Kanka family.JPG

Richard and Maureen Kanka stand with U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-4th Dist.) speak at Megan Kanka Memorial Park on Barbara Lee Drive in Hamilton in 2008.

(Martin Griff/The Times of Trenton)

HAMILTON — Much of Maureen Kanka's life has been a blur of activity since July 29, 1994.

That was the day her 7-year-old daughter Megan went out for a bike ride in their Hamilton Township neighborhood and never came home. After a massive daylong search, the quiet man who lived across the street confessed to police that he lured the soon-to-be second-grader into an upstairs bedroom of his house, raped her and strangled her.

Maureen and her husband had no idea their neighbor was a twice-convicted sex offender.

The couple responded by lobbying lawmakers to enact Megan’s Law: landmark legislation signed just months after the girl’s death that required sex offenders released from prison to register their whereabouts, and for communities to be alerted when offenders move in.

But the Kankas weren’t done. In the years that followed, Maureen traveled across New Jersey and the country speaking to parents and community leaders at schools and churches, educating them about the dangers of pedophiles. When that slowed down, she devoted her time to the foundation named for her daughter, using federal grant money to fund background checks for volunteers working with children.

It wasn’t until last year, when the federal money ran out, that Kanka finally took a break. And then, she said, the depression she’d fought for years really set in.

Megan Kanka

"I’ve had a really rough year battling with depression," Kanka, 54, said. "I think what happens is: I was so busy that once I stopped, things that didn’t hit me because I was active suddenly did.

"I know everybody loses loved ones," she added. "For me, it’s very difficult because it’s very brutal. I feel responsible. As her mother, I should have been able to save her. But I didn’t know. That’s difficult. I live with that every day."

In the two decades that have passed since the Kankas’ story made national headlines, laws were changed across the country. In 1996, two years after New Jersey passed Megan’s Law, President Bill Clinton signed a federal version, requiring all states to warn the public of sex offenders or lose federal funding. All 50 states and the District of Columbia now have a version in place.

But the debate rages on as to whether the law is effective. Some legal experts and civil rights advocates say it can keep offenders from advancing their lives, lead them to commit more crimes and cause others to harass them.

Fletcher Duddy, an attorney in the state’s public defender’s office, said the law is "the product of good intentions" but does more harm than good.

"Megan’s Law is just putting a scarlet letter on someone, making them a pariah in modern-day society so they can’t function in that society," he said. "It really has a counterproductive effect."

Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo (D-Mercer), whose district includes Hamilton, said the need for Megan’s Law is simple.

"As a parent, the most important individuals we need to protect are our children," he said. "There is not enough we can do to make things safe enough for them."

Former Gov. Christie Whitman, who signed Megan’s Law, noted its limitations but called it an "important safeguard."

"Are there problems with the way it’s implemented in places? Yes," Whitman said. "Do we have to carefully remind parents to know where their children are and to watch? Yes. But this is one instance where it’s better to be safe than sorry."

Whitman, who met with the Kankas in Hamilton to pledge her support for the legislation several times that year, said she’s rarely seen the kind of outrage that was sparked by Megan’s murder.

The girl’s convicted killer, Jesse Timmendequas, then 33, was living in the house across the street with two other child molesters out on parole. After the murder, he helped search for the girl but later broke down under police questioning and confessed to luring Megan into his home by promising to show her his new puppy. Police discovered Kanka’s body dumped in a toy box in a nearby park.

Megan’s Law was put into place three months later.

"I couldn’t have vetoed if it I wanted to," Whitman said. "It would have been overridden in a nanosecond."

LIFE IN PRISON

Timmendequas was convicted of all charges and sentenced to death in 1997. He left death row after Gov. Jon Corzine signed a law outlawing capital punishment in 2007, and he is now serving life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Under Megan’s Law, anyone convicted of a serious sex offense since 1994 must remain under lifetime supervision of parole officers once released from prison. There are currently 6,982 sex offenders under supervision in New Jersey under the law, according to the state Parole Board. Another 2,664 inmates will be required to register under Megan’s Law if and when they are released from prison, according to the state Department of Corrections.

In 2002, New Jersey launched a searchable online database of the names of sex offenders in the state. And in 2012, the law was strengthened to require sex offenders to pay for part of their monitoring costs, toughen penalties for those who violate provisions and help authorities monitor what offenders do online.

But a 2009 study from the state Department of Corrections and Rutgers University said the law has not prevented sex crimes or reduced the number of victims in New Jersey. It also suggested the cost of carrying out the law — estimated at $5.1 million statewide in 2007 — "may not be justifiable."

Jack Furlong, a defense attorney in Ewing, said the law has been "a total waste of taxpayer money."

"We are not safer, but we are poorer," Furlong said. "Poorer in terms of money and civil liberty. Megan’s Law is an abject failure."

Opponents say offenders should instead be given more treatment and offered help to find housing and jobs.

But Peter Aseltine, spokesman for the state Attorney General’s Office, said the study is "not an appropriate assessment of the law’s effectiveness."

"Megan’s Law was never intended to ‘cure sex offenders," Aseltine said. "The purpose of the law is to arm members of the public with information about known sex offenders so they can protect themselves, and so parents in particular can protect vulnerable children from the near inevitability that certain offenders will re-offend."

Kanka said she believes the law has been "misinterpreted."

"We never said children were going to stop being molested or that crime was going to stop," she said. "The purpose of it was very simple. There were pedophiles living across the street, and we had no idea."

Whitman recalled that 20 years ago, "people looked at this as it was going to make all the difference. My concern was always, ‘No, it’s going to be another tool.’ But there is no one law we can enact that is going to solve all these problems."

A LONG JOURNEY

Following Megan’s murder, the Kankas never moved away from their home on Barbara Lee Drive in Hamilton. Richard Kanka, a pipefitter, has recently turned to public service: He was elected to the Hamilton school board in 2009 and launched an unsuccessful bid for the state Senate in 2011.

The house where Timmendequas resided was torn down and replaced with a park covered in pink flowers — Megan’s favorite color.

"We realized all our memories are here," Maureen Kanka explained. "But there is always a thought in the back of your mind: Did we make the right decision? As nice as the park is across the street, it’s always there. The house is always there."

"Meggie" — the nickname Maureen still uses for her daughter — would have been 27 this year.

"She was genuinely a wonderful, wonderful little girl," her mother said. "She would do anything to help me. She was my shadow. I can’t imagine she wouldn’t have done tremendously."

The Kankas’ other two children are grown. Maureen Kanka now spends much of her time playing with her grandson Zachary, who turns 3 today: "My grandson makes me whole."

She is also working on a book.

"It’s the ending of my journey with all of this," Kanka explained. "It’s what I need to do."

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