TAMPA BAY, Florida — A drawn-out struggle to obtain public records has started to yield results for 10 Investigates, as local agencies have started releasing limited records – and providing insight – regarding how law enforcement conducts controversial sex “predator” stings. Full Article
Read MoreMonth: December 2014
PA: Lifetime registration mandate for juvenile sex offenders is unconstitutional, Pa. Supreme Court says
A Pennsylvania law that requires juveniles who commit the most serious types of sex crimes to register with police for life is unconstitutional because it breeches the youngsters’ civil rights, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday. Full Article
Read MoreCA RSOL Meeting – February 7 in San Diego
Please join us for the February meeting in San Diego on February 7th, 2015. The meeting will take place at California Western Law School, 225 Cedar Street, in Room LL31 and begin at 10 am. The meeting will cover general topics of interest, as well as specific issues pertinent at meeting time, in addition to offering invaluable opportunities to network with others affected by this issue, as well as activists and professionals. We welcome registrants, friends and family and other supporters to attend. The meeting is off-limits to media and…
Read MoreNY: NY may need to free sex offenders
State mental health officials are trying to decide whether they will have to release civilly confined sex offenders because of a recent ruling from New York’s highest court. The odds are some of the offenders will be freed. The more pressing question may be: How many? Full Article
Read MoreSex offender lottery winner target of lawsuit
MOUNT DORA, Fla. – The victims of a sexual predator who became a lottery millionaire are now suing to win his wealth. Timothy Dale Poole won $3 million on a Florida Lottery scratch-off ticket he purchased at a Mount Dora 7-Eleven store on Dec. 6. In 1999, Orange County authorities arrested Poole following allegations that he sexually battered a 9-year-old boy. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in 2002. Full Article
Read MoreA California law about reporting child porn puts psychotherapists in a bind
A middle-aged man feels a spark with a co-worker that he hasn’t felt in years with his wife and wants to start an affair. He remains faithful. A teenager longs to lash out in rage against her parents. She instead composes an angry song. A new mom in the throes of severe sleep deprivation and exhaustion feels a sudden urge to smother her child. She does not do so. A man feels aroused by sexual images of children. He never acts on those desires. Full Article
Read MoreIllusion of Safety
When two registered sex offenders wearing GPS tracking devices were arrested on suspicion of killing four women, the Orange County Register launched an investigation into how this could happen in a state in which Jessica’s Law proponents promised: “GPS monitoring could have saved Jessica Lunsford’s life.” The result was a series of articles documenting dangerous gaps in an overburdened system that promised more than it could deliver. Here is a story that pulls together what the Register discovered. Full Article
Read MoreDC: why did DC house a sex offender near women and children?
My goal in the coming year is to better understand why some things, in this brief and transitory life, are as they seem to be. Not to accept it, necessarily, but just to be able to make sense of it. For instance, I am unable to figure out why D.C. taxpayers are being called upon to provide shelter for a man who, according to Mark Segraves of WRC-TV (Channel 4), was charged with several sex offenses and assaults in Prince George’s County nine years ago, pleaded guilty and was sentenced…
Read MoreSan Bernardino County, Victorville revise sex offender ordinances after civil rights lawsuits
San Bernardino County and the city of Victorville have settled lawsuits with a civil rights attorney challenging the constitutionality of both municipalities’ sex offender ordinances. Victorville has agreed to revise its 8-year-old ordinance to conform with state law, which prohibits registered sex offenders from residing within 2,000 feet of a school or park and bans those on parole and whose victims were under the age of 14 from visiting public parks without the express permission of their parole agent. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Hillsborough’s controversial sex offender court is disbanded
TAMPA — For 14 years, criminal cases involving accused rapists, molesters and child abusers in Hillsborough County have been heard by a single judge in the sex offender division. Full Article
Read MoreOnce punished, criminals deserve a second chance
It was a troublesome Facebook post from a conservative talk show host at a Santa Rosa radio station. Promoting an upcoming segment, last week’s post read: “Former KGO Radio Talk Show Host _____ _____, convicted of child pornography seven years ago, is going to be released from federal prison in time for Christmas. Where will he go? Are your children safe? Is he truly rehabilitated as he claims?” Full Opinion Piece
Read MoreFL: Protecting public creates pools of sex-crime felons in rural, less affluent areas in, around Jacksonville
When a 35-year-old mother was stabbed to death and a 10-year-old girl raped in Clay County on Dec. 1, many in the small Middleburg community learned for the first time that the sexual predator suspect was among 143 offenders who lived within five miles of the crime scene. Full Article
Read MoreIreland: Greater threat of sex offenders denied new start
Sex Offenders who are denied the opportunity to start a fresh life within the community pose greater risks of striking again than those who are housed. Full Article
Read MoreNY: Sex offender housing restrictions not enforced in Utica
Oneida County and state laws restricting where registered sex offenders can live aren’t being enforced in Utica. Full Article
Read MoreVA: 1 out of every 148 Adult Males in Virginia is a Registered Sex Offender
The 2015 Report from Virginia State Police on the Monitoring of Sex Offenders Required to Comply with the Registry – We’ve Exceeded 21,300 RSO’s AND As of November 2014 1 out of every 148 Adult Males in Virginia is a Registered Sex Offender Full Article
Read MoreAbout a Dozen Sex Offenders Work, Learn at SDSU
About a dozen registered sex offenders are employed or enrolled at San Diego State University, school police confirmed Monday. SDSU’s list of 11 or 12 offenders includes at least one student and a handful of faculty, staff and contract workers, according to SDSU Police Lt. Randy Lawrence. None of them live on campus, and they are not allowed to work at the child care center. Full Article
Read MoreUnderstanding collateral consequences of registry laws: An examination of the perceptions of sex offender registrants
Sex offender registration and notification laws have been widely studied since their implementation during the mid-1990s. Within the last decade, researchers have turned their focus towards the unintended and collateral consequences that registered sex off enders (RSO) experience as a byproduct of being listed on a registry. This study of the consequences that RSOs in Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin endure mirrors research that has studied offenders in Kentucky and Indiana (Tewksbury, 2004, 2005). Research Paper (PDF)
Read MoreNY: Parents for Megan’s Law touts record on sex offenders as it seeks to expand into Nassau
Parents for Megan’s Law, a nonprofit that monitors convicted sex offenders in Suffolk County, has alerted police to 173 cases in which offenders allegedly reported inaccurate addresses, contributing to 38 arrests, according to the agency and new county data. Full Article
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