Source: cpr.org 6/20/23 Childhood sexual abuse victims in Colorado will no longer be able to file lawsuits over abuse that happened decades ago, as the state Supreme Court struck down a law Tuesday that gave victims a three-year window to sue over abuses as far back as the 1960s. The court cited the state Constitution’s ban on legislation that retroactively applies to conduct prior to its passage. Colorado’s Child Sexual Abuse Accountability Act, passed in 2021, was partly intended to allow child victims to bypass the statute of limitations and seek…
Read MoreMonth: June 2023
Home Facts Website Removes Registrants Upon Request
The Home Facts website is removing from its websites the profiles of registrants upon request provided that the registrant is no longer required to register. The website recently removed 25 individuals formerly required to register in California after their attorney requested removal in a letter sent to the law firm that represents them. The name of the law firm is Lowthrop, Richards, McMillan & Templeman and the law firm address is 300 E. Esplanade Drive, Oxnard, CA 93036. “It is helpful to send the law firm a copy of the…
Read MoreAmplified Voices: Emily Horowitz: Breaking the Stigma: From Rage to Reason Season 4 -Episode 4
Source: amplifiedvoices.buzzsprout.com 6/20/23 Summary: How does society treat people based on their criminal conviction history and how can we better understand the unique experiences of people who are convicted of sexual offenses? Why, in an age where second chances and demands to reduce mass incarceration have become mainstream, are people with these convictions often excluded from reform and relief efforts? In this episode of Amplified Voices, Jason and Amber speak with Emily Horowitz, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at St. Francis College, ahead of the release of her…
Read MoreUT: Utah considers making phone numbers, email addresses searchable in sex offender registry
Source: msn.com 6/16/23 Changes could be happening to the Utah Sex Offender Registry. Lawmakers and the Utah Attorney General’s Office are planning to add more “searchable” details available to the public, but some victims’ advocates said crucial information will be left off, in certain cases. According to state law, people on the sex offender registry are required to provide information to law enforcement, like their names and aliases, their general description, a DNA sample and their work information. Currently, not all that information is searchable to the general public, like…
Read MoreCA: CASOMB Committee Continues Support for Proposed Changes to Tiered Registry Law
The Tiered Registry Law committee of the CA Sex Offender Management Board (CASOMB) met recently and during that meeting the committee expressed their continuing support for three proposed changes to the Tiered Registry Law. The committee is expected to present those changes to the full board during the next CASOMB meeting which is scheduled for September 21 in Santa Clara county. The three proposed changes supported by the Tiered Registry Law committee are (1) reduction from Tier 3 to Tier 2 for those convicted of PC 288(c), (2) reduction from…
Read MoreMT: Montana Supreme Court rules in Sexual and Violent Offender Registration Act case
Source: kpax.com 6/15/23 HELENA – A Montana Supreme Court ruling deemed legislative amendments to the 2007 Sexual and Violent Offender Registration Act punitive in nature and in violation of the ex post facto clause of the constitution if applied retroactively to offenses that happened before the amendments. According to a summary of the case of Montana v. Hinman, the ruling “held that numerous legislative amendments to the Act added restraints on registrants that significantly hinder their liberty and privacy.” Read the full article
Read MoreFL: Florida Capital-Punishment Bill Regarding Sexual Offenses Sparks Controversy
Source: discover.hubpages.com 6/4/23 1. Introduction When I moved from New York to California so many years ago, what really bewildered me was when I discovered that under their statutory-age-of-consent laws at the time, a 14-year-old boy could have been charged with statutory rape for having consensual relations with a 17-year-old girl. I had never heard of such a thing. I had thought that in those kinds of criminal cases, the perpetrator was always supposed to be older than the victim. In a situation wherein a boy that young had been…
Read MoreAn anti-porn app put him in jail and his family under surveillance
Source: arstechnica.com 6/13/23 On a Wednesday morning in May, Hannah got a call from her lawyer—there was a warrant out for her husband’s arrest. Her thoughts went straight to her kids. They were going to come home from school and their father would be gone. “It burned me,” Hannah says, her voice breaking. “He hasn’t done anything to get his bond revoked, and they couldn’t prove he had.” Hannah’s husband is now awaiting trial in jail, in part because of an anti-pornography app called Covenant Eyes. The company explicitly says…
Read MoreFL: Homeless, delusional defendant sent to prison for life shown mercy by Miami judge
Source: aol.com 6/12/23 Jared Stephens, a homeless and mentally ill man who committed an inexplicable crime, shouldn’t spend the rest of his life in prison, a judge ruled Monday. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge William Altfield undid a sentence handed down five years earlier by a different judge, who sentenced Stephens to a minimum of 150 years — with 120 days in jail for good measure. Stephens’ delusional behavior, before and during his trial, had stymied his defense. Read the full article
Read MoreTX: Texas police arrest 11 suspects who allegedly tried to have sex with minors
Source: wfin.com 4/12/23 Texas authorities arrested eleven suspects who allegedly tried to have sex with minors last week. Fort Worth Police Department announced the sting operation and released mugshots on Friday. With cooperation of other agencies, they were able to make the arrests within three days. … “This release is intended to inform the public of the number of individuals arrested for attempting to solicit underage children online and the consequences that go with these actions,” the Fort Worth Police Department said. Read the full article
Read MoreAZ: Arizona Opinion: Sexual Offense Laws
Source: tucson.com 6/11/23 The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer: Meet Ryan, who, as a young man, had a caring and consensual relationship with his high school sweetheart. After months of dating, just before her 15th birthday and shortly after his 18th, their relationship became sexual. These young people were in love, hoping to build a life together, but because of their slight age difference, Ryan will spend the rest of his life on Arizona’s sexual offense registry and will carry the label of “child sexual predator”…
Read MoreFL: Weaponization of Florida’s Legal System Being Used Against People on the Sex Offender Registry
Source: tampabay.com 6/9/23 Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed that if he wins the presidency he will “excise political bias and end weaponization” of the U.S. Department of Justice “once and for all.” “We have for years witnessed an uneven application of the law depending upon political affiliation,” he wrote on Twitter on Thursday night in response to news that former President Donald Trump has been federally indicted on charges related to mishandling classified documents. The tone was consistent with DeSantis’ portrayal of himself as fighting against liberal takeovers of powerful institutions.…
Read MoreFL: Republican prosecutor declined to pursue cases similar to those brought by DeSantis’ election police
Source: orlandosentinel.com 6/5/23 A Republican state attorney last May declined to prosecute six voter fraud cases that involved circumstances strikingly similar to the cases later brought against 20 ex-felons by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ election police unit and statewide prosecutors. The office of State Attorney Bill Gladson, whose district includes The Villages and five Republican counties, confirmed six convicted sex offenders in Lake County had voted in the 2020 general election, according to a determination letter obtained by the Orlando Sentinel. Read the full article
Read MoreWI: Defense win! Multiple convictions in same case on same date don’t require lifetime sex offender registration
Source: wisconsinappeals.net 5/30/23 State v. Corey T. Rector, 2023 WI 41, 5/23/23 affirming a case certified by the court of appeals, 2020AP1213; case activity (including briefs) Rector pleaded to five counts of possessing child pornography in a single case. He’d never been convicted of anything before. The sentencing judge ordered that he be placed on the sex offender registry until 15 years after the end of his sentence or supervision. The Department of Corrections then wrote the judge to say that, in its view, any two or more convictions of…
Read MoreIA: Higher reimbursement rates now available for sex offender nursing home units
Source: radioiowa.com 6/6/34 A new law requires the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services to come up with a formula to raise the Medicaid reimbursement rate for Iowa nursing homes that accept registered sex offenders. The higher reimbursement would only be available to nursing homes that establish a separate unit for sex offenders. “This is a growing need in our state,” Representative Joel Fry, a Republican from Osceola, said during House debate of the plan. “I’ve been working on this for a number of years, so we will hopefully…
Read MoreUS cannot disarm people convicted of non-violent crimes – federal appeals court ruled
(Reuters) -The U.S. government cannot ban people convicted of non-violent crimes from possessing guns, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday. The 11-4 ruling from the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is the latest defeat for gun control laws in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year expanding gun rights nationwide. The decision stems from a 2020 lawsuit by a Pennsylvania man, Bryan Range, who was barred under federal law from possessing a gun after pleading guilty to welfare fraud. He claimed the prohibition violated…
Read MoreNew California Appellate Court Ruling Could Have Deadly Consequences
A San Francisco Appellate Court recently ruled that parole agents do not have to comply with the knock-notice rule under Penal Code section 1531 when making routine parole-compliance checks. They are now permitted to barge into a parolee’s residence without first knocking and announcing their presence. This shocking new decision runs counter to previous court rulings that held that parole agents must comply with the knock-notice law for parole and even probation searches. Unfortunately, this new ruling could have deadly consequences. On March 13, 2020, while executing a “no-knock” search warrant at…
Read MoreAZ: Maricopa Police Department to re-mail residents notifications of 52 sex offenders
Source: inmaricopa.com 6/5/23 Maricopa Police Department announced residents may find sex offender notifications in their mailbox later this month. In a press release issued Friday, MPD said it will re-release these notifications through June following an internal audit of offender registration notifications. … State law requires these notices be sent to residents living within 700 feet of an offender within 48 hours of their registration or change of address. However, MPD said it will send notifications again following the audit. The department stressed the people listed in the notifications are…
Read More