Month: December 2012

Constitutional rights advocates sued the city of Lancaster on Tuesday to block a recently enacted ordinance banning registered sex offenders from going to – or even being near – the city’s parks, movie theaters and other public and private locations. “The ordinance basically violates the state and federal constitutions, and fails to protect public safety,” said Janice Bellucci, president of a group called California Reform Sex Offender Laws. Full Article

LAKE FOREST – Three members of the City Council voted Tuesday to undo a law passed a year ago banning registered sex offenders from city parks. Mayor Kathryn McCullough, Mayor Pro Tem Scott Voigts and Councilman Peter Herzog voted to remove the ban from the city’s books in light of a court ruling that a similar ordinance elsewhere is trumped by state law, and in the face of a federal lawsuit challenging the ban’s constitutionality. Full Article

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 18, 2012 California Reform Sex Offender Laws (RSOL) today filed a lawsuit in federal district court challenging the sex offender ordinance adopted by the City of Lancaster. The ordinance prohibits all sex offenders from entering both public and private areas, including the city’s library, museum, and parks as well as privately owned arcades and movie theaters. The bases for the challenge are violations of the First, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. constitution as well as Article XI of the California constitution. The ordinance was…

The City Council of Lake Forest voted 3 to 2 to finally approve the repeal of the sex offender ordinance they adopted unanimously about a year ago. The Council preliminarily approved repeal of the ordinance at its meeting on December 4. “California RSOL thanks the Mayor and the City Council of Lake Forest for repealing a law that violated the civil rights of more than 100,000 law abiding citizens in the state of California and that did not increase public safety,” stated Janice Bellucci, President, California Reform Sex Offender Laws.…

Believing that human trafficking is worsened by the internet’s anonymity, the sponsors of California’s Proposition 35 thought they had a simple solution to combating the problem: require convicted traffickers to register as sex offenders. Then require all individuals on California’s sex offender registry to disclose their online identities and service providers. The measure passed in the November election with 81 percent voter approval. This isn’t surprising, since Prop. 35 also increases criminal penalties for trafficking, uses criminal fines to fund victim services organizations, and mandates more law-enforcement training on human trafficking. But…

At the regular meeting of the City Council on December 4, 2012, the City Council considered and conducted the first reading of Ordinance No. 248. This Ordinance repeals Lake Forest Municipal Code Chapter 13.12 relating to registered sex offenders in City Parks. The second reading will take place on December 18 at 7 pm. Lake Forest City Hall, Council Chambers25550 Commercentre DriveLake Forest, California 92630 http://agenda2009.city-lakeforest.com/SIREPub/mtgviewer.aspx?meetid=482&doctype=AGENDA

The City Council of Lake Forest voted 4 to 0 to preliminarily approve the repeal of the sex offender ordinance they adopted unanimously a year ago.  Final approval of the appeal is expected at the Council’s next meeting on December 18. “The Mayor and City Council of Lake Forest are to be commended for their courage in correcting a mistake they made one year ago,” stated Janice Bellucci, President, California Reform Sex Offender Laws.  “Part of that mistake was reliance upon representations made by the Orange County District Attorney (DA)…