Sex offenders’ proximity to daycare raises alarms

Callaway County’s sheriff says no laws have been broken despite concerns about a home sheltering registered sex offenders in New Bloomfield that’s located just over 1,000 feet from a child care center.

According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol Sex Offender Registry, five men live in a home located at 9810 Route AE, 1,056 feet away from Mikki’s Early Learning Academy.

“There are no registration violations regarding the current registered offenders,” Callaway County Sheriff Clay Chism said.

Chism said the offenders were registered at the property, operated by the New Life Evangelistic Center, before Mikki’s Early Learning Academy was issued its child care license.

“We have to make sure that we’re conducting sheriff’s office business in accordance with the law as it is,” Chism said. “There is no probable cause a state law violation was committed by there offenders.”

According to state law, if any person who has pleaded guilty or found guilty of child sex crimes lives within 1,000 feet of a child care center or public or private school before such center opens, the offender has to notify the county sheriff within one week of the opening and provide proof that they lived there beforehand.

“No new registered sex offenders can take up residency here moving forward,” Chism said. “I personally understand the communities concerns, but simply these offenders are exempt under state law and ethically, legally and morally I cannot make them relocate.”

The men living there has convictions including statutory rape, child molestation, sexual assault and statutory sodomy.