Shoot your lover in the head? Viciously slash a woman to death? Feel you were unjustly slandered by a school-board member? If you answered yes to any of the preceding, there’s only one man to call: ace attorney Chet Pleban. – St. Louis Riverfront times

From Sex Offender Research by A Voice of Reason:

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Dozens of Missouri sex offenders can continue living near schools or child care centers as a result of a state Supreme Court decision.

In a unanimous ruling Tuesday, Missouri’s high court upheld a decision in May by a circuit judge striking down a portion of Missouri’s sex offender statutes that could have forced the sex offenders to move.

Missouri, like many other states, has enacted progressively tougher laws targeting its roughly 7,200 registered sex offenders.

Since 2004, Missouri has prohibited sex offenders from moving into a home within 1,000 feet of a school or day care. A 2006 law expanded that ban to cover sex offenders who already lived near a school or child care center before the law took effect.

Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce declared that portion of the law unconstitutional because of its retroactive application. The Missouri Supreme Court heard arguments on a state appeal Jan. 31 and ruled Tuesday — an unusually speedy decision.

St. Louis attorney Chet Pleban, who represented the sex offender who sued, said the court’s quick action affirms his contention that the law “clearly was unconstitutional.”

“The reality of this is that this was an ill-conceived piece of legislation, because it was a vote for apple pie, motherhood and the American flag,” Pleban said. “The fact of the matter is sex offenders are not popular people in this state.” Read more…

Related:

Missouri Pulse: Nixon’s Bad Day In Court, Part I

MOPNS: (1/3/08) St. Louis Cop Talk: Pleban “Slimy Weasel Scum Bag”

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