Sex Offender Leaves Town

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

March 17 -- Nearly one month after convicted sex offender Robert Greenfield's picture and description were posted on the local police department's web site, the 43 year old has decided it’s time to leave town.

Greenfield -- who served time for lewd and lascivious acts with a 13-year old female in 1991 -- informed local police in a letter received Tuesday that he will be moving out of Santa Monica to an undisclosed location in Los Angeles County.

Police officials did not comment on Greenfield's reason for leaving.

While the California Attorney General’s office posts an extensive list of sex offenders -- including 42 in Santa Monica -- Greenfield's posting is only the second time the City’s police Department has published a sex offender’s information on its web site.

"This is not a new policy," said Lt. Frank Fabrega, spokesman for Santa Monica's Police Department. "It's been our policy in the past to publicize high risk offenders.

"Every case is reviewed with the chief on a case-by-case basis,” Fabrega said, referring to Police Chief James T. Butts, Jr. “It's determined whether they should go on the web site according to the merits of the case."

The police took extra precautions with Greenfield because his line of work involved a product used by children, Fabrega said.

"The reason he was posted on the web site is because he was making skateboard products and ramps, and that kind of profession attracts kids," he said.

The measure taken by Santa Monica is unusual, said Sgt. Don Manamaleuna, a spokesman for Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau.

"I know that some stations now link to Megan's web site, but I've never seen anything like a sex offender's description posted on any web site,” said Manamaleuna, whose department contracts with 42 cities in the Los Angeles area. “This is a first to me."

Critics of Megan’s list, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), warn that the information posted on the State’s web site -- which provides pictures, home addresses and crimes committed by the offenders -- is often outdated or inaccurate.

The state has required dangerous sex offenders to register with their local law enforcement agencies for more than 50 years, according to the State Attorney General's office.

But specific information regarding the whereabouts of these offenders was not made available to the public until July 1995 with the implementation of the Child Molester Identification Line.

The following year, the federal government took a further step with Megan's law, named for a New Jersey girl raped and killed by a twice-convicted sex offender who moved across the street from her family home.

Under California's Megan's law enacted by federal directive, the state's 15 cities with populations of more than 200,000 were required to make the list of the state's registered sex offenders available on computer stations for public use. Information from smaller cities was made available at sheriff’s offices.

Santa Monica, Fabrega said, is one of the few law enforcement agencies that arrests sex offenders for failing to register.