The Michigan Court of Appeals has ruled that homeless sex criminals don’t have to comply with Michigan’s Sex Offender Registry Act.

Many law enforcement officials — who often have to deal with sex offenders who claim they have no permanent residence — aren’t happy with the ruling.

In a published opinion released Tuesday that sets a statewide precedent, a three-judge panel unanimously upheld a trial court's dismissal of charges against a homeless Ingham County man for failing to register, failing to comply with reporting duties and failing to pay registration fees.

The appeals judges ruled that it’s impossible for a homeless person to comply with the law, which requires convicted sex criminals to report their “domicile or residence” to police. The judges concluded that a homeless sex offender, by definition, has neither.

The judges’ opinion bluntly urges state lawmakers to fix the law. “The Legislature is free, indeed, empowered, to ... include a provision addressing reporting requirements for the homeless,” said the opinion signed by judges Jane M. Beckering, Jane E. Markey and Stephen L. Borrello.

“The purpose of (the Sex Offender Registry Act) is wise, and the Legislature is urged to consider changes so that a homeless person who does not have a domicile or residence may readily comply with its requirements,” the judges wrote.

The sooner that happens the better, in the opinion of Muskegon County Sheriff Dean Roesler.

“I certainly hope the Legislature takes a good hard look at this ruling and revisits the Sex Offender Registry Act,” Roesler said. “It’s going to be an obstacle to properly investigating the cases of who has failed to register and who has failed to comply with the act.

“The intent (of the law) was to keep track of persons who have committed the sex offenses that keep them on the sex offender list,” Roesler said. “It kind of defeats the purpose.”

Muskegon-area lawmakers, informed of the ruling Thursday by The Muskegon Chronicle, said they intend to take action.

“They’ve asked us to move forward on this, and we need to do it quickly,” said state Rep. Mary Valentine, D-Norton Shores.

“It sounds like a huge loophole that needs to be fixed,” said state Sen. Gerald Van Woerkom, R-Norton Shores. “I would think that we would have to find a way to register these offenders.”

The court case involves a Lansing defendant named Randall Lee Dowdy. Dowdy, now 61, was convicted in 1984 of five counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of kidnapping, according to registry records.

Dowdy was rendered homeless in 2006 after operators of an Ingham County homeless shelter kicked him out after learning of his sex offender status. He then failed to register his address because he had none while he bunked in abandoned buildings and public places.

The Ingham County prosecutor charged Dowdy with a felony and multiple misdemeanors. A circuit-court trial judge dismissed the case. The prosecutor appealed. The case went all the way to the state Supreme Court, which failed to reach a consensus last year and remanded it to the appeals court for a decision. A similar case is going on in Bay City.

Of the 750 registered sex offenders in the city of Grand Rapids, less than two dozen are legitimately homeless, officer John Wetzel said. Prior to the appellate court decision, the registry reflected a homeless person’s nearest address.

If an offender was living under a bridge and came to register, authorities put down the general area as a place of residence. That at least gives them a starting point investigators need to locate an offender.

The decision, Wetzel said, is huge concern for law enforcement agencies.

“The point of the registry is for tracking and this basically strips the law of its purpose,” Wetzel said. “The Sex Offender Registry is an honor system because they have to come to us, but now the court has told them to go out and do whatever they want and claim they are homeless.”

The court directed the problem back at the legislature to address the loophole. Authorities hope the lawmakers will move quickly to fix the law, but in a budget year it isn’t clear how quickly that will be done.

Wetzel said police officers will write a warrant and force a sex offender to prove their lack of residency.

“There’s people out there that are trying to be honest, trying to do the right thing,” he said. “They’ve served their time and are trying to move forward.

“But there’s also people out there that are dishonest and some people will absolutely want to disappear, and they’ll be able to fall off our radar.”

-- Grand Rapids Press reporter Nate Reens contributed to this report.

E-mail: jhausman@muskegonchronicle.com

