Source: chron.com 1/12/23 Scammers are focusing on a new vulnerable population — sex offenders. Beaumont Police Department spokesperson Carol Riley said the department has seen seven cases of attempted or completed scams on area sex offenders. “A lot of their information and registration (as a sex offender) is public,” Riley said. That makes them an easy target for those looking to profit off the fear of re-incarceration or other violations that offenders worry about after serving their time while still on parole or probation. “The scam is to call the…
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ODIN Intelligence website is defaced as hackers claim breach
Source: news.yahoo.com 1/15/23 The website for ODIN Intelligence, a company that provides technology and tools for law enforcement and police departments, was defaced on Sunday. The apparent hack comes days after Wired reported that an app developed by the company, SweepWizard, which allows police to manage and coordinate multi-agency raids, had a significant security vulnerability that exposed personal information of police suspects and sensitive details of upcoming police operations to the open web. ODIN provides apps, like SweepWizard and other technologies, to law enforcement departments. It also provides a service…
Read MorePA: Judge to weigh sex offender registration
Source: altoonamirror.com 1/12/23 A Blair County senior judge has scheduled arguments in May to consider a constitutional challenge to state law requiring convicted sex offenders to regularly register their addresses and related information with state police. In recent orders, Senior Judge Timothy M. Sullivan set an April 11 sentencing date for Colby James ____ of Tyrone and a May 12 hearing date to consider the constitutional challenges being raised on ____ ‘s behalf to the state’s Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act. ____ , 22, who pleaded guilty in March…
Read MoreAZ: Changes needed in sex offender registry rules
Source: azcapitoltimes.com 1/13/23 In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a rare spate of high-profile child abductions and murders, mostly sexual in nature, terrified America. With constant media coverage, parents across the country were easily led to believe that their children could be in imminent danger. As demands from the public, as well as a few prominent parents of missing or murdered children escalated, legislatures responded, and the sex offender registry was born. This primal need to protect our children from any possible harm resonates in us all. Human logic…
Read MoreCANCELED! SORNA Regulations Hearing January 13
Source: ACSOL The judge canceled the hearing in SORNA case scheduled for January 13. Instead of a hearing, the judge will make his decision regarding whether to grant the pending Motion for Summary Judgment based upon the written record only, with no oral arguments.
Read MoreIL: People with sex and gun convictions are required to register with police. CPD can’t keep up.
Source: wbez.org 1/11/23 Police turn away people trying to register, leaving them at risk of arrest. Some crime victims say the system fails them too. Outside a red brick building in Chicago’s Burnside neighborhood, Odell Whitehorn Jr. recently stood in a line with over a dozen men on a bitterly cold morning. Whitehorn is on the Illinois murder and violence against youth registry, for a crime he committed when he was eighteen-years-old, in 2000. Once a year, Whitehorn is required to register with the Chicago police. This was the fifth…
Read MoreNC: Dads Against Predators ‘lured’ man to store before gunfire, NC cops say. Warrants issued
Source: yahoo.com 1/30/23 Three members of the group Dads Against Predators “lured” a man to a store before gunfire erupted — and now warrants have been issued in the North Carolina case, officials said. The group members are accused of using the Meetup app to get the man to come to a Target store in Winston-Salem. When the man arrived on June 28, all three members started to beat him on the head repeatedly, according to the city’s police department. The 25-year-old man reportedly pulled out a gun and fired…
Read MoreWI: Oshkosh city council approves $1 million project to expand sex offender housing
Source: fox11online.com 1/10/23 The Oshkosh City Council is giving the go ahead for a county-owned housing facility for sex offenders. Residential housing for sex offenders in Winnebago County has been in the works since early last year. After a meeting in Oshkosh Tuesday night, the last hurdle was cleared. “These are individuals who’ve served their time, gone through treatment,” Oshkosh board member Lynnsey Erickson said. “Continuing treatment, under intense supervision, we can’t just throw these people away.” The Oshkosh Common Council approved the city’s conditional use permit, meaning a facility…
Read MoreRob Rapley On His New PBS Doc and Demystifying The Lie Detector
Source: thecrimereport.org 1/10/23 As part of their American Experience series, PBS released the documentary, “The Lie Detector: A Truly Unbelievable Story,” last week. The film goes through the history of the lie detector from its conception in 1921 to the present day, and documents how well-meaning intentions to use the lie detector as a crime-fighting tool were twisted into its use as a gauge of morality or loyalty and as a tool of intimidation. Writer and director Rob Rapley produced the film with Emily Harrold through Rapley’s production company Apograph…
Read MoreCA: Release of Sex Offender Into Community Is Blocked
Source: metnews.com 1/10/23 The release of a sexually violent offender into a community following an involuntary hospital confinement after he served his prison sentence can be blocked by setting up the home schooling of children within close proximity to where the former inmate is scheduled to reside, the Sixth District Court of Appeal has declared, over a dissent. At issue is Welfare & Institutions Code §6608.5(f) which provides that “a person released under this section shall not be placed within one-quarter mile of any public or private school providing instruction…
Read MoreOH: Ohio bans child sex offenders from working with kids
Source: news5cleveland.com 1/5/23 COLUMBUS, Ohio — A newly-signed law will stop convicted child sex offenders in Ohio from working or volunteering with kids. Convicted sex offenders in the state have always been able to work around children legally, much to the chagrin of parents like Rebecca Surendorff and others who realize nothing can be done. “This is, frankly, a crisis level, and we’re not giving it the thought and attention that it deserves,” Surendorff said. The law has not prevented it — until now. Read the full article
Read MoreIN: Seventh Circuit revisits controversial Indiana sex offender law
Source: courthousenews.com 1/6/23 The Seventh Circuit heard arguments over Indiana’s controversial Sex Offender Registration Act on Friday morning, and not for the first time. Instead, it was just the latest skirmish in an ongoing legal struggle between the Indiana Department of Corrections, the District Court of Southern Indiana and the judges of the Seventh Circuit. Indiana enacted the law known as SORA in 1994, requiring that those convicted of sex offenses in other states must also register as sex offenders in Indiana if they live or work there. It also…
Read MoreSC: Shield Ministries doctor explains treatment for sex offenders
Source: abcnews4.com 1/6/23 “When you have a pedophile leading pedophiles, it puts a really bad taste in your mouth,” Walterboro resident Kevin Lyles said. This is a common concern among Walterboro residents that live near Barracada Road. The executive director of Shield Ministries, David Truluck, is a registered sex offender planning to open a third treatment center and halfway house there. We took the resident’s concerns to Dr. William Burke, a doctor who treats sex offenders in the Shield Ministries program. Dr. Burke has performed around 10,000 evaluations on sex…
Read MoreACSOL Files Lawsuit Due to CA DOJ Failure to Provide Tier Assignments
ACSOL filed a lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court today alleging that the California Department of Justice (CA DOJ) has failed to provide tier assignments to thousands of California registrants and thus violated a state law that required all registrants to receive a tier assignment by December 31, 2022. As a result of the agency’s failure, there are thousands of registrants who are being prohibited from petitioning for removal from the registry. According to the lawsuit, CA DOJ failed to provide tier assignments to 12,438 registrants as of November 2022. This…
Read MoreStars of 1968’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ sue Paramount over nude scenes filmed when they were minors
Source: cnn.com 1/4/23 Actors from the 1968 film “Romeo and Juliet” have filed a lawsuit against Paramount Studios, which produced the film, for allowing the movie to be released with scenes showing them nude when they were minors. The lawsuit, filed last week in Santa Monica Superior Court by stars Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, accuses Paramount of sexual exploitation and distributing nude images of adolescent children. In a copy of the suit provided to CNN, the complaint alleges that the film’s director Franco Zeffirelli, who died in 2019 and…
Read MoreCanada: High-risk offender in Yarmouth County banished from Canada for 2 years
Source: cbc.ca 1/5/23 A provincial court judge in Shelburne, N.S., has banished a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen from the country for two years, in what he described as an “extremely extraordinary” sentencing. Allen ____, 64, was charged with two counts of criminal harassment last month after he was accused of stalking a 25-year-old woman in Yarmouth on two occasions, in October and December respectively. The RCMP also issued a public notification in December describing ____ as a high-risk offender. More than two decades ago, he was convicted of sexual offences in the United States that…
Read MoreUT: New bill would place certain minors on the Utah sex offender registry
Source: kslnewsradio.com 1/4/23 SALT LAKE CITY — Utah doesn’t require minors to register or follow sex offender guidelines, but a proposed bill in the 2023 Utah Legislative Session might change that. Utah’s registry, the Sex and Kidnap Offender Registry, currently has around 7,000 registrants, something that H.B. 122 would surely change. KSL’s Legal Analyst Greg Skordas said that Utah’s registry has historically been exclusively for adults, but HB122 would allow for juveniles to be added to the list, depending on the crime. “Certain minors, who commit offenses that would be…
Read MoreACSOL to Lead CA Lobby Day on March 21
ACSOL will lead the California Lobby Day on March 21 in Sacramento. The primary focus of Lobby Day is to advocate for changes to the CA Tiered Registry Law that could significantly increase the number of registrants eligible to petition for removal from the registry. More than half of all CA registrants (48,631) have been assigned to Tier 3, the highest tier, which makes them ineligible to petition for removal. In addition, more than 12,400 registrants have not yet received a tier assignment and are also ineligible to petition for…
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