Newbie Georgia Republican legislator Sam Moore has struck a blow–albeit an unpopular one–for constitutional rights, fact-based legislation, and common sense. His bill would remove restrictions on registered citizens, once their sentences are satisfied, that restrict their movements and prohibit their presence in places such as schools and parks. Shocking as it is in Georgia, there are many jurisdictions throughout the U.S. that do not place these restrictions on registrants. Following what research shows, that these restrictions offer no public safety benefit and that community re-entry is the best path to…
Read MoreMonth: February 2014
Taking a Stand: Women Against Registry responds to our 14 News investigation
EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) –In this week’s Taking a Stand, Vicki Henry with Women Against Registry has a response to our 14 News investigation of sex offenders and school bus stops. The Women Against Registry is based out of Washington, D.C., but she e-mailed her response to us; Vicki wrote the following: If we think about registered sex offenders at all, most of us fear them as monsters who have committed terrible sexual crimes against innocent children and are people who need to be carefully watched when released to make sure…
Read MoreAZ: Court rules Arizona law bars lawsuits against home sellers who don’t discuss nearby sex offenders
PHOENIX – A state appellate court says Arizona law bars lawsuits against home sellers who don’t disclose that a sex offender lives next door, but the ruling also says providing a false reason for selling is another story. The ruling revives a fraud claim against the sellers of a Scottsdale home. The sellers had told the buyers that they were selling because they wanted to be closer to friends. However, their real reason allegedly was the sex offender next door. Full Article
Read MoreMO: Gladstone woman on a crusade for change following Hailey Owens’ death
GLADSTONE, Mo. — Donna Roesle is a mother of three adult kids. Hours after the murder of Hailey Owens, she organized an online petition in hopes of getting a law passed that will get tougher on criminals who commit crimes against children. “It’s just awful that somebody can go out there and grab an innocent baby and do this,” Roesle said. Roesle has a daughter who is expecting her first child. The outrage she felt after Owens’ sudden death has left a hole in her heart and pushed her into action.…
Read MoreTX: Constitutional or not, court allows registration requirement for sex-offenses predating registry law
The Texas District and County Attorneys Association’s weekly case summaries last week described a new Court of Criminal Appeals decision which required sex-offender registration for offenses committed before the creation of the registry. The decision, though, failed to address the question of whether the underlying statute is constitutional, an issue dissenters said they should have confronted. Full Article
Read MoreGA: Bill would allow sex offenders at schools
CANTON — Brand new state Rep. Sam Moore (R-Macedonia) is pushing a sweeping law that would allow registered sex offenders to go anywhere they want — even to schools. Moore, in his first week in office, has turned in a bill that would overturn the crime of loitering and make it so registered sex offenders who aren’t otherwise barred from going to schools or places children gather could go to those places freely. “I am OK with that,” Moore said Thursday, adding that he meant only those who were off…
Read MoreNH: House Votes 231-97 To Prohibit Sex Offender Restrictions
Twelve towns have passed ordinances to limit where sex offenders can live — barring offenders from living near schools, or child-care centers. But law enforcement oppose such bans. Renny Cushing of Hampton, a Democrat, told House colleagues that police know restrictions make monitoring offenders harder. “The chiefs of police do not want to have a situation where you take away one of the tools they have which is to track where sex offenders are. And that’s also why the coalition against sexual and domestic violence is in support of this legislation.”…
Read MoreMN: Judge lets Minnesota sex offender suit proceed
A federal judge allowed a constitutional challenge to Minnesota’s sex-offender program to proceed Thursday and issued a strongly worded challenge to the Legislature to step in and fix “a system that is clearly broken.” U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank didn’t rule on the merits of the constitutional claims brought by participants in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program, but he ordered a panel of court-appointed experts to gather further evidence and indicated that if plaintiffs’ claims hold up, the program is likely in serious constitutional trouble. Full Article
Read MoreWI: Scott Walker’s administration fires new sex offender administrator
Madison — Gov. Scott Walker’s administration Wednesday dropped a controversial new hire charged with evaluating sex offenders for release back into Wisconsin communities, a move that came only hours after Walker said he opposed the psychologist. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first reported on the hire of Daniel Montaldi as “evaluation director” at the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center, a state facility for sex predators. Montaldi, who was to evaluate sex offenders and recommend to court officials which ones should be released, resigned from his post running Florida’s sex predator program six…
Read MoreIL: Reflections on the Campaign to Stop Jail Construction
When we began our campaign to stop jail construction in Champaign County in early 2012, I thought we were doomed. The grand plan to spend $20 million on this project seemed like a done deaI. The Sheriff was driving the initiative; the leading lights in the County Board seemed to think jail construction was the only prudent course. Yet, nearly two years later we have a very different scenario. The 2014 budget for Champaign County doesn’t include a single cent for jail construction. In fact, the county has allocated more than…
Read MoreCapitol Punishment: The Troubling Consequences of Federal Child Pornography Laws
Until Dec. 11, 2013, Jesse Ryan Loskarn was a popular chief of staff for a Tennessee senator. But on that winter day, police broke down the door of his rowhouse in southeast Washington, D.C., and searched for the illegal digital items that had led them there: explicit videos of boys posing nude and engaging in sexual acts. On Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014, Ryan was found dead in his basement. On Monday, Jan. 27, 2014, there was a twist. Ryan’s mother posted his suicide note online, revealing the great complexity to…
Read MoreMO: Sex offender from Ballwin area faces legal limbo
STE. GENEVIEVE COUNTY • There is a special wing here at the county jail that holds nine detainees who were convicted long ago for sex crimes. They already served their time in prison. Still, they wear bright orange jumpsuits as they await another kind of trial. Flagged as possible sexually violent predators, the Missouri attorney general’s office wants them held indefinitely at a secure state mental institution called Sex Offender Rehabilitation and Treatment Services, or SORTS. But first, in most of their cases, juries will be asked to make a rare decision in…
Read MoreOK: Convicted sex offender sues to stay in his home
PRYOR, OK — A convicted sex offender has sued the district attorney and city of Pryor over housing dispute. ____ ____ bought a home near Jefferson Elementary School in Pryor before the sex offender law was passed which would prevent him from living within 2,000 feet of the school. He was convicted of a child sexual offense in 2008. When he was released from prison in 2013, law enforcement told him he could not live in his house because of it’s proximity to a school. ____’s position is he owned the home…
Read MoreD.A. Wants Top Court to Review Rulings Overturning Ban on Sex Offenders in Parks
Orange County prosecutors petitioned the state Supreme Court to review two appellate court rulings striking down a ban on registered sex offenders in the county’s parks and in more than a dozen of its cities. “The people of the state of California respectfully petition this court to grant review of an important issue affecting every city and county in California,” Deputy District Attorney Brian Fitzpatrick wrote in his petition to the high court. “Cities and counties need to know whether they can act to protect children within their communities from the approximately…
Read MoreCosta Mesa repeals law banning sex offenders from public parks
The Costa Mesa City Council on Tuesday night agreed to repeal an ordinance that banned registered sex offenders from entering city parks without permission from law enforcement. The council’s unanimous vote comes after state appellate court rulings against similar ordinances adopted by the Irvine City Council and the Orange County Board of Supervisors. Costa Mesa is facing its own lawsuit, John Doe vs. City of Costa Mesa, filed in 2012. Full Article
Read MoreTask Force on Restoration of Rights and Status after Conviction (Survey)
NACDL (National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers) is in the midst of a major study that will lead to a report issued in 2014 on the countless ways in which a person’s rights, ability to work, and the like, are affected by a criminal conviction. As part of this effort, NACDL needs your help. If you are interested in sharing your story of lost rights and privileges resulting from a plea or guilty verdict, please complete survey. Before we would take your story public, someone on our staff will contact…
Read MoreSex Offender’s Case Won’t Face En Banc Rehearing
PASADENA, Calif. (CN) – The full 9th Circuit should have been called to consider whether to let a sex offender challenge his parole conditions, as the question imperils “our constitutional system’s respect for state sovereignty,” five judges said Tuesday. ____ ____ alleges that California prison officials violated his civil rights by imposing residency and GPS monitoring restrictions typically reserved for sex offenders, even though he had only been convicted in the Golden State for robbery. The state justified the Jessica’s Law parole conditions because of ____’s sexual battery conviction in…
Read MoreWI: Sexting can be considered child porn, so what penalties should kids face?
MILWAUKEE —Research shows one in five teens are sexting — the sending of sexually explicit text or email messages. WISN 12 News investigative reporter Colleen Henry looks into the problem facing parents, police and prosecutors — what to do with kids caught sharing these explicit messages. It’s a digital world, which can change as quick as the click of a camera. “I do think it has desensitized us to what we put out there. We share everything else. Why not share a picture of us?” University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee junior ____ said. Full…
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