Megan’s Law”), 42 Pa. Cons.Stat. §§ 9791 et seq. Pennsylvania’s Megan’s Law (like the generally similar Megan’s Laws enacted in all other states in the last eleven years) requires all convicted sex offenders to register with state and local police and subjects certain sex offenders to community notification whereby police alert the communities in which the offenders reside or work to their presence. The general validity of Pennsylvania’s Megan’s Law has been sustained over various constitutional challenges. See Commonwealth v. Williams, 574 Pa. 487, 832 A.2d 962 (2003); Commonwealth v. Howe, 842 A.2d 436 (Pa.Super.2004); cf. A.A. ex rel. M.M. v. New Jersey, 341 F.3d 206, 208 (3d. Cir.2003) (reviewing Third Circuit decisions sustaining the constitutionality of New Jersey’s Megan’s Law). The case at bar, however, addresses how these requirements apply in a rather particular circumstance involving a Pennsylvania resident who was convicted of a sexual offense in New Jersey but sought to return to his home state to serve his sentence. Under Pennsylvania’s Megan’s Law, any out-of-state sex offender who transfers his supervision to Pennsylvania is subject to community notification. In contrast, an individual convicted of the same offense in Pennsylvania would only be subject to community notification if, after a civil hearing, he had been designated as a “sexually violent predator” “due to a mental abnormality or personality disorder that makes the person likely to engage in predatory sexually violent offenses.” 42 Pa. Cons.Stat. § 9792 (defining “sexually violent predator”).

Before this court are cross-motions for judgment on the pleadings, addressing whether this imposition of community notification violates Doe’s constitutional right to equal protection and due process. Because this court finds that the disparate treatment of in-state and out-of-state sex offenders violates the Equal Protection Clause, Doe’s motion will be granted.

I.

A. John Doe

On August 1,1999, John Doe, a Pennsylvania resident, was arrested for molesting an 11-year old girl in New Jersey. On July 24, 2000, he pled guilty to second degree sexual assault and was sentenced to five years probation and parole supervision for life. See Ex. D3 at 3; N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2C:43-6.4. In the sentencing report, the presiding judge found that “[d]e-fendant’s sexual deviation is not compulsive nor repetitive and it appears was the result of an intoxicated condition on the evening of the offense” and that Doe was “unlikely to commit another offense.” Ex. D3. Ordinarily, under New Jersey’s Me *445 gan’s Law, a person found guilty of such a sexual offense would then have had a civil hearing to determine whether the offender’s likelihood of recidivism was sufficiently substantial as to warrant his being made a subject of community notification. 1 However, because Doe intended to return to Pennsylvania to serve his sentence, New Jersey did not hold a community notification hearing in his case. At sentencing, on October 27, 2000, Doe requested that his supervision be transferred to Pennsylvania in accordance with the Interstate Compact Concerning Parole and Probation (“the Compact”), Pa. Stat. Ann., tit. 61, § 321, to which both New Jersey and Pennsylvania were signatories. 2 Pursuant to the Compact, Doe signed an “Application for Compact Services and Agreement to Return,” consenting to differences in probationary supervision in the two states. Doe was provisionally allowed to travel to Pennsylvania pending acceptance of his application to transfer his probation

Upon receiving Doe’s application, the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole (“the Board”) held an equivalency hearing in which it determined that, had Doe been convicted in Pennsylvania, he would have been guilty of indecent assault. 18 Pa. Cons.Stat. § 3126(a)(7). Where the victim is under age thirteen, as in this case, indecent assault constitutes a misdemeanor in the first degree and is designated a “sexually violent offense.” See 42 Pa. Cons.Stat. §§ 9792, 9795.1(a)(1). Had Doe been convicted of this crime in Pennsylvania, he would have been required to register with the state police and would have received a civil hearing, presided over by his sentencing judge, to determine whether, under Pennsylvania’s Megan’s Law, he was a “sexually violent predator” for whom community notification was warranted. In such a hearing, a Pennsylvania offender is afforded full due process rights including representation by an attorney, the right to cross-examination, and the right to call expert and lay witnesses. 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 9795.4(e)(2). The Commonwealth has the burden of proving by “clear and convincing evidence” that the offender is a “sexually violent predator.” 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 9795.4(e)(3). However, because he is an out-of-state offender, Doe was not accorded such a hearing. Instead, without a determination that he was a “sexually violent predator,” Doe was advised that he would be required to submit to community notification.

Doe registered with the Pennsylvania state police as a sex offender, but refused to consent to community notification without a hearing to determine whether he posed any danger to the community. As a result, in June 2001, the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole denied *446 Doe’s application for transfer of probation and informed him that he had to leave the state. Doe filed an administrative appeal of that decision, and on July 20, 2001, without awaiting disposition of the administrative appeal, Doe filed this § 1983 action. The complaint alleges that, by treating in-state and out-of-state offenders differently, the Board, Board Chairman William F. Ward, and State Police Commissioner Paul Evanko violated his constitutional rights to equal protection and due process as well as his statutory rights under the Interstate Compact. 3

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
381 F. Supp. 2d 443, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16563, 2005 WL 1941315, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/doe-v-mcvey-paed-2005.