[thecrimereport.org] In 1991, soon after he was sentenced to 56 years in an Ohio prison for a crime he did not commit, Roger Dean Gillispie began pestering fellow inmates to save the tinfoil from their tobacco pouches. He also gathered discarded teabags and cassette tapes—anything he could get his hands on to serve as makeshift building materials. Then each evening, after he returned to his cell from one of his prison jobs, he devoted countless hours to creating a model of a shiny, vintage Airstream camper. It was, for him,…
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Senate passes Schumer-backed bill to open FBI sex offender database
[syracuse.com] The operators of summer camps, daycare centers and volunteer groups that work with children are a step closer to gaining access to an FBI sex offender database that could be used for background checks on prospective employees and volunteers. The U.S. Senate passed a bill backed by U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer that would close a loophole in the background check system and authorize the FBI to provide the information to organizations that work with children. Read more
Read MoreVA: Virginia pulls 132 confined sex offenders from list of eligible voters
[Washington Post] State officials abruptly removed 132 sex offenders from Virginia’s list of eligible voters last week, reacting to the latest problem emerging from Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s sweeping move to restore voting rights to felons who had served out their sentences. A spokesman for McAuliffe (D) said that the offenders, who are confined in a treatment facility under a form of civil commitment, had appeared on the list of eligible voters by mistake. Read more
Read MoreFL: More school districts blame sexual abuse victims
[sun-sentinel.com] Despite denying it, Broward and Miami-Dade school districts both have blamed schoolchildren for their own sexual abuse. The Sun Sentinel this week uncovered lawsuits in which the districts claimed children — from ages 8 to 14 — were wholly or partly responsible for what happened to them. The discovery came a week after Palm Beach County Schools came under fire for the same practice, after reports in the Sun Sentinel. In at least five sexual abuse lawsuits, involving children as young as 6, Palm Beach County Schools said students’…
Read MoreMN: ‘I Was Willing to Do Everything’: Mothers Defend Sons Accused of Sexual Assault
[New York Times] Four women met late last month at a restaurant in a Twin Cities suburb, where they spoke for hours, so intently their waiter had trouble getting their drink orders. Each had a son who had been accused at college of sexual assault. One was expelled and another suspended. The other two were cleared, yet one had contemplated suicide and the other was so crushed he had not returned to school. The women had been meeting regularly to share notes and commiserate. Now, over red wine in a…
Read MoreIA: Iowa’s High Court Rules That Despite Appeals, Sex Offenders Must Register
[iowapublicradio.org] People convicted of sex crimes are still required to register as sex offenders in Iowa even if they’re appealing their convictions, according to today’s ruling by the Iowa Supreme Court. The case centers on the appeal of Brian James Maxwell, who was hired as a youth coordinator for two churches in the Winterset area in March 2014. That month he inappropriately touched a 16-year-old girl who he met through this job. The next year Maxwell was convicted of lascivious conduct with a minor and sentenced to a year incarceration.…
Read MoreWhy some travelers will need a passport card for 2018
[yahoo.com] Everyone knows that you need a boarding pass and driver’s license to pass airport security. It’s always been this way, but next year, some travelers may also need a passport card. Starting on Jan. 22, 2018, travelers from a handful of states may have to show an alternate ID to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents at the airport. This is because the REAL ID Act, which was passed by Congress in 2005, will go into effect. Essentially, this act established minimum security standards for state-issued driver’s licenses (and ID…
Read MoreFL: Month After Irma, Sex Offenders Haven’t Left
[miaminewtimes.com] Beneath a shredded blue tarp, 58-year-old Claudia Baker takes a swig of A&W root beer. “Imagine your faucet dripping at night. That’s what life is like for us—except instead of just hearing the drip, we feel it,” she says. After serving nine years in prison for child pornography, Baker now lives at an encampment of sex offenders near the train tracks near Hialeah. There, residents sleep on wet cots, endure massive storm floods and openly defecate behind a storage container. Nearby business owners say they’ve scared away customers. “My…
Read MoreThe only thing we have to fear on Halloween is fear itself
[timesledger.com] “Trick or treat, trick or treat, give us something lethal to eat!” That’s not the actual rhyme, but from all the warnings about Halloween you just might think it was. Even the American Academy of Pediatrics is still insisting that “a responsible adult should closely examine all treats.” But why? How many decades of disproving this murderous myth do America’s doctors require before they lay it to rest? Joel Best, a sociologist at the University of Delaware, first put a stake through the poison candy rumor all the way…
Read MoreHow Sex Offender Registries Impact Youth
[teenvogue.com] Ten-year-old Leah pretended to have sex with her younger step-siblings. She said it happened a few times and that she was just acting out scenes from the movies. A couple years later, Leah’s conduct was discovered by law enforcement. Leah was 12 when she was convicted of criminal sexual conduct in juvenile court and labeled a sex offender. The law required her to remain on the sex offender registry for 25 years. She says she lost jobs and internships as a result. When she was about to enter her…
Read MoreCA: California law will bar cities and counties from providing information for a ‘Muslim registry’
[Los Angeles Times] Gov. Jerry Brown signed a closely watched bill on Sunday to block the creation of any so-called Muslim registry should President Trump choose to act on a proposal he repeatedly suggested during his 2016 campaign. Senate Bill 31 by state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) bars state and local governments from releasing personal information to the federal government for the creation of any religious list, registry or database. It also prohibits them from using resources to create their own lists. Dubbed the California Religious Freedom Act, the…
Read MoreCA: Sex Offender Law Repealed In Simi Valley
[CBS Los Angeles] SIMI VALLEY (CBSLA) — Don’t take candy from strangers. But what about sexual offenders? The Simi Valley City Council decided on Monday night to overturn a law aimed at protecting children from sexual predators. City leaders say the law wouldn’t stand up in a legal appeal so they killed it. There will now be nothing to stop registered sex offenders in Simi Valley from interacting with trick-or-treaters. So when Halloween rolls around in a couple of weeks, parents say they’ll be a lot more vigilant. The ordinance…
Read MoreCO: County Sex-Offender Registry Pulled Down Because of Lawsuit Fears
[westword.com] As we’ve reported, Montrose County, on Colorado’s Western Slope, pulled its sex-offender list offline following a recent court ruling in which U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch found that such registries constituted cruel and unusual punishment in the case of three plaintiffs. The ruling is specific to the complainants in question, rather than everyone on the roster, and Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman has announced her intention to appeal. So why make the move now? According to a representative from the sheriff’s office in Montrose, a fear of lawsuits.…
Read MoreIN: Sex offender class for prisoners violates Constitution, judge rules
[indystar.com] A federal judge has ruled that Indiana’s mandated sex offender classes for prisoners who oppose them violates the constitutional right to be free from self-incrimination. The Sept. 28 ruling in the class-action lawsuit filed in the Southern District of Indiana will affect all convicted, incarcerated sex offenders who opt out of the Indiana Sex Offender Monitoring and Management, or SOMM, program. Three of the plaintiffs will be eligible for release from prison. The Indiana attorney general’s office has filed an emergency request to temporarily halt the case pending an…
Read MoreSimi Valley Repeals Halloween Ordinance
The Simi Valley City Council unanimously agreed tonight to repeal its Halloween Ordinance which required the city’s registrants to post a sign on the front door of their homes as well as prohibited them from decorating their homes, answering the door to trick-or-treaters and illuminating any exterior lights. The City Council vote was taken without discussion or debate, however, the City Attorney recommended repeal of the ordinance prior to the meeting due to a lawsuit filed on behalf of a registrant and his family who reside in Simi Valley. “The…
Read MoreMI: Young Man Arrested for Underage Sex Was Re-Arrested for Sharing a Pizza with a 17-Year-Old
[Hit & Run blog at Reason.com] ____________, the young man from Elkhart, Indiana, whose harsh punishment for consensual sex with an underage teenager he wrongly believed was 17 made headlines around the country in 2015, has been arrested for violating his probation. What, exactly, did he do? He stopped by for dinner at his parents’ home. His younger brother was present, and incidentally, so was the brother’s friend. The brother thought this friend was 19 years old, but he turned out to be just 17. _______, unfortunately, is not allowed…
Read MoreThe DOJ Has Nearly Doubled Its Prosecutions For Child Sex Crimes Photo of Anders Hagstrom Anders Hagstrom
[The Daily Caller] Federal investigators nearly doubled the number of investigated sex crimes involving children between 2004 and 2013, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced Thursday. Child sex crime cases include possession or production of child pornography and child sex trafficking, the BJS reported. Federal investigators took up 1,405 of these cases in 2004, compared to 2,776 cases in 2013. More than 70 percent of the prosecutions each year were for possessing child pornography, followed by those suspected of sex trafficking at 18 percent and those who produced child…
Read MoreAZ: Transient sex offenders not bound by 72-hour notice
[The Seattle Times] PHOENIX (AP) — The state Supreme Court says registered sex offenders without addresses or permanent places of residence aren’t subject to Arizona’s requirement to provide notice of address changes within 72 hours. Instead, the court’s unanimous ruling Friday says those offenders only have to register as transients at least every 90 days. The ruling overturns a lower court’s ruling that upheld a man’s felony conviction for failing to notify law enforcement officials of a new residence or address within 72 hours after he left a halfway house…
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