BOSTON, MA – In the wake of the recent child endangerment and rape case in Salem, in which the mother of a nine-year-old girl admitted to sexually exploiting the child, State Rep. John Keenan (D-Salem) has announced his intention to file legislation to close a troubling loophole in the Commonwealth’s sex offender registry laws that had come to light as a result of the case.
“An Act to protect children from sex offenders” would require that anyone convicted of child endangerment resulting in the sexual abuse of the child while that individual was present be legally considered a sex offender and have to register as such with the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board.
“Basically, we want to add this crime – child endangerment resulting in the sexual abuse of a child – to the statutes that define what a sex offense is,” said Representative Keenan, a member of the legislature’s Joint Committee on the Judiciary and a former Essex County prosecutor. “After hearing from constituents who are parents of young children and as a parent of two young children myself, I find it alarming that these offenders are not already classified for what they so clearly are: sex offenders.”
The bill will be filed on the heels of another, authored by State Senator Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester), which would increase the mandatory minimum sentence for child endangerment from its current level of 2 ½ years.
Representative Keenan is currently circulating the bill amongst his colleagues in the legislature to gain cosponsors for the measure. It will be filed before the end of the month. As a late-filed bill, it will first go to the House Rules Committee before being assigned to a committee for a public hearing and consideration.