Three weeks ago, my fiancé’s brother texted me saying that my fiancé, “Eric”, was killed in El Salvador. I cannot express how stunned, sad, and angry I am about my Love’s needless death. Eric grew up in America after his parents brought him, at age five, to the U.S.A. I was both his kindergarten and third grade teacher. Later, when he was a young man, to my regret and shame, Eric became the underaged so-called “victim” in my sex offense case. My psychologist reported us. I was given a one-year…
Read MoreYear: 2019
AR: Arkansas Sex offenders barred from Halloween activities with new law
[myarklamiss.com – 7/25/19] FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA) — We are less than 100 days away from Halloween, and after Wednesday, parents won’t have to be as scared about sending the kids off to trick-or-treat. Nothing is more important to Jennifer Quick than her four kids. “My children’s safety is a top priority,” she said. And as Act 463 goes into effect, she takes a sigh of relief. “I feel like the lawmakers finally putting in some effort towards the safety of our children is a big deal and I think it’s…
Read MoreFL: Court Rules Against Sex Offender On Internet Use
[usf.edu – 7/25/19] Rejecting First Amendment arguments, a state appeals court Wednesday upheld restrictions on internet use by a sex offender. The ruling by the 2nd District Court of Appeal came in a Hillsborough County case in which Quinton Alford was sentenced to 10 years of sex-offender probation for kidnapping and three years of sex-offender probation for sexual battery. The terms of probation included barring Alford from using social media and prevented internet use except for work or shopping. Alford argued that the restrictions were overly broad and violated First…
Read MoreMO: Sees statewide drop of unaccounted for sex offenders, 21 percent improvement reported
Fewer sex offenders are missing or unaccounted for in Missouri than in years past. Last year, State Auditor Nicole Galloway’s office found that 1,300 sex offenders weren’t properly registering on the state’s sex offender website. Tuesday Galloway said News 4 that law enforcement has reduced that number by 21 percent due to hard work and better accuracy. “The sex offender registry is a public safety tool. People expect it to be accurate,” she said. “If information is held by highway patrol or local law enforcement, it’s imperative that it’s accurate,…
Read MoreCO: State and local laws push more registered sex offenders into low-income communities
The laws requiring the names of convicted sex offenders nationwide to be catalogued, and available to the public, bear the names of children sexually assaulted and murdered by predators who had committed sex offenses before. The goal was to prevent the same from happening to other children. The Jacob Wetterling Act. Megan’s Law. The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. The intent of the laws may be unassailable. But throughout the country, they have largely sequestered sex offenders in low-income neighborhoods. Full Article
Read MoreNY: Cops Gave ____ A Pass While Making More Than 7,000 Arrests For Similar Offenses
The New York Police Department allowed wealthy financier and convicted sex offender ____ ____ to skip dozens of court-mandated check-ins with law enforcement for more than eight years before he was arrested and charged with the sex trafficking of minors, the Washington Post reported earlier this year. During roughly that same period, cops in New York state made at least 7,061 arrests for similar violations of the state’s complicated sex offender registration law, according to data obtained by HuffPost. Several of those arrests include people who committed minor violations, like…
Read MoreIL: Wayside residents sue City of Aurora, challenge state’s residency laws for registered sex offenders
The 19 child sex offenders who were told they must leave Wayside Cross Ministries by July 26 have filed a civil federal lawsuit against the city of Aurora, arguing the men should not have to move and challenging the state’s residency laws for registered sex offenders. Full Article
Read MoreACSOL Emotional Support Group Meetings Available: Sat, July 27 in L.A.; Thursdays in Sac; Monthly on the phone
Emotional Support Group meetings will be held for those convicted of a sex offense and their loved ones. This meeting, which is based upon the format of 12 Step meetings, provides registrants and their loved ones with an opportunity to discuss personal challenges and share their experiences, strengths and hopes, with each other. Attendance is limited to individuals required to register, family members, and friends. Media, law enforcement, parole, etc. are not allowed to attend meetings. There is no cost to attend. No reservations are required. Click here to see…
Read MoreMA: Doe v. Sex Offender Registry Board
The Supreme Judicial Court vacated and set aside a superior court judgment affirming a Sex Offender Registry Board (SORB) decision to classify John Doe as a level two sex offender, holding that there was not substantial evidence to support the hearing examiner’s decision to classify Doe as a level two sex offender by clear and convincing evidence. SORB classified Doe as a level two sex offender after Doe was convicted of two counts of open and gross lewdness. The superior court affirmed. The Supreme Judicial Court vacated the judgment, holding…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: The Truth Lies Somewhere in the Middle
On Wednesday, Massachusetts criminal prosecutors dropped their case against actor Kevin Spacey. Spacey had faced a criminal charge of indecent assault and battery in connection with a reported July 2016 incident at the Club Car restaurant/bar in Nantucket. His accuser, an 18 yr. old busboy at the restaurant, had accused Spacey of groping him. The accuser’s mother, a former TV anchor, filed the complaint more than a year after the alleged incident supposedly occurred. Spacey pled “not guilty” and faced up to five years in prison if convicted. The alleged…
Read MoreCA: Ordinance barring car-sleeping on L.A. residential streets quietly expires
[dailynews.com – 7/18/19] LOS ANGELES – A city ordinance barring people from sleeping in vehicles parked on residential Los Angeles streets quietly expired at the end of June, and LAPD officers have been instructed to no longer issue citations for the offense. … “This is very dangerous because the objective of this is to keep all kinds of vehicles off and away from schools and parks, where kids play, and off residents’ front curbs,” said Ryavec, who is also a community officer with the Venice Neighborhood Council. “That evaporated on…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Georgia Law Punishes Registrants, Breaks Up Families
Registrants and their families are suffering in the State of Georgia. The cause of their greatest concern is a state law that prohibits anyone convicted of a sex offense that took place after July 1, 2008, from living, working or loitering within 1,000 feet of a long list of locations including schools, churches and any place “where children congregate”. As a result of this law, there are thousands of families in Georgia that are already homeless or could become homeless at a moment’s notice. One of those families includes a…
Read MoreThe Inequity of Sex Offender Registries
There are more than 900,000 people on the sex offenders registry and growing, but studies show that the sex offender registries do not reduce recidivism and prevent sex crimes and laws restricting where offenders can find housing and employment make it almost impossible for many on the registry to reintegrate into society, ostracizing them and essentially creating a life sentence for those who have already paid for their crimes and in some cases, first time offenders. Guy Hamilton-Smith, a legal fellow for the Sex Offense Litigation and Policy Resource Center…
Read MorePA: A Kidnapping Law Could Unravel a Life
Friday, June 21, started like any other day for ____ ____. The Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, resident finished his overnight shift at a food-packaging plant and stopped for breakfast around 7 a.m. before making his way home. While driving through town, ____, 22, saw a girl who he thought was a friend of his younger sister. Rain appeared imminent to ____ and there was a slight drizzle, so he stopped to ask if she needed a ride. When he pulled up beside the girl, he realized that she wasn’t his sister’s friend…
Read MoreWhen autistic people commit sexual crimes
[spectrumnews.org – 7/17/19] Many first-time sex offenders on the spectrum may not understand the laws they break. How should their crimes be treated? For years, Nick Dubin couldn’t bring himself to say the word ‘gay,’ but part of him wondered: Was he gay? Dubin has autism. And growing up in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, he had been mercilessly taunted by his peers, some of whom had called him gay simply because he was different. But what if he actually was homosexual? As an adult, Dubin found some men attractive,…
Read MoreVideos and handouts of ACSOL’s Third Annual Conference are available now!
Couldn’t make it to ACSOL’s 2019 Third Annual Conference? Or maybe you missed something you wanted to hear? You will be excited to hear that videos of SOME of the sessions are now posted on YouTube! Click here to watch them The videos of recordings made at previous conferences are also available. Here are the handouts: ACSOL – Tipping Point – June 2019 ACSOL – Effective Advocacy – June 2019 ACSOL – Janus v2 ACSOL – Tiered Registry – June 2019 CP – Ellmann IL – Challenging Indefinite Imprisonment (Nichols)…
Read MoreSex Offender Registries Don’t Keep Kids Safe, But Politicians Keep Expanding Them Anyway
The first time ____ ____ got evicted was in 2015. He was living with his wife and two sons in suburban Nashville when his probation officer called his landlord and informed him that Winters was a registered sex offender. The previous year, when he was 24 years old, ____ had been arrested for downloading a three-minute porn clip. The file description said the girl in the video was 16; the prosecutor said she was 14. He was charged with attempted sexual exploitation of a minor and, because he had used…
Read MoreNew Survey: Understanding the role of trauma and later sexual offending
[floridaactioncommittee.org – 7/15/19] My name is Melissa Grady and I a faculty member at the Catholic University of America’s National Catholic School of Social Service. I along with my colleague Jill Levenson, professor at Barry University in Florida, are conducting a study aimed at understanding the role of trauma and later sexual offending. There are two surveys associated with this study. The first is one for practitioners who work with individuals who have sexually offended (ISOs). The second survey is for ISOs and have received treatment focused on this issue.…
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