The Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) filed a lawsuit today challenging the City of Murrieta’s requirement that all registrants, including those with COVID-19 high risk factors, register in person. The lawsuit is expected to be the first of many such lawsuits to be filed in California this week.
“The City of Murrieta is requiring registrants to make one of two deadly decisions, that is, to register in person and risk exposing themselves to COVID-19 or to fail to register and be sent to jail where the risk of exposure to COVID-19 is even greater,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “In addition, registrants who go to the Murrieta Police Department to register in person violate the Governor’s order to shelter in place.”
The lawsuit, which was filed in Riverside County Superior Court, asks the court to issue a writ of mandate that requires the City of Murrieta to provide methods of registration that do not require registrants to register in person. Those methods could include registration by telephone or by computer.
“We are researching registration methods throughout the state and nation,” stated Bellucci, “and we will file as many lawsuits as possible in order to protect registrants and their families.”
Download the lawsuit:
Petition – Registration during COVID-19 – March 2020
Related links:
Lawsuit Filed Against Murrieta for In-Person Sex Registration Amid Pandemic [nbcpalmsprings.com – 3/25/20]
Coronavirus: Murrieta sex offenders sue city in order to register via internet, phone [pe.com – 3/25/20]
I can’t wait to see how this turns out 😷
Janice, I am grateful that you are advocating for us. I am afraid of this year’s registration and the virus transmission risk it holds.
Janice —
I have only one word. Excellent.
Thank you.
Oh My God. Thank You Janice! Wow.
Janice, Chance, and all with ACSOL: you are angels from heaven! May God Bless you and give us all victory! Thank you!!!
Beautifully drafted arguments!
Maybe Dickens was right in his “Tale of two Cities” haven’t read that in a long time but if we are oppressed than someone has to stand up in a situation.
Awesome work Janice.
Thank you Janice, once again, for all you do. It only makes sense that this will be approved, not only to prevent registrants from getting infected, but also the staff of the sheriff’s department. This should be in the interest of everyone, and there really should not be any debate at all. If the virus spreads because of some political agenda, someone will surely be out of a lot of money!! Maybe, this could be a precedence for future decisions to drop in person registration, which is completely unnecessary, as Janice stated. It also will save everyone a lot of time, a win win for everybody, in my opinion,
This could cause changes in way PD registration beyond COVID-19. There are obvious some police department loves the harassment power of the registration, however, the are plenty that would love the opportunity to do not in person registrations, especially for the ones that crime free and been doing it for years.
Thank you Janice and team!
I am glad that somebody was standing up to the authorities and helping us out on all this registering self thank you so much keep fighting for us I live in the state of Missouri and I wish I had the money to hire an attorney to get me off of this
If a registant resides in Kern County and registers at KCSO- Bakersfield (Kern County Sheriff’s Office), due to the COVID-19 they are not allowing registration until April 14th. Contact Stephanie Kennedy, Registation Supervisor @ (661) 868-4853 if you have any questions. Be well and be safe.
Awesome, but why just Murrieta, the entire state of California has an order to stay in place.
Thank you from Florida Janice he GREAT!!!
Not to mention being forced into an environment which easily accommodates transmission of diseases which inevitably will be brought home to our innocent loved ones.
A good example would be the Fresno city & county’s tiny waiting room with an estimated social distancing of one to two feet on most days (with short hours) which forces a compacted health threat.
Unfortunately, I doubt that arguing registering in person violates the Governor’s order to shelter in place, which allows necessary public movement.
Other than that it’s a brave and noble lawsuit.
Thank you
Awesome Let’s do that to ALL cities. I don’t have to register until Dec. but I would love to sue Fresno on this case..
Oh! Oh!
Please sue my city too!
Please, please, please!!
😁😁😁😁😁 👍👍👍
We are so fortunate to have ACSOL! I hope it is replicated across the nation. This is a tall order but we need to set this as a goal. At least a second office in the east…and then the south. God willing. I made a donation at the end of the year to support their great work. I urge those of you who can afford to be generous….and thankful…by making a financial contribution. Never has $ been better spent!!!
This is a great attack on one part of the statute but misses the greater point that Cal. Govt.is intentenal
This suit is a great attack on one part of the statute but misses the much greater balance of the statute which is the Cal. Govt’s intentional taking of life of sex offenders as retaliatory punishment. Although the 6th, Circuit Court of appeals in Doe v Snyder found that the said statutes are punishment, they felt they had some non-punishment value and did not reach the greater punishment, such as cover up of death. The question is will ACSOL, ACLU and WAR seek recourse for the loss of said offender’s lives?
That seems like good news for Californians, but since the registrant I know who lives in Rochester, New York has an as of yet unconfirmed raging case of COVID-19 and no one in Emperor Cuomo’s jurisdiction has any inclination to help registrants in that part of America, he will be showing up at the police station in the coming days with his Coronavirus in full bloom. Yes, it is a shame, but it’s for public safety!
What about tenn , my hub has to update in July , and he has 3 serious illnesses that corona could take him ;( if he gets it , diabetes , cong heart failure and diabetes type 2 plus polythcemia , this needs to be in every state the mandate to do either by phone or by comp , so he can stay protected from this virus , I think they don’t think offenders lives matter , but they do , my hub is my soul mate and I love him and don’t want to lose him , please reach out and tell all pro parole offices this as well as sheriff Dept if not on parole or probation , , to register , and file them lawsuits if they don’t make alternative ways , if therapy can do online class parole and pro and registry can do the same with registering and updating ,
Paul you talk about intentional even one may wonder about intent or intentional. The reason I mentioned my dad was that growing up without parents is hard . Sure dad was one of 12 and yes he was raised up by his older Sister and her husband and they even had two boys way back in the turn of the 20th Century in Ohio. Sure it must of been rough times back than.
They had disease’s and some cures but they also had community ethics. They didn’t have computers, TV or phones or electric at the time back in the country but they did have faith, beliefs and understading in many ways and yes they had their small town crimes. Today its a lot different. Talk about confonding and confusion in many area’s of justice.
Their was a little stinche here in VA about our governor, or rumored, being a KKK member. Well believe it or not one of us kids found an old KKK hat in one of the ceder chest that belonged to my dad. Its funny how some things go in life.
I wouldn’t want to put myself in jeapordy with whats right and whats wrong or is government more of a reach, outreach, or an overreach in many way’s. I know CA and other states have many problems or are Governors squeaky and clean today or an honest Abe today.
Believe it or not about a month ago or so I was driving home and their was a guy with a sign saying Nancy Pelosi is a ####h which was a bit tacky to even sign about it. I even stopped and asked him why he was doing this. It was all the upset over the impeachment trial. Yes their are viewpoints in many things but its thinking about others thats more greater than the “status quo”.
So whats the solution. Is it choice or intent or should we all fall into the ocean of mankinds abusive usurpism in many ways. This virus will pass I’m just glad I finished high school. But there is a meaning in everything or a reason for all season and one has to believe its time for much of this registry to go and people we all wake up at times. Even this make America Great or Great again sounds a bit oxymoron or double faced in many ways.
While I’m not all about smash, slash, and piercing others with an arrow. Of course one doesn’t know how it is in other states in all this delimna. Righting wrongs are always good in matters of truth, justice, and ” the” American way. So their are a lot of different factors in all this but ending as much of this registry is what counts and yes if abolished than its all good as being imprisioned is no good in a lot of these area’s.