A federal judge Monday temporarily blocked enforcement of a key provision of Simi Valley’s new Halloween sex offender law but left the rest of the ordinance intact. U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson’s ruling came days before the holiday on Wednesday. Anderson temporarily blocked the city from requiring its several dozen convicted child sex offenders listed on the Megan’s Law website to post signs on their front doors on Halloween saying: “No candy or treats at this residence.” Full Article
Read MoreDay: October 29, 2012
AUS: Why name and shame sex offenders, asks Tom Percy
THE experience with sex offender registers in the US has included deaths and gratuitous violence, as well as payback measures. There are a couple of convicted murderers living in the same suburb as I do. I know, because I’ve seen them. There are probably a few in your suburb, too. Maybe even your street. After all, almost all of them do eventually get out, and they have to live somewhere. Full Article
Read MoreCourt Grants Partial Temporary Restraining Order In Challenge to Halloween Ordinance
The City of Simi Valley is prohibited from enforcing a requirement that sex offenders post a sign on the front door of their homes on Halloween this year, according to a decision by federal district court judge Percy Anderson. The decision will allow the city to prohibit sex offenders from decorating their homes and answering the door to trick-or-treaters as well as require them to leave off all exterior lighting. “We are pleased with the judge’s decision to prohibit the City of Simi Valley from requiring registrants to post a…
Read MoreAnother one bites the dust: Hollow SVP prosecution no match for jurors’ common sense
15 minutes. After a five-week trial, that’s how long it took a jury in a rural Northern California county to decide that an openly gay man who had served two years in prison for a forcible oral copulation of an acquaintance back in 2003 did not merit civil commitment as a sexually violent predator. The prosecution’s case featured a lone government psychologist whose opinion rested on a hollow combination of homophobia, bogus psychiatric diagnoses and trumped-up risk estimates. The psychologist cited archaic (and discredited) Freudian theory to claim that the…
Read MoreProp 35: Sex traffic law vaguely expands police power
Proposition 35, if passed, will create harsher punishments for those who participate in the sex trafficking industry. These punishments include prison sentences up to 15-years-to-life and fines up to $1.5 million. Those who are convicted would also be required to register as sex offenders, receive limitations to Internet access and would be supervised by law enforcement. Full Article
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