VASS — A Moore County man is accused of violating a controversial state law that prevents registered sex offenders from using social media.
Ryan Charles Wiggs, 31, of 593 McInnis Road in the Lakeview community west of Vass, was arrested Tuesday night on a charge of use of a commercial social networking website by a sex offender, according to jail records.
Moore County deputies filed the Class I felony charge against Wiggs, who was jailed at 8:37 p.m. under a $10,000 secured bond.
Wiggs was convicted of attempted sexual battery in Moore County in January 2010, according to the North Carolina Sex Offender and Public Protection Registry. He received two years’ probation on the charge and is required to register as a sex offender for a minimum of 10 years.
The charge Wiggs faces stems from a 2008 law that prohibits registrants from using social networking sites “where the sex offender knows that the site permits minor children to become members or to create or maintain personal Web pages.”
In August 2013, a unanimous three-judge panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals struck down that law, ruling that it violates sex offenders’ rights to free speech and freedom of association under the First Amendment.
Writing for the court, Judge Rick Elmore said that the law is unfairly applied to all sex offenders, not just convicted child predators and those who used social media to facilitate sexual crimes.
“In sum, we conclude that (the law) is not narrowly tailored, is vague and fails to target the ‘evil’ it is intended to rectify,” Elmore wrote. “Instead, it arbitrarily burdens all registered sex offenders by preventing a wide range of communication and expressive activity unrelated to achieving its purported goal.”
The state Supreme Court is expected to rule on Attorney General Roy Cooper’s appeal of that decision. A stay of the 2013 appellate ruling allows authorities to continue enforcing the law until the high court weighs in.
Wiggs is scheduled to appear in Moore County District Court on the charge Aug. 25.
Reach Editor Corey Friedman at 910-817-2670 and follow him on Twitter @corey_friedman.