Report: Senate GOP to File Bill in Response to Burbine Case

As promised last month after news of the John Burbine sex abuse case first broke, state lawmakers are introducing a bill aimed at closing loopholes in the sex offender registration system.

A Thursday report on MyFoxBoston says that State Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr will introduce a bill Friday that would allow Level 1 sex offender information to be made public, and which would also an offender to be reclassified if new information came up about them.

In December, soon after Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone announced 100 child sex abuse charges against Burbine, 49, of Wakefield, State Senator Katherine Clark, who represents the town, told Patch that she supports creating an option to reclassify sex offenders if necessary - although she also emphasized the importance of making sure that such measures are undertaken very carefully.

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Tarr also weighed in on the matter back then, vowing legislation action during the new session.

The Burbine case quickly led to scrutiny of the registration system because he himself had been classified as Level 1 - which under current laws all but made him invisible to anybody who thought to check up on him. In fact, one local mom told Wakefield Patch back in December that she tried to look into Burbine's background when he was working at his wife's unregistered daycare center, the Waterfall Education Center.

Burbine's wife, Marian, remains under house arrest in Wakefield pending her own charges of six counts of reckless endangerment of a child.

Mrs. Burbine has a motion to dismiss coming up in February, while her husband's next court appearance is expected later in the spring.

Related stories:

• At Least 1 Newton Child Among Victims of Alleged Sex Crimes at Wakefield Day Care
• Burbine Pleads Not Guilty to 100 Counts of Child Sex Abuse
• Terms Set For Home Confinement of Wife in Child Sex Abuse Case
• Burbine Child Sex Abuse Trial Date Tentatively Set