DE PERE (WFRV) The relocation of a convicted sex offender is not sitting well with some De Pere residents.
Fifty year-old Geitano Schmidt served 13 years in prison for 1
st degree sexual assault of a child. He’s moving to an apartment on the 500 block of North Broadway.
Several people at a notification meeting on Monday don’t approve of that location. It is within two blocks of a library, museum, Voyageur Park and the Fox River Trail.
“The library has kids coming and going all summer. The trails are full of kids,” said Julie Christian, a De Pere mom who lives on North Broadway. “It’s just way too close.”
Unlike some other cities, De Pere doesn’t restrict where sex offenders live based on the proximity to schools, parks or other places that attract kids.
“The city of De Pere has parks all over the place,” said Detective Sergeant Chad Opicka from the De Pere Police Department. “If we did a geographical restriction like Green Bay, it probably would eliminate the entire city.”
De Pere does have an ordinance that bans sex offenders from loitering near places that attract kids.
According to the Wisconsin Sex Offender Registry, there are more than a dozen registered sex offenders already living in De Pere. Most live in the southern part of the city. Right now none live on North Broadway.
The decision to allow Schmidt to move onto North Broadway is final. He will have seven years of parole supervision, including electronic monitoring.
