John King and his wife Ashley are suing the town of Ayer, challenging the enforcement and constitutionality of a town bylaw that bars sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of parks and senior housing projects. The case is interesting because King is a sex offender who is married, which is a rarity, and because town officials may have acted improperly in their dealings with him. The case, which is being tried in federal court in Boston, could raise questions about similar bylaws in towns across the state.

According to the Massachusetts sex offender registry, King is a 39-year-old white male who is 6 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 275 pounds. He was convicted of rape and indecent assault and battery on a person older than 14 in March 2001. According to the local weekly Nashoba Publishing, King was released from prison in 2005.

Ashley King’s parents bought a home for her in Ayer in June 2011. Later that fall Ashley met John and they began dating. In October 2011, Ayer passed its sex offender bylaw, which was sent to Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office for review. In March 2012, John and Ashley got married.

As required by the state’s sex offender laws, John went to the Ayer Police Department on April 19 to disclose that he was moving into the home Ashley’s parents had purchased for her. He said police officials told him he needed to produce two pieces of mail sent to him at the house to prove he lived there. He had his mother-in-law mail him two letters and returned to the police station on April 25. But instead of completing the paperwork, he was met by Police Chief William Murray who said King could not move into the house because it was located within 1,000 feet of Pirone Park and the Pond Street elderly housing complex.

“I was taken aback. I’m sure the police don’t love me, but I thought I’d been straightforward,” King told Nashoba Publishing.

Court testimony revealed that the Ayer ordinance hadn’t taken effect when King first visited the police station. Knowing that King was about to move into town, Police Chief Murray urged town officials to quickly post the bylaw, a requirement before it could take effect. The posting was completed on April 24, the day before King returned to the police station with his letters.

Laurie Guidry, president of the Massachusetts Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, testified that bylaws such as the one in Ayer are ineffective because most times a sex offender knows his victim. She also testified that the state’s procedures for classifying sex offenders by level of dangerousness are not scientifically validated. She made similar remarks in a CommonWealth piece on sex offenders earlier this year entitled “Society’s lepers.”

The Kings, who had a baby in October, are currently living with Ashley’s parents in Harvard.

                                                                                        –BRUCE MOHL

BEACON HILL

Gov. Deval Patrick tells WBUR he was approached about a job at the White House, but he says he is going to serve out the remainder of his term.  “We haven’t had governors in Massachusetts who have finished out their terms in a long time,” he said.

Republican lawmakers call on Gov. Deval Patrick to dismiss Health and Human Services Secretary JudyAnn Bigby over the two drug lab scandals the state is contending with. Patrick is standing by Bigby, State House News reports (via Lowell Sun).

Attorney General Martha Coakley is focused on her job and mum’s the word on what’s next.

Tim Cahill visits the dock, and he’s welcomed with a kick from Howie Carr. Under questioning from his attorney yesterday, Cahill said the Lottery ads prosecutors allege were stand-ins for campaign commercials were aimed at restoring an institutional reputation tarnished by the Republican Governors Association: “They may have succeeded with my political campaign, but I was not going to let anyone succeed in tearing down the Treasury,.” he said.

MUNICIPAL MATTERS

A “visibly weakened” Mayor Tom Menino faced reporters and cameras for the first time in nearly seven weeks. He says he’s eager to get back to City Hall, but sidestepped questions about whether he’ll seek another term. A gathering consensus is forming in the city’s punditocracy to answer that question for him. Today’s installment from the Globe’s Larry Harmon may be the most significant yet. His focus is on the absence of a Bloomberg-like bigfoot business type itching to jump into a mayor’s race, but the news from the well-informed Harmon comes in this line: “The people who actually care about Menino — and don’t just depend on him for a job and access to power— will likely convince him to walk away while he still can.” Peter Gelzinis is heartened that the mayor has retained the ability to mash metaphors “with absolute conviction.”

Cambridge goes dark as a power outage snarls rush hour travel and leaves some trapped in elevators.

Lawrence Mayor William Lantigua seeks $1.4 million for municipal improvements. A lot of the money would go for software that would help bring the city into the 21st century, the Eagle-Tribune reports.

Some cities and towns may look at zoning changes in order to prevent medical marijuana dispensaries from setting up shop within municipal boundaries or to restrict them to certain neighborhoods.

A third casino proposal is in the works for Holyoke, but it falls below the $500 price tag for gaming projects.

NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON

Republicans reject the White House’s first fiscal cliff offer.

President Obama hosts Mitt Romney for a White House lunch.

ELECTION 2012

The New Republic’s Alec MacGills chokes on his coffee on learning that Paul Ryan has been named one of the top 100 “global thinkers” by Foreign Policy.

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Detroit is going broke, again. A new Brookings report indicates only three US cities are emerging from the recession. They are Dallas, Pittsburgh, and Knoxville, Reuters reports.

A Secret Santa is handing out $100 bills to people affected by Hurricane Sandy.

EDUCATION

The city extends until mid-January the deadline for a committee to recommend changes to Boston’s school assignment system.

Parents sign a petition in support of the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School, the Gloucester Times reports.

TRANSPORTATION

A Green Line trolley rear-ends another trolley at Boylston Station, sending 37 people to hospitals with minor injuries and shutting down the busiest artery on the line for three hours.

MassDOT is looking at an accident prone intersection in Lenox, but The Berkshire Eagle laments that the state can’t prevent people from making bad driving choices.

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

CommonWealth explores the high cost of going green.

Piping plovers did not have a good year.

MEDIA

How did Syria turn off the Internet?