Published: August 22, 2009 12:44 am      

Dowdell attorney believes Supreme Court decision leaves ‘inconsistencies’

The Indiana Supreme Court’s decision Friday to not overturn an ordinance banning registered sex offenders from parks in Plainfield could affect Jeffersonville’s ordinance.

In Jeffersonville’s case, Eric Dowdell’s petitions to watch his son play baseball in Jeffersonville parks were denied. The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled that Dowdell should be allowed in the parks because the city’s ordinance was passed after Dowdell was charged, convicted and served his sentence for a sex offense. He also was no longer on the sex-offender registry.

Larry Wilder, the attorney representing the city council in the Dowdell case, said he had expected the Supreme Court would rule on Jeffersonville’s case at the same time as the Plainfield case.

The Supreme Court has not yet made a decision whether to hear Jeffersonville’s case.

Wilder was clearly stunned when informed of the Supreme Court’s decision on Plainfield, repeatedly saying, “Wow.” The court declined to hear the case by a 4-1 vote, letting stand without comment a state Court of Appeals ruling upholding the 2002 ordinance.

“It seems at this point that there are two inconsistent decisions in the Indiana Court of Appeals,” Wilder said.

The Court of Appeals had decided that Plainfield’s ordinance — which bans convicted sex offenders from parks for life — is not unconstitutional. Jeffersonville’s ordinance allows offenders to petition to be allowed back in the parks once they no longer have to register.

While he hopes the Supreme Court will reverse the Court of Appeals decision in the Dowdell case, Wilder added that the Supreme Court can choose to leave two inconsistencies in Court of Appeals decisions and let the law evolve.

If the Supreme Court decides not to hear the Jeffersonville case, the city would have no other options to appeal the Dowdell decision, Wilder said.