Closing the Loopholes in Louisiana's Sex Offender Laws

The sex offender registry is a tool that allows us to keep track of the sex offenders in our communities. What you might not know, however, is that some of those who commit crimes of a sexual nature don't have to register as sex offenders, and those criminals could be even more dangerous than the sex offenders you know about.

"If women in this neighborhood knew this guy with this history was in their neighborhood," Hugo Holland, a Caddo Parish Assistant District Attorney, said, " they would have never let him into their homes." Wendell P. Liesmann is serving a life sentence in Angola prison. He was convicted of binding and raping elderly women in their homes. Yet, his criminal history began long before that. "He had a history going back to his teenage years of peeping tom and burglary," Holland said. Being a peeping tom, however, is a misdemeanor, not a sex crime and although Liesmann allegedly committed burglaries for sexual reasons, he was not considered a sex offender. That's why the women he attacked had no idea they were in danger.

" Those people aren't required to register but they're dangerous," Holland said," the public needs to know about them." Holland says most sex offenders who attack strangers have a criminal history similar to Liesmann's. Holland and the Caddo District Attorney's Office are asking Louisiana legislators to make criminals like peeping toms  register as sex offenders. It is part of an effort to close the loopholes in Louisiana's sex offender laws and stop voyeurs before they become violent. "We're not talking about a large number of people that we're going to stop, but these ones are by far the most dangerous," Holland says.

This law could be written and introduced into the Louisiana Legislature by next session. It could be passed within the next two years.