A crusading civil rights attorney and a registered sex offender have partnered in a legal battle that has prompted dozens of California cities to repeal or revise what the pair believe are unconstitutional ordinances restricting the activities of sex offenders. Full Article Same Article, different publication, same publisher: Pasadena Star-News San Bernardino Sun Daily Bulletin Reaction Question: How Exactly Was Sierra Madre’s Sex Offender Ordinance Put On Legal Hold?
Read MoreYear: 2014
UK: Even rapists should have another chance at playing football – that’s how a civilised society operates
… Unpalatable as the thought is, as much as his victim and her friends and family might be revolted by the very notion, he should be allowed to resume his playing career with Sheffield United. He has been punished for his crime once. We as a society have no right to punish him further. Full Op-Ed Piece Related: Over 100,000 sign petition to prevent convicted rapist from returning to play for former club Sheffield United
Read MoreWe Need to Make It Easier for Pedophiles To Seek Help
All too often, our attention, resources and shock are focused on what happens after a crime is committed—we need to be asking how we can prevent child sex abuse. Full Op-Ed Piece
Read MoreTricks-Not-Treats: Halloween Predator Panic Laws
I remember coming home from “trick-or-treating” as a child and turning over my bag of candy to my mother for inspection. After all, one of our neighbors could have slipped rat poison in our Tootsie Rolls or razor blades in our apples. Aside from certain choice pieces missing as a result of mom’s ingestion… er, “inspection” process, my mother never found any razor blades or rat poison in our Halloween Candy. Despite virtually no confirmed cases of Halloween poisonings, the myth has remained a constant in our culture [1]. Full…
Read MoreMistaking My Dad for a Predator
My late father’s occupation, and love, was teaching mobility to blind students. He was employed by the school district and taught blind, k-12 students how to move about in the community. The “classroom” consisted of busy intersections, the mall, the post office, and many other places. He had been doing the work for 35 years and had seen society change so much. Full Article
Read MoreOperation Boo
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is implementing the 20th Annual “Operation Boo.” Operation Boo helps protect children from sexual predators during Halloween and its new educational component helps parents and teachers show kids how to stay away from potential sexual predators year round. Full Article
Read MoreCity of Carson Charged With Fraud, Breach of Contract
The City of Carson has been charged with fraud and breach of contract due to its failure to significantly revise the city’s sex offender ordinance despite a settlement agreement in which the City promised to do so no later than August 24, 2014. A lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on October 1, 2014, requesting that the court require the City revise its ordinance in accordance with the settlement agreement. In addition, a government claim was filed with the City Clerk on the same day requesting monetary damages.…
Read MoreMaking money off sex offender information
NEW BLOOMFIELD — How much money would you pay to know if any sex offenders live in your area? Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Kids Live Safe charges its subscribers $29.97 per month, or $59.88 per year, to tell them where registered sex offenders live in relation to their houses, schools or other places they frequent. Users can set up email alerts for up to four addresses, install filters to monitor their children’s online activity, and create profiles of their children to give to law enforcement if their children ever disappear. Full…
Read MoreNY: Judge rules on difficulty for sex offenders to live in Brooklyn
Forcing sex offenders to stay 1,000 feet away from schools, playgrounds and daycare centers if they were convicted before that state law was enacted is unconstitutional, a new Brooklyn Supreme Court ruling has found. Full Article Also see: Devine v Annucci (decision)
Read MoreIA: Change to Custody Law Regarding Sex Offenders
2012 – A new law tells judges in custody cases to consider if a parent let a child be around a sex offender. The change in Iowa custody law took effect July 1, 2012. It adds to the long list of factors a judge can consider to decide what custody arrangement is in the best interest of a child. The new law allows the judge to consider if a parent let someone have custody, control or unsupervised access to a child while knowing the person is required to register as…
Read MoreKS: Wichita school district completes installation of visitor security system
By Monday, all Wichita public schools will have the new Hall Pass security system, which scans visitors’ driver’s licenses and checks them against a sex-offender database. This summer, the Wichita school board voted to spend up to $200,000 to install scanners and related equipment at all 91 school buildings and train employees to use them. Schools have been installing the system at a rate of about one high school feeder pattern per week. Full Article
Read MoreAnti-Airbnb Coalition Creates Map to Find Nearby Sex Offenders in NYC
ShareBetter, the anti-Airbnb campaign in New York City, launched a tool Monday that allows short-term renters to search neighborhoods in the city for sex offenders and building code violations. Full Article
Read MorePedophilia: A Disorder, Not a Crime (Opinion)
THINK back to your first childhood crush. Maybe it was a classmate or a friend next door. Most likely, through school and into adulthood, your affections continued to focus on others in your approximate age group. But imagine if they did not. By some estimates, 1 percent of the male population continues, long after puberty, to find themselves attracted to prepubescent children. These people are living with pedophilia, a sexual attraction to prepubescents that often constitutes a mental illness. Unfortunately, our laws are failing them and, consequently, ignoring opportunities to…
Read MoreOur criminal justice system is making it really hard for people to find jobs
Although the American economy has rebounded from the Great Recession, many people still struggle to find jobs. Politicians blame taxation, trade policies and automation. Some have even singled out the current welfare system. Often overlooked? The many punitive effects of the criminal justice system. Nearly 65 million Americans have a criminal record. This black mark carries with it potentially mandatory restrictions on jobs, housing, education and public assistance. As detailed in a National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers study, the federal government and every state imposes some sort of “collateral…
Read MoreThe Better Part of Valor: Amending Local Sex Offender Ordinances
A series of lawsuits against California cities has brought the issue of sex offenders in the community back to many city agendas and local public meetings. Two recent decisions by the California Court of Appeal and a case pending before the California Supreme Court effectively limit cities’ ability to enforce local ordinances regulating registered sex offenders who live in their jurisdictions. Few city officials or residents favor the idea of repealing an ordinance intended to protect children from predators, but many cities with such ordinances are being forced to do…
Read MoreNY: Judge Finds State Limits on Sex Offender Moves Illegal
A judge has found the state’s 2005 restrictions on sex offender movement violate constitutional bans on retroactive punishment when applied to a man convicted of sexual abuse in 2002 and effectively banished him from many parts of Brooklyn as a result. Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Yvonne Lewis determined that Executive Law §259-c(14)—which forbids sentenced offenders from “knowingly entering into” publicly accessible areas within 1,000 feet of school grounds and other institutions where minors are present—violated the Ex Post Facto Clause of the Constitution in the case of ____ ____, convicted…
Read MoreCITY OF COMMERCE ORDINANCE CHALLENGED IN FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT
A sex offender ordinance adopted by the City of Commerce has been challenged in a lawsuit filed today in federal district court on behalf of a registered sex offender (“registered citizen”). “This lawsuit was filed because the City of Commerce prohibits registered citizens from visiting the public library, parks, bus stops and commercial establishments that provide a children’s playground,” stated California RSOL president Janice Bellucci. “The City has failed to revise or repeal its ordinance despite recent court decisions that determined such ordinances are preempted by state law.” This is…
Read MorePA: ‘Deplorable’ sex offender’s crime could be considered worse than murder, prosecutor says
With a sentence of 23 to 46 years in prison, sex offender ____ ____ will be incarcerated longer than some murderers. But in a sense, his crime is worse than murder, according to a prosecutor. … “I say involuntary deviate sexual intercourse is worse than murder because you’ve got to live with it,” (Assistant District Attorney Pat) Broscius said. “When you’re murdered, you’re dead.” Full Article
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