Sex offenders won't have to move

TAMPA -- The state Department of Corrections says eight sexual predators can continue to live at a Palm River mobile home park after they realized that an assistant county attorney had misread the county's own "safety zone" ordinance.

"Yesterday, we got information from Hillsborough County that these offenders could be arrested because they were in violation of a loitering ordinance," said Gretl Plessinger, spokesperson for the DOC.

"Later, we found out upon reviewing this loitering ordinance ... it says that residences are exempt from this ordinance. We renotified  the offenders that they would not be arrested for living there."

- S.I. Rosenbaum, Times staff writer