A Level 3 sex offender has relocated to Carmel, and community opposition has mobilized.

Carmel Police reported last Friday that Lance Smith, 45, had moved into an apartment on 25 Seminary Hill Road in the vicinity of Church Street, two blocks from St. James School and less than a half-mile from Carmel High School.

Lt. Brian Karst said Smith was arrested in June 2005 and convicted the following year for Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree—a Class B felony carrying a maximum 25-year state prison term for becoming sexually involved with a “nonstranger female girl under the age of 11.”

Karst said his record indicates that coercion and threats were used in the attack but no weapon was involved. After spending just five years in state prison, Smith—who is described as a white man standing 5-feet 9-inches tall and weighing 216 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes—was released on parole and according to Karst, is being supervised by the state Division of Parole.

A Level 3 sex offender is the most serious category and is considered the most likely to re-offend.

State Sen. Greg Ball, R-C Patterson, said legislation is needed forthwith. He said in a statement that Smith’s location is “within walking distance of two preschools— the Little Wonders Preschool and the Gilead Preschool. In addition, a school bus stop where elementary children congregate is just 30 feet away from his home, and Carmel High School and St. James the Apostle School are within a mile.”

“We need state legislation on this that promotes commonsense protections while passing constitutional muster,” said Ball, who will have a news conference on the matter Thursday. “… we really need the Assembly to move on a statewide bill immediately as well. It’s unacceptable that, although Putnam County has Child Safety Zone laws in place, a man like this is still allowed to live in the shadow of where our children learn and play.”

At the schools, Carmel Superintendent James Ryan sent a letter to all parents of children in his district last Friday afternoon advising the community of its newest resident: “Our entire staff has been directed to check with an immediate supervisor should they observe any suspicious individual congregating in an area where children recreate. I want law enforcement personnel to be contacted immediately if a paroled sex offender is observed near school property.”

The New York State Sex Offender Registry lists 18 Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders as residents of Putnam County. Ball said that an earlier Child Safety Zone law that has been enacted in Putnam County prohibits convicted sexual predators from living within 1,000 feet of any school, playground, school bus stop, or other areas where children congregate. However, the law is currently not being enforced in Putnam County because a judge found it unconstitutional in 2010.