Injunction filed to Halt Forcible Removal of Wendy Whitaker from her home.

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA – Today, attorneys from the Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR) filed an injunction to stop the Thanksgiving Day eviction of Harlem, Georgia resident Wendy Whitaker. Ms. Whitaker is on Georgia’s sex offender registry for engaging in a single act of consensual oral sex as a teenager with another teenager just 15 months her junior. Ms. Whitaker is facing eviction from her home because she resides within 1,000 feet of a child care center and a church.

Wendy Whitaker’s offense happened twelve years ago just after she had turned 17. The other student was three weeks short of his 16th birthday and they were both were sophomores in high school. For this single act of consensual oral sex, Ms. Whitaker was arrested and charged with the crime of sodomy. If Ms. Whitaker had committed the same act that led to her conviction today, she would not have to register as a sex offender at all. Because it occurred in 1996, she must register as a sex offender for life, have her picture posted on Georgia Bureau of Investigations’ (GBI) website, and comply with all sex offender residence restrictions and other conditions that treat her as if she was a predator, when there is absolutely no basis in fact for that treatment.

“Forcing Wendy Whitaker from her home is both pointless and cruel,” said Sarah Geraghty, Ms. Whitaker’s attorney. “Ms. Whitaker has never posed a threat to anyone and she does not belong on the sex offender registry.”

Ms. Whitaker is now 29. She and her husband purchased their home in Harlem, Georgia in January 2006. Ms. Whitaker was forced from her home in 2006 because its proximity to a child care center violated the law. The couple subsequently moved from residence to residence, paying mortgage on their Harlem home and rent for other residences. In early 2008, Ms. Whitaker returned to her home in Harlem, believing that since she owned her home she had a right to reside there pursuant to the Georgia Supreme Court’s decision in Mann v. Ga. Dep’t of Corr., 282 Ga. 754, 653 S.E.2d 740 (2007).

In July 2008, however, the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office again ordered Ms. Whitaker to vacate her residence within 72 hours because it is within 1,000 feet of a church. The Whitakers can no longer afford to pay a mortgage and rent a second home. Absent an injunction, the Whitakers will likely face foreclosure and possible homelessness.

“This is like a bad rollercoaster that never ends,” says Wendy Whitaker. “I am at my wit’s end and in a constant state of stress because I never know what’s going to happen to my family and our home.”

This lawsuit was filed Thursday afternoon in Columbia County Superior Court. The named Defendants include Governor Sonny Perdue, Attorney General Thurbert Baker, Columbia County Sheriff Clay Whittle, and GBI Director Vernon Keenan . Attorneys for Ms. Whitaker are seeking an injunction to stop her from being evicted from her home, as well as her removal from the sex offender registry.

Legal Documents to Halt Eviction of Wendy Whitaker:

• Complaint
• Temporary Restraining Order