Source: kvue.com 1/23/25
[ACSOL is posting this showing how useless legislation like this could not have prevented her death]
AUSTIN, Texas — A new bill would change the requirements for registering as a sex offender in Texas.
House Bill 2000 was filed Wednesday by Republican Rep. Trent Ashby of Rusk County and named after 11-year-old Audrii Cunningham, who was brutally murdered in 2024.
Currently, Texas law does not require someone convicted of enticing a child, or similar child grooming offenses, to register as a sex offender. It’s a loophole that helped Don Steven ____ avoid the sex offender registry in 2007.
Don was accused of trying to molest a young girl but struck a plea deal to the lesser charge of enticing a child. When Cunningham went missing in 2024, Don was identified as a person of interest as a friend of the family who also lived behind the family’s home.
…
“It is unconscionable that a violent criminal like Don was able to walk the streets without registering as a sex offender,” Ashby told The Lufkin Daily News. “Criminals with a history like Don need to be on a publicly available list so that people can protect themselves and their families from tragedies like what occurred in Polk County.”
Will Texas lose may church leaders and school employees?
Again, statistically, a friend of the family nearby…so someone that was known to her. While it is sad this happened, it was someone in their orbit they knew and knew well enough.