Loophole May Get High-Risk Sex Offender Off Registry

A loophole in the state's sex offender law will have one violent offender legally off the statewide registry soon, but before the man's name is cleared, one of his victims is speaking out.

The victim is the man's daughter. Rodger Dale Stevens molested children for years, but his lawyer says it's not about what he did, but when the crime was actually committed.

"I think that the entire public should know these things," Elizabeth Reece said. 

It was 1998 when Stevens first registered as a sex offender for molesting his 8-year-old daughter Elizabeth. Stevens pleaded ‘no contest' to molesting his daughter and two stepchildren. The multiple molestations landed him on the statewide sex offender's registry as a level 3 offender. He served four years in prison and six years of probation.  

Level-1 offenders are listed as having a low risk to re-offend. Level-2 offenders are listed as moderate risks. But Level-3 offenders are listed as having a high-risk to re-offend, they also may have committed prior crimes of violence and are cruel to their victims.

"I live with it for a lifetime and if it happens to my kids they will live with it for a lifetime, so why can't he be registered for a lifetime," Reese said. 

But now Stevens wants off the list. His attorney David Slane says the law requiring level-3 offenders to remain on the sex registry for life passed in 2007, and is not retroactive, meaning the people that offended before it passed have a pass.

Slane says there are several precedents upholding the law and he expects his client's name to be removed from list.

Dozens of level three sexual offenders could drop off the list because of the loophole in the law.