Source: wamc.org 7/23/25 There’s turmoil on the Woodstock Town Board as lawmakers grapple with how to handle the town’s hiring of a Level 3 sex offender earlier this year. In an explosive meeting that put Supervisor Bill McKenna on the defensive, members of the board voted to fire the employee Tuesday night. A warning to listeners that this story discusses sexual assault. Members of the Town Board say McKenna didn’t tell them that 31-year-old Michael Innello was a Level 3 sex offender when they voted to hire him for a…
Read MoreMonth: July 2025
The BBC’s Unforgivable asks if we can ever forgive a child sex offender
Source: bbc.com 7/22/25 Writer Jimmy McGovern discusses his new drama set and filmed in Liverpool. Unforgivable, an original drama from multi-award-winning screenwriter Jimmy McGovern (Time, Cracker, The Street) centres around the Mitchell family who are dealing with the devastating aftermath of an act of abuse perpetrated by a member of their own family. The drama examines the extensive ripple effect of abuse from multiple perspectives and how those involved can try to move forwards in the midst of the devastation. Why is Unforgivable a story you wanted to tell? I received a letter…
Read MoreU.K. primary school teacher banned after failing to declare relationship with child sex offender
Source: manchesterworld.uk 7/23/25 A primary school teacher has been banned from the classroom for two years after failing to declare her relationship with a sex offender. Leanne ___, 36, has been found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct at a hearing of the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA). Miss Leanne was a Year 1 teacher at Lark Hill Community Primary School in Salford between 2019 and 2021, when she failed to disclose to the school that she was or had been in a relationship with Person A, who had convictions for child…
Read MoreB.R.A.V.E. San Quentin CA program provides safe space to discuss shame and trauma
Source: sanquentinnews.com 6/28/25 A new 26-week self-help program has been established at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, designed to help those convicted of a sex offense to understand why they committed the crime. The program’s name, B.R.A.V.E., stands for Bridging, Responsibility, Accountability and Vulnerability through Empathy. It began in January 2025 with 38 participants in attendance, which included volunteers and administrative and medical officials. The program gives participants a safe place to understand the trauma they have caused without fear and stigma. This environment will encourage participants to freely discuss the…
Read MoreThe Registry Paradox: Why Ending Sex Offense Registries Could Make Us Safer
Source: Nebraskans Unafraid 7/22/25 For decades, sex offense registries have stood as a seemingly unshakeable pillar of public safety. The logic is intuitive: track people convicted of certain offenses, make their presence known, and communities will be safer. Yet, a growing body of research suggests that this widely accepted strategy is not only largely ineffective in preventing new crimes but may, in fact, be counterproductive, creating a false sense of security while imposing immense, often debilitating, burdens on individuals. It’s time to critically examine whether these registries truly serve their intended…
Read MoreCA Extreme sentencing: OC tutor gets 235 years for molesting 2 students at after-school program
Source: ocregister.com 7/18/25 [ACSOL is posting this to show an example of extreme sentencing] A tutor who sexually assaulted two boys for more than a half-decade while working with them in an Orange County after-school program was sentenced on Friday, July 18, to 235 years to life behind bars. The sentence of Zeta “Jimmy” _______, 53, in a Santa Ana courtroom — officially 235 years, eight months to life — came a little more than two months after a jury convicted him of a dozen felony counts of lewd acts…
Read MoreIndia’s Trains Will Use AI-Based Facial Recognition At Railway Stations to Identify Sex Offenders
Source: freepressjournal.in 7/21/25 AI-powered facial recognition will be deployed at major Indian railway stations, including Mumbai CST and New Delhi, to identify known sex offenders. The initiative aims to enhance safety, particularly for women, by integrating AI tools with national offender databases under the Safe City project. The Indian government will soon begin using artificial intelligence-based facial recognition systems at major railway stations, including Mumbai CST, New Delhi, and Ahmedabad, to track individuals listed in the National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO). The initiative is part of a broader…
Read MoreCASOMB Juvenile Registration Addendum: Registration is Counterproductive for Youth Who Have Offended Sexually
Source: casomb.org California Sex Offender Management Board 7/17/25 In 2018, the Board was tasked by the legislature with making policy recommendations about the management of juveniles who have offended sexually. CASOMB continues to monitor the research and discussions related to the management of youth who commit sexual based offenses and provides this updated addendum, on Juvenile Registration, to continue to provide expertise on this matter. The Board recommends that California does not reinstate registration for juveniles whose only sexual offending was under the age of 18. Research supports that juveniles…
Read MoreNew Lawsuit Challenges CDCR Policy Harming Female Registrants
ACSOL filed a new lawsuit yesterday that challenges a CDCR policy which allows the agency to use a tool that has not been validated to assess the risk of re-offense for women required to register. The name of that tool is the Female Sex Offender Risk Assessment (FSORA). The lawsuit was filed in Sacramento Superior Court and includes a declaration by Dr. Franca Cortoni, an expert in the re-offense rates of female registrants. According to Dr. Cortoni, there is no validated tool for assessing the re-offense rates of women required…
Read MoreCA Public Safety Committee Approves Senate Bill 680
Source: ACSOL The Assembly’s Public Safety Committee today approved an amended version of Senate Bill (SB) 680, which if enacted, would require individuals convicted of statutory rape to register for 10 years. Unlike the original version of the bill, the current version of SB 680 would not be applied retroactively. Instead, the bill would apply only to those convicted of PC 261.5 on or after January 1, 2026. During today’s hearing, four board members and three members of ACSOL testified in opposition to the bill. Also testifying in opposition to…
Read MoreSex Crimes Laws as Moral Panic. The goal of these policies is public safety, but is that attainable?
Alissa R. Ackerman Jul 15 Moral panic occurs when people react to a societal problem with intense fear or outrage toward something they perceive as a threat to their values or safety. Moral panics can happen whether a perceived threat is real or exaggerated. Media accounts fuel and amplify our emotions, and our feelings then turn certain people into villains or monsters. Nowhere is this phenomenon more prevalent than in the study of sex crimes and the people who commit them. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, there were…
Read MorePublishing Private Phone Number May Be Tortious, Says Court in Case Brought by Shark Tank’s Mr. Wonderful (Kevin O’Leary)
Defendant had 100K X followers, and as a result O’Leary “was flooded with unwanted communications.” Reason: Eugene Volokh | 7.14.2025 5:01 PM From Judge Beth Bloom’s order today granting default judgment in O’Leary v. Armstrong: Defendant posted on X Plaintiff’s private cell phone number and encouraged the public to harass Plaintiff, stating “[h]ave you ever wanted to call a real life murderer?! You can NOW! @kevinoleartyv is waiting for your call.” Following the post, Plaintiff began receiving communications from strangers who had obtained his number directly from Defendant’s post. On March 20, 2025…
Read MoreACSOL Online Meeting August 16, 2025
You are invited to join ACSOL Executive Director and civil rights attorney Janice Bellucci and an ACSOL board member for our next meeting. The meeting will be held on Saturday August 16 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 you can call in using a Zoom phone number. There is no registration needed for this meeting. No government officials are allowed to attend the meetings. This meeting will be recorded. Within…
Read MoreICE uses inflammatory, biased language and fear to describe sex-related arrests
Source: dhs.gov 7/9/25 [ACSOL is posting this as a warning] WASHINGTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) St. Paul arrested criminal illegal aliens, all of whom are convicted sexual predators, during a coordinated targeted enforcement operation in the Minneapolis area between June 6 and June 11, 2025. Under Tim Walz’s leadership, these depraved individuals have been walking freely around Minneapolis with impunity terrorizing American children. Below are some of the criminal illegal aliens arrested in the targeted operation: [list of only Tai and Laotian arrestees] … “These pedophiles and…
Read MoreMale victims of intimate partner violence: Insights from twenty years of research
Source: openaccessgovernment.org 5/30/25 Denise A. Hines, Ph.D., Enochs Endowed Professor of Social Work at the College of Public Health, George Mason University, explores the often-overlooked issue of male victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) Men’s victimization from intimate partner violence (IPV) has been documented since the first US population-based study in 1975. (1) A review of 246 studies (2011–2022) found that 11.8% of men experience physical IPV, compared to 14.6% of women. (2) Despite decades of evidence, there is limited recognition of male IPV victims. Global data confirm that men represent a substantial proportion…
Read MoreN.J. court just made it harder for sex offenders to get off Megan’s Law registry
Source: nj.com 7/7/25 The New Jersey Appellate Division issued a ruling clarifying that sex offenders must prove they pose no threat to public safety—not just that they’re unlikely to reoffend sexually. A New Jersey appeals court has ruled that individuals seeking removal from the state’s sex offender registry must prove they are not a danger to the public in any way, not just that they are unlikely to commit another sex crime. The ruling, which sets a new legal precedent in New Jersey, stems from two cases involving men convicted of…
Read MoreACSOL Board Cancels 2025 Conference
The ACSOL board of directors has decided to cancel this year’s conference in order to protect registrants, their families and those who support them. The conference was previously scheduled to be held on September 26 and September 27. “Cancellation of this year’s conference was a difficult decision to make for the ACSOL board of directors,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “Cancellation was necessary, however, after an extremist organization threatened violence against an allied organization, NARSOL.” NARSOL was scheduled to conduct its conference in Michigan in June 2025. However, the…
Read MoreAI-generated child pornography is surging − a legal scholar explains why the fight against it is complicated and how the law could catch up
Source: theconversation.com 2/11/25 The Internet Watch Foundation, an organization that tracks child sexual abuse material posted online, has documented a surge over the first half of 2025 in AI-generated, realistic sexually explicit videos depicting minors. Some of the material was derived from images of real minors, and some was wholly synthetic. The Supreme Court has implicitly concluded that computer-generated pornographic images that are based on images of real children are illegal. The use of generative AI technologies to make deepfake pornographic images of minors almost certainly falls under the scope of that ruling. But the…
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