SE Twin Cities

Pat Garofalo, who is running to be a State Rep. for Minnesota’s House of Representatives, is not happy with a judge’s decision regarding housing restrictions of convicted sex offenders. 

Recently, three convicted sex offenders brought their cases before a judge in Apple Valley. They complained that the housing restrictions imposed are punishing them further when they have already served their sentences and not being able to live within 1,500 feet of schools, parks and seasonal grounds prevents them from living within 90 percent of the city, according to Star Tribune.

Attorneys argued that per the constitution, the ordinance creates a situation so difficult regarding housing that it is considered an additional punishment. The judge hearing the case agreed and ruled in their favor.

“Cities and townships have the absolute right to fashion ordinances to protect citizens from sex offenders," Garofalo wrote in a Facebook post. “The next time a judge rules in favor of these creeps, somebody should buy a house near where the judge lives. Then have the sex offender move in there. I wonder how the judge would like it?”

The judge, researchers and law enforcement reasoned that allowing sex offenders to live in homes in the city makes it significantly easier to keep track of them and their activities as opposed to if they were homeless, as their residential status does not affect whether or not they will offend again.