Graham sheriff bans sex offenders from church

ROBBINSVILLE – A sheriff in one of North Carolina's smallest counties told sex offenders they can't attend church services, citing a state law meant to keep them from day care centers and schools.

Sheriff Danny Millsaps, in Graham County, told the registered offenders about his decision on Feb. 17, according to a letter obtained by the Asheville Citizen-Times on Friday.

About 9,000 people live in Graham County, which is on the Tennessee line.

"This is an effort to protect the citizens and children of the community of Graham (County)," he wrote. "I cannot let one sex offender go to church and not let all registered sex offenders go to church."

He invited them to attend church service at the county jail.

Millsaps, in an interview on Friday, said he may have made a mistake when he wrote that offenders "are not permitted to attend church services."

He said he understands the Constitution gives everyone the right to religious freedom. But, he said, he's standing by his take on the law blocking offenders from places where children are present.

"I understand I can't keep them from going to church," he said. "That may have been misunderstood. I'll be the first one to say I might have made mistakes in the wording of that letter."

He said he has no immediate plans to arrest a sex offender should one of the 20 in his county attend church on Sunday.

Graham County Manager Greg Cable said the county attorney is looking into the matter and any legal mistakes would be corrected.

The American Civil Liberties Union in Raleigh, at the newspaper's request, is reviewing the letter the sheriff sent.

The newspaper also sent a copy to the state Department of Justice for an opinion on the law.

Neither immediately responded.

Other North Carolina counties have dealt with the same issue.

Deputies in Chatham County in 2009 arrested a sex offender for attending church, citing the same law.

A state Superior Court judge eventually ruled the law, as applied to churches, was unconstitutional.

In Buncombe County, sex offenders are permitted in church as long as pastors know and are in agreement, Sheriff Van Duncan says.

That's similar to the county's policy for allowing sex offenders at school events such as ball games. They are allowed as long as school administrators have warning and the offenders are monitored to some extent, the sheriff said.

The law allows schools to do this, a factor the judge noted back in 2009 in the Chatham County case.

Duncan said if a sex offender threatens a child at a church or school event, the law can be enforced and used to ban the offender.

He said church leaders in Buncombe County, generally, want to minister to sex offenders.

The law applies to churches that run schools Monday-Friday the same as it would apply to county or city schools during the week.

Sex offenders are generally banned from school property.