Exactly 300 days after former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert was indicted on bombshell charges of paying hush money to cover up wrongdoing in his past, the words “sexual abuse” were finally uttered on the record. It came Tuesday during an unannounced court hearing at which lawyers on both sides met with the judge to discuss a potential delay in Hastert’s upcoming sentencing to accommodate an alleged victim — identified only as Individual D — who had recently come forward. Full Article Related Janice’s Journal: Two Heart Beats Away from…
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International Megan’s Law: America’s Global Embarrassment
What sounds like a good law in a twenty-second sound bite sometimes turns out to be less clear when one digs below the surface. Such is the case with International Megan’s Law, which President Obama recently signed into law. International Megan’s Law requires those who committed a sex offense against a child to have a permanent stamp placed on their passport. While this may sound like a no-brainer if we consider the media’s portrayal of the sexual predator, reality is far more complicated. Full Opinion Piece
Read MoreSentences for some sex offenders defy reason (Op Ed)
It’s important to be tough on crime. We must protect society, especially our children, from criminals whose past behaviors have clearly proven them to be dangerous predators. But sometimes we go overboard when the law creates more unnecessary suffering than it prevents. Full Op-Ed
Read More‘The most viscerally hated group on earth’: Documentary explores how intervention can stop pedophiles
An unsettling new documentary that features pedophiles advocating for themselves on camera argues that unless we provide these men with preventive therapy and mental-health support, we are failing their victims. Spotlighting “the most viscerally hated group on earth,” I, Pedophile stresses a crucial distinction few of us care to make: the difference between pedophiles and child molesters. Full Article
Read MoreMore U.S. police officers buying insurance in case of lawsuits, union says
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Law enforcement officers in the United States are increasingly buying professional liability insurance policies amid worries they may be sued for their on-duty actions, the Fraternal Order of Police, the biggest U.S. police union, told Reuters. Between July 2014 and July 2015, the number of members who bought the union’s liability insurance jumped 15 percent, according to data from the FOP released this week and shared exclusively with Reuters. In previous years, liability insurance purchases grew only between one to three percent, said Jim Pasco, executive director…
Read MoreShould Parents Reveal That a Father at Their Child’s School Is a Sex Offender?
My daughter goes to a public elementary school. Recently, one of the parents in our class discovered that a fellow parent, the father of a girl in my daughter’s class, was arrested in an undercover police operation for soliciting an underage female prostitute. Details of the undercover operation were posted online. He agreed to pay for sex with the underage prostitute, who would come to his house while his young children were asleep and his wife was away at work. He confessed to the crime but is not on the…
Read MoreThe Smear Campaign Against Potential SCOTUS Nominee Jane Kelly Is an Attack on the Constitution
There are few constitutional provisions more important than the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of a right to defense counsel. That civil liberty, which applies even for indigent defendants who can’t afford their own attorney, is the cornerstone of the United States criminal justice system and a critical component of due process. In the legal community, it’s understood that criticizing an attorney who defends an unpopular defendant—especially a public defender assigned to an impoverished client—is inappropriate, offensive, and unprofessional. Public defenders who represent disreputable defendants are fulfilling the requirements of the Constitution;…
Read MoreNew Efforts To Extend Statutes Of Limitations For Sexual Crimes
Many victims of sexual assault do not immediately report the crime. In the allegations against Bill Cosby, his accusers came forward years later. And in the child sex abuse scandal within the Catholic Church, many victims did not come forward until decades after the fact. For most of these cases, the time to prosecute has run out. Now, a growing number of states are extending the time limits to allow cases to be heard in court. But criminal defense attorneys warn this will lead to innocent people being put behind…
Read More5 YEARS LATE, FAKE SEX TRAFFICKING CASE CRUMPLES IN TENN. FED. COURT
Muslim Somali gang members. Secret meetings with a detective. Cross-country sex trafficking. A dramatic three-week federal criminal trial. Sounds like the stuff of fiction. Maybe a good plot for one of those thrilling TV crime shows. And, indeed, it was fiction. But it probably didn’t feel like that to the 29 defendants who were charged in a Tennessee federal court with running a sinister juvenile sex trafficking ring that turned out to be, well, a bunch of kids being jackasses. But not trafficking sex slaves. Full Article
Read MoreMarch RSOL in Action – March 14, 2016, 7 p.m. Eastern time
This is your second notice of an extremely important conference call. This month’s call will focus on two very important pending court cases: International Megan’s Law challenge currently pending in the U.S District Court, Northern District of California; and The ACLU’s lawsuit in Rhode Island pending in U.S. District Court, District of Rhode Island. Our special guests will be Janice Bellucci, CA RSOL President, and Steve Brown, Executive Director of the ACLU of Rhode Island. General Q & A will follow after each report. Everyone is invited to listen in on the…
Read MoreIML Motion to be Heard on March 30 in Oakland
A hearing will be held on March 30 during which a decision is expected by a federal judge regarding whether to grant a Preliminary Injunction that would stop implementation of all or part of the International Megan’s Law (IML). Judge Phyllis Hamilton will preside over that hearing in Courtroom 3 at the U.S. District Court, 1301 Clay Street, Oakland, CA. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m., however, three additional matters are also on the judge’s schedule that morning. A press conference will be held immediately after the…
Read MoreThe U.S. Congress Has Successfully Extended the “Megan” Franchise
We lost the battle, brewing for some eight years in Congress, which will effectively stop those of us, U.S. ‘registered sex offenders.’ from venturing beyond our own countries. The enactment of International Megan’s Law is not the end of the war, however, as we are fighting back against this injustice in the courts and, to the extent that we wield any influence, in the media. The bill was signed into law by President Obama February 8th of this year and will stoke the fire under the simmering cauldron which ‘child…
Read More“My Child’s Toy Has a Pedophile Symbol on It!” — Actual News Report
By buying a plush toy with a heart on it, Tampa mom Nicole O’Kelly unwittingly alerted predators that her little girl “is ready to be traded for sex.” Or so reports (if that’s the word) the station WFLA. Using a garbled mishmash of horror and hysteria, correspondent Melanie Michael told viewers that the toy, a pink stuffed truck recently purchased at a Monster Jam event, “held a sick secret; a disgusting calling card for creeps. The heart on the toy was a symbol for pedophiles.” Um…what? The heart within a heart, the reporter continued, is…
Read MoreJuveniles Don’t Belong On The Sex Offender Registry (Opinion)
At the age of 17, Mark O. of Grand Rapids, Mich., got his then 15-year old girlfriend pregnant. Taking responsibility for his actions and agreeing to provide support, he signed the birth certificate and later married the mother of his child. His “reward” was to face charges for sexual assault and a long-term requirement that his name and photo appear on a public sex-offender registry. Full Opinion Piece
Read MoreTime has come to declare voting a universal, fundamental right
I voted today. I know. What’s the big deal, right? Most Americans exercise the privilege sorta like they wash their cars. Sometimes it’s important. Other times, whatever. And that’s all it is, you know. A privilege. Yes, it’s 2016. Yes, we talk a good game about self-government and democracy. But voting in American, unlike speech and breeding, still doesn’t rank as “fundamental” in the pantheon of rights, at least not “legally” speaking. Full Article
Read MoreThe Biggest Sex-Trafficking Bust in FBI History Was Totally Bogus
In the press, it was a “wide-reaching sex-trafficking operation” run by Somali Muslim gangs who forced “girls as young as 12” to sell sex in Minnesota and Tennessee. In reality, the operation—which led to charges against 30 individuals, sex-trafficking convictions for three, and an eight year legal battle—was a fiction crafted by two troubled teenagers, a member of the FBI’s human-trafficking task force, and an array of overzealous officials. An opinion released this week by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals shows that federal prosecuters had no evidence whatsoever to…
Read MoreThe List
When juveniles are found guilty of sexual misconduct, the sex-offender registry can be a life sentence. Full Article
Read MoreHe ‘couldn’t fight back’: Mom of beaten baby wants abuser registry
On a November morning in 2013, Erica Hammel learned over the phone that her 1-year-old son Wyatt was near death — hospitalized with a skull fracture and brain damage after being violently shaken by a woman trusted to care for him. Hammel would later learn the woman had twice been convicted of child abuse — a revelation that led the Michigan mother to fight for a state-wide child abuser registry, which, if passed, would be the first of its kind in the nation. Full Article
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