DE PERE (WFRV) – The controversial relocation of a convicted sex offender to a De Pere community has been cancelled.
The Wisconsin Department of Corrections and the apartment manager told police Wednesday Geitano Schmidt will not move into the Broadway apartment.
Several people at a notification meeting on Monday don’t like the idea. 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.
Fifty year-old Schmidt served 13 years in prison for 1st degree sexual assault of a child.
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