The Texas Department of Public Safety maintains the tiered offense chart, which sets out which offenses are eligible for sex offender deregistration. In recent years, the chart had a number of errors which substantially limited the number of people who could petition courts to terminate their duty to register as a sex offender in Texas. Our office has been engaged with DPS to correct these errors to give low risk offenders and their families relief from the harsh, unintended consequences of sex offender registration.
After months of discussion with DPS, I am pleased to say DPS has agreed with me to expand the list of those who can apply to deregister from the Texas Sex Offender registry.
Before our discussions with DPS, even those exempted from federal registration by 34 U.S. 20911(5)(c) were not allowed to deregister, unless they had been charged specifically with sexual assault under 22.011 Texas Penal Code. Under the new rule, anyone who qualifies for the federal exemption can apply to be removed from the Texas Sex Offender Registry. This means that anyone whose offense involved consensual sexual conduct with someone who was not more than 4 years younger and at least 13 years old is now eligible to deregister.
Feel free to contact our office if you would like to explore the possibility of deregistration.
