Stephen Li | Photographer
Foggy Bottom and West End Advisory Neighborhood Commission Chair Joel Causey spoke at GW for a panel the Student Association hosted last month in the University Student Center.
Updated: April 6, 2023, at 5:39 p.m.
Content warning: This story contains references to sexual violence. If you have any questions about the reporting, please contact the editor at eic@gwhatchet.com.
The chair of Foggy Bottom’s local governing body is a registered sex offender in Florida, and court records reveal a criminal history he had not publicly disclosed in D.C. before this week.
Joel Causey – the highest-ranking official on the Foggy Bottom and West End Advisory Neighborhood Commission, which represents residents on and near campus – was convicted in 1998 for a sexual offense involving a boy under 16 years old in Jacksonville, Florida between 1995 and 1996, according to Duval County, Florida court documents. ANC commissioners said the public should have a right to know if their elected representatives have a criminal history, even in another state.
D.C. has no law requiring public officials divulge their criminal background. Causey is not listed on the District’s sex offender registry.
A collection of documents from Florida courts show Broward and Duval counties filed at least 27 charges against Causey from 1994 through 1997, the year he was charged for the sexual battery case.
“People make mistakes in life, and people should have a pathway forward to redemption in life,” Causey said in an interview with The Hatchet. “The people that serve their time should be able to go forward in life and not be constantly having to be reconvicted over and over again about things they did in the past.”
Causey said he is not required to register himself on the D.C. sex offender list because the District “forgives” convictions from more than 10 years ago. He said he only remains on the Florida registry because of the state’s “very strange” laws mandating lifetime registration for all sex offenders and predators.
Mandates for sex offender registration in D.C. expire 10 years after the sex offender is released from supervision, with the exception of those who committed a “lifetime” registration crime, like first- and second-degree sexual abuse and child sex abuse. In Florida, sex offenders who “prey on” children are considered sexual predators and must maintain registration for the duration of their life unless the criminal division of a circuit court grants their petition to remove their designation, according to 1997 Florida sex offender registry requirements.
Causey said he has never attempted to remove his sex offender registration in Florida because he doesn’t live there.
“I really don’t care,” he said. “I think anybody who looks at your record of 25 years ago is a horrible person in that sense anyways.”
Causey has served on the ANC since January 2021 and currently represents single-member district 2A06, which reaches within a block of campus and spans The Savoy, Call Your Mother Deli and the Ritz-Carlton.