[pittsburgh.cbslocal.com] SPARTANSBURG, Pa. (AP) – The mayor of a small Pennsylvania town is standing by its volunteer fire company’s re-election of a registered sex offender as its fire chief. Chief Roger Gilbert Jr. was convicted in 2001 of sexual intercourse with a 4-year-old girl and is listed in the state’s Megan’s Law database, The (Corry) Journal reported Saturday . Court records show Gilbert is a felon who completed a five- to 10-year sentence for “involuntary deviate sexual intercourse.” Mayor Ann Louise Wagner says she and firefighters have been aware that…
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CA: Sacramento Judge Rules Some of CDCR’s Prop. 57 Regulations Are Void
CA Proposition 57 tentative Ruling – 8 Feb 2018 (PDF) [ACSOL] A Superior Court Judge in Sacramento has ruled that provisions in emergency regulations issued by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) regarding registrants are void and therefore cannot be enforced. The regulation provisions at issue deny anyone convicted of a sex offense eligibility for parole consideration under Proposition 57. The judge’s preliminary decision was issued in a tentative ruling dated February 8, 2018, and was the subject of a hearing conducted in Sacramento Superior Court this morning.…
Read MoreIs It Better To Do Something versus Nothing? [Podcast]
[registrymatters.co] Episode 10 Is it better to do something versus nothing? Can you do more harm than good by a poorly thought out action than by sitting on the sidelines? That is the topic we’ll be covering tonight. Larry and Andy are discussing if there is some level of harm that can be done by taking action prematurely rather than waiting. An example of this is filing a challenge before there is sufficient evidence to support it. Waiting might produce other challenges that would bolster the case significantly. Additionally, a…
Read MoreNY: “All Sex Offender Registries Should Be Abolished”: Reason/Soho Forum Debate
[narsol.org] That’s the highly controversial resolution that will be argued at the next Soho Forum/Reason debate, on Monday, February 12 at New York’s Subculture Theater from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Emily Horowitz will argue the affirmative position. She is professor and chair of the sociology and criminal justice department at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York, where she founded a program that helps the formerly incarcerated complete college. Marci A. Hamilton will take the negative. She is Fox Professor of Practice and Fox Family Pavilion Resident Senior Fellow in…
Read MoreVA: New bill could allow prosecutors to hold more “sexting” minors accountable
[wset.com] BEDFORD Co., Va. (WSET) – A local prosecutor says a proposed bill that charges teens who willfully send illicit images to one another, with a misdemeanor instead of a felony, could allow them to charge more people. This bill already passed the Virginia Senate. Commonwealth’s Attorney Wes Nance spoke on behalf of the Virginia Association of Commonwealth Attorney’s in favor of this bill before the courts subcommittee. Nance said the juvenile courts system allows for rehabilitation instead of incarceration. “No prosecutor when an individual is a juvenile necessarily wants…
Read MoreIn Denmark, Viral Video Sparks Wave Of Child Pornography Prosecutions
[npr.org] A video that went viral in Denmark three years ago is now the basis for a wave of prosecutions. More than 1,000 young people, many of them teenagers at the time, are now charged with the distribution of child pornography. Sidsel Overgaard reports from Billund, Denmark. SIDSEL OVERGAARD, BYLINE: The video shows two 15-year-olds engaged in sexual activity at a party in 2015. The two boys who filmed it were prosecuted several years ago, but now, 1,004 young people who shared it on Facebook Messenger face charges that could…
Read MorePA: Senate positions Megan’s Law fix for vote
[altoonamirror.com] HARRISBURG — A bill seeking to deliver a legislative fix to Megan’s Law for sexual assault offenders was positioned for a Senate floor vote after a key senator gave a green light Monday. Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, repeated his strong objections to the House-passed legislation, House Bill 1952, at the start of a two-hour hearing Monday morning on the Judiciary Committee, which Greenleaf chairs. Following the hearing, Greenleaf voted with colleagues to approve the bill, which addresses concerns the Pennsylvania Supreme Court raised about Pennsylvania’s sex offender registry. The…
Read MoreNY: Death, assaults and sex offenses: Life behind Central New York Psychiatric Center’s walls
[lohud.com] A New York State psychiatric center operated illegally with impunity while two dead bodies, 40 assaults and 25 sex offenses triggered police responses behind its walls from 2012 to 2016, The Journal News/lohud has found. The newly obtained tally of violence, roughly one attack per month, is part of 210 criminal incidents at Central New York Psychiatric Center. Much of the violence involved the mentally ill men locked up there, and it unfolded without the independent monitor required by law. From rapes and beatings to illicit drug use and…
Read MoreState Department Revokes Registrant’s Passport
The State Department has revoked the passport of a registrant who was convicted in and resides in California. This is the first known passport revocation following passage of the International Megan’s Law (IML) in February 2016. According to a letter from that federal agency, the registrant’s passport was revoked because it did not include the “unique identifier” required by the IML. The letter stated that the registrant’s passport “remains the property of the U.S. Government, and must be surrendered upon demand.” The letter also stated that the registrant must “immediately…
Read MoreAL: Signs in Yards & Chemical Castration: Bad Legislation to oppose during the 2018 Alabama legislative season
[reformalabama.blogspot.com] The following bills MUST BE opposed during this legislative season. SB195 By Senators Ward and Shelnutt RFD Judiciary Rd 1 18-JAN-18 Under existing law, community notification of sex offenders requires a flyer be mailed or hand delivered to required residences. The existing law also provides any other method reasonably expected to provide notification may be utilized. This bill would further authorize local law enforcement to post public notices on the property where adult sex offenders who are subject to community notification reside. Reason this is bad: This means the…
Read MoreVA: ‘Sexting’ teens could avoid felony charges under bill that clears Virginia Senate
[roanoke.com] RICHMOND — The Virginia Senate on Monday passed a bill intended to keep teenagers who willingly share sexually explicit images with each other from being branded felony sex offenders. The measure, which passed on a bipartisan 35-to-5 vote, would give prosecutors the option to charge “sexting” among minors as a misdemeanor. Read more
Read MoreID: Idaho Senate panel introduces bill to broaden sex crime laws
[idahostatesman.com] An Idaho Senate committee has introduced two bills that would broaden the definition of some sex crimes to include crimes committed with the intent of degrading or humiliating someone. Idaho Deputy Attorney General Paul Panther told the Senate Judiciary and Rules committee on Monday that both the state’s current statute on sexual battery and the statue on forcible penetration with a foreign object define the crimes as having been done with the intent of sexual gratification or arousal. But Panther said those statutes currently don’t cover situations like severe…
Read MoreFL: Man accused of killing cellmate: ‘There’s one less child molester’
[kcra.com] Florida authorities say an inmate who killed his cellmate last month while awaiting trial for killing another cellmate in 2015 is now in solitary confinement. The Panama City News Herald reports 21-year-old Frederick Patterson III said he killed his 82-year-old cellmate Arthur Williams on Jan. 15, and told correctional officers that “there’s one less child molester on the streets.” Advertisement Patterson, a convicted burglar, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for killing 45-year-old Scott Collinsworth, a convicted robber, in the Apalachee Correctional Institution. Patterson now faces a first-degree…
Read MoreFL: According to Homeless Trust, over 45% of Homeless in Miami-Dade County are Sex Offenders
[floridaactioncommittee.org] Last month, Ron Book was out with his “Homeless Trust” to count the homeless in Miami-Dade. Yes, literally, to manually count the homeless. According to this article, the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust counts the homeless twice a year in January and in August, but “tonight’s count is the one that counts for federal funding.” Counts for “federal funding”… no wonder Ron Book is on hand for that one. If it means more money for him, you can be sure he’ll be hands-on. But what about the stats? The article states,…
Read MoreHow to prevent child sexual abuse: Know the myths and realities
[salon.com] How would you describe a sex offender? In all likelihood, you would describe a monster — someone who lurks behind bushes and rapes unsuspecting women or abuses children. And that is how sex offenders are portrayed in the media. For most of us, much of what we know about sex offenders comes from movies, TV shows and news stories. However, those stories are often sensationalized portrayals — or cases that are the exception to the rule — rather than the norm. While cases like these do exist, they remain…
Read MoreFL: Four years after being called out on poor public policy, Florida is STILL putting children at risk
[sosen.org] On April 14, 2014, A national coalition of members of CURE, CURE-SORT, FAC, USA Fair and WAR members joined together to ask Florida legislators, “Why are the many children and families of former offenders being placed in danger from missed opportunities of effective legislation?” “Are the children of citizens on the sex offender registry less valuable to law makers?” Nearly four full years later, we are still awaiting a satisfactory answer. As of May 24, 2017, there were 69,917 people listed on the Florida state sex offender registry and…
Read MorePA: State to consider overhaul to sex offender registration law again
[buckscountycouriertimes.com] The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on a bill Monday. Nearly eight years ago, Bucks County resident Steve Gordon left state prison after completing a 10-year sentence for sexually assaulting a woman, but he was not quite a free man. His conviction for aggravated indecent sexual assault meant that Pennsylvania State Police would be keeping tabs on him for another decade. A little more than five years ago, though, Gordon, now 71, suddenly had state police monitoring him for the rest of his life, after state lawmakers…
Read MoreOK: Oklahoma lawmaker pushes bill for ‘chemical castration’ of sex offenders
[theguardian.com] A Republican lawmaker is pushing to add Oklahoma to the list of states in which so-called chemical castration is an option for certain sex offenders. State representative Rick West, a first-term lawmaker from Heavener, said he filed the bill at the request of a constituent and that he fully intends to push for its passage. It is likely to face strong opposition, even in a conservative state. If approved, Oklahoma would join at least seven other states that have laws allowing courts to order chemical treatments that reduce male…
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