Nearly 30 years after guilty plea, Boone County woman may have sex offense record cleared

A nearly 30-year-old sex offender case is coming back to Boone County. It is not to decide the offender's guilt or innocence, but whether changes in law meant they ever were required to register as an offender in the first place.

The main reason the case is coming back to Boone County is so that Department of Mental Health records can be accessed to determine if Liana MacColl, formerly Liana M. Bradford, completed the required treatment programs to clear her record under the Tier 1 offender parameters of the federal sex offender registry and notification act, adopted in 2008.

Tier 1 offenders can have their records cleared 15 years post-conviction and have the option to move for removal from the registry after 10 years under federal law, so long as they have a clean record.

MacColl pleaded guilty in 1995 to a one-count misdemeanor of sexual misconduct with a person under 17.

She had a one-year sentence that was suspended in favor of probation. When changes occurred to Missouri's registry law in 2000 to include misdemeanor offenses, she sought the advice of the Boone County Sheriff's Office and "out of an abundance of caution" started to register at that time, wrote Judge George W. Draper III in the court's opinion.

She moved for removal from the registry in 2020 by filing for summary judgment. The state did the same and the court sided with the state and its claim she was a Tier 3, not Tier 1 offender, requiring lifetime registration. It was this ruling MacColl appealed.

MacColl fits three of the four parameters to reduce her registry period to 10 years under Tier I of the federal law and both sides agree on this matter, Draper wrote.

MacColl sentence did not exceed one year, she kept a clean record for at least 10 years and successfully completed her probation.

She also had to take part in a certified treatment program during her probation, and this is the item under question needing review by the Boone County Court to determine if MacColl ever was required to register for the federal law in the first place.

If it is found the records meet the clean record provision, which meant she could have had her registry term reduced to 10 years in 2005, the federal registry law would not have applied as it was adopted in 2008. By extension, if MacColl didn't have to register under federal law, she would also not have been required to register under state law in 2000, as it could not be applied retroactively to her 1995 conviction.

Missouri Supreme Court Judge Zel M. Fischer did not agree with this conclusion and so filed a dissent to the opinion.

Since the Tier 1 registration period is for 15 years post-conviction under federal law, MacColl would have had to register for at least years under federal law due to its 2008 enactment. Even the court's opinion notes that MacColl would not receive the federal registration relief five years early automatically, Fischer wrote.

The Missouri registry requires that any person who has been required to register under federal law must continue to register with the state even after the federal obligation ends, he added.

"MacColl did not seek declaratory relief regarding whether she has a prior or current obligation to registerpursuant to SORNA until October 2020," Fischer wrote. "Therefore, inasmuch as MacColl 'has been' required to register under federal law, MacColl is now required to register in Missouri, pursuant to MO-SORA."

The Missouri Supreme Court had previously found that state statute mandates a "lifetime registration requirement in Missouri for offenders who have been required to register under federal law. ... There is no reason for MacColl's case to have a different outcome," he wrote.

Charles Dunlap covers local government, community stories and other general subjects for the Tribune. You can reach him at cdunlap@columbiatribune.com or @CD_CDT on Twitter. Subscribe to support vital local journalism.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: A Boone County Woman may never had to register as a sex offender