CA: California to audit placement service for released sexually violent predators

Source: thecentersquare.com 6/28/23 On Monday, the Joint Legislative Audit Committee unanimously approved a request by California Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones (R-San Diego) to audit Liberty Healthcare. “We are thankful that the bipartisan Legislative Audit Committee understands the need to further investigate Liberty Healthcare’s poor management of” sexually violent predators, Jones said. Liberty Healthcare is a health and human services management company in Intellectual and Developmental Disability care and psychiatry. The east-coast based company has enjoyed an exclusive 20-year partnership with the Department of State Hospitals to manage the…

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Key document may be fake in LGBTQ+ rights case before US supreme court

Source: theguardian.com 6/29/23 Christian website designer says she received email request from same-sex couple but ‘author’ says he did not send it – and is not gay The veracity of a key document in a major LGBTQ+ rights case before the US supreme court has come under question, raising the possibility that important evidence cited in it might be wrong or even falsified. The supreme court is expected to issue a ruling on Friday in 303 Creative LLC v Elenis, which deals with a challenge to a Colorado law prohibiting…

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MA: Ex-Roman Catholic cardinal, now 92, is not competent to stand trial in sex abuse case, expert says

Source: news.yahoo.com 6/29/23 BOSTON (AP) — Former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick is not competent to stand trial on charges accusing him of sexually assaulting a teenage boy in Massachusetts decades ago, an expert for the prosecution says, raising doubts about the future of the criminal case against the 92-year-old. Prosecutors this week disclosed the findings of their expert to the judge, who will ultimately rule on the once-powerful American prelate’s ability to face charges that he abused the boy at a wedding reception at Wellesley College in 1974. McCarrick…

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FL: The liability of unreliable crime data in election season

Source: themarshallproject.org 6/20/23 In announcing his presidential bid, Florida’s governor relied on data from only half of the state’s law enforcement agencies. When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his bid for the presidency on Twitter Spaces last month, he touted Florida’s low crime rate as a proud accomplishment. “Claiming that Florida is unsafe is a total farce,” DeSantis said in the announcement. “I mean, are you kidding me? You look at cities around this country, they are awash in crime. In Florida, our crime rate is at a 50-year low.”…

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Inmates Need Internet to Prepare for Life After Prison

Source: wired.com 6/30/23 I’ve been in federal prison for 17 years. During that time, I have watched flip phones become iPhones, EVs become ubiquitous, and AI start to take over the world—albeit not quite the way Terminator envisioned it (yet). Still, I have been largely unable to use that technology myself. I could only read about it in magazines and newspapers, watching the 21st century unfold using 17th-century methods. I didn’t physically hold a smart device until the US Federal Bureau of Prisons started selling tablets—last year. This isn’t all…

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ACSOL to Conduct In-Person Conference on October 14 and 15, 2023 in Los Angeles

ACSOL will conduct an in-person conference on Saturday, October 14, and Sunday, October 15, 2023 in Los Angeles.  The conference will be held at the Southwestern Law School, 3050 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles. “ACSOL is pleased to announce the dates of its annual conference,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci.  “We are also pleased to announce that this year’s conference will be held in person after several years of virtual conferences.” The conference will begin on Saturday at 9 a.m. and end on Sunday at 5 p.m.  A link to…

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ACSOL Nationwide Action Alert: Oppose a 1,500 foot Residency Restriction in a Florida County

Source: Florida Action Committee Let’s all support Florida registrants in Volusia County by opposing a terrible ordinance that would make it very difficult to find a place to live! All registrants in all states should email, call, or send letters through the U.S. Mail to the Volusia County Council members to let them know that you OPPOSE the expansion of the residency restriction requirement to 1,500 feet in the unincorporated areas of the county for people required to register as a predator. Click here to read the details    

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AI-generated child sex images spawn new nightmare for the web

Source: washingtonpost.com 6/19/23 The revolution in artificial intelligence has sparked an explosion of disturbingly lifelike images showing child sexual exploitation, fueling concerns among child-safety investigators that they will undermine efforts to find victims and combat real-world abuse.   Generative-AI tools have set off what one analyst called a “predatory arms race” on pedophile forums because they can create within seconds realistic images of children performing sex acts, commonly known as child pornography.   Thousands of AI-generated child-sex images have been found on forums across the dark web, a layer of…

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IN: Indiana man can’t be removed from sex offender registry for Kentucky offense, COA affirms

Source: theindianalawyer.com 6/27/23 A man convicted of a sex crime against a minor 15 years ago in Kentucky must remain on Indiana’s sex offender registry, the Court of Appeals of Indiana affirmed Tuesday. In 2008, Kevin ____ was convicted in Kentucky of sexual abuse in the second degree. ____ received a one-year executed sentence with five months suspended to probation. Under Kentucky law, a defendant convicted of that crime is required to register. Although the Kentucky court ordered ____ to register as a sex offender for 20 years, he never…

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TX: Anti-Sex Offender Registry Group Holds National Conference in Houston

Source: thetexan.news 6/26/23 Welcome letters from the mayor’s office praised the National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws for efforts on behalf of “marginalized citizens.” An organization advocating on behalf of accused sex offenders held its national conference in Houston last weekend to teach attendees how to lobby for criminal justice reforms, including the dismantling of sexual offender registries (SOR).  The National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws (NARSOL) argues that SORs are overbroad and unconstitutional. Formerly known as “Reform Sex Offender Laws,” the group was co-founded by an LGBT…

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FL: Sextortion crimes continue to rise across Tampa Bay area

Source: news.yahoo.com/WFTS-Tampa 6/26/23 Sextortion crimes continue to rise across the Tampa Bay area. A St. Pete detective said it’s one of his top priorities to catch these suspects. Sextortion is when a suspect convinces a person to send inappropriate photos and then threatens to release those photos unless the victim sends money. It’s a crime targeting both children and adults in our area. Read the full article   Related: St. Pete PD say sexting extortion cases more than doubled in 2023, with young people the primary targets [baynews9.com 6/6/23] Documentary…

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NY: Court of Appeals orders new risk level classification hearing for registered sex offender

Source: nydailyrecord.com 6/23/23 New York state’s highest court has ordered a new hearing to determine the risk level classification for a registered sex offender. The Court of Appeals ruled that the Sex Offender Registry Act (SORA) court deprived defendant Michael Worley of due process rights by changing his risk level assessment without giving him an opportunity to contest the determination. … At the SORA hearing, the prosecutor acknowledged that Worley was incorrectly penalized for refusing to attend sex offender treatment. In fact, he was never able to attend because his…

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ACSOL Online Meeting July 15, 2023

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 July 15, 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: Nicki Minaj’s neighbors petition for her sex offender husband to leave posh Hidden Hills

Source: mercurynews.com 6/23/23 Nicki Minaj is facing a new line of resistance to her controversial marriage to childhood sweetheart Kenneth Petty, and it’s coming from her new neighbors in the posh city of Hidden Hills. Since December, they’ve been gathering signatures on a petition that demands that Petty leave the city because he’s a sex offender, TMZ reported. “Say no to sex offenders in Hidden Hills,” the Change.org petition reads. The petition notes that the rapper’s husband was convicted in 1995 of the attempted rape of a 16-year-old girl, which…

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France: Victims lose €3.5m in scam accusing them of viewing child abuse images

Source: theguardian.com 6/23/23 Eighteen arrests in France and one in Belgium over false emails threatening people with prosecution Police in France and Belgium say they have smashed a criminal ring that used fake court summonses accusing people of viewing child sexual abuse images to extort at least €3.5m (£3m). The phishing scam involved false emails from police, judges or institutions such as Europol threatening victims with prosecution unless they paid a “fine”. Police said they arrested 18 people in France and one in Belgium in an operation on Monday, with…

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SC: Sex crime suspect can’t face criminal trial but can be confined, SC high court rules

Source: postandcourier.com 6/22/23 COLUMBIA — He was not convicted of the sexual crimes South Carolina accused him in 2005 of committing. After years of forced psychological hospitalization, the doctors at the state Department of Mental Health recommended he be transferred to a residential care facility, as he was treated for schizophrenia and schizotypal personality traits. But South Carolina’s High Court ruled June 21 that it’s constitutional for the state’s top lawyer to seek to keep Francis ____ confined anyway. In a case originating out of Lexington County, the state Supreme Court…

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Janice’s Journal: CASOMB Moving Too Slowly on Proposed Changes

The California Sex Offender Management Board (CASOMB) is moving slowly toward recommending that the state legislature make three significant changes to the Tiered Registry Law.  If the legislature adopts those changes, tens of thousands of individuals required to register in California will become eligible to petition for removal from the state registry. It is sometimes difficult to watch CASOMB’s slow progress.  After all, these changes were originally posed by ACSOL in January 2023, more than five months ago.  And during the intervening months, ACSOL has provided CASOMB with a lot…

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Sign the petition: Public Sex Offender Registration is Violation of Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Source: Florida Action Committee To: The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Office of the United Nations, Complaint Procedure Unit, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland  Petition to Declare Public Sex Offender Registration in the United States a Violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) The Florida Action Committee, Inc. (FAC) is a 2,500+ member non-profit public safety organization that advocates for the rights of all persons. Included in our membership are people forced to register as sexual offenders in the United States. Today, approximately one-million people in the United States are forced to register…

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