New law establishes sex offender management board to audit cases from start to finish

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Advocates are calling the new state law establishing a sex offender management board the first major piece of criminal justice reform in recent years.

The board will make evidence-based recommendations to the legislature to standardize procedures related to the supervision, treatment and oversight of sex offenders.

It’s been ten years since Valley parents Stephanie and Dan Lundell say their 4-year-old daughter told them the unthinkable.

“She said he was, you know, pulling her pants and underwear down, and it didn’t make sense,” said Stephanie.

A 17-year-old boy they trusted was molesting their daughter.

“He admitted to over 20 victims. We just thought it must be little girls, but it was boys (and) girls. He said the youngest he had touched was an infant in diapers. Even animals he’s sexually violated,” said Stephanie.

The Lundells say the system was meant to protect them but failed them in many ways. They told Arizona’s Family the perpetrator was recently able to get off Arizona’s sex offender registry. He’s considered a level 1 offender, which is the lowest level of risk, the Lundells said.

“It’s a joke. This is a very dangerous person who’s out there and is around children,“ said Stephanie. “My child has a life sentence. Her innocence was stolen.”

Probation reform advocate Beth Goulden says more transparency and accountability are coming. She helped create this new bill that Governor Katie Hobbs signed into law.

“There’s little to no oversight. There’s little to no stats you can find on anything related to sex offender management,” said Goulden. “No one’s tracking who’s getting off probation, and then one year, five years, ten years later has this person re-offended.”

The hope is that this new 25-member board will help change that.

It will be made up of sex crimes experts from various backgrounds, including judges, attorneys, law enforcement and mental health professionals, as well as victim’s rights representatives. Goulden said the board will start auditing these cases and how they’re being managed from pre-sentence to if someone petitions to terminate lifetime probation.

Families like the Lundells call this a step in the right direction.

“It would be great if in five years we could look back and say Arizona got a lot safer for kids and a lot less safe for child predators,” said Dan.

Goulden said that Arizona is following the lead of other states like Colorado that have a similar board. She has a meeting with the Governor’s office on Wednesday to determine the next steps.

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