Dear Neighbor,

As a mother and grandmother, I know how important it is to keep our children free from harm. With growing concern over sex offenders living in Orange and Sullivan counties, it’s time to send a clear message that the safety and security of our children is a priority. I am fighting, and will continue fighting, to protect children by strengthening Megan’s Law and supporting legislation that will help keep sexual predators away from our families.

To strengthen the Sex Offender Registry Act, which requires convicted sex offenders to register with local law enforcement, Gunther supported new laws:

• Providing a toll-free telephone number for the sex offender registry and allowing youth service organizations to perform background checks on up to 20 people per call (Ch. 361 of 2004)

• Requiring New York and other states to inform each other when a sex offender moves, ensuring the offender registers in the new state (Ch. 410 of 2004)

This year, Gunther sponsored measures to:

• Require lifetime registration for sex offenders (A.7835)

• Enable law enforcement to better track offenders registered under the Sex Offender Registration Act (A.7707)

• Restrict the placement of offenders at risk of repeat offenses in any social services-funded housing located within 1000 feet of any school, playground, adult or child day care facility, nursing home, house of worship or senior citizen center (A.2051)

Gunther sponsored legislation to help the court or district attorney determine if a defendant suffers from a mental illness or personality disorder that makes him or her a likely sexual predator. If so, the offender will be held in a secure Department of Mental Health facility until he or she no longer poses a threat (A.3394).

To improve the Amber Alert Plan, Gunther supported a law that allows information about a missing child to be transmitted through e-mail, electronic organizers and mobile phones (Ch. 381 of 2004). Gunther also supports legislation criminalizing the act of luring a child under 14 for the purposes of committing a violent or sexual felony (A.2467).

Gunther sponsored a law mandating a life sentence without parole for an individual who, in the course of a sex crime, murders a child under the age of 14 (Ch. 459 of 2004).