In Pasco sex offender ordinance fight, lawyer wants deputies to stay away from clients

Josh Solomon, Times Staff Writer

Friday, March 25, 2016 8:10pm

The legal battle over Pasco County's strict new sex offender ordinance has taken a strange turn:

Related News/Archive

Two Pasco sheriff's deputies visited a sex offender at his home on March 15, according to court records, and tried to dissuade him from joining the lawsuit challenging the 2015 ordinance that governs where offenders can live in the county.

The lawyer trying to strike down the ordinance then filed for a protective order on March 21 to keep the Pasco County Sheriff's Office away from that client.

Joining the lawyer in that motion is the attorney hired by Pasco County to defend its ordinance.

That means Pasco's lawyer agrees Pasco's deputies should stay away from the sex offenders named in the lawsuit.

"Who in the Sheriff's Office had the bright idea to tell those two guys to go do this?" said Patrick Leduc, the lawyer challenging the ordinance on behalf of his sex offender clients.

The ordinance prevents newly registered sex offenders whose victims were under the age of 16 from living within 2,500 feet of a school, playground, childcare facility, public park or library. It also prohibits offenders from lingering within 300 feet of "child safety zones" — the roughly 4,400 school buses in the county, as well as arcades, public beaches and other places where children regularly gather.

The residency rule goes far beyond the state's 1,000-foot radius, essentially making 48 percent of Pasco County off-limits to sex offenders. Hillsborough County is now considering a similar expansion.

Leduc sued the county in October on behalf of Earl Reyes Villagomeza, a sex offender who pled guilty in 2015 under the new ordinance. Leduc asserts that Pasco's ordinance is unconstitutionally broad and vague and is preempted by state law. On March 14, Leduc filed a court document saying he intended to add two more plaintiffs to the suit.

The next day, two deputies in the Pasco County Sheriff's Office Sex Offender Unit showed up at the home of one of the new plaintiffs, Anthony Locacio, 75. He was released from prison in 2010 after serving 12 years for attempted sexual battery of a child under 12 and lewd and lascivious indecent assault of a child under 16.

"They tried to explain to him that the ordinance didn't apply to him, and that the lawsuit was frivolous and that he didn't need to be a part of it," Leduc said. "It's completely inappropriate."

Leduc wrote in his motion the deputies' actions amount to prior restraint, when the government tries limit speech before it can take place.

Sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll confirmed the deputies visiting Locacio, but he would not say what they did so, citing the pending litigation. Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco supports the ordinance.

In his motion, Leduc said the visit by deputies caused Locacio "severe emotional distress." The attorney wrote Locacio tried to leave the lawsuit and "is presently in great fear of retaliation should he continue in the lawsuit going forward."

Luke Lirot, a private attorney hired by the county to defend the ordinance from Leduc's lawsuit, said the deputies visited Locacio's house to inform him he wasn't subject to the limitations outlined in the ordinance.

"Rather than have these individuals misconstrue limitations on their conduct that were simply not applicable, the Detectives responsible for their compliance issues made contact with these proposed new Plaintiffs to try and clear up any confusion," Lirot wrote in an email to the Tampa Bay Times.

Leduc acknowledged Locacio isn't currently covered by the residency portion of the ordinance. But, Leduc said, Locacio, along with every other sex offender in the county, is subject to the restrictions in place by the child safety zone portion of the ordinance.

Though they are on opposite sides of this issue in court, both Leduc and Lirot said they drafted a joint order that will instruct the Sheriff's Office to "cease any unofficial contact with any named plaintiffs to this lawsuit without first apprising both counsels for the plaintiff and the defense, and allowing counsel for the plaintiff to be present."

Leduc said he expects Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Linda Babb will sign that order.

Contact Josh Solomon at (813) 909-4613(813) 909-4613 or jsolomon@tampabay.com. Follow @josh_solomon15.

In Pasco sex offender ordinance fight, lawyer wants deputies to stay away from clients 03/25/16 [Last modified: Friday, March 25, 2016 8:15pm]
Photo reprints | Article reprints