LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles school district on Friday removed a lawyer who successfully defended it in a sexual abuse lawsuit in which he told jurors that a 14-year-old girl who had sex with a male teacher shared responsibility despite her age. The trial victory spared the cash-strapped district a potentially pricey verdict, but news of the trial strategy and remarks by attorney W. Keith Wyatt that it was a more dangerous decision to cross the street than to have sex with a teacher drew criticism. Full Article Related…
Read MoreYear: 2014
There’s Hope Even for Sex Offenders (Editorial, 2012)
The war on sex offenders makes sense only within a large historical context. My generation grew up practicing air raid drills in classrooms where the teachers made us crawl under our desks in case the real thing took out Cleveland or Buffalo. Neighbors were stocking their bomb shelters with canned goods and ammunition. We lived through the Cuban Missile crisis unsure if hour by hour the human race would survive. Full Editorial (2012)
Read MoreFL: Lawmakers tighten limits on sex offenders
FLEMING ISLAND, Fla. – Florida Lawmakers have passed numerous laws punishing those convicted of sex crimes and this year added more laws designed to keep the worst of the worst away from your children. The Legislature made tighter laws after it was reported that 594 sexual offenders had gone free since 1999, only to commit 463 child molestations, 121 rapes and 14 murders. Also fresh on their mind was the summer 2013 abduction, rape and murder of Cherish Perrywinkle, an 8-year-old Jacksonville girl. A registered sex offender, Donald Smith, will…
Read MoreL.A. Unified says girl, 14, could consent to sex with teacher
L.A. Unified officials are coming under fire for allowing their attorneys to argue that a 14-year-old student was mature enough to consent to sex with her middle school math teacher. The arguments were made in a civil case that was filed last year by the student, who was seeking financial compensation from the district. She said she suffered emotional trauma from a five-month sexual relationship nearly four years ago with her teacher at Edison Middle School in Los Angeles. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Former judge says sex offender registry gives ‘false sense’ of security
Does the sex offender registry really keep you safe? A former West Michigan judge says it’s giving you a false sense of security. Newschannel 3 looked into those claims, taking our search across state lines to see how sex offenders are tracked in other areas. You can search for them by your address or your entire city, finding their home address, and even where they work. But does knowing where a sex offender lives keep your family safe? At least one former judge doesn’t think so. “People have a false…
Read MoreVA: Manassas City detective in teen ‘sexting’ case sues teen’s lawyer for defamation
The lead detective in a high-profile teen “sexting” case from last summer, in which Prince William County authorities sought to take sexually explicit photos of a 17-year-old teen to compare with the evidence, has filed a defamation lawsuit against the teen’s attorney for making critical comments about the investigation in The Washington Post. Full Article
Read MoreCosta Rica Fights Against Sexual Exploitation of Children
Brooklyn, NY — (ReleaseWire) — 11/07/2014 — A new global Taskforce, launched in London yesterday aims to tackle the rapid acceleration of sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism. Eight eminent leaders from the travel industry, the United Nations, Governments and NGOs, under the leadership of Dr. Maalla M’jid Former Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, will re-think approaches to a crime that has, to date, outpaced every attempt to respond. The sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism is now a…
Read MoreGreen Notice: Interpol’s paedophile tracking system ‘compromised by privacy concerns’ following Edward Snowden spying revelations
The global system designed to track paedophiles is failing as nations refuse to share information following the Edward Snowden spying revelations, child protection experts have warned. Suspicions of government “snooping” and potential privacy breaches have meant that countries have proved unwilling to hold and disseminate information on known and dangerous child abusers. Full Article Related: International Travel – China / Thailand International Megan’s Law / RSO Travel Issues International Travel – Mexico International Travel (Main Page) International Travel (Tag)
Read MoreCA RSOL Meeting – January 10 in Los Angeles
The first California RSOL’s Meeting in 2015 will take place on January at 10 am in Los Angeles. The location is the usual location in Los Angeles, at the ACLU Building at 1313 W. 8th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90017. Start time is 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 will discuss pending legislation as well as…
Read MoreTier 2 Sex Offender Coming To Buffalo
____ ____ ____ was convicted of engaging in a sexual act with another by force and the threat of serious violence in 1992. ____ was convicted of forcibly raping an eighteen year old girl. ____ was 25 and physically intimidating and mentally unhinged due to drug and alcohol addiction at the time of this vicious act. Now the Statler City Hotel, Lace-Up Promotions and the City of Buffalo are being used to promote this individual. The reputation of all are being used in a manner that causes new injuries to the…
Read MoreMan who went to prison as a juvenile sex offender: Lena Dunham is lucky
As so many have done recently, Josh Gravens wrote an open letter to Lena Dunham. It read, “Many children around the country did the same thing you did.” But this was not just another defense of Dunham’s childhood behavior as innocent exploration. The letter continued, “A 9-year-old in South Carolina is now on the sex offender registry for life, and he also must wear a GPS monitor everywhere he goes. In fact, many states have no minimum age to be placed on the sex offender registry,” he wrote. “I myself…
Read MoreTyrant’s Foe: Josh Gravens Fights Criminal Justice Policies that Hurt Children
When I met Josh Gravens, he was 25 years old, unemployed and living with his older sister in Dallas. He’d most recently worked at a stand that sold Christmas trees and firewood, but his paychecks often bounced, and since then he’d applied for hundreds of jobs. That was March of 2012, when Gravens and his wife and four children were getting by one day at a time. Full Article
Read MoreEven Republicans are Changing their Mind on “Tough on Crime”
“One of the things that’s happening with mass incarceration is that it’s hollowing out [communities], it’s destroying generations. It’s just devastating.” Sounds like something a liberal might say, right? Actually, it’s a quote from Mark Early, a former Republican lawmaker from Virginia, a state notorious for its tough on crime laws. Full Article
Read MoreFCC Reverses ALJ’s Decision, Revokes Convicted Sex Offender’s Amateur Radio License
The FCC has reversed the decision of an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) who ruled in 2010 that ____ ____, of Seattle, Washington, could keep his Amateur Radio license in the wake of his conviction for a sex-related crime 17 years earlier. … The FCC said that given “known risks of Amateur Radios in the hands of sex offenders, such misconduct is prima facie disqualifying, and has resulted in the loss of licenses in past cases.” Full Article
Read MoreIL: Alderman wants sex offenders banned from libraries in summer
Chicago’s 78 public libraries would be off-limits to registered sex offenders during summer months, when the buildings tend to be overrun with children, under a pre-emptive public safety crackdown proposed by a Southwest Side alderman. Full Article
Read MoreUK: Single adults banned from park – in case they are a paedophile
A bird enthusiast made a 25-mile trip to see a falconry display at a family leisure park only to be told that single adults are banned – for fear of paedophiles. Full Article
Read MoreAR: Governor to pardon sex-crime offender
LITTLE ROCK – One of the 25 people that Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe plans to pardon is a convicted sex offender who has close ties to the Beebe family. Full Article
Read MoreReview finds parole agents swamped with sex offender caseloads
Nearly two-thirds of parole agents who monitor sex offenders juggle caseloads that exceed department standards, a state corrections review reported Wednesday in response to an Orange County murder case. Agents are supposed to supervise between 20 and 40 parolees, depending on how many are high-risk offenders. But more often than not, the state Office of the Inspector General found, agents are overburdened. Full Article
Read More