29-4013 Rules and regulations; release of information; duties; access to public notification information; access to documents. - Nebraska Statutes

29-4013. Rules and regulations;release of information; duties; accessto public notification information; access to documents.(1) The Nebraska State Patrol shall adopt and promulgaterules and regulations to carry out the registration provisions of the SexOffender Registration Act.(2)(a) The Nebraska State Patrol shall adopt and promulgaterules and regulations for the release of information pursuant to section 29-4009.(b) The procedures for releaseof information established by the Nebraska State Patrol shall provide for law enforcement and public notification usingelectronic systems.(3) Informationconcerning the address or whereabouts of a sex offender may be disclosed tohis or her victim or victims.(4) The following shall have access to public notificationinformation: Any agency responsible for conducting employment-related backgroundchecks under section 3 of the National Child Protection Act of 1993, 42 U.S.C.5119a; any social service entity responsible for protecting minors in thechild welfare system; any volunteer organization in which contact with minorsor other vulnerable individuals might occur; any public housing agency ineach area in which a registered sex offender resides or is an employee ora student; any governmental agency conducting confidential background checksfor employment, volunteer, licensure, or certification purposes; and any healthcare provider who serves children or vulnerable adults for the purpose ofconducting confidential background checks for employment. If anymeans of notification proposes a fee for usage, then nonprofit organizationsholding a certificate of exemption under section 501(c) of the Internal RevenueCode shall not be charged.(5) Personnel for the sexoffender registration and community notification division of the NebraskaState Patrol shall have access to all documents that are generated by anygovernmental agency that may have bearing on sex offender registration and community notification. This may include,but is not limited to, law enforcement reports, presentence reports, criminalhistories, birthcertificates, or death certificates.The division shall not be charged for access to documents under this subsection. Access to such documents will ensurethat a fair determination of what is an appropriateregistration period is completed using the totality of all informationavailable.(6) Nothing in subsection(2) of this section shall be construed to prevent law enforcement officersfrom providing community notification concerning any person who poses a dangerunder circumstances that are not provided for in the Sex Offender RegistrationAct. SourceLaws 1996, LB 645, § 13; Laws 1998, LB 204, § 3; Laws 2002, LB 564, § 10; Laws 2005, LB 713, § 7; Laws 2006, LB 1199, § 25; Laws 2007, LB463, § 1130; Laws 2009, LB285, § 11.AnnotationsAmendments to the set-aside statute that allow a set-aside conviction to be used for purposes of determining risk under the Sex Offender Registration Act did not apply retroactively to a sex offender whose prior convictions for non-sex-offenses were set aside prior to the amendments, and thus the offender's set-aside convictions could not be used for risk assessment under the act. Orders setting aside the offender's convictions vested him with the right to have the set-aside convictions used only for those purposes listed in this section at the time the orders were entered. McCray v. Nebraska State Patrol, 271 Neb. 1, 710 N.W.2d 300 (2006).For purposes of classifying a convicted sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration Act, unsworn victim statements obtained by police were not competent evidence to support scoring under the section of the risk assessment instrument concerning the nature of the offender's sexual assault behavior. Where the statements were not correlated to any offense for which the offender was charged or convicted, statements bore no other indicia of probative value, and nothing in the record established the truth of the statements. McCray v. Nebraska State Patrol, 271 Neb. 1, 710 N.W.2d 300 (2006).The fact that orders setting aside a convicted sex offender's prior convictions for nonsexual offenses were issued after the offender's risk assessment instrument was scored did not preclude the hearing officer from considering those orders when resolving the offender's administrative challenge to his sex offender classification under the Sex Offender Registration Act; regulations existing at the time of the administrative review process indicated that the hearing officer could consider events occurring after the initial scoring of the risk assessment instrument. McCray v. Nebraska State Patrol, 271 Neb. 1, 710 N.W.2d 300 (2006).This section permits the Nebraska State Patrol to post information concerning Level 3 sex offenders on its Web site. Slansky v. Nebraska State Patrol, 268 Neb. 360, 685 N.W.2d 335 (2004).