The City Council of Palmdale will formally consider during its May 1 meeting a complete repeal of its sex offender ordinance. The ordinance is broad in that it includes both residency and presence restrictions. “It is essential that the City of Palmdale repeal the ordinance on May 1 in order to correct the mistakes made in its passage,” stated President Janice Bellucci. “The current ordinance violates both the federal and state constitutions.” California RSOL met with city officials in early April to discuss the ordinance and stated that the ordinance…
Read MoreMonth: April 2013
MO: House endorses sex offender legislation
JEFFERSON CITY, MO (AP) – Missouri House members have approved legislation that would make changes to the sex offender registry. Sex offenders would be grouped into three tiers with each considered to have a different risk of committing another offense. Eventually, people could file a petition in court and ask to be removed from the registry. How long they would need to wait before filing a petition would vary depending on their tier. Full Article
Read MoreCalifornia RSOL Scores Victory in Sacramento
A state bill that would have allowed counties and cities to pass ordinances prohibiting where a registrant can be present (such as parks, beaches and libraries) has been stopped! The bill, S.B. 386, was introduced by Senator Correa of Orange County on February 21. The bill was scheduled for a hearing by the Public Safety Committee on April 30, however, the bill has been withdrawn by Senator Correa from further consideration. California Reform Sex Offender Laws (CA RSOL) lobbied against the bill soon after it was introduced. The lobbying effort…
Read MoreRadio Talk Shows
There are several online talk shows geared toward sex offender laws, news and issues. Below is a couple we think you might enjoy listening to. Link
Read MoreFL: 9 Investigates crackdown on sex offenders inside Disney World
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A six-month-long Eyewitness News investigation has uncovered sweeping background checks at Disney parks in central Florida — checks targeting registered sex offenders. Investigative reporter Christopher Heath dug through hundreds of pages of Orange County Sheriff’s Office trespass reports, and they show a consistent pattern of documented sex offenders getting kicked off of Disney properties. Full Article
Read MoreLaws Based on Baseless Assumptions
Lawmakers have long treated sex offenses as different from other crimes, but the recent legislation known as Sex Offender Registration and Notification has drastically changed the way sex offenders are managed in the community upon release from prison. Specifically, these laws require the sex offenders to immediately report to the local police department upon prison release in order to register as a sex offender. This means providing information like name, address, phone number, employment, marital history, criminal history and license plate number, along with a DNA sample and a list of contacts.…
Read MoreConvicted Sex Offender Wins Court Ruling
A North Georgia judge says there is no reason for probation officers to stop a convicted sex offender from attending Girl Scout meetings. Youtube Video
Read MoreMan stops online posts about sex offender
As part of a final settlement to the convicted paedophile’s legal action, Joe McCloskey also pledged on Thursday to immediately remove all references to him from online pages under his control. The man, who served a jail sentence for a catalogue of abuse, has now been granted permanent anonymity by a judge overseeing the resolution. Known only as XY, he issued proceedings against Facebook and Mr McCloskey over the contents of a page entitled ‘Keeping our kids safe from predators’. Full Article
Read More‘Totalitarian Justice:’ Criticisms of Campus Sex Assault Panels Intensify
WASHINGTON / April 24, 2013 – Three articles sharply critical of the handling of sex assault cases by campus disciplinary committees were published this past week. The critiques suggest college administrators may need to re-evaluate whether federally mandated sex assault panels are rendering a disservice to victims, to the accused, and to the principle of justice itself, according to Stop Abusive and Violent Environments. Writing in the Wall Street Journal on April 16, Judith Grossman describes the experience of her son, a student at a New England liberal-arts college (1).…
Read MoreClinician Prejudice Toward Sex Offenders
A couple of weeks ago my colleague Jenner Bishop posted an open letter on the IITAP (International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals) listserv about clinician prejudice toward sex addicts and sex offenders. Jenner had just come from a “suite meeting” for an office she’d recently rented, at which she’d been bombarded with angry questions from the other therapists about how they were supposed to protect their clients from her “unsupervised” sex addicts and offenders. She had explained that she doesn’t work with violent offenders, and that the offending behaviors…
Read MoreSupreme Court to review sex offender registration law [updated]
(Reuters) – The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether the government can require a former federal sex offender to register a change of address even after he had served his sentence and been unconditionally freed from custody. In a brief order, the court agreed to hear the government’s appeal of a July 2012 decision overturning the conviction of Air Force veteran ____ ____ for violating the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act of 2006. Full Article Update April 18 Timeline Summary and Review – of Oral Argument April…
Read More[UPDATED] RIVERSIDE: RCC student president, a sex offender, seeks re-election
[Updated with reelection – May 2013] Riverside City College’s student body president, a registered sex offender on probation, is running for re-election. As ___ ____ prepares for the May 1 election, college district officials await a legal opinion from the California Community College Chancellor’s Office about whether the student government can or should change its bylaws to prevent candidates with criminal records from running in the future. Full Article Update from May 2013: Figueroa reelected RCC student body president Update: http://www.pe.com/local-news/riverside-county/riverside/riverside-headlines-index/20130418-riverside-rccs-student-president-says-sex-offender-past-irrelevant-to-re-election.ece
Read MoreAB 702 Passes First Test
The Public Safety Committee approved by a vote of 4 to 2 Assembly Bill 702 (AB 702), which would create a tiered registry for sex offenders in California. The vote took place after testimony from three representatives of California RSOL as well as oral support from organizations including but not limited to the ACLU and California Attorneys for Criminal Justice. Additional support came from registrants and family members who attended the hearing. “The committee’s passage of AB 702 is a vital first step leading to the creation of a tiered…
Read MoreCalifornia college student body president is sex offender
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – When flyers appeared at Riverside City College on April Fool’s Day saying the student body president was a sex offender, students were stunned by the cruel prank. They were even more stunned when they learned it was true. “I was flabbergasted,” said Amanda Waring, a theater arts major who works for the school newspaper. “At first people thought it was a joke.” ___ ___ ___, 40, who was elected to a one-year term as student body president in May, pleaded guilty in 2005 to kidnapping and lewd…
Read MoreNJ: Modernizing Megan’s Law: Kanka family seeks updates to exclude sexting between children, increase failure to register penalities
HAMILTON — After her 7-year-old daughter, Megan, was sexually assaulted and murdered by a neighbor, Maureen Kanka made it her mission that no other family would experience a similar tragedy. Working with local legislators, Kanka oversaw the creation of Megan’s Law in 1994. It required sex offenders to register with local law enforcement agencies so residents could be notified of a sex offender’s intention to move into their community. Full Article
Read MoreCO: Complex sex offender system isn’t working, say lawmakers and lawyers
When he was 22 years old in 2003, ____ ____ met a girl online. She was two months away from her 15th birthday, and he knew it. Both were living in Colorado Springs, and after two months of chatting online, they met and had sex. The girl told ____ that she had been sexually involved with men his age before, so he thought it was no big deal, he said. “I kind of got myself into feeling I was her friend,” ____ said. “If I said no, she was going…
Read MoreFullerton Parks Ordinance preempts State Law
On April 11 a panel of 3 Superior Court Judges found the Fullerton municipal ordinance prohibiting 290 registrants from entering and being near public parks to be preempting state law and thus unlawful. This decision is not published, so it only effects the Fullerton ordinance in this very case. It is is similar to the ruling regarding the County of Orange ordinance from last November. The Court of Appeal’s published opinion regarding the County Ordinance is expected late spring / early summer. Fullerton Parks Ordinance – Appellate Court Decision (April 2013) COURT…
Read MoreSeeking smarter rules for sex offenders
Janice Bellucci is a mother of two, the wife of a pastor and a former Girl Scout leader active in volunteer work. She lives in a gated community an hour’s drive north of Santa Barbara, with needlepoint pillows on the sofa and a vegetable garden in the backyard. She is also the public face of an organization advocating for the closest thing to an untouchable caste in our society: California’s 88,000 registered sex offenders. A former aerospace lawyer, Bellucci is the president of the California chapter of Reform Sex Offender…
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