Judges' Curfew Rejection Decried

By: JIM FARRELL - June 4th, 2003
The Hartford Courant [www.ctnow.com]

Vernon Police Chief Rudolf Rossmy said Tuesday that parents are the losers in a federal appeals court decision to overturn a youth curfew in his town.

"The community will suffer," said Rossmy, refering to Monday's decision by a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. "Especially the parents whose children become victims at night, or the parents whose children might victimize others."

But Teresa Younger, executive director of the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union, said the verdict is a welcome recognition of the rights of parents and their children.

"We can't make assumptions that a group of youths walking together will lead to a criminal act," Younger said.

The curfew, enacted in 1994, required that children under age 18 be home by 11 p.m. on weekdays and by 12:01 a.m. on weekends.

The ruling that such an ordinance is unconstitutional puts in jeopardy similar ordinances in about 10 other Connecticut communities.

The judges ruled 2-1 to overturn the curfew.

Senior Judge Richard Cardamone wrote that the curfew "interferes with juveniles' freedom of movement, that is, their right to walk the streets, move about at will, meet in public with friends and leave the house when they please. This right to free movement is a vital component of life in an open society, both for juveniles and adults."

The Vernon Town Council directed the town attorney to return to the federal appeals court and ask it to rehear the case.

Martin Burke, a town attorney for Vernon, said, `It ain't over 'till it's over."

Philip Tegeler, the CCLU's legal director, said, "This decision is obviously bigger than the Town of Vernon."

East Hartford, for example, is expected to review and possibly abandon an ordinance that prohibits children under 16 from being out after 10 p.m. without supervision.

Legal precedents aside, curfew citations are rare, according to police officials in those two towns.

East Hartford police spokesman Hugo Benettieri said he was not aware of any curfew citations being issued since the ordinance was established in 1980.

Rossmy said "very few" citations have been issued in Vernon in the past few years. But he said the ordinance was a key to dealing with youth gangs in town a decade ago and has remained effective as a deterrent.

"It's not only good for the police, but for parents who don't want their kids to sneak out at night," Rossmy said. "The confrontation [with police] is what a lot of people want to avoid."

Younger disagrees.

"All people, including juveniles, have the right to move freely," she said.

As to the argument that parents could use the curfew as an implied threat to keep their children in at night, Younger said, "That's not the way to parent."

Resident Janet Ramos first challenged the curfew in 1998 after her son Angel was cited repeatedly.

The Ramos family could not be reached Tuesday.

The curfew was upheld in a federal court in Bridgeport and also by the Connecticut Supreme Court before going to the federal appeals court.

Rossmy said children and young adults found after curfew typically were driven home by police and given written warnings. Chronic offenders, he said, eventually could be fined about $60, if found guilty.

The number of warnings and tickets given out for violating the curfew has plummeted from a peak of 222 in 1997 to 51 in 2002, which Rossmy said meant the law worked.

The ordinance was amended in 1999 to exempt youths "exercising his/her first amendment rights" from the curfew.

Staff writer Lee Foster contributed to this story.

The Hartford Courant

Posted by: rabbit || Last Modified: Monday, June 9th, 2003