9-10-16 Florida:
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CN) - A Florida city's sex-offender law faces scrutiny in litigation over whether a wheelchair-bound former doctor, convicted of patient abuse in the 1980s, should be forced out of a hospice due to its proximity to a school.
A Palm Beach County court petition filed Aug. 31 claims Jack Ehrhart, a hospice patient with end-stage Alzheimer's disease, has been threatened with arrest if he does not move out of Heartland of Boynton Beach, a nursing home near a local preschool.
The City of Boynton Beach purportedly issued a notice to Ehrhart and the hospice accusing them of violating an ordinance that prohibits sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of a school, daycare center or playground.
"Heartland claims to be incurring fines imposed by the city due to plaintiff's status and has threatened to have Boynton Beach Police arrest [him] for a violation of the ordinance," according to the emergency petition, filed by Ehrhart's wife under a power of attorney.
The pleading insists that a criminal prosecution of Ehrhart would have to show he made a "purposeful decision" to maintain residency within the restricted area. His Alzheimer's disease renders him "completely incapable of having the requisite intent or mens rea necessary" to prove as much, the filing states.
Heartland has tried to relocate Ehrhart to another facility, but options are scarce because the former gynecologist remains in the Florida sex-offender registry, on account of his conviction for felony indecent assault in Massachusetts.
