As President Obama ponders a task force’s recommendations for reining in electronic surveillance by the National Security Agency, a federal judge in New York has allowed another government agency to invade the privacy of Americans. Judge Edward R. Korman ruled that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents may confiscate and examine the contents of laptop computers of Americans returning to the country even if they lack reasonable suspicion that the devices contain evidence of criminal activity. … In that case, the 9th Circuit nevertheless upheld a sophisticated forensic analysis of…
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People of Campo tell judge not to place sex offender in their community
SAN DIEGO (CNS) – Campo residents told a judge today they don’t want a soon-to-be-released sexually violent predator placed in their rural southeastern San Diego County community. After a hearing last August, Superior Court Judge David Gill found that ____ ____ could safely be released into the community for continued treatment and supervision. Last month, the Department of State Hospitals proposed placing Badger at a 5.07-acre private residence on Custer Road in Campo. The nearest schools are Campo Elementary, located 2.2 miles away, Mountain Meadow High School and Potrero Elementary School,…
Read MoreNV: New Law Puts More Sex Offenders on the Map
LAS VEGAS — People may soon find out there are more sex offenders living in their neighborhood than they thought. That is because a newly enforced state law is about to re-define who is considered a sex offender who must register. Judges and child welfare advocates say that it is going to be more difficult to tell who is a sexual predator because the sex offender map is now going to flag anyone who has committed a sexual offense, even those who teenagers at the time. The starting point for being…
Read MoreCA RSOL Meeting in Los Angeles – February 8
The next CA RSOL meeting in Los Angeles will take place on February 8th at 10 am, at the usual location – the ACLU building at 1313 W. 8th Street in Los Angeles. Registrants, family and friends, supporters and professionals are welcome to attend. Media and Government officials are not invited in order to ensure everyone’s privacy. We will discuss current topics, changes in the laws as well as pending litigation and advocacy strategies. Please join us on February 8th – Show up, Stand up, Speak up!
Read MoreGeneral Comments January 2014
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of January 2014. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MoreOne in four GPS devices on criminals in L.A. County were faulty
One in every four GPS devices used to track serious criminals released in Los Angeles County has proved to be faulty, according to a probation department audit — allowing violent felons to roam undetected for days or, in some cases, weeks. The problems included batteries that wouldn’t hold a charge and defective electronics that generated excessive false alarms. One felon, county officials said, had to have his GPS monitor replaced 11 times over a year; for five days during the 45-day audit period, his whereabouts were unknown. Full Article Related: Audit:…
Read MoreID: E-mail Notifications Feature Added to Idaho State Sex Offender Registry System
Citizens can now elect to receive e-mail notifications when a sex offender in their neighborhood moves to a new location. When interested persons register for this new service, they can specify the given radius of the area they desire to keep tabs on. Additionally, if a person is interested in being notified when a particular registrant moves, there is a link provided under the picture on each registrant’s page that reads, “Track Registrant.” When the user clicks on the link, they will be asked to provide the e-mail address where notifications…
Read MorePedophilia Is A Sexual Orientation, Canadian Experts Say
Doctors in Canada say pedophilia is a sexual orientation that is partly wired in the brain and can’t be changed. After a decade of research, Dr. James Cantor and his team at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health say some people are born pedophiles, meaning they are primarily sexually attracted to children. Researchers say one to five percent of all men are pedophiles. Full Article
Read MoreMO: Missouri Supreme Court rules against sex offenders
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri’s Supreme Court on Tuesday sided against three men previously convicted of a sex crime and facing a new criminal charge under a law making it illegal for them to be near certain parks. The cases are the most recent to focus on a portion of the Missouri Constitution barring retrospective and ex post facto laws. The high court ruled last month the ban on retrospective laws does not apply to criminal statutes. A divided Missouri Supreme Court concluded Tuesday the parks restriction is a…
Read MoreCT: Problems With Drug, Sex Offender Zones
Do crime-free zones around schools and other places where children gather actually protect children? The question will be aired in the next session of the General Assembly because of two proposals, one that seeks to reduce the size of drug-free zones around schools and another that would create zones around schools where sex offenders couldn’t live. The Connecticut Sentencing Commission has unanimously approved a recommendation to scale back the state’s drug-free zone from 1,500 feet to 200 feet of school property. Meanwhile, two legislators are proposing a bill that would…
Read MoreHe’s Not a Sex Offender, Married Man Says
VISALIA, Calif. (CN) – A man required to register as a sex offender for life for having consensual relations with his now-wife 24 years ago – when he was 19 and she was 17 – asked a state court to remove that obligation so he can get on with his life. In 1989, police busted ___ ___ ___, then 19, for having “consensual, voluntary relations” with his 17-year-old girlfriend. He pleaded guilty to a single count of oral copulation with a minor. That charge requires mandatory, lifetime registration as a…
Read MoreGangsters to Greyhounds: The Past, Present and Future of Offender Registration
Contrary to popular belief, offender registries are not a recent phenomenon. Offender registries are government-controlled systems that track the movements and other activities of certain persons with criminal convictions. While today they are most commonly used for sex offenders, registries have been adopted since the 1930s to regulate persons convicted of a wide variety of offenses including embezzlement, arson, and drug crimes. Early registries were widely criticized as ineffective and overly punitive, and many were eliminated through litigation or legislative repeals. Others simply fell into disuse over the course of the 20th century. Now, there is a growing…
Read MoreUK: More than 100 sex offenders use human rights ruling to get names taken off register
More than 100 of the country’s most dangerous sex attackers – including paedophiles and violent rapists – have had their names secretly removed from the Sex Offenders’ Register, it has been revealed. The criminals have used a human rights ruling to remove themselves from the list, arguing that they no longer pose a threat to the public. Full Article Related: Human rights victory for rapists and paedophiles, Sex Offenders and the Human Rights Act
Read MoreNew Google Glass App Can Recognize Up to 450,000 Sex Offenders so You Know When to Run
Though Google has banned facial recognition from Google Glass, one company is throwing that to the wind and is doing their own, anyway—and it’s specializing in sex offenders. NameTag, the Nevada-based company, has developed a Glass app that can recognize up to 450,000 sex offenders, and pulls its data from FacialNetwork.com. “I believe that this will make online dating and offline social interactions much safer and give us a far better understanding of the people around us,” said NameTag’s founder Kevin Tussy. “It’s much easier to meet interesting new people…
Read MoreMN: Education, empathy useful for legislators weighing sex offender program
Margretta Dwyer understands well the moral, legal and practical implications of dealing with sex offenders. But she hopes that Minnesota legislators working to revamp the civil commitment program also consider something else: Empathy. “I’m not saying sex offending is OK. I’m not saying be easy on them,” Dwyer said this week. “I’m saying there are ways we can help that are better than what we’re doing. Education, support, compassion.” Full Article
Read MoreNY:15 sex offenders charged with unregistered email accounts
Fifteen registered sex offenders were arrested this week for allegedly using email accounts on social networking sites like Facebook without first registering those accounts with the state Sex Offender Registry, officials announced Thursday. Under E-Stop legislation passed in 2008, these Oneida County sex offenders were charged with felonies and issued tickets to appear in Whitestown Town Court following a sweep by the Oneida County Child Advocacy Center, New York State Police, the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office and police departments in Kirkland, Utica and Rome. While the arrests do not suggest…
Read MoreLawmakers, Credit Card Companies Take Aim at Mug Shot Websites
For people who find their faces splashed across mug shot websites, even if they were later found innocent of the crimes, it can haunt them for the rest of their lives. Now, lawmakers and even credit card companies are stepping in to help protect people from further humiliation. Owners of mug shot websites will post the photos released by police departments with the person’s name and information. Many then make money by charging people, sometimes hundreds of dollars, to have a mug shot removed. Dozens of these sites exist and can…
Read More25 to life for failing to reregister as sex offender
___ ___ was a 41-year-old man with a long criminal record and a low IQ when he left Oakland in late 1999 and bedded down at a homeless shelter in San Mateo. Police found him there in March 2000 and discovered he had failed to reregister as a sex offender as required by law — once a year, within five days of his birthday, and within five days of a change of address. After a San Mateo County judge barred a psychologist from testifying about ____ low mental capacity, a…
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