ALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law Tuesday effectively closing a loophole in Florida’s sexual offense registration law.
The former law’s loophole allowed a person convicted of a sex crime to forgo registering because they didn’t pay a court-ordered fine.
In 2020, a judge ruled that Ray La Vel James of Tampa, who spent 12 years in prison after being convicted of molesting two girls at a public pool, didn’t have to register as a sex offender because the law states registration isn’t required until a sentence is completed — and he hadn’t paid part of a $10,000 fine that was part of his sentence.
The victims in the case were aged 8 and 11.
“This man is the very definition of someone who should and must be on the sex offense registry and subject to things like community monitoring and residency restrictions, but because of this loophole, he could be living right next to a community pool,” said Democratic Sen. Lauren Book, the bill’s sponsor.
The bill amends s. 943.0435, F.S., relating to sexual offense registration, “to clarify release from conviction sanctions for sexual offense registration and reporting purposes. Currently, a person convicted of a qualifying sexual offense must register upon release from a court imposed sanction.”
The bill went into effect upon the governor’s signature.
Source: wtxl.com
We better hope this guy doesn’t become president. He closed the loophole to be sure that all people in Florida that are on the registry remain in homeless camps without sanitary conditions and can never again find meaningful work.
Governor Desantis is the younger version of Rick Scott: funded by private prison, corrupt and thorns to freedom. He stay in the Sunshine State with all the other criminals.
The state of Florida has the toughest sex offense laws in the nation and also home to one of the biggest tourist attractions in the world.
From 2012 to 2017 it’s projected that the revenue of amusement and theme parks in Florida will amount to approximately 9.491,5 million U.S dollars by 2024.
The Governor of Florida has a responsibility to protect the state’s cash cow by any means necessary.
People come to visit Florida from all around the world every single day if one of them is attacked sexually while visiting the happiest place on earth that would definitely be bad for the state of Florida.
Good luck 🗣
This case proves how much contemplation or thought legislators use when writing bills or Acts of law regarding people convicted of a sex offense. The ” loophole” was infact created by the Florida legislature.
Sen. Lauren Books says….sigh…the go to person for a sound bite on this topic. Did her father donate to Ron’s potential POTUS campaign run yet? Someone should look at his political donation records.
Everything you want to know about the Books and their corruption http://ronandlaurenbook.blogspot.com/?m=1