A level three sex offender has moved to Lake Forest Park and police are notifying neighbors.
The city held a community meeting Nov. 19 at Shorecrest High School to present information on the state’s regulations on sex offenders and the city’s role in the state’s sex offender registration program.
Gary Scott Kenfield, 40, lives in the 15300 block of Bothell Way and has been convicted of rape twice.
In mid-1984 he was convicted of first-degree rape of a 21-year-old female after she left work at a cocktail lounge in Eastern Washington. In late 1989 he was convicted of second-degree rape after he assaulted an 18-year-old student on an Eastern Washington college campus.
Kenfield has served his sentence with the state Department of Corrections and is not wanted by local police at this time. The Lake Forest Police Department has no legal authority to direct or restrict where a sex offender may or may not live, and Kenfield is constitutionally free to live wherever he chooses.
“A level three means they are most likely to re-offend,” said Lake Forest Park police chief Dennis Peterson.
Upon their release from serving time with Department of Corrections, sex offenders are assigned a level according to the risk they pose, with level one being the least serious and level three being the most serious.
Sex offenders must notify police of where they will be living within 24 hours of moving. The state Supreme Court authorized law enforcement agencies to inform the public of a sex offender moving to the community in order to enhance public safety and protection.
The city’s only other level three sex offender lives in a group home under 24-hour supervision. The city is also home to two level two and eight level one sex offenders.
Lake Forest Park police perform quarterly check-ups to make sure sex offenders living in Lake Forest Park live where they say they do.
Police are required to notify the community when a sex offender moves to town. Harassment of that individual will not be tolerated by police and could jeopardize the police’s ability to notify the public in the future, Peterson said.
Federal and state courts have repeatedly struck down local ordinances that restrict where persons may live, he added.
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