Year: 2013

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas judge has ordered law enforcement agencies to remove a man’s name from the state’s offender registry, saying an amended law ostracizes offenders and requires them to remain registered longer than necessary. Tuesday’s decision by Shawnee County Judge Larry Hendricks addressed only the case of the man who sued to end his registering requirement, but it could extend to others in his situation if the state Supreme Court upholds it upon appeal. High courts in other states have struck down similar registration laws that have been found to be too excessive.…

STATE HOUSE – The General Assembly has approved legislation that will prohibit prospective employers for including questions on job applications regarding arrests, charges or criminal convictions. The legislation provides exceptions to that rule in certain cases: if a federal or state law or regulation creates a mandatory or presumptive disqualification based on a person’s conviction of one or more specified criminal offenses, or if a fidelity bond is required and an individual’s conviction of one or more specified offenses could prevent obtaining such a bond. All other potential employers would…

Discounts for the national RSOL conference, including registration and hotel, will end on July 31. In order to take advantage of those discounts, please register for the conference and hotel no later than that date.  After July 31, the conference rate will increase from $90 to $100 and the hotel rate will increase from $89 to $130 per night.  It’s easy to register online at www.nationalrsol.org.   Scholarships for the conference are available to qualified California registrants and family members who volunteer at the conference.  Please contact Janice at (805) 896-7854 or via E-mail…

Lawmakers rushed to approve the final pieces of a two-year budget and leave Salem after 155 days — five shy of the constitutional deadline to finish their work. One of their final acts was passing an $800 million bonding package to fund construction projects around the state, including a 174-bed psychiatric hospital in Junction City. Some Republican legislators criticized the project because of the high costs associated with staffing and operating the facility after it’s built. The package, however, passed each chamber with a large majority Monday. Full Article

Defense attorney David McDonald had no problem with his client being required to register every three months with the sheriff’s office as a violent offender. However, the recent sentence that client ___ ____ ____, 33, received — 22 years and eight months tied to two Shawnee County cases for failing to register as an offender — is excessive, McDonald said. No one objects to keeping track of violent offenders, McDonald said, but the sentences “have just gone way too far. It’s gone incredibly too far.” Full Article

DOVER, Del. – The state House has given final legislative approval to a bill giving Family Court judges the discretion to determine whether certain juvenile offenders should be declared sex offenders subject to inclusion on the state’s sex offender registry. Full Article