Sex offenders under bridge sue Florida county

MIAMI (Reuters) - Two convicted sex offenders living in a shabby tent camp under a Miami bridge filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking to overturn the law they say forces them to remain there.

The controversial measure enacted by Miami-Dade County in 2005 in order to help keep children safe bars registered sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of a school, day care center, park or playground.

The restriction has effectively forced an estimated 70 sex offenders to live in a shantytown under a bridge on the Julia Tuttle Causeway, a road that connects Miami to Miami Beach, advocates for the men say.

"If the County's intention was to make our community safer, they have really missed the mark with this ordinance," said Carlene Sawyer, president of the greater Miami chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the men.

Tom Logue, an attorney for Miami-Dade County, said the county would "vigorously defend" itself against the suit, but declined further comment.

The bridge is one of the few places in the county outside the 2,500-foot (760-meter) limit, aside from wealthy areas where the offenders could not afford to live, and has been approved by state officials, attorneys for the men said.

A similar state law requires sex offenders to live at least 1,000 feet from schools and playgrounds. Advocates say that law should take precedence and would allow most of the tent camp residents to find homes.

But the more restrictive county ordinance makes them more likely to either flee or return to crime, their lawyers argue.

"When there is virtually no place for them to live, that has led to people going underground, absconding," said Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida. "It has interfered with the ability of probation officers to monitor and supervise them."

City of Miami commissioners voted on Thursday to file a lawsuit to force the state to dismantle the tent city and move the sex offenders.

In the shantytown, tents and makeshift shacks are perched on a concrete ledge and scattered on the ground under the bridge, just a few feet from Biscayne Bay. Cars, bicycles and tables litter the site. There is no running water and the beach and bushes serve as the toilet.

Residents list the camp as their official address on their driver's licenses -- "Under the Julia Tuttle Causeway" -- and some say their probation officers ordered them to live there.

The lawsuit, filed by camp residents Bryan Exile and Elliott Bloom, seeks to overturn the Miami-Dade County ordinance, saying it has created a "public safety crisis."

Exile, 22, and Bloom, 31, each pleaded guilty to charges of lewd and lascivious battery committed when their victims were 15 years old. Exile lives with his wife in a car at the camp and Bloom lives in a tent, according to the suit.

(Editing by Patricia Zengerle)