Wisconsin Recall Challenger Steitz Under Police Investigation for Renting to Sex Offender

[RandySF]

On August 5th, 2011, blogger Zach W at bloggingblue.com broke the news that Republican Jonathan Steitz rented his Kenosha, Wisconsin duplex to a registered sex offender last year. That sex offender was arrested in Wisconsin recently for failing to update his residency information with the state of Minnesota.

The Kenosha News reported last week that Steitz is now under investigation for violating a Kenosha ordinance prohibiting landlords from renting to registered sex offenders if the rental unit is within 2,500 feet of a school. The duplex is just over 1,000 feet from a Kenosha middle school. Steitz and his family lived in the duplex they own for a number of years, so they were well aware that it's near a school. The Steitzs currently reside in a rented home in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.

Steitz is challenging Democratic incumbent State Senator Robert Wirch in an August 16th recall election.

Steitz claims that because the offender was originally charged as a minor and that court documents are sealed, he had no way of knowing about his tenant's past and that the tenant's sex crime did not turn up in a background check performed by the rental agent hired by Steitz.



http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/15/1006967/-Wisconsin-Recall-Challenger-Steitz-Under-Police-Investigation-for-Renting-to-Sex-Offender-?via=siderecent

[murielm99]

1. I hate to say this, but everything Steitz is saying sounds

plausible.

There are many gray areas in those sex offender laws.

[Kalidurga]

2. It does sound plausible.

Some digging around should show whether he is telling the truth or not.

[Kennah]

3. True, but politics is the art of the possible, not the plausible.

Doesn't sound possible for someone to win with the term sex offender linked to their campaign.