REVERE — A Chelsea District Court magistrate dismissed a city residency ban on registered sex offenders Tuesday, setting the stage for a possible city court Superior Court appeal.

City Solicitor Paul Capizzi said Clerk Magistrate Robert O’Leary “felt the ordinance was unconstitutional.”

     ”He felt it was a bad idea and dismissed it,” Capizzi said.

     Last October, the council approved a local ordinance banning Level 3 offenders - those classified by the state as most likely to re-offend - from living within 1,000 feet of schools, child care facilities, parks and bus stops.

     Councilor George Rotondo pushed for the ordinance’s passage and pressed for its enforcement.

     The city tested the ordinance in District Court against Adam Knapp, whom Capizzi said lived within the area restricted by the ordinance before October and registered as a Level 3 offender after the ordinance passed.

     Knapp was convicted of rape and abuse of a child in 1992. The state Sex Offender Registry lists five other men living or working in Revere as Level 3 offenders who “have a high risk to re-offend.”

     Capizzi said if the city decides to pursue another complaint in District Court against Knapp or seek a Superior Court ruling on the ban, it will refer to an Iowa decision enforcing a 2,000 foot offender ban.

     A federal court struck down an Iowa court’s ruling in favor of the ban and a higher state court countered the federal judge’s decision.

     ”The crux is the constitutionality of the ordinance,” Capizzi said. “We are considering other avenues for testing enforcement.”

     Attempts to reach Rebecca Young, Knapp’s attorney, were unsuccessful.