Establishment and Contents

Las Vegas Criminal Attorney Explains Sex Offender Registration

At LV Criminal Defense, our legal team has represented many defendants accused of sexually-based offenses. A defendant who is facing sex crimes charges is facing some of the most serious charges in the criminal justice system. Penalties for sex offenders are harsh, offenders typically must register after they have served out their penalty, and the record of a sex crime can change an offender’s life in permanent and profound ways.

We want to help you to avoid these big changes to your life by fighting to help you get acquitted or by working hard to negotiate a plea deal on your behalf that could result in reduced charges. You should call to talk with a Vegas criminal attorney at our firm as soon as possible if you have been accused of a sex crime so you can get the help that you need to fight the charges. We have successfully helped many offenders to avoid a guilty verdict and we will put our legal knowledge and experience to work on your behalf.

If you have been convicted of a sex offense, we can also provide you with insight into what inclusion on a registry and community-based notifications mean for you and can help you to take steps to protect your rights as a registered offender.

Give us a call today to find out more about both how we can help you to avoid registration and also about how Nevada law manages its registry.

Establishment and Contents of Nevada’s Sex Offender Registry

Chapter 179B sets forth the Nevada rules for the creation of a statewide sex offender registry. There are different provisions of this chapter or Nevada’s code of criminal procedure which address both the establishment of an official registry as well as the creation of a community notification website.

N.R.S. 179B.200 provides details on the establishment of the registry, on what information the registry should contain, on the circumstances under which the registry may be searched by law enforcement, and on the accessibility of the registry. According to the relevant statute, the Director is vested with the authority to establish a centralized sex offender registry for the state of Nevada. The registry should be established within the Central Repository and should include information from throughout the entirety of the state of Nevada.

The registry must contain the information for all offenders who have been convicted of sexual offenses. The registry also must contain information on offenders who have been accused of crimes against children. Each of the offenders within the state who were convicted of the covered offenses will have a record of registration. For each offender within the centralized registry, certain information about the offender that was obtained pursuant to law should be included in that offender’s record.

The statewide registry is intended to serve as an important investigative tool for law enforcement officials. As a result, N.R.S. 179B.200 indicates that the registry has to be organized so that law enforcement can search it using specific parameters for the search. Law enforcement must be able to search the registry by inputting the name of an offender, a physical description of an offender, or an alias that the offender has used.

Law enforcement also must be able to search the registry based on the geographic location where the offender committed the offense that resulted in being registered as well as based on certain details about the offense and the victim. For example, police must be able to search the central registry based on the physical description of the victim, or based on the gender, age, or race of the victim. Law enforcement also must be able to search on the basis of the ways in which the offender obtained access to the victim, the specific sexual unlawful acts the defendant perpetrated, the weapons or instruments the offender used, and the type of injuries inflicted by the offender.

If the offender took any property, then law enforcement must also be able to search the database based on the property that was taken. Finally, if there are any other identifying characteristics of the offender or of the crime, law enforcement officials must also be able to search based on these distinctive characteristics or traits.

The registry is intended to serve as an important tool that helps law enforcement officers to conduct investigations into other criminal acts that occur.

Your Rights and Obligations as a Registered Offender

Some of the information in the statewide registry is only permitted to be accessed by law enforcement in the regular course of the law enforcement officer performing his duties. However, officers or employees of government agencies which are investigating a person’s background for employment purposes can also access some information in the registry, and others can access this information as well for purposes of research or for purposes of statistical evaluation.

The protections that are put in place are aimed at making certain that an offender’s right to privacy is balanced with the needs of the community to maintain public safety. You deserve to be able to have your rights protected even after a conviction for a sexually based offense and you should talk with an experienced attorney if you are not certain about the rules for the registry and how it can be used.