Schumer seeks stricter hiring laws on sex offenders

Sen. Charles Schumer pledged to push for stricter employment laws for sex offenders Sunday in the wake of reports that a convicted child molester from Long Island is working as a building superintendent in Manhattan.

Schumer said legislation he plans to introduce Monday would make it difficult for registered sex offenders to obtain employment as superintendents and building managers.

The legislation will ensure that sex offenders cannot possess keys to tenants' units without first disclosing their conviction history to the tenants and receiving their consent, Schumer said.

Schumer's proposal comes about three weeks after tenants reported that superintendent William Barnason, 57, a convicted child molester, was working as a superintendent at Upper West Side apartments. Barnason was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison in the 1980s for raping and sodomizing Long Island girls between the ages of 5 and 7.

Schumer said his proposal would give residents "the choice of whether they want" a sex offender to have access to their units.

"It's going to stop them from being hired," Schumer said.

But Richard Hamill, president of the New York State Alliance of Sex Offender Service Providers, said the legislation is flawed because it focuses on "one of those unusual, atypical situations" rather than on programs to reform sex offenders.

"What is really missing is legislation built on what the usual case is: sex offenders not being able to get jobs and maintain stability, and therefore being a risk in the community," Hamill said.

Attempts to reach Barnason, who declined to speak to reporters earlier this month, were not successful.

Last month, tenants taped fliers with Barnason's mug shot, which is posted on the New York Sex Offender Registry, around their neighborhood. According to records, Barnason is considered a Level 3 risk - a high-risk category - and is required to register for the rest of his life.

He was released from prison in 2001.

Earlier this month, the mother of one of Barnason's victims said she was horrified when she heard a radio report that Barnason was working as a superintendent.

"I almost crashed my car," said the mother, who spoke on the condition that neither her name nor her daughter's name be published. "When they said his name, I said, 'Oh my God!' I just was shocked."

Schumer made his announcement near the buildings where the senator said Barnason is employed. The proposed law is modeled after similar state legislation introduced recently by Assemb. Micah Kellner (D-Manhattan), Schumer said.

Schumer later said he has not yet found a co-sponsor for the bill.

With Maria Alvarez