Getting Removed From the Megan’s Law Website in California

Last week, we wrote about certificates of rehabilitation, which relieve you from having to register as a sex offender.

As you may know, California publishes information from its sex-offender registry on a public website. The information includes your name, gender, date of birth, ethnicity, photograph, physical description, and relevant conviction. It also includes your home address or your county and zip code depending on the conviction. For violent or otherwise serious offenses, including those against children, it gives your home address. For somewhat less serious offenses, it gives your county and zip code, but if you have priors, that can change.

In a few cases, even if you can’t end or avoid registration, you can remove yourself from the public website. To do it, you have to apply directly to the California Department of Justice, and you can find the application form here.

To qualify, the state must regard you as a low risk for reoffending, and your only registry-related convictions must be for the following:

1. felony sexual battery by restraint under Penal Code section 243.4(a);
2. misdemeanor annoying or molesting a child under Penal Code section 647.6;
3. some felony child-pornography offenses if all minors were 16 years of age or older; or
4. an offense for which you’re on probation or have successfully completed probation, where you’re the victim’s parent, sibling, stepparent, or grandparent, and it didn’t involve oral copulation or sexual penetration.

If you qualify, the government must grant your exclusion. By the way, don’t go searching the Megan’s Law website yourself; it’s a misdemeanor.

[Update: Beginning January 1, 2022, these rules will change because of a new law and system for sex-offender registration. The changes will affect qualifying convictions under 1, 2, and 3, above. If you no longer qualify at that point, the state will rescind your exclusion.]