UPDATED:1-11-1995 New Jersey:
PHILLIPSBURG, N.J., Jan. 10— Two men who knew that a recently paroled sex offender was living here because of the community notification provision in "Megan's Law" have been charged with assault in a case that prosecutors are calling the first instance of vigilantism under the new law.
The two men, a father and son, broke into the house where the parolee, Michael Groff, 25, was asleep on a living room floor at 2:47 A.M. Sunday, Warren County authorities said. But several people were staying at the house, at 318 Lincoln Street, and one of the intruders began beating a man he mistook for Mr. Groff, said John J. O'Reilly, the County Prosecutor.
Barbara Keller, 41, who was asleep on the couch at the time of the break-in, said, "All of a sudden this big guy in a black ski mask came in the door and said he was looking for the 'child molester.' " Someone called the police, who arrived within minutes and subdued the attacker before anyone was seriously hurt, the prosecutor said.
Last fall, Gov. Christine Todd Whitman signed the legislation, named after a 7-year-old Hamilton Township girl, Megan Kanka, who was sexually assaulted and murdered on July 29. A neighbor who is a twice-convicted sex offender has been charged in her death. Lawmakers viewed the law's community-notification provisions as a safeguard to children against sexual predators and pedophiles.
Today, as word of the attack spread around the state, it was condemned by law-enforcement officials, who said they would be aggressive about prosecuting "vigilantism," and by civil libertarians, who have opposed the law as an invasion of privacy.
The legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, Marsha Wenk, said, "This is exactly the concern that we had when the law was being considered for passage, that it would be used to enable vigilantism rather than for any legitimate community interest."
