As a registered sex offender, Sean Ryno is required to register with the Missouri Highway Patrol every 90 days.
But in July, the former Jefferson City man failed to register. Early in October, a pair of officers arrived at his Columbia house while he was away, and his roommate called to tell him he was the subject of a newly opened case. Within a few days, Ryno turned himself in and was promptly arrested by police.
He now is out of jail on bail; he has a Nov. 12 court date. He faces up to 10 years in prison for failing to register as a sex offender.
Ryno says of his court date: "It's very difficult for me because I don't want to plead guilty. I'm not guilty of a crime at all. I'm guilty of not registering into a system I feel is unconstitutional."
The "system' he is referring to is the National Sex Offender Registry. Ryno pleaded guilty to a charge of deviate sexual assault in 2003 when he was 17 years old. He completed five years of outpatient rehabilitation in the Missouri Sex Offender Program and was discharged in 2008. As a nonviolent offender, he has petitioned many times to be taken off the list; each attempt has failed.
Several Missouri bills have attempted to limit the influence of the registry in recent years; all have been voted down or vetoed.
In 2014, House Bill 1700 attempted to aid registrants in obtaining and keeping a job by not requiring nonviolent offenders to disclose prior convictions to a potential employer. The bill died in committee.
Also in 2014, after being passed by both chambers, House Bill 301 was vetoed by Gov. Jay Nixon, and an effort to override the veto was withdrawn. The bill would have removed hundreds of offenders from the list who had committed crimes as juveniles.
In 2015, the most recent effort, House Bill 1561, would have allowed for nonviolent offenders to petition for removal from the list and specified any juvenile offender be immediately removed. Although a public hearing on the bill was completed, no further action was taken.