UPDATED: Click here to find out how your donation to fight SORNA regulations will be doubled! ACSOL President Chance Oberstein and ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci discussed the new SORNA regulations during an “emergency” meeting held on Dec. 11 for two and a half hours. The meeting was attended by about 250 people from at least 10 different states. “ACSOL thanks everyone who attended Saturday’s meeting regarding the new SORNA regulations,” stated Bellucci. “It was an opportunity for registrants and family members to hear the views of two experienced and…
Read MoreMonth: December 2021
The Great (Fake) Child-Sex-Trafficking Epidemic
Source: theatlantic.com 12/9/21 A poster in the window of Cahoots Corner Cafe—great potatoes, good coffee—advertised a family event at the Oakdale, California, rodeo grounds. There would be food trucks, carnival games, live music, a raffle, and the opportunity to support the cause of “freeing child sex slaves.” The event, called the Festival of Hope, was a fundraiser for the anti-child-sex-trafficking group Operation Underground Railroad, which was founded in Utah in 2013 and has achieved immense popularity on social media in the past year and a half, attracting an outsize share…
Read MoreFL: Members of homeless camp arrested on charges of violating probation after camp was shut down
Source: yahoo.com 12/11/21 Note: This article is a follow up to the original article: ‘Literally nowhere else they can go’: Homeless camp shutdown leaves people with few options (floridatoday.com 12/8/21) A group of homeless people was arrested Friday afternoon for violating probation after their camp, where they were required by their probation officers to stay, was shut down and there was nowhere else for them to go. Of the 13 people who had been living at the camp, at least seven had GPS monitors or ankle bracelets registered to the site —…
Read MoreMO: Former police officer, detective sentenced to five years probation in sodomy case
Source: emissourian.com 12/6/21 A rural Washington man who previously worked as a municipal police officer and a county sheriff’s detective has been sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to sodomizing a boy that police say he met online. Ryan Shomaker, 48, who previously lived in the 600 block of Royal Oaks Court, pleaded guilty Nov. 22 to one count of second-degree statutory sodomy. He was originally charged with two counts of sodomy, but prosecutors dropped one of the charges in exchange for the plea. St. Louis County Circuit Court Judge…
Read MoreFL: ‘Literally nowhere else they can go’: Homeless camp shutdown leaves people with few options
Source: floridatoday.com 12/9/21 Joshua Werbicki has made a home in the woods at 4820 Highway 192 near Melbourne. His driver’s license lists the campsite as his permanent residence. The GPS monitor he must wear as part of his probation requires him to stay at the camp at night. But Werbicki and approximately 12 others say they were told the property owner now wants the site bulldozed this week. They said they were originally given until 8 a.m. Wednesday to vacate by the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office. At least seven of them have GPS…
Read MoreNew Zealand: Prison would be ‘utterly disastrous’ for man caught with child exploitation images, judge says
Source: stuff.co.nz 12/9/21 A man who dumped a laptop on which he downloaded thousands of child exploitation images has avoided jail after a judge said it would not surprise him if the defendant “did not survive a sentence of imprisonment”. Jasper James Gallacher ____, 30, was sentenced to six months’ community detention, along with two years of intensive supervision, in the Christchurch District Court on Thursday. Read the full article
Read MorePakistan: Supreme Court says Child pornography suspects do not deserve bail
Source: geo.tv 11/27/21 Rejecting the bail application of a suspect Saturday, the Supreme Court of Pakistan stated that people involved in spreading child pornography videos on social media do not deserve bail. “The trial court must announce the verdict in the case against the suspect soon,” ordered the Supreme Court. Read the full article
Read MoreFederal Government Finalizes SORNA Regulations (and Emergency ACSOL Zoom meeting recording )
UPDATE: Read a summary of the SORNA meeting Listen to the recording of the meeting The federal government today published final SORNA regulations in the Federal Register. According to this publication, the regulations will become effective on January 7, 2022. “The only thing that can stop these regulations is a formal objection by Congress during the next 30 days which is unlikely to happen,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “Therefore we must prepare to challenge the regulations through litigation filed in federal courts.” Despite acknowledging that more than 700…
Read MoreIA: Iowa Supreme Court says State has ‘no duty’ to end what sex offenders call ‘silent mandatory minimum’
Source: desmoinesregister.com 12/7/21 Do prisoners have a right to be paroled? And if so, do they have a right to access programming required to be eligible for parole? As a new decision from the Iowa Supreme Court shows, there’s no easy answer to either question. The court’s ruling, issued before Thanksgiving, denied an effort by seven Iowa prisoners to challenge what they described in court filings as a “Catch-22” that forces some inmates to wait far longer than others to complete their sentences. The issue before the court involved Iowa’s…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: 23 Years of Registration For a Rape That Didn’t Happen
What if I told you that I know a man who spent 23 years on the registry for a rape that didn’t happen? Your first instinct might be to deny that could occur. After all, there are safeguards in the criminal justice system that should not allow it. First, the police must have evidence in order to arrest a man. Second, the prosecutors must have evidence in order to try him. Third, the public defenders must provide the man with sound legal advice regarding whether or not to enter a…
Read MoreFL: Florida Supreme Court makes it risky for a defendant to tell a judge ‘I’m innocent’
Source: floridabulldog.org 12/7/21 The Florida Supreme Court is sending this message to criminal defendants: If you think you were wrongly convicted, keep it to yourself. Ignoring long-standing law, the justices decided that when defendants dare to dispute their guilt instead of owning the crime, state trial judges may pile on extra prison time. The court ruled last Thursday in the case of Alvin Davis, a 43-year-old black man with a lengthy rap sheet that includes convictions for attempted murder, robbery and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. After a jury…
Read MoreFL: Sex offender freed from prison moves in near family pool in The Villages!
Source: villages-news.com 12/4/21 A 60-year-old sex offender released last month from a Florida prison has moved in with his mother near a family swimming pool in The Villages. Edward ______ was released Nov. 25 from a state prison. He has registered a permanent address at 1312 La Estrellita Way in the Village of Santiago, not far from the El Santiago swimming pool and recreation center, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Read the full article
Read MoreLA: Lutcher Man Charged with Failure to Report International Travel as a Sex Offender
Source: justice.gov 12/3/21 NEW ORLEANS – U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that WILLIE ______, age 56, was charged on Friday, December 3, 2021, by grand jury indictment with two counts of failure to report international travel as a sex offender under the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). If convicted, WILLIE ______ faces a maximum term of 10 years in prison, up to a $250,000.00 fine, a term of supervised release of between 5 years and life, and a $100 mandatory special assessment fee. Read the full…
Read MoreTN: To end retroactive punishment, a judge has ordered the removal of eight men from the sex offender registry
Source: washingtonnewsday.com 12/4/21 To end retroactive punishment, a judge has ordered the removal of eight men from the sex offender registry. To stop their retroactive sanctions, U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger ordered the removal of eight individuals from the sex offender list. In her order on Friday, Trauger said, “Tennessee officials continue to defy the Constitution’s guarantees.” “The same analysis applies… to Tennessee’s own, very comparable scheme and practices, according to federal district courts in this state. Officials in Tennessee have continued to apply the state’s long-held-to-be-illegal policy on others…
Read MoreCA: Number of Petitions Granted Continues to Grow
Source: ACSOL Contra Costa County today granted the first petition under its consideration. The petition was submitted on behalf of a registrant convicted of PC 288(a) about 25 years ago who had successfully registered for more than 20 years. Prior to today’s hearing, the relevant registration office determined that the registrant was eligible to submit his petition. During today’s hearing, the District Attorney’s office stated it had no objection to the petition being granted. “Today was a great day not only for the registrant whose requirement to register has been…
Read MoreCIA Files Say Staffers Committed Sex Crimes Involving Children. They Weren’t Prosecuted.
Source: buzzfeednews.com 12/1/21 Declassified CIA inspector general reports show a pattern of abuse and a repeated decision by federal prosecutors not to hold agency personnel accountable. Over the past 14 years, the Central Intelligence Agency has secretly amassed credible evidence that at least 10 of its employees and contractors committed sexual crimes involving children. Though most of these cases were referred to US attorneys for prosecution, only one of the individuals was ever charged with a crime. Prosecutors sent the rest of the cases back to the CIA to handle…
Read MoreIowa: Sex offender from Iowa arrested after failing to register phone number
Source: villages-news.com 11/30/21 A sex offender from Iowa was arrested after failing to register his phone number with local authorities. Read the full article
Read MoreNY: Author Alice Sebold apologizes to man cleared in 1981 rape
Source: local10.com 11/30/21 Author Alice Sebold publicly apologized Tuesday to the man who was exonerated last week in the 1981 rape that was the basis for her memoir “Lucky” and said she was struggling with the role she played “within a system that sent an innocent man to jail.” Anthony Broadwater, 61, was convicted in 1982 of raping Sebold when she was a student at Syracuse University. He served 16 years in prison. His conviction was overturned Nov. 22 after prosecutors reexamined the case and determined there were serious flaws…
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