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Sex offender online list
short for now

Question: Could you please print instructions on how a member of the public could check whether there are any registered sex offenders in their neighborhood? Due to the Jessica Lunsford case in Florida, I would like to know whether there are any sex offenders living in my neighborhood. I tried to get this information online and was not very successful.

Answer: The easiest way to do a search is to go online at pahoehoe.ehawaii. gov/sexoff.

An alternate way is to go to the state of Hawaii's main page -- www.hawaii.gov -- and click on "Find Sex Offenders" on the left side.

You can search by name, by street name or by ZIP code, said Liane Moriyama, administrator of the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center.

The public also can access the same information using Public Access terminals at the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center or at any main county police station, including the Kona police station, she said.

There is a $10 fee for each printout requested.

Moriyama said information can also be requested, for a $15 fee, by writing to Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center, 465 S. King St., Room 101, Honolulu 96813.

That all said, you won't be finding very many offenders PUBLICLY listed in the registry.

Of the 2,124 sex offenders currently registered in Hawaii, the names of only 73 are now available for public scrutiny on the Internet, Moriyama said.

That's because state law now requires a court hearing before any information about a sex offender is made public.

The Hawaii Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that making such information public without a hearing is unconstitutional.

Before that ruling was made, the public could view about 1,500 names on the registry.

Last November, Hawaii voters approved a constitutional amendment to allow the state Legislature to define which crimes, such as sex crimes against children, warrant posting names on the registry site without court approval.

Senate Bill 708, which would do that, is currently progressing in the state Legislature.

Q: Who is responsible for trimming the tall grass and tree branches along the Punchbowl side of Prospect Street from Stevenson Middle School to the top of the hill at 1011 Prospect St.? The sidewalk is almost completely covered in some areas, and the pedestrians on this heavily used path are sometime forced onto the roadway darting in and out between the vehicles parked along the street. Please help before someone is seriously injured or killed.

A: The city issued a citation to the abutting property owner, the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, last week. It was given 20 days in which to remove the overgrowth, said Russell Kaneshiro, chief of the city Housing Code Section.

If the job isn't done by then, the task will be referred to a city crew, and the state will be billed for the work.

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