ACSOL February 18, 2023 Online Meeting

Please join ACSOL Executive Director and civil rights attorney Janice Bellucci as well as ACSOL board member and criminal defense attorney Chance Oberstein for our next meeting.  The meeting will be held on Saturday, February 18, online on Zoom beginning at 10 a.m. Pacific time, 1:00 PM Eastern, and will last at least two hours. You can use the Zoom app or call in using a Zoom phone number. There is no registration needed for this meeting. You can use the Zoom app to see Janice and Chance and choose…

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CA Registrants Lacking Tier Assignment Can Get Help

During this week’s meeting of the CA Sex Offender Management Board, it was announced that any person who currently lacks a tier assignment can obtain information about their tier assignment or lack of a tier assignment from the CA Department of Justice.  According to that announcement, registrants seeking this information should send an email to the CA Department of Justice to this address: SB384@doj.ca.gov

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ACSOL Presents to CASOMB Proposed Changes to CA Tiered Registry Law

ACSOL made a presentation today to the CA Sex Offender Management Board regarding proposed changes to the CA Tiered Registry Law.  The presentation included seven proposed changes and was made by ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. The proposed changes are (1) reduce from Tier 3 to Tier 1 individuals convicted of a non-production felony child pornography offense, (2) clarify that courts may consider a petition for removal from the registry even if the individual does not have a tier assignment, (3) reduce from Tier 3 to Tier 2 individuals convicted…

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CA: A Federal Judge Says the DOJ’s Sex Offender SORNA Registration Rules Violate Due Process by Requiring the Impossible

Source: reason.com 1/19/23 Justice Department regulations threaten people with prosecution for failing to register even when their state no longer requires it. A rule that Attorney General Merrick Garland issued in 2021 notionally requires people to do things that are plainly impossible. If they have been convicted of a sex offense, they must register with their state, even when the state neither requires nor allows them to do so. They also must supply the state with all the information required by federal law, even when the state does not collect…

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CA Court Blocks DOJ’s new SORNA Rule Because it Violated Due Process and First Amendment

Los Angeles: A California court last week blocked the Department of Justice’s new Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act rule because it violated due process and the First Amendment. “The DOJ almost never loses these cases. That they lost here goes to show just how far out on a limb the DOJ is with this rule,” said Caleb Kruckenberg, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. “The rule clearly violated due process and free speech protections. And while the court felt bound by precedent to conclude that the rule didn’t violate the…

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PA: Hampton Police Department hosting educational safety meeting for parents on Megan’s Law

Source: triblive.com 1/12/23 In her time working as the social service coordinator at the Hampton Police Department, Angela Kenbok has learned a lot of safety tips she teaches her own children. But for parents who work in different professions, Kenbok believes it’s important that they learn how to navigate the Megan’s Law website and tell their children the difference between good and bad strangers. Megan’s Law requires that the Pennsylvania State Police maintain a registry of sex offenders who live or visit an area to notify the public of their…

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TX: Scam targeting sex offenders

Source: chron.com 1/12/23 Scammers are focusing on a new vulnerable population — sex offenders. Beaumont Police Department spokesperson Carol Riley said the department has seen seven cases of attempted or completed scams on area sex offenders. “A lot of their information and registration (as a sex offender) is public,” Riley said. That makes them an easy target for those looking to profit off the fear of re-incarceration or other violations that offenders worry about after serving their time while still on parole or probation. “The scam is to call the…

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ODIN Intelligence website is defaced as hackers claim breach

Source: news.yahoo.com 1/15/23 The website for ODIN Intelligence, a company that provides technology and tools for law enforcement and police departments, was defaced on Sunday. The apparent hack comes days after Wired reported that an app developed by the company, SweepWizard, which allows police to manage and coordinate multi-agency raids, had a significant security vulnerability that exposed personal information of police suspects and sensitive details of upcoming police operations to the open web. ODIN provides apps, like SweepWizard and other technologies, to law enforcement departments. It also provides a service…

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PA: Judge to weigh sex offender registration

Source: altoonamirror.com 1/12/23 A Blair County senior judge has scheduled arguments in May to consider a constitutional challenge to state law requiring convicted sex offenders to regularly register their addresses and related information with state police. In recent orders, Senior Judge Timothy M. Sullivan set an April 11 sentencing date for Colby James ____ of Tyrone and a May 12 hearing date to consider the constitutional challenges being raised on ____ ‘s behalf to the state’s Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act. ____ , 22, who pleaded guilty in March…

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Court Grants Partial Motion for Preliminary Injunction in SORNA Regulations Case

A federal district court today issued a decision granting, in part, a motion for preliminary injunction that was pending in the SORNA regulations case. A copy of the court’s decision is being posted today on the ACSOL website, however, ACSOL must wait until the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) issues a press release before it publishes an article describing the court’s decision. PLF  issued a press release regarding the decision on Wednesday, January 18.  A copy of that press release is posted here on the ACSOL website.   Download the PDF…

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AZ: Changes needed in sex offender registry rules

Source: azcapitoltimes.com 1/13/23 In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a rare spate of high-profile child abductions and murders, mostly sexual in nature, terrified America. With constant media coverage, parents across the country were easily led to believe that their children could be in imminent danger. As demands from the public, as well as a few prominent parents of missing or murdered children escalated, legislatures responded, and the sex offender registry was born. This primal need to protect our children from any possible harm resonates in us all. Human logic…

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IL: People with sex and gun convictions are required to register with police. CPD can’t keep up.

Source: wbez.org 1/11/23 Police turn away people trying to register, leaving them at risk of arrest. Some crime victims say the system fails them too. Outside a red brick building in Chicago’s Burnside neighborhood, Odell Whitehorn Jr. recently stood in a line with over a dozen men on a bitterly cold morning. Whitehorn is on the Illinois murder and violence against youth registry, for a crime he committed when he was eighteen-years-old, in 2000. Once a year, Whitehorn is required to register with the Chicago police. This was the fifth…

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NC: Dads Against Predators ‘lured’ man to store before gunfire, NC cops say. Warrants issued

Source: yahoo.com 1/30/23 Three members of the group Dads Against Predators “lured” a man to a store before gunfire erupted — and now warrants have been issued in the North Carolina case, officials said. The group members are accused of using the Meetup app to get the man to come to a Target store in Winston-Salem. When the man arrived on June 28, all three members started to beat him on the head repeatedly, according to the city’s police department. The 25-year-old man reportedly pulled out a gun and fired…

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WI: Oshkosh city council approves $1 million project to expand sex offender housing

Source: fox11online.com 1/10/23 The Oshkosh City Council is giving the go ahead for a county-owned housing facility for sex offenders. Residential housing for sex offenders in Winnebago County has been in the works since early last year. After a meeting in Oshkosh Tuesday night, the last hurdle was cleared. “These are individuals who’ve served their time, gone through treatment,” Oshkosh board member Lynnsey Erickson said. “Continuing treatment, under intense supervision, we can’t just throw these people away.” The Oshkosh Common Council approved the city’s conditional use permit, meaning a facility…

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Rob Rapley On His New PBS Doc and Demystifying The Lie Detector

Source: thecrimereport.org 1/10/23 As part of their American Experience series, PBS released the documentary, “The Lie Detector: A Truly Unbelievable Story,” last week. The film goes through the history of the lie detector from its conception in 1921 to the present day, and documents how well-meaning intentions to use the lie detector as a crime-fighting tool were twisted into its use as a gauge of morality or loyalty and as a tool of intimidation.  Writer and director Rob Rapley produced the film with Emily Harrold through Rapley’s production company Apograph…

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CA: Release of Sex Offender Into Community Is Blocked

Source: metnews.com 1/10/23 The release of a sexually violent offender into a community following an involuntary hospital confinement after he served his prison sentence can be blocked by setting up the home schooling of children within close proximity to where the former inmate is scheduled to reside, the Sixth District Court of Appeal has declared, over a dissent. At issue is Welfare & Institutions Code §6608.5(f) which provides that “a person released under this section shall not be placed within one-quarter mile of any public or private school providing instruction…

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