Indiana Supreme Court rules Illinois man not required to register as lifetime sex offender

IL file photo

An Illinois man convicted of sex crimes in that state is not required to register as a lifetime offender in Indiana, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Thursday in reversing a lower court’s decision.

In an opinion written by Justice Christopher Goff, the high court found that because appellant Gage Peters is not currently required to register in another jurisdiction, he does not need to presently register as a sex or violent offender in Indiana.  

The high court reversed a Hamilton Superior Court decision, which granted summary judgment to the state after Peters sued the Hamilton County Sheriff’s department and the state’s department of correction for declaratory judgment and sought relief from the change in his registration requirement.  

In reversing the lower court’s ruling, the high court remanded the case for entry of summary judgment in Peters’ favor.

The court remand the case back to the trial court for entry of summary judgment in Peters’ favor.

Attorneys for Peters did not respond to The Indiana Lawyer’s request for comment before Tuesday’s deadline.

Adam Willfond, assistant county attorney for Hamilton County, declined to comment on the court’s decision.

The Indiana Attorney General’s Office, who represents the state in this case, did not respond to The Lawyer’s request for comment before Tuesday’s deadline.

According to court documents, in October 2013, Peters was convicted of criminal sexual abuse in Illinois. His conviction came with a 10-year sex-offender-registration requirement, which began that same month.  

Soon after moving to Indiana in August 2016, the Indiana Department of Correction advised Peters of his 10-year registration requirement under the Indiana Sex Offender Registration Act, which could be modified if registration requirements changed.  

Peters moved back to Illinois in 2021 and later that year, he took a vacation in Florida for seven days.

There, he signed a “Notice of Sexual Predator and Sexual Offender Obligations” form, in which he agreed to maintain registration for life. Florida law requires a sex offender to register in the state if they take up “temporary residence” for a period of three or more days.  

As part of the form, Peters’ registration would also be published on the state’s sexual-offender website, which currently lists Peters’ legal status as “Released – Subject to Registration”.  

Upon moving back to Indiana in 2022, Peters registered with the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department, which initially listed the end date for his registration obligation as Oct. 15, 2023. In February 2022, however, the sheriff’s office notified Peters that he had to register as a lifetime offender because of Florida’s registration laws when he resided there during his vacation.  

The Hamilton Superior Court granted the state’s motion for summary judgment, finding no issue of material fact as to whether Peters “is required to register for life in the state of Indiana because he is required to do so in the state of Florida.”

In a split opinion, the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision, holding that the plain language of the Jurisdiction Statute requires that individuals with out-of-state registration obligations also register in Indiana regardless of the source of the obligations. 

In rejecting Peters’ claim that leaving Florida relieved him of his registration obligations, the appellate court majority pointed to his subject-to-registration status on the state’s sex-offender website.   

Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush and Justice Mark Massa concurred with the high court’s opinion reversing the trial court’s decision.

The case is Gage Peters v. Dennis J. Quakenbush, II, in his official capacity as Hamilton County Sheriff, and Lloyd Arnold, in his official capacity as Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Correction, 25S-PL-152.