Minnesota Democrats stripped an amendment from an omnibus public safety bill that would have made it harder for sex offenders to live near daycare centers.
Under current law, when releasing a level 3 sex offender into the community, the state must take into consideration the proximity of the offender’s residence to schools and avoid concentrating offenders near schools or in the same neighborhood.
Sen. Julia Coleman, R-Waconia, proposed an amendment to the omnibus judiciary and public safety bill that would have expanded these restrictions to daycare centers, homes for vulnerable adults, and “locations where children commonly gather.”
Coleman’s amendment passed with bipartisan support but was then stripped from the bill during conference committee with no input from Republicans.
She said her amendment was inspired by a group of her constituents who protested the placement of a level 3 sex offender in their neighborhood in 2021. The concerned residents argued that Matthew Vanhecke, a former teacher who was found guilty of sexually assaulting two girls under the age of 10 and possessing child pornography, should not be in a neighborhood with a large density of children.
“That amendment that I fought for for my district and for all the children in Minnesota was removed in conference committee,” Coleman said Friday on the Senate floor.
Sen. Julia Coleman says Democrats removed an amendment from an omnibus public safety bill to prevent level-three sex offenders from living near daycare centers. pic.twitter.com/A7g0ASwUTf
— Alpha News (@AlphaNewsMN) May 16, 2023
Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, confirmed during Friday’s floor session that Coleman’s amendment was removed from the bill.
“As a mother, I cannot vote for a bill that removed funding for school safety, or worse, stripped away my provision to keep sex offenders out of neighborhoods with hundreds of children and away from daycare centers,” Coleman added.
The omnibus public safety bill includes a number of other controversial provisions, including two new gun control laws and the Rehabilitation and Reinvestment Act, which could result in violent criminals serving just half of their prison sentences.
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
