Murphy – Cherokee County Sheriff Derrick Palmer said Monday there is nothing illegal about his requirement that sex offenders come to the National Guard Armory on U.S. 19/74 by Thursday to confirm their records.
Palmer sent letters to all registered sex offenders in the county on Oct. 9 requiring them to appear no later than 5:30 p.m. Thursday. They must confirm their record and photo to avoid the penalty of a warrant being issued for their arrest.
An advocacy group called North Carolinians for Rational Sexual Offense Laws sent Palmer a letter Sunday claiming local sex offenders have no statutory requirement to obey.
“On behalf of all the registered citizens of Cherokee County who are not on probation or any other form of supervision, NCRSOL demands that you immediately cease and desist in your unlawful attempt to force these citizens to comply with your illicit and unauthorized demand,” the letter signed by President Robin Vander Wall reads.
The letter claims the organization’s attorney believes Palmer is “engaged in an extra-legal exercise of your law enforcement powers.”
However, Palmer said county attorney Darryl Brown told him Monday there is no reason the plan cannot move forward as scheduled.
“Counties all across North Carolina do this pretty commonly,” Palmer said. “Our attorney said we were within our rights to do this. The organization did not cite a particular statute that claimed this was illegal, they just sent a threatening letter.”
Palmer said he left it in the hands of the attorneys, but he had no reason to believe anything would change about Thursday’s deadline for sex offenders to comply.
Attorney: Legal to compel sex offenders to confirm identity
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