Woman can stay in home, says court in eastern Georgia

A woman on Georgia's sex offender registry will get to stay in her home for Thanksgiving.

Wendy Whitaker's attorneys say a state court in eastern Georgia granted the woman a temporary restraining order, preventing officials from evicting her.

Whitaker, 29, of Harlem, near Augusta, is a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit seeking to strike down housing restrictions for sex offenders.

She's on the registry because of a sex act between her and a boy when both were teen-agers, an act that she and her attorneys say was consensual. Whitaker was 17 at the time. Her attorneys say her punishment is extreme.

She has faced the possibility of losing her home because it's located within 1000 feet of a child care center and church. State law requires people on the registry to live more than 1000 feet from areas where children congregate, such as day care centers and schools.

Whitaker had faced eviction on Thanksgiving Day.

The order allows her to remain in the home as a state court case, which seeks to remove her from the registry, moves its way through the legal system.