[herald.ie – 8/15/20] Gardaí are closely monitoring the situation after a 59-year-old convicted child porn offender was targeted by vigilantes twice within the space of a week. It is understood that officers have given David _____ security advice after his car was torched near his home off Drogheda Street in Balbriggan on Tuesday evening. The arson attack happened just four days after vigilantes smashed up the same vehicle. Our images show _____’s car on fire in an incident that is being investigated by Balbriggan gardaí. “An exact motive for this…
Read MoreMonth: August 2020
AL: CCBOE approves policy for low risk juvenile sex offenders
[cullmantimes.com – 8/15/20] The Cullman County School Board has approved a new board policy that will allow the superintendent and school administrators to know the names of students in the system who are low risk sex offenders. The policy was approved during Thursday night’s meeting to bring the system in line with Annalyn’s Law, which was passed by the state in 2018 and requires local law enforcement to notify school system’s when a low risk juvenile sex offender is enrolled in one of its schools. Learning Support Specialist Karen Pinion shared some of…
Read MoreFederal Government Publishes Proposed Changes to SORNA
[ACSOL] The federal government yesterday published in the Federal Register proposed changes to the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). The changes encompass a total of 93 pages and include a wide range of topics, including retroactivity, tier levels, professional licenses and travel (both domestic and international). Replies to the proposed regulations are due no later than October 13, 2020. According to the proposed regulations, SORNA will apply to all individuals convicted of a sex offense, including those convicted before it was enacted. The federal government claims to have…
Read MoreACSOL Board Member Catherine Carpenter Exposes Laws That Exclude Registrants
ACSOL Board Member Catherine Carpenter has published an academic paper that identifies many laws throughout the country that are characterized as criminal justice reform laws, but exclude anyone convicted of a sex offense from their benefits. “ACSOL has vanquished residency restrictions thanks to the tireless efforts of our Executive Director, Janice Bellucci,” stated ACSOL Board Member Carpenter. “The next frontier for us? Tackling the myriad of laws that exclude registrants from the same criminal justice reform benefits available to others who have committed crimes.” The title of the scholarly article…
Read MoreCA: Legislature Passes Bill that Delays Submission of Some Tiered Registry Petitions
The California legislature has passed a bill, Senate Bill 118, that modifies some provisions of the Tiered Registry Law set to take effect next year. The Governor signed the bill into law on August 6, 2020. “The provision within Senate Bill 118 that will affect the greatest number of people can be found in Section 11 which requires that registrants must wait to file their petition after their next birthday following July 1, 2021,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “As a result, anyone whose birthday is January 1 through…
Read MoreCA: Sex offender registration reform effort prompts death threats to Sen. Scott Wiener
[sfexaminer.com – 8/13/20] An effort by state Sen. Scott Wiener to reform sex offender registration laws and ensure equality for the LGBTQ community has drawn harassment from conspiracy theorists. Wiener, who represents San Francisco, said at a news conference Thursday that the QAnon community has claimed the bill, Senate Bill 145, would protect pedophiles, and even accused him of being a pedophile himself. The bill was introduced by Wiener last year to end what he and other advocates said was a blatant discrimination against LGBTQ youth regarding California’s sex offender…
Read MoreCO: New law closes loophole regarding sex offender treatment
[koaa.com – 8/12/20] SOUTHERN COLORADO — Colorado legislators have closed a loophole in state law that allowed certain sex offenders to get out of prison early and transfer to community corrections before completing required treatment. To fully understand what exactly changed in the law, it’s important to take a step back and learn more about the Colorado Sex Offender Lifetime Supervision Act (LSA). This allows people convicted of high-level sex offenses to stay in prison or under supervision until they have progressed in their treatment and are no longer considered…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: A Mother’s Plea, Not So Different Than Ours
A recent, tragic shooting in New Jersey, a Federal Judge’s son killed on the family’s doorstep, her husband hospitalized with multiple gunshots. The Judge believes she was the shooter’s targeted victim because of her position on the bench. The Judge, was uninjured. Yesterday, Judge Esther Salas went on television and broadcast a desperate plea, asking those in power to do something to help those on the bench keep themselves and their families safe from individuals meaning to do them harm. She spoke about the “free-flow” of personal information, including home…
Read MoreTN: Win in Tennessee – District Court Denies State’s Motion to Dismiss and Grants Injunction on Ex Post Facto Grounds
[floridaactioncommittee.org – 8/10/20] A Tennessee Federal District Court last week denied the State’s Motion to Dismiss and ordered an injunction preventing them from enforcing the sex offender registry against an individual whose offense pre-dated the enactment of the ordinance. The best part of this case was that the court based its opinion on Ex Post Facto grounds! Read the full article Link to PDF of the decision [eagle.com]
Read MoreSex offender loses COVID-19 contract at VA hospital after USA TODAY asks questions
[usatoday.com – 8/11/20] Ezekiel Lopez is a registered child sexual predator in Illinois who spent more than three years in prison for sexually abusing two teenage girls under his care. The conviction was not a barrier between Lopez and more than $700,000 in federal contracts to provide cleaning and janitorial services to help fight COVID-19 at the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital just outside Chicago. No rules specifically prevented it. Government contractors are supposed to indicate on their applications whether they’ve had any felony convictions within the past two years. But Lopez was convicted…
Read MoreSacramento Caravan: #SayTheirNames & Bring Our Loved Ones Home on Thursday, August 13
[#SayTheirNames] On Thursday, August 13 there will be a #SayTheirNames action at the CA Capitol Building followed by a car caravan to CDCR and a candlelight vigil at night to honor lives lost. For details, read this Facebook page, and click on the graphic at the top of the page. For a schedule, scroll down the Facebook page. Demand a #MoratoriumOnCovidBehindBars: * HONOR the lives of those who have died from COVID-19 behind bars. * EXPOSE how the state continues to threaten the lives of incarcerated people in overcrowded prisons.…
Read MoreBBC: Can Sex Offenders Change?
[bbc.co.uk – Available on BBC iPlayer on August 20, from 6:00 am UK time zone] Follow Becky Southworth as she steps into the unsettling world of sex offender rehabilitation. Meeting the sex offenders living in our communities, Becky tries to understand what drove them to commit these horrific crimes, whilst seeing what treatment is available to stop them committing any more. Becky’s father was convicted of sex offences against children and received 10 years in prison. He has since been released, but while in prison he undertook a sex offender…
Read MoreACSOL Phone Meeting on August 15
Please join ACSOL Executive Director and civil rights attorney Janice Bellucci as well as ACSOL President and criminal defense attorney Chance Oberstein for our next phone meeting. The meeting will be held on Saturday, August 15, beginning at 10 a.m. Pacific time and will last at least two hours. Discussions topics will include in-person registration during the COVID-19 pandemic, the upcoming Tiered Registry, residency restrictions, overseas and domestic travel as well as other current topics and pending legal action throughout the nation. Please Show Up, Stand Up and Speak Up!…
Read MoreFL: Get the Facts: Did a Florida Senate 9 candidate defend a sex offender?
[wesh.com – 8/7/20 – Smear alert] SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. —One of the Democratic contenders in the State Senate District 9 race covering Seminole and part of Volusia counties is the target of a negative mailer that claims she defended a sex offender. “I do not believe any of this nonsense. It’s just trash,” Patricia Sigman said. Democratic candidate Patricia Sigman is furious about the new attack mailer. It blasts the attorney for “defending a sexual predator” calling it “indefensible.” The flyer, however, is misleading. Former Osceola County deputy Chad Lakey…
Read MoreNJ: Dem Congressman Once Lobbied Against Child Sex Offender Registry Bill
[dailycaller.com – 8/6/20] A Democratic congressman once fought against legislation that strengthened and improved the national child sex offender registry before taking office. Tom Malinowski, before becoming a Democratic congressman from New Jersey, lobbied against a 2006 bill that imposed tougher penalties on sex offenders, a review of congressional records and lobbying disclosures by The Washington Free Beacon found. He said that expanding sex offender registry requirements would put sex offenders “at risk of retaliation and discrimination.” … Malinowski was a top lobbyist for Human Rights Watch in 2006 and…
Read MoreLA: Acadia Sheriff’s deputies arrest registrants for not disclosing status on social media
[katc.com – 8/6/20] Acadia Parish Sheriff’s deputies have identified seven sex offenders who have been in violation of sex offender social media laws, Sheriff KP Gibson says. Between March of 2020 and July of 2020, the sheriff’s sex offender registry unit conducted an investigation of all registered sex offenders in the parish, to ensure they were following the law regarding use of social media. They found seven registered sex offenders were using social media illegally, but not posting on their profile that they were convicted sex offenders, conviction information, address,…
Read MoreOur System Is Not Doing the Thing It Says It Intends to Do: Deliver Justice
[jacobinmag.com – 8/5/20] Carceral solutions to sexual violence won’t deliver justice. We need investments in public services that will actually reduce sexual violence. In the last few years, the #MeToo movement has brought renewed attention to sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and the ways they are used by mostly powerful, wealthy men to maintain social and economic hierarchies. At the same time, the push for decarceration and opposition to policing have exploded into a national movement. For leftist feminists, these two movements raise urgent questions about how to fight sexual violence…
Read MoreUK: Online naming and shaming ‘threatening offender rehabilitation’
[bailiwickexpress.com – 8/4/20] Some sex offenders undergoing rehabilitation have lost their jobs, and risk losing their accommodation, after a list of their names and past crimes was posted online, putting pressure on the Police and Probation Services. According to Detective Superintendent Stewart Gull, the recent spate of ‘naming and shaming’ local offenders online after their sentences have been carried out is posing serious problems for their ability to reintegrate into the community. He told Express he is aware of more than 10 individuals – and, in some cases, their families…
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