NEW ORLEANS — A registered sex offender has taken legal action against the New Orleans Police Department as it prepares to issue a warrant for his arrest for allegedly failing to pay the fees required to send postcards to his neighbors to inform them of his sex offender status, according to a complaint filed on May 8 in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Louisiana.
The sex offender, Sean Robinson, accused the police department of violating the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the probable cause requirement of the Fourth Amendment.
He filed the complaint in hopes of the getting the court to stop the authorities from issuing the warrant.
According to the complaint, the NOPD was slated to issue a warrant for Robinson’s arrest on May 11 after he failed to pay $861.50 so that officials could send the postcards to his neighbors. It is unclear if police have already issued the warrant.
Robinson claims that he cannot not afford to pay the fee, and that he already followed sex offender registration laws when he paid $60 for his registration fee in 2017 and $193.50 so that a notice of his status could be printed in a newspaper.
Robinson alleges that he earns a monthly salary of $2,505 and pays $500 in rent.
He listed three counts against the NOPD in his complaint. The first count claims that the NOPD violated the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment because it did not evaluate whether he could truly pay the fees, according to the complaint.
The second count alleges that the NOPD also violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment by not evaluating his ability to pay. The third count accuses the NOPD of violating the Fourth Amendment’s probable cause requirement.