The Missouri Legislature overwhelmingly passed legislation last year that would remove many juvenile offenders from the public sex offender registry, which is posted on the Internet. It would not have lessened the punishment for any offender. Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed the legislation and then launched a misleading campaign in which he highlighted some of the worst offenders on the registry. Let me tell you my son Zach’s story, as it gives a very different perspective. It shows how harmful the sex offender registry can be for juveniles who should not…
Read MoreYear: 2014
FL: Idea to put signs in sex offender’s yards brought up to Port Orange council
VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — Port Orange City Council members met Tuesday night to discuss a proposal to put signs up in the yards of sexual predators that let everyone know just who is living in their neighborhoods. The issue came about when a group of parents pushed to have a sexual offender moved away from a nearby elementary school. They got what they wanted when the man moved away. Full Article
Read MoreNH: House committee passes bill prohibiting restrictions on where sex offenders can live
A House committee easily passed a bill, 18-1, prohibiting restrictions on where sex offenders can live yesterday, noting that judges have twice ruled residency restrictions unconstitutional. Still, lawmakers predicted a tough fight in the Senate, which has rejected similar bills before. “There is a perception that this bill is being soft on crime,” said Rep. Steve Vaillancourt, a Manchester Republican who voted for the bill. “All of us who have heard (this debate) know the benefits of the bill. But we’re going to need to explain it.” Rep. Al Baldasaro,…
Read MoreSheriff Department Launches Sex Offender Watch System
STANISLAUS COUNTY – Sheriff Adam Christianson has announced the launch of a new service called OffenderWatch, a public notification system on sex offenders. The new service is a citizen-friendly, easy to use website that enables people to search for potentially dangerous sex offenders and predators, who may be in close proximity to their homes, places of work, schools, churches and day care centers. Full Article
Read MoreCO: Sex-offender treatment system criticized at hearing
A convicted sex offender publicly criticized Colorado’s treatment system at a legislative hearing Tuesday, saying he cannot even go fishing because his privileges have been restricted. ____ ____ spent seven years in prison for fondling a girl. He said he came out well-adjusted and optimistic and rated as a low risk to commit a new sexual offense. But after nearly two years of treatment in the community, “I don’t feel well-adjusted and optimistic at this point,” he said. Turner’s testimony at a House and Senate Judicial Committee hearing came on the heels…
Read MoreSex offender can continue to post photos, judge says
A D.C. Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that a convicted sex offender can distribute and post photos of court employees online to protest the city’s sex offender registry. ____ ____, a former pornographer who served more than a decade in prison for a sexual performance using a minor, posted the photos of employees from D.C.’s Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA) on idiotsregistry.info saying that sex-offender registries are unfair. A court employee filed for a civil protection order, accused him of stalking and asked the court to have ____…
Read MoreWI: 7th Circuit upholds $100 annual sex offender registry fee
The $100 that Wisconsin sex offenders must pay every year for being listed on a registry is not an unlawful fine, a federal appeals court has ruled. But the court did not address other lifetime conditions of Wisconsin sex offender registration because it found the challengers lacked standing. The decision by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a ruling by a Green Bay federal judge, and also thwarted the plaintiffs’ request to proceed as unnamed. Instead, the court added their names to the case. U.S. District Judge William Griesbach…
Read MorePA: Supreme Court reinstates child porn charges in Lehigh County sexting case
A video of a teenage girl and boy engaged in a sex act circulated among Allentown youths for at least a year before another girl was charged with possession and distribution of child pornography for posting it on Facebook. Although a Lehigh County judge agreed with the girl’s attorneys that the charges were “an overreaction by law enforcement” and dismissed them in 2012, the state Supreme Court on Thursday reversed his decision. The girl, identified in court papers only as C.S., must return to Lehigh County juvenile court to face felony…
Read MoreO.C. lawyer disbarred over child porn
Possession of child pornography is automatic grounds for a lawyer’s disbarment, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday.The ruling came as the court disbarred ____ ____ ____ of Aliso Viejo, who pleaded guilty in 2009 to a felony child porn charge. State law requires disbarment of a lawyer convicted of an offense involving “moral turpitude.” Until Thursday’s unanimous ruling, it had been unclear whether a conviction for possessing child pornography always met that standard. The State Bar, which oversees attorney discipline, had urged the Supreme Court to rule that it does. “Today’s decision…
Read MoreCO: Audit criticizes Colorado’s program for monitoring sex offenders
Colorado is overtreating many low-risk sex offenders in the mistaken belief that they cannot be cured, an independent consultant has found. As a result, the state’s Sex Offender Management Board is wasting significant amounts of public money on supervision in the community, according to a report from Central Coast Clinical and Forensic Psychology Services. The report, released earlier this month, also concluded that Colorado’s system for classifying some offenders as sexually violent predators is hopelessly flawed and in urgent need of replacement. That means Colorado could be classifying the wrong people…
Read MoreBlogTalkRadio: The Fascists Are Coming! Registration Schemes Just Like 1930s Germany
Thursday at 6:00 pm – Call in to speak with the host (347) 324-5043 Special guest: Dennis Sobin, award-winning activist, author and playwright Dennis Sobin entitled Sex Registrant: How I Ended Up on the Sex Offender Registry—for Life. Based on a true story, this is a side-splitting (and taboo challenging) musical comedy that deals with Sobin’s actual experiences with the Sex Registry. But he dosen’t take all of that by just laying around. He has now gone on the offensive: For example, at Www.IdiotsRegistry.info you will find the names of politicians…
Read MoreNV: Nevada’s Disappearing Sex Offender
Big changes for sex offenders in the western US state of Nevada. If implemented on February 1, 2014 as planned, the stealth roll out of the Adam Walsh Act will have a number of unintended consequences. These include: a dramatic increase in the number of citizens required to register as sex offenders including all those as far back as 1956 who were convicted of sex crimes against minors–even when the offender was himself a minor at the time. So a 12-year-old boy who in 1956 who molested his 10-year-old sister…
Read MoreGuards May Be Responsible for Half of Prison Sexual Assaults
A new Justice Department study shows that allegations of sex abuse in the nation’s prisons and jails are increasing — with correctional officers responsible for half of it — but prosecution is still extremely rare. The report, released today by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, takes data collected by correctional administrators representing all of the nation’s federal and state prisons as well as many county jails. It shows that administrators logged more than 8,000 reports of abuse to their overseers each year between 2009 and 2011, up 11 percent from the department’s previous…
Read MoreFormer Lamar Alexander aide, dead in suicide
A former aide to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) who faced charges of possessing and distributing child pornography, hanged himself and died Thursday in a Maryland home, his family and police officials said Friday. Full Article
Read MoreSupreme Court weighs how much one person should pay pornography victim
A woman with the pseudonym Amy Unknown was at the Supreme Court on Wednesday as justices discussed the horrible events that changed her life: Her uncle raped her when she was a young girl, recorded that assault and other sex acts and put the images on the Internet, where they have been viewed tens of thousands of times. All the justices seemed to think that those who downloaded the images of Amy should pay to help her put her life back together. But they struggled to decide what any one person should…
Read MoreGA: New state law gives ex offenders hope for landing a job
A new state law is a beacon of hope for job seekers with a criminal history. Albany Second Chance hosted workshops for ex-offenders Monday at Albany Technical College and Albany State University. Speakers from the Georgia Justice Project said state is the second worst in the nation for barriers that keep ex-offenders from finding jobs, but they hope the Record Restriction Law will help. Many of the hundreds of people crammed together in the Albany Tech Kirkland Conference Center were seeking a new beginning. “Who doesn’t wish they could go back and…
Read MoreNY: Mount Pleasant police chief faces child-porn charges
Mount Pleasant Police Chief ____ ____, accused Thursday of possessing child pornography, told federal investigators his alleged habit began when he was researching material for school classes he was teaching about the dangers of sexual abuse, according to papers filed in U.S. District Court in White Plains. “But shortly thereafter (____) began viewing child pornography for personal interest,” the 10-page complaint says. Full Article
Read MoreCO: Greeley police chief supports easing sex offender living restrictions
GREELEY – Sex offenders against children could be allowed to move closer to schools and parks in Greeley. “We’re trying to strike a balance between the need for public safety. We want to protect our kids from sex offenders, versus being able to have these folks rehabilitate and not re-offend out here,” Greeley Police Chief Jerry Garner said. Garner supports an ordinance that would reduce from 750 feet to 300 feet the mandatory distance a sex offender must live from parks, schools, playgrounds and pools. He said the city attorney suggested the…
Read More