Bills may stiffen sex crime penalties
BILLS from page 1
three points for first-degree sexual
assault and two points for second
degree sexual assault.
After four or more points are
accumulated, mandatory sentences
are instated, ranging from a five-year
minimum with a maximum of 50
years for a person with four points to
a 25-year mandatory minimum, with
a maximum of life in prisotffor a per
son with six or more points.
Under the point system, offend
ers must serve the mandatory mini
mum with no option for early parole.
County attorneys would have the
discretion of determining if offend
ers with four points or more should
be labeled habitual sexual offenders
under the new point system.
Habitual sexual offenders would
be encouraged to undergo treatment
in order to get out of prison.
“If charged as a habitual sexual
offender, they need to be treated; and
if they aren’t treated, then they can’t
get out of jail,” Suttle said. “They
also are given longer sentences,
regardless of treatment.
“And much longer if no treat
ment.”
LB435, introduced by Malcolm
Sen. Carol Hudkins, would require
sexual offenders to be evaluated
before they are released from prison.
If sexual offenders are deemed dan
gerous or likely to commit a sexual
crime again, they would be recom
mended to the county attorney for
further treatment.
| Hudkins said sexual offenders in
Nebraska do not always receive treat
ment, which puts them back into
society virtually unchanged.
“What we are trying to do is pro
tect the public,” Hudkins said.
The bill is also supported by
Attorney General Don Stenbeig.
Both bills are geared at prevent
ing people such as David Burdette, a
convicted multiple rapist arrested in
Omaha, from re-entering society too
soon, Suttle said.
Burdette was arrested in
November after raping two women
and attempting to rape a third, short
ly after being released from prison
for a series of rapes in 1982.
“They get out regardless of treat
ment; that’s what happened with
Burdette,” Suttle said. “He refused
treatment and got out and promptly
went and raped someone else.”
Suttle said treatment involves
habitual sexual offenders changing
their behavior patterns, much in the
way alcoholics do to become sober. *
Suttle said lawmakers have been .
working on getting a sexual offender
bill passed since 1994.
Wesely proposed a sexual-preda
tor bill in 1994 and 1995, but later a
similar Washington state bill was
found unconstitutional. The
Nebraska bill was reworked and
introduced in 1996 but died in the
Judiciary Committee because mem
bers felt it needed more work.
Suttle said she was optimistic
about the passage of LB467, which
possibly could be combined with
Hudkin’s LB435 later in the legisla
tive session.
Increase in ’98 burglaries worries police
CRIME from page 1
nience store clerk was shot
Part of the problem may be an
increase in the number of places for
criminals to rob, he said.
Casady said when he began work
ing as a police officer, the number of
businesses that stayed open late was
significantly lower.
“You.could count the number of
24-hour businesses we had on one
hand and still have three fingers left,”
he said.
Police have put more and more
officers on night shifts, Casady said,
and the officers try to stay in touch with
business owners.
“I think if you’ll stop by late-night
businesses, you’ll find the police are
frequent visitors,” he said.
Lincoln also had nine homicides,
the highest number this decade. Most
of diem occurred during die first half of
the year, Casady said. Compared to
other cities its size, though, Lincoln’s
violent crime rates are still relatively
low.
Police are concerned about a rise in
residential burglaries, he said.
Residential burglaries were up 17.3
percent in 1998. He said many of those
1 could have been prevented by simply
locking garages and homes.
“I don’t think citizens in Lincoln
areas cognizant of the crimes that are
going on in town as they should be,” he
said.
Commercial burglaries, however,
were down by 3.6 percent For the first
time in years, Casady said, Lincoln had
no bank robberies. That statistic com
pared favorably with figures from the
Omaha metro area.
Omaha had 78 bank and credit
union robberies in 1998, more than
triple the previous year’s total.
“We’re doing an awful lot of work
with our banks here in Lincoln,”
Casady said.
Meanwhile, arrests increased by
8.6 percent, including a 23.2 percent
increase in DWI arrests. Casady said
officers worked hard to crack down on
drunken drivers.
Nationally, the latest FBI reports
indicate a 1 percent drop in serious
crime in the Midwest, and a 2 percent
decline nationwide.
Casady said Lincoln’s figures are
in line with national trends,, but
decreases may not be as large because
of Lincoln’s growth.
Other figures presented at the press
conference include:
■ Official traffic citations incr
eased by 11.7 percent A total of 47,<563
were issued.
■Auto theft decreased by 14.2 per
cent
■ Lincoln’s population grew by 1
percent from209,192 to 211^284. Pat I
violent crimes - murder, rape, robbery
and felony assault-per 100,000people
increased by 3.0 percent Part I proper
ty crimes - burglary, larceny and auto
theft - per 100,000 p>eople decreased
by 1.8 percent
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"My friends thought I was crazy." she recalls. "But I figured the
worst thing that could happen would be that the business
wouldn’t fly and I’d end up being a lawyer after all."
As President of her class at law school. Christy already
possessed the leadership skills that entrepreneurs need. Her
publishing experience, however, was limited
to editing, the Stanford Law Review Still.
of your contacts, you should.” she says. Turns out that Christy’s
classmate's aunt’s neighbor (follow that?) knew the editor of
Essence. a women's magazine aimed at African-Americans.
Christy convinced the magazine's president to meet with her.
and his company agreed to help fund her start-up. Christy
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Today, it has an impressive circulation of almost 200.000. but it
wasn't easy getting there. One of the hardest things about
being a young entrepreneur is simply the fact that you are
young. Potential business partners often assume you are inex
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FI 1^1 I ■ ^ C C ■* ■ ^ meeting and thought they were looking at
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years old. magazine Watch for the rest of this series in future issues of your school newspaper. and fake your confidence when you need to."
■ i icigi iai^ viiiiisiy
Haubegger has already put
together a pretty impressive
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Jfom the Ms. Foundation (also
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So how did she end up in company like that? Turns out it all
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es in school with some great professors, and they always talked
about the search for that mythical big idea." she recalls. "As a
Mexican-American. I’d always wondered why no one had ever
produced a magazine for Latina women. Then I wondered if 1
could do it myself."
Christy graduated ftofn the University of lexas in 1989 with a
philosophy degree and immediately headed off to Stanford
University Law School. But as law school graduation
she figured she could learn what she needed to know pretty
quickly. "If you take any reasonably smart person and tell them
to spend a year researching an industry, they can become an
expert if they work at it." she says. "All the data I needed was
in the public library. Census data, information about the
magazine industry, books on how to write a business plan, it
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Once Christas business plan was done, she started to show it
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she would need to launch a glossy publication. "192 people
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Eventually, some good old-fashioned networking led her to her
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While there is a certain glamour associated with being the
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the first time, lo a larger publication, it wouldn't be such a big
deal. But when they agreed to be in our magazine, we jumped
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ice cream."
%
As an owner of a growing company and Publisher of Latina,
Christy has continued to nurture her dream magazine into a *
leading lifestyle publication, read by thousands of dynamic,
educated young
women just like her
self. She says that
she hopes to inspire
other young women
to pursue their
dreams as well.