Fayette judge reinstates charges against Uniontown man
A Fayette County judge reinstated a charge of failure to comply with registration of sex offenders against a Uniontown man after prosecutors argued that an issue needed further hearing.
District Attorney Jack R. Heneks Jr. said there is a question as to whether the charge filed against Charles Bittner, 46, should stand.
Uniontown police alleged that Bittner, convicted of possession with the intent to child pornography in Alabama and subject to a lifetime of residential and employment registration in that state, did not register his employment in Pennsylvania.
The charge was thrown out on Sept. 8 by Judge Ralph C. Warman, who said that a deputy prosecutor who appeared in court did not object to the case being dismissed.
On Friday, Heneks said there is a loophole in Megan’s Law, which deals with the registration requirement of sex offenders. That loophole does not make it a crime when out-of-state sex offenders who are subject to a lifetime of notification for their convictions do not register with police.
The law does, however, make it a crime if an out-of-state offender who is subject to 10 years of notification fails to register.
Alabama law subjected Bittner to a lifetime of registration, but Heneks argued that the equivalent charge in Pennsylvania, sexual abuse of children, would have only required him to register for 10 years. If that is the case, he argued, then Bittner committed a crime by not registering in Pennsylvania, where he would have needed to do so for 10 years.
“There’s a real question as to whether that exclusion covers this incident or not,” Heneks said, noting that this seemed to be a “hybrid situation.”
“I think there’s a decent issue that needs to be raised,” Heneks said.
Assistant Public Defender Daniel Taylor objected to reinstating the charges.
Warman said he dismissed the case because there was no objection to doing so, though ultimately ordered the matter be listed for trial again.