Source: atoday.org 8/19/25 On August 14, 2025, Mobile County deputies arrested Pastor Robert Michael Wagley of the St. Elmo Seventh-day Adventist Church on three counts of intimidating a witness. According to jail records and witness accounts, several church members who had assisted law enforcement in a separate criminal investigation were subsequently stripped of their church duties and escorted off the property. The sheriff’s office alleges these actions were meant to punish cooperation with authorities. Pastor Wagley has not been convicted of any crime, and under United States law, all defendants are presumed…
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AZ: Arizona to launch Sex Offender Management Board to tackle treatment, reform
Source: azfamily.com 8/19/25 PHOENIX (AZFamily) — A recently passed law is funding Arizona’s first-ever Sex Offender Management Board, which is aimed at getting justice for victims and preventing cases in the future. The board will be made up of 25 people who are experts on sexual abuse and deviancy. It will include psychologists, law enforcement officials, and victims’ rights representatives. They will make legislative recommendations regarding sentencing and treatment of sexual offenders. It will work to develop statewide standards and procedures to assess and supervise both kids and adults who have committed…
Read MoreHegseth May Be Required to Create Public Military Sex Offender Registry
Source: prospect.org 8/20/25 Service members and their families would have to be notified about registered sex offenders on military bases. After scraping his way through a bruising confirmation hearing that saw interrogations over allegations of sexual assault, harassment, and drunken behavior, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth may soon be tasked with overseeing the creation of the first-of-its-kind military sex offender registry. That is part of the Senate’s version of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, a perennial must-pass vehicle in Congress. As it currently stands, sex offender laws are governed by the Sex…
Read MoreThe Tuna Net Analogy
Source: ampersandsrj.substack.com 8/18/25 The deck of the tuna clipper was alive with activity. A spotter scanning the horizon spotted commotion up ahead. The cacophony of seabirds always gave away the position of the catch. The engines rumbled as the captain steered the boat. The crew worked furiously, and within minutes, the net was dropped into the ocean, forming a wide circle around the flashing shapes in the water just below the surface. The bottom line was cinched tight, sealing the fish in as the water churned silver with their movement.…
Read MoreFL: Florida can keep ‘sexual predator’ marking on driver’s licenses, appeals court rules
Source: floridapolitics.com 8/18/25 The case arose after a sexual predator was sent back to prison after his probation officer found a smiley-face sticker covering the label on his license. Florida can continue branding convicted sexual predators on their driver’s licenses. In a divided ruling, the 5th District Court of Appeal has upheld the constitutionality of requiring state-issued driver’s licenses and ID cards to have “SEXUAL PREDATOR” stamped on them if the holder has been convicted of such a crime. The ruling reverses an earlier panel’s action striking down the law as unconstitutional…
Read MoreDenied for old crimes: The complex challenge of long-term care for America’s aging PFR
Source: mcknights.com 8/18/25 As a case manager for the Department of Veterans Affairs, Stephanie Jerstad once had a client die in transitional housing after being rejected by 212 different nursing homes in Illinois and Indiana. None of them would take the man because he was on a sexual offense registry for a long-ago offense. Admission was repeatedly denied despite professional evaluations of his appropriate behavior during a preceding hospital stay of more than 30 days. He also needed so much assistance with daily activities that he would have been physically…
Read MoreACSOL Online Meeting September 20, 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 September 20 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 MoreMO: Court of Appeals Schedules Oral Argument in Missouri Halloween Sign Case
The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals today scheduled oral argument in the Missouri Halloween sign case. The argument will take place on Tuesday, September 16, on the 28th floor of the Thomas F. Eagleton Courthouse located at 111 S. 10th Street, St. Louis, Missouri. The Court scheduled oral argument in a total of five cases that day beginning at 9 a.m. The Halloween sign case is listed as the second of those cases. The district court judge in this case issued a permanent statewide injunction on October 2, 2024, prohibiting…
Read MoreLA: Louisiana files lawsuit against Roblox, calling it a platform for sexual predators
Source: lailluminator.com 8/14/25 Louisiana is suing Roblox, the popular online gaming site, claiming it has distributed child sexual abuse material and fails to protect or notify users of sexual predators. Attorney General Liz Murrill filed the lawsuit Thursday in Livingston Parish at the 21st Judicial District Court. The lawsuit alleges Roblox endangers Louisiana children as an unchecked forum for sexual predators to connect with children and allows the sharing of sexually explicit material. Roblox’s lack of age verification and warnings of the danger pertaining to sexual predators are listed in the lawsuit…
Read MoreSex Offenders and The Church
Source: churchleaders.com 8/15/25 Let’s talk about one of those Elephant in the Room subjects that no one wants to talk about. I’m referring to the issues of sex offenders and the local church. Fortunately in recent years we have begun to discuss it, but there’s a long way to go). Early in my career in the field of Criminal Justice I spent several years working with exclusive sex offender populations. It was during those years that I realized that Sex Offenders were one of the few populations behind the walls…
Read MoreCustoms and Border Protection (CBP) is Deporting Cruise Ship Crew Over Child Pornography Allegations Without Evidence
Source: reason.com 8/13/25 Advocacy groups say more than 100 cruise ship crew members have been deported in recent months, and they’re not being shown the evidence against them or given any due process. When Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents marched the housekeeper down the gangplank of the Victory I cruise ship in the Port of Detroit on the morning of July 11, she didn’t know what was wrong, but she was confident it would get sorted out. The crew member, originally from South America, had worked for 20 years on…
Read MoreCA: Senate Bill 680 Scheduled for Appropriations Committee Review
Source: ACSOL The CA Assembly Appropriations Committee will review Senate Bill 680 on August 20. The review of this bill will be part of a marathon session that includes consideration of more than 200 bills. No testimony will be heard during this session that begins at 9 a.m. in Room 1100 of the legislative office building (1021 O Street). If Senate Bill 680 is enacted into law, a new group of individuals would be required to register. That group would include people convicted of Penal Code Section 261.5, unlawful intercourse…
Read MoreAR: Man facing child porn charges killed in jail, AR cops say. 5 inmates arrested
Source: kansascity.com 8/14/25 A man facing child porn charges was killed in an Arkansas jail, and now five inmates are accused of murder, police say. Terry Craig, 44, was booked into the Monroe County Detention Center after noon on Friday, Aug. 8, on charges of possession of child sexual abuse materials, and possession of a firearm by certain persons, Arkansas State Police said in a news release. Later that day, jail staff found Craig injured inside his cell, according to police. He was taken to a hospital, where he was…
Read MoreTX: Lubbock PD employee accused of assaulting elderly registered sex offender during check-in
Source: krqe.com 8/14/25 [ACSOL Note: our policy is not to post articles about people accused of a crime, but given the facts of this situation we think we should post the article anyway.] Daniel Diaz-Gonzalez, 42, a civilian Lubbock Police Department employee, was arrested on Wednesday and accused of assaulting an elderly person, Chief Seth Herman said. Court documents obtained by EverythingLubbock.com revealed some additional details on Wednesday evening. Diaz-Gonzalez was a civilian sex registration coordinator at LPD. Herman said the assault happened in the lobby of LPD headquarters on July 24.…
Read MoreExperience With State Courts Highlights Areas for Improvement
Source: pew.org 8/4/25 Overview Throughout the country, people rely on state and local courts to resolve a wide variety of issues, from traffic tickets and divorces to debt cases and shoplifting charges.1 These interactions can affect their lives, their communities, and their opinions of the legal system. To learn more about how people in the U.S. interact with and view courts, The Pew Charitable Trusts conducted a national poll of 2,016 adults in August and September 2024. The poll, administered by public opinion polling firm SSRS, asked individuals about their general…
Read MoreNARSOL Announces New Conference Location and Dates
NARSOL has announced a new location and dates for its annual conference. That conference will be held in Atlanta from October 17 through October 19. Details regarding the conference, including how to sign up, can be found on the NARSOL website at http://www.narsol.org. The NARSOL conference was originally scheduled to be held in Michigan in June 2025. That conference was cancelled after the hotel in which the conference was to be held withdrew its contract with NARSOL. According to a NARSOL statement, at least three of the original plenary speakers…
Read MoreU.S. Sentencing Commission Announces Appointment of Sentence Impacted Individuals to New Advisory Group
Source: ussc.gov 8/11/25 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Judge Carlton W. Reeves, Chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, today announced the appointment of nine individuals to serve on the newly established Sentence Impact Advisory Group (SIAG). Advisory groups provide Commissioners with important perspectives that help them in policy making and ensure fairness in federal sentencing. The newly appointed SIAG members include those individuals who have been impacted by federal sentencing or have family members that have been. Judge Reeves said, “I am very grateful to those who have accepted this appointment to…
Read MoreHotel Sex Trafficking Suit Can Proceed, Inviting Hotels to Profile and Harass Guests
Source: reason.com 8/11/25 Can a hotel be guilty of sex trafficking just because it didn’t surveil its customers enough? A hotel could be legally liable for sex trafficking because it failed to intervene against a guest who wore “sexually explicit clothing” and had condoms in her room, according to a recent ruling from Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Kacsmaryk—who gained national notoriety a few years ago for a ruling that suspended approval of the abortion pill mifepristone—denied the hotel’s motion…
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