On April 1, 2024, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) signed SB 874 into law, effectively nullifying a state Supreme Court ruling issued the previous year that directed the state Department of Corrections (DOC) to remove hundreds of released sex offenders from lifetime GPS monitoring.

DOC began removing the monitors in August 2023, after the state’s high court issued a ruling rejecting former Attorney General Brad Schimel’s interpretation of the sex offender registration law. In 2017, Schimel (R) issued OAG-­02-­17, considering sex offenders convicted of multiple counts in the same proceeding to be “repeat offenders” and therefore subject to lifetime registration and GPS monitoring.

Based on Schimel’ s opinion, DOC officials contacted sex offenders who were no longer on parole or probation and ordered them to report to have GPS monitors affixed within five days or face criminal charges and large fines. Several of those targeted filed a legal challenge; the state Supreme Court ruled in Corey T. Rector’s case on May 23, 2023.

Rector pleaded guilty to five counts of possession of child pornography in the same proceeding and was sentenced to eight years in prison and 10 years of extended supervision, and he was ordered to comply with sex offender registration requirements for 15 years. He filed an appeal, and the state cross-­appealed because the trial court declined to impose lifetime registration, finding that Rector did not meet the definition of a repeat offender.

Upon certification by the Court of Appeal, the state Supreme Court accepted review and “determine[d] that convictions based on charges filed in a single case and occurring during the same hearing have not occurred on ‘2 or more separate occasions’” as required by Wis. Stat. 301.45(5)(b)l. The Court distinguished its prior rulings in State v. Wittrock, 350 N.W.2d 647 (Wis. 1984) and State v. Hopkins, 484 N.W.2d 547 (Wis. 1992), which had interpreted the term “separate occasions” differently based on another state law, finding they failed “to illuminate our reading of the [ sex offender registration] statute.” The Supreme Court declined to find “separate occasions” to be a legal term of art, but rather it “should be given its plain, ordinary meaning.” Accordingly, the trial court’s determination that Rector was subject to sex offender registration for 15 years rather than life was affirmed. Three justices joined in a scathing dissenting opinion. See: State v. Rector, 407 Wis. 2d 321 (2023).

After that, DOC began on August 8, 2023, to remove GPS monitors that had been issued based on Schimel’s erroneous interpretation of the registration law. “I was in tears of joy,” said Benjamin Braam, whose sentence expired in 2018, yet he was still required to register and wear a GPS monitor. After Evers signed the new law though, a monitor is now back on his ankle. “It’s like being back in jail,” Braam said. “I can’t do anything. I can’t wear shorts, go swimming, all the stuff I like doing. I can’t date anybody. As soon as they see it, they ask questions.”

Braam was a plaintiff in a separate suit is challenging lifetime GPS monitoring that was filed in 2019. The National Association for Rational Sex Offender Laws (NARSOL) is assisting in the case and funded two expert reports on behalf of Plaintiffs. On December 13, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington granted class certification for “repeat offenders”—under state law, those “convicted of sexual offenses on two or more occasions”—who remain subject to lifetime sex offender registration, despite having completed their sentences. Though he was the sole remaining plaintiff Alton Antrim was found to have met the requirements for class certification, including typicality, numerosity, commonality and adequacy. Another proposed class of people convicted of a “serious child sex offense” was rejected. See: Antrim v. Carr, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 221665 (E.D. Wis.).

With passage of the new law, the class-­action takes on additional importance. There were 1,918 people on the sex offender registry subject to lifetime GPS monitoring, and the new law, which is retroactive to Schimel’s 2017 opinion, added about 972 more. Not only is each shackled for life with a monitor but also each pays $200 monthly for the (dis)honor. The case remains pending, and PLN will update developments as they are available. Chicago attorneys Mark G. Weinberg and Adele D. Nicholas are providing class counsel. See: Antrim v.Carr, USDC (E.D. Wisc.), Case No. 2:19-­cv-­00396.  

Additional source: Cap Times

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