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Brent King: State Short-Changing Chelsea's Law

Father Of Slain Teen Chelsea King Says State Not Doing Enough To Implement Law

POSTED: 6:54 pm PST January 13, 2012
UPDATED: 7:46 pm PST January 13, 2012

The father of a murdered San Diego teenager said the law that was created after his daughter's death is not being fully carried out.

Brent King recently traveled to Sacramento to meet with Gov. Jerry Brown's staff to find out why monitoring violent sexual predators is not being funded.

"Basically, what they said was they were keeping everything status quo because of budget problems," King told 10News via Skype from his home in Chicago.

Chelsea King and Amber Dubois were brutally murdered by John Gardner, a convicted sexual predator who was overlooked and not adequately monitored when he was out on parole. The deaths shocked not only San Diego but the entire country.

Chelsea's Law was created to ensure sufficient monitoring as well as sentencing guidelines would be carried out.

"If we are lucky to catch the person who did the crime, they'll receive a harsher sentence. But if they get out of prison, we really don't monitor them," King said.

King proposed a 25-cent surcharge be enacted on cellphone bills as a way to pay for the monitoring -- something the Brown's office was reluctant to do without a vote by the public.

San Diego Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, who authored Chelsea's Law, said the state can fund the monitoring without a cellphone surcharge.

"I believe we can find reforms within the budget system that will allow us to save it today and not wait for a vote by the public years from now," Fletcher said.

Though disappointed, King said he will urge public support of the cell phone surcharge idea if the other aspects of Chelsea's Law are not enacted.

For more information on the initiatives of Chelsea's Light, visit www.chelseaslight.org.
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