CONCORD, N.H. —A convicted sex offender took his fight to attend church to the state Supreme Court on Wednesday. A lower court told Jonathan Perfetto that he couldn’t go to church because his suspended sentence prohibits him from being around children. Perfetto was convicted in 2002 of possessing 61 images of child pornography.
Barbara Keshen of the New Hampshire American Civil Liberties Union told the court that Perfetto, a Jehovah’s Witness, has a fundamental right to go to the church of his choice and should be permitted to be around the children of the congregation as long as he has a chaperone. But Assistant Attorney General Nicholas Cort argued that using a chaperone is unrealistic.
“It would be too dangerous and unrealistic to expect a single person to be able to keep an eye on him every minute of every meeting every week,” Cort said. Full Article
What happened to separation of church and state? I suppose they never heard of that, or ex post facto either, just like the rest of courts in amerika.
Denying a registrant access to fellowship from caring individuals who share his faith not only encroaches upon his freedom but that of his congregation.
Megan’s law clearly describes those registrants thought to be a danger to children for anyone to view and protect themselves against.
Therefore, any further restrictions on registrants is superfluous and without merit, when adults are overseeing the adolescents.
This should be a fight not only from this registrants point of view but from any American who values their freedom.
I noticed early in my childhood that my church was filled with what society might consider the undesirables: the old, the crippled, the ugly, the weird and they felt loved and wanted. Wasn’t this the foundation of Christianity, to love one another regardless of their imperfections?
For the government to unduly restrict this individuals right to religious fellowship is truly a fight worthy of support from any thinking individual.
I sincerely hope the Supreme Court rules with intelligence in this case. What does the idiot Assistant AG think he might do IN CHURCH??? Whip out his laptop and look at illegal pictures???