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News-Press seeks sex offender's probation report |
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Written by Administrator
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Thursday, 22 July 2004 |
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News-Press seeks sex offender's probation report
7/22/04
By CHUCK SCHULTZ
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
The News-Press on Wednesday filed a legal motion in San Luis Obispo Superior Court to force public release of a probation report from last year's conviction for felony child molestation of a man now charged with kidnapping, raping and sexually molesting an 8-year-old girl in Goleta on July 3.
Last week, San Luis Obispo Judge Dodie Harman refused a reporter access to a probation report pertaining to the October 2003 felony conviction of Timothy Furness and ruled that it would remain sealed. Under state law, a probation report from that case must be reopened to public inspection because of the new charges, according to an attorney for the News-Press, which challenged the judge's refusal.
In a four-page petition, attorney Neil Shapiro cited Section 1203.05 of the California Penal Code, which calls for a previously confidential probation report to become public again after a "subsequent accusatory pleading is filed."
Probation reports typically include an assessment of what threat, if any, a convicted felon would pose in the future if released. Courts in many jurisdictions have often been criticized by the public when a convicted sex offender is released and accused of committing another crime.
"It's hard to imagine a case where the public's right to know is greater," said News-Press Editor and Publisher Jerry Roberts. "Here we have a man previously convicted of felony child molestation who comes to Santa Barbara County a few months later and allegedly commits crimes of the most heinous nature. Did the system set up to prevent this kind of thing fail? Parents and the public deserve to know the answer."
It is not clear why Judge Harman kept the report sealed in this case. She could not be reached for comment.
Victoria Tooley, the court's criminal records supervisor, said the judge "felt we were compliant with state law."
However, the News-Press petition to the judge said, "There is, and can be, no dispute as to the applicable law."
Because new charges have been filed against Mr. Furness, "under the clear language of the statute, that probation report is now properly available to anyone who wants to see or copy it and will remain so until 60 days after judgement is entered in the Santa Barbara proceeding," Mr. Shapiro wrote.
Ms. Tooley said the judge probably will either grant the petition later this week or set a hearing on the newspaper's request for early next week.
At the end of a two-hour preliminary hearing last Friday, Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Joseph Lodge ordered Mr. Furness, 37, to stand trial on felony counts of raping and sexually molesting the Goleta girl after kidnapping her earlier this month.
According to hearing testimony, the Nipomo man approached the 8-year-old while she was riding her bicycle on Ribera Drive and asked to get on the bike with her. After riding around with her, Mr. Furness carried the girl to his Honda Civic wagon, pushed her into the car and drove about a half-mile to a church parking lot, a sheriff's detective testified.
There, he took off the girl's clothes, telling her "this will feel good," then committed sex acts with the girl and raped her, Detective Chris Dallenbach said.
Mr. Furness, who remains in County Jail with his bail set at $500,000, is to be tried on seven felony counts, four of which carry a potential sentence of 25 years to life in prison, said Deputy District Attorney Joyce Dudley.
The filing of those charges by the Santa Barbara County District Attorney's Office on July 6 "automatically reopens the public's right to inspect and copy the probation report" from Mr. Furness's child molestation conviction last year, according to the petition filed by Mr. Shapiro on behalf of the newspaper.
In a San Luis Obispo courtroom, Mr. Furness pleaded no contest in late October to committing a lewd or lascivious act with a 7-year-old girl on June 28, 2003. He was sentenced on Dec. 23 to a 180-day jail sentence, with 93 days' credit for time he had already served, and was placed on probation for five years.
He also pleaded no contest in October in San Luis Obispo to a misdemeanor count of "annoying or molesting a child" on April 26, 2003, for which he was placed on three years' probation and sentenced to 30 days in jail, according to court records.
Under state law, he was required to register as a sex offender for both the misdemeanor and felony convictions.
:nav Source: http://news.newspress.com/topsports/072204furness.htm
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