Critics try to halt eviction of Columbia County “sex offender”
Critics of Georgia’s crackdown on sex offenders are trying to block the eviction of a 29-year-old woman who is the face of a lawsuit challenging the tough new restrictions. Lawyers for Wendy Whitaker filed a motion in Columbia County Superior Court today (Friday) urging a judge to block an eviction
scheduled for next week. Whitaker is on the sex-offender registry for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old classmate when she was 17.
Published: November 21, 2008
Updated: November 21, 2008
ATLANTA (AP) - Critics of Georgia’s crackdown on sex offenders are trying to block the eviction of a 29-year-old woman who is the face of a lawsuit challenging the tough new restrictions. Lawyers for Wendy Whitaker filed a motion in Columbia County Superior Court today (Friday) urging a judge to block an eviction scheduled for next week. Whitaker is on the sex-offender registry for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old classmate when she was 17.
The new rules, approved in 2006, ban sex offenders from living, working or loitering within 1,000 feet of just about anywhere children gather. That includes schools, parks, gyms, swimming pools and the state’s 150,000 school bus stops.
A federal judge refused a request to block the eviction at a hearing last week, agreeing with prosecutors who said there are other places she can live in the county.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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