Approximately 850 convicted sex offenders and offenders against children are eligible to petition to get off the state’s criminal offenders registry, after a little-noticed Supreme Court ruling earlier this year. Full Article
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We’re All Offenders Who Haven’t Been Caught
That’s the question posed to the audience of mostly college students by Galen Baughman, a Soros Justice Fellow and the final speaker at the City University of New York TEDx talks at the Borough of Manhattan Community College last week. TEDx talks are known for introducing new speakers with new ideas on everything from tech, to teaching, to society — but Baughman was the first TEDx presenter to address the issue of sex offenders from an unusual viewpoint: He is one. And he must register as a sex offender forever.…
Read MoreNY: Mom Believes She Must Helicopter if Lowest-Level Sex Offenders Come Off Registry After 20 Years
FreeRange Kids: Here in my state, something wildly fair is about to happen: People who have been on the Sex Offender Registry for 20 years, who GOT ON the list for a “Level 1” non-violent sex crime like going to a prostitute, “public lewdness,” or peeing in public, are finally going to be allowed to get off it. Full Opinion Piece Lenore Skenazy is the author of the web blog Free-Range Kids. She was a speaker at the 2014 RSOL Conference in Dallas. My Interview in Salon about Sex Offenders…
Read MoreME: After attacks on Bowdoin students, nearby church shuts out sex offender group
A church next to the Bowdoin College campus in Brunswick has shut down a support group for convicted sex offenders, after college officials expressed concerns. Last week, Bowdoin’s director of security, Randy Nichols, said in an email to Bowdoin’s students and staff that he had only recently learned about the group, which had been meeting every Tuesday evening for two years at the First Parish Church, on the corner of Maine Street and Bath Road. Nichols said the presence of a group of sex offenders so close to campus was…
Read MoreSex offender sues Long Beach for right to live near schools, parks, day care centers
A San Luis Obispo County man is suing the city of Long Beach over restrictions that he says make it impossible to move to or even visit the area. Frank Lindsay says in legal papers that a 2008 ordinance prevents him and other registered sex offenders from living, either temporarily or permanently, in much of the city. Full Article
Read MoreJudge: Man wrongly convicted is eligible for compensation
RED BLUFF, California – A Tehama County judge ruled Tuesday morning that a 48-year-old Red Bluff man deserves to be paid for the 15 years he spent in prison after being wrongfully convicted. Tehama County Superior Court Judge Matthew McGlynn said that ____ ____ was “factually innocent” of the child molestation charges that landed him a 24-year prison sentence and is thereby entitled to monetary compensation. ____ will “automatically” receive more than $750,500 – about $140 for each day he was imprisoned — in light of McGlynn’s ruling, his attorney…
Read MoreCriminally Yours: Sex In Vegas
I spent the weekend in Las Vegas not having fun, but taking a CLE on how to defend sex assault cases, particularly those involving Internet child porn. Lawyers came from all over the country, even states with populations as small as Wyoming, where there are more cows than people. Full Article Related Educating Attorneys That they CAN WIN – Las Vegas, NACDL, November 19-20, 2015
Read MoreTwelve Sex Offenders Arrested Along the American River Parkway
A dozen sex offenders were taken into custody last weekend after law enforcement made a sweep of the American River Parkway. During a three day operation, Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputies talked to 284 people, and arrested 28. Deputy Tony Turnbull says of those arrests, 12 were sex offenders. Full Article
Read MoreEven after release, California convicts contend with digital trail
Visitors to the 1998 California state fair were treated to demonstrations of a novel criminal justice tool: a computer that allowed them to look up information about registered sex offenders. Nearly two decades later, the novelty has vanished. A few clicks on a personal computer summon the name, address and record of sex offenders filed in the state’s Megan’s Law database. Every state in the nation now maintains a database of registered sex offenders. Full Article Related REGISTRANTS SUE CA DEPT OF JUSTICE — DEMAND IMPROVEMENTS TO, OR END OF,…
Read MoreFL: Palm Beach billionaire victims “complicit” so not truly victims, government says
A routine status check Monday on a 2008 federal lawsuit tied to sex offender ____ ____’s plea deal ended with a new allegation from the government. The two victims who filed the lawsuit — Jane Doe No. 1 and Jane Doe No. 2 — aren’t actually victims because they procured other girls for ____ and received money for it, Assistant United States Attorney Dexter Lee said in West Palm Beach federal court. If someone “is complicit in the offenses,” they can’t be considered victims under the federal Crime Victims’ Rights…
Read MoreRegistered Citizen Challenges Long Beach Residency Restrictions
A sex offender (“registrant”) wishing to relocate to the City of Long Beach where he conducts business filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging sex offender residency restrictions. An ordinance adopted by the City Council of Long Beach prohibits most registrants from living within 2,000 feet of a child day care center, park, or school. The lawsuit will be served tomorrow on the City of Long Beach. CA Reform Sex Offender Laws President and attorney Janice Bellucci filed the lawsuit today on behalf of plaintiff Frank Lindsay. “Long Beach’s residency…
Read MoreMN: Judge rejects Minnesota’s bid to delay reforms in sex offender program
A federal judge has rejected a request by the state of Minnesota to delay dramatic court-ordered reforms to Minnesota’s controversial sex offender program. The decision, handed down Monday by U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank, means the state must promptly evaluate hundreds of sex offenders who are detained at the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) and release those who no longer meet the legal criteria for confinement. Full Article
Read MoreInternational Megan’s Law – International Travel Action Group
I would like to clarify that there are actually two, nearly identically-named (and destructive) bills entitled, more-or-less, “International Megan’s Law” originating in both Houses of Congress. This has been the source of some confusion. The House bill has an estimated 15% chance of passing and the Senate bill 9%. These estimations are provided by the GovTrack website (and I hope they are correct). [But do keep in mind that we are being prevented from traveling, right now, without those bills.] They are: H.R. 515 in the U.S. House and sponsored,…
Read MoreSex offender kicked out of Vallejo motel after outcry
A violent sex offender released from a psychiatric hospital last month and forced to live as a transient was kicked out of a motel in Vallejo this week amid public outcry, including critical statements from local police and city officials. _____ _____ ____, 51, who committed five sexual assaults over 15 years, was evicted Wednesday from the Motel 6 on Enterprise Street after police and residents discovered he had been secretly placed there, Vallejo officials said Thursday. “It appears that Motel 6 did not know that they had rented a…
Read MoreOH: Sex-offender registry requires reboot in Ohio and the nation: editorial
Title 1 of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 created an all-inclusive state-by-state registry of convicted sex offenders. Known as the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, Title 1 also attempted the impossible: to protect the public, particularly children, from convicted sexual predators who had done their time and were now back on the street. Full Article
Read MoreUT: Change in law may get some off Utah sex offender registry early
(KUTV) A new bill at the state Capitol could cut time on Utah’s Sex Offender Registry for some people convicted of misdemeanor crimes. “It really acts like a scarlet A, a label,” Angie Fenimore told 2News. The author who said she was abused as a child, testified in support of the measure Thursday — and cast the registry as doing more harm than good. “It’s a wide net that catches everybody, from a 19-year-old who smacks the rear end of a 16-year-old, to someone who is a violent, predatory offender,”…
Read MoreOpaque military justice system shields child sex abuse cases
WASHINGTON (AP) — More inmates are in U.S. military prisons for sex crimes against children than for any other offense, an Associated Press investigation has found, but an opaque justice system prevents the public from knowing the full scope of the crimes or how much time the prisoners spend behind bars. Of the 1,233 inmates confined in the military’s prison network, 61 percent were convicted of sex crimes, according to the latest available data, obtained through the federal open records law. Children were the victims in over half of those…
Read MoreStates Slowly Scale Back Juvenile Sex Offender Registries
After years of establishing and strengthening sex offender registries, some states are rethinking policies allowing juveniles to be placed on them. In states such as Oregon and Delaware, lawmakers have given judges more power to review who goes on the registry. In Pennsylvania, courts have ended lifetime registration for juveniles. Full Article
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