NM: Bill could change punishment for New Mexico probation violations

Source: krqe.com 1/6/24 NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – The New Mexico legislative session is starting soon, and several bills have been filed this week. One bill, backed by Senators Antonio Maestas and Bill O’Neil, aims to change the way probation violations are handled. … “Right now, under state law, you have two choices: Slap them on the wrist or remand them in custody, waiting for a judge to deem out final sentencing,” said Maestas. … Senator Maestas said other technical violations could have an explanation that was out of the parolees’ control, like…

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Action Alert: NM Lawmakers propose House Bill 128 that would allow chemical castration of sex offenders for parole

[At the bottom of this article ACSOL has instructions on how all registrants and supporters, not just New Mexico residents, can take action] Source: yahoo.com 1/24/23 Legislative sessions in New Mexico often include bills that court controversy. This year, a pair of House Republicans could stir up the Roundhouse with a proposal that would allow a court to order a convicted sex offender to undergo chemical castration as a condition of their parole. Reps. John Block of Alamogordo and Stefani Lord of Sandia Park say House Bill 128 would offer…

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NM: GOP uses racism to promote anti-registrant occupational limits to win votes

Source: abqjournal.com 9/29/22 An altered image of darkened hands cutting a white child’s hair sure does appear to play on racist fears and should be denounced by the political party that created it. The Republican Party of New Mexico recently mailed flyers to voters in several state House districts showing a barber with darkened hands. “Do you want a sex offender cutting your child’s hair?” the flyer asks. Democrats are calling this political flyer created by the Republican Party of New Mexico a racist “dog whistle.” The flyers cite two…

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NM: Massive COVID-19 outbreak at a southern NM prison hits just one type of inmates — sex offenders. That’s by design.

[http://nmindepth.com – 6/27/20] As the coronavirus established a foothold in southern New Mexico’s Otero County Prison Facility in mid-May, state officials quietly moved 39 inmates out of the massive complex near the Texas border to another prison near Santa Fe. The inmates shared something in common: None was a sex offender. In the days before the 39 departed the massive correctional complex where New Mexico’s only sex offender treatment program is housed, officials were still transferring sex offenders from other state prisons into Otero. It was a routine practice they…

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NM: Bill to increase penalties for human trafficking and expand sex offender registration clears House

[nmpoliticalreport.com – 2/15/20] A bill that supporters say will get tough on human trafficking and expand who has to register as a sex offender in the state took another step forward Saturday when the House chamber passed it unanimously. There was no debate on the bill on the House floor and it passed 66-0. HB 237 expands the definition of human trafficking to include “harboring, maintaining, patronizing and providing” people for such purposes. It also raises the age definition of “child” from 16 to 18 in cases of forced sex…

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NM: New Mexico rethinks sex-offender registry eluded by Epstein

[sfchronicle.com – 1/9/20] Legislators will consider changes to the state’s sex offender registration policies in response to revelations that deceased financier and New Mexico ranch owner Jeffrey Epstein was allowed to avoid registering locally as a sex offender following a guilty plea a decade ago in Florida Epstein was accused of abusing young women at his desert ranch outside the community of Stanley before his death last year behind bars. Democratic New Mexico state Rep. Matthew McQueen of Galisteo said Thursday that he has filed a bill that would automatically…

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NM: Sex offenders say New Mexico depriving them of due process

[lcsun-news.com – 11/11/19] The question of whether sex offenders must register in New Mexico for crimes they committed in other states is making its way through the courts again. Eight plaintiffs, each listed as “John Doe,” have filed a petition in U.S. District Court in New Mexico, alleging the state Department of Public Safety and five county sheriffs failed to provide them due process in determining whether their out-of-state offense is “equivalent” to a New Mexico crime that would require them to register in this state. Albuquerque-based lawyers Susan Burgess-Farrell…

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NM: ____ ____ Registered as a Sex Offender in 2 States. In New Mexico, He Didn’t Have To.

____ ____, the New York financier, managed to evade federal prosecution a decade ago in a Florida sex case involving dozens of teenage girls, in part by agreeing to register as a sex offender. But for a man with many residences, and many high-powered lawyers, registering as a sex offender was not the blanket penalty it might seem. Full Article Related New Mexico AG Wants New Sex Offender Law Amid Epstein Probe https://mobile.twitter.com/schwartzapfel/status/1149686629445111808

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NM: Two sex offender bills supported by Keller contained differences

SANTA FE – The 2011 sex offender legislation that’s surfaced as political ammunition against Tim Keller in Albuquerque’s mayoral race came about after repeated – and largely successful – lawsuits against New Mexico’s largest city for enacting local ordinances that went beyond what was then on the state’s books. Full Article

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NM: Attorney General Would Rather See Sexting Teens Treated As Sex Offenders Than See His Funding ‘Jeopardized’

Teens sexting can’t be addressed by existing laws. Law enforcement — which far too often chooses to involve itself in matters best left to parents — bends child pornography laws to “fit” the crime. They often state they’re only doing this to save kids from the harm that might result by further distribution of explicit photos. How exactly turning a teen into a child pornographer who must add his or herself to the sex offender registries is less harmful than the imagined outcomes cited by law enforcement is never explained.…

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NM: Widow seeks damages in eldery inmate’s ‘brutal’ killing

A Santa Fe woman is suing the federal government over the beating death of her 72-year-old husband in a California prison after he was convicted on child pornography charges. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, says prison officials are to blame for putting retired Wall Street attorney ____ _ ____ in a communal cell at the Victorville, Calif., prison with another inmate whom they knew was a danger to him. Full Article

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Sex Offender Contributions to King Soar Past Limit

There’s been a lot of ink spilled about the fact that a registered sex offender contributed money to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gary King’s campaign. But little has been said about the fact that the contributions from the sex-offender were three times the legal limit of what a donor can give during an election year. This week, the Santa Fe New Mexican published a top-of-the fold, front-page story about the fact that, “King has received more than $35,000 in campaign contributions from an address in the U.S. Virgin Islands that also is listed…

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NM: Court urges rewrite of state’s child porn law

New Mexico’s highest court on Monday overturned more than two dozen convictions in separate child pornography cases in a ruling that drew sharp criticism from Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, a former prosecutor. The state Supreme Court said the defendants can be charged with only one felony count of possessing child pornography despite having many pornographic images of children. Martinez spokesman Enrique Knell said the ruling “will place children at risk.” Full Article

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