A Pierce County man had no trouble disabling the GPS tracking device that was bound to his ankle, even though it is supposed to send off an alert to law enforcement if it’s tampered with. “I got sick of this little bugger on my leg, it was beating my ankle into a bloody pulp,” said the 25 year old who asked to be called “Red.” “I’m not a tagged animal,” he added. Full Article
Read MoreAuthor: Admin
Chelsea’s Law: A Light to Shine On
Today — February 25, 2014 — I want to take a moment to remember the legacy of a girl named Chelsea King. Chelsea was an activist, a runner, a student, a friend, a daughter, and a spunky, charismatic, jovial bubble of joy. This Tuesday marks the fourth anniversary of Chelsea’s disappearance from Poway, Calif., and eventual murder. While she no can longer light up rooms with her smile or belt out a tune on her French horn, her legacy carries on today in the form of Chelsea’s Law. Chelsea’s Law…
Read MoreGA: Lawmaker apologizes for bill scrapping sex offender loitering statute
A freshman Republican state lawmaker apologized Monday for introducing legislation that would scrap a state ban on registered sex offenders loitering near schools, daycare centers and other places where children gather. “In hindsight, this rookie mistake was silly,” Rep. Sam Moore of Cherokee County said in an extraordinary speech delivered on the House floor. “I am mature enough to admit that. At the time though, I believed that I was fulfilling a campaign promise to hit the ground running.” Moore said he did not intend to enable child molesters with House Bill 1033.…
Read MoreClandestine websites fuel ‘alarming’ increase in child porn
WASHINGTON — Often, as the homemade videos begin streaming across the computer screen, unwitting children appear holding homemade placards bearing the pseudonyms of the macabre films’ makers. The makeshift message boards represent claims of credit for the ghastly images that follow: children, some pleading for help, being sexually abused in torturous ways by parents, relatives or others. Among the worst: infants used as toys for the videographers’ and viewers’ sexual gratification. Full Article
Read MoreGA: The case of the malicious sheriff
Newbie Georgia Republican legislator Sam Moore has struck a blow–albeit an unpopular one–for constitutional rights, fact-based legislation, and common sense. His bill would remove restrictions on registered citizens, once their sentences are satisfied, that restrict their movements and prohibit their presence in places such as schools and parks. Shocking as it is in Georgia, there are many jurisdictions throughout the U.S. that do not place these restrictions on registrants. Following what research shows, that these restrictions offer no public safety benefit and that community re-entry is the best path to…
Read MoreTaking a Stand: Women Against Registry responds to our 14 News investigation
EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) –In this week’s Taking a Stand, Vicki Henry with Women Against Registry has a response to our 14 News investigation of sex offenders and school bus stops. The Women Against Registry is based out of Washington, D.C., but she e-mailed her response to us; Vicki wrote the following: If we think about registered sex offenders at all, most of us fear them as monsters who have committed terrible sexual crimes against innocent children and are people who need to be carefully watched when released to make sure…
Read MoreAZ: Court rules Arizona law bars lawsuits against home sellers who don’t discuss nearby sex offenders
PHOENIX – A state appellate court says Arizona law bars lawsuits against home sellers who don’t disclose that a sex offender lives next door, but the ruling also says providing a false reason for selling is another story. The ruling revives a fraud claim against the sellers of a Scottsdale home. The sellers had told the buyers that they were selling because they wanted to be closer to friends. However, their real reason allegedly was the sex offender next door. Full Article
Read MoreMO: Gladstone woman on a crusade for change following Hailey Owens’ death
GLADSTONE, Mo. — Donna Roesle is a mother of three adult kids. Hours after the murder of Hailey Owens, she organized an online petition in hopes of getting a law passed that will get tougher on criminals who commit crimes against children. “It’s just awful that somebody can go out there and grab an innocent baby and do this,” Roesle said. Roesle has a daughter who is expecting her first child. The outrage she felt after Owens’ sudden death has left a hole in her heart and pushed her into action.…
Read MoreTX: Constitutional or not, court allows registration requirement for sex-offenses predating registry law
The Texas District and County Attorneys Association’s weekly case summaries last week described a new Court of Criminal Appeals decision which required sex-offender registration for offenses committed before the creation of the registry. The decision, though, failed to address the question of whether the underlying statute is constitutional, an issue dissenters said they should have confronted. Full Article
Read MoreGA: Bill would allow sex offenders at schools
CANTON — Brand new state Rep. Sam Moore (R-Macedonia) is pushing a sweeping law that would allow registered sex offenders to go anywhere they want — even to schools. Moore, in his first week in office, has turned in a bill that would overturn the crime of loitering and make it so registered sex offenders who aren’t otherwise barred from going to schools or places children gather could go to those places freely. “I am OK with that,” Moore said Thursday, adding that he meant only those who were off…
Read MoreNH: House Votes 231-97 To Prohibit Sex Offender Restrictions
Twelve towns have passed ordinances to limit where sex offenders can live — barring offenders from living near schools, or child-care centers. But law enforcement oppose such bans. Renny Cushing of Hampton, a Democrat, told House colleagues that police know restrictions make monitoring offenders harder. “The chiefs of police do not want to have a situation where you take away one of the tools they have which is to track where sex offenders are. And that’s also why the coalition against sexual and domestic violence is in support of this legislation.”…
Read MoreMN: Judge lets Minnesota sex offender suit proceed
A federal judge allowed a constitutional challenge to Minnesota’s sex-offender program to proceed Thursday and issued a strongly worded challenge to the Legislature to step in and fix “a system that is clearly broken.” U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank didn’t rule on the merits of the constitutional claims brought by participants in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program, but he ordered a panel of court-appointed experts to gather further evidence and indicated that if plaintiffs’ claims hold up, the program is likely in serious constitutional trouble. Full Article
Read MoreWI: Scott Walker’s administration fires new sex offender administrator
Madison — Gov. Scott Walker’s administration Wednesday dropped a controversial new hire charged with evaluating sex offenders for release back into Wisconsin communities, a move that came only hours after Walker said he opposed the psychologist. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first reported on the hire of Daniel Montaldi as “evaluation director” at the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center, a state facility for sex predators. Montaldi, who was to evaluate sex offenders and recommend to court officials which ones should be released, resigned from his post running Florida’s sex predator program six…
Read MoreIL: Reflections on the Campaign to Stop Jail Construction
When we began our campaign to stop jail construction in Champaign County in early 2012, I thought we were doomed. The grand plan to spend $20 million on this project seemed like a done deaI. The Sheriff was driving the initiative; the leading lights in the County Board seemed to think jail construction was the only prudent course. Yet, nearly two years later we have a very different scenario. The 2014 budget for Champaign County doesn’t include a single cent for jail construction. In fact, the county has allocated more than…
Read MoreCapitol Punishment: The Troubling Consequences of Federal Child Pornography Laws
Until Dec. 11, 2013, Jesse Ryan Loskarn was a popular chief of staff for a Tennessee senator. But on that winter day, police broke down the door of his rowhouse in southeast Washington, D.C., and searched for the illegal digital items that had led them there: explicit videos of boys posing nude and engaging in sexual acts. On Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014, Ryan was found dead in his basement. On Monday, Jan. 27, 2014, there was a twist. Ryan’s mother posted his suicide note online, revealing the great complexity to…
Read MoreMO: Sex offender from Ballwin area faces legal limbo
STE. GENEVIEVE COUNTY • There is a special wing here at the county jail that holds nine detainees who were convicted long ago for sex crimes. They already served their time in prison. Still, they wear bright orange jumpsuits as they await another kind of trial. Flagged as possible sexually violent predators, the Missouri attorney general’s office wants them held indefinitely at a secure state mental institution called Sex Offender Rehabilitation and Treatment Services, or SORTS. But first, in most of their cases, juries will be asked to make a rare decision in…
Read MoreOK: Convicted sex offender sues to stay in his home
PRYOR, OK — A convicted sex offender has sued the district attorney and city of Pryor over housing dispute. ____ ____ bought a home near Jefferson Elementary School in Pryor before the sex offender law was passed which would prevent him from living within 2,000 feet of the school. He was convicted of a child sexual offense in 2008. When he was released from prison in 2013, law enforcement told him he could not live in his house because of it’s proximity to a school. ____’s position is he owned the home…
Read MoreD.A. Wants Top Court to Review Rulings Overturning Ban on Sex Offenders in Parks
Orange County prosecutors petitioned the state Supreme Court to review two appellate court rulings striking down a ban on registered sex offenders in the county’s parks and in more than a dozen of its cities. “The people of the state of California respectfully petition this court to grant review of an important issue affecting every city and county in California,” Deputy District Attorney Brian Fitzpatrick wrote in his petition to the high court. “Cities and counties need to know whether they can act to protect children within their communities from the approximately…
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