A single mistake when he was 12 landed Josh Gravens on Texas’ sex offender list. He’s been paying for it ever since. When Josh Gravens was 12 years old, he made a terrible mistake. He and his sister, who was 8, had sexual contact, twice. “Like, where my body part touched her body part,” he says. “It was never penetrative. Obviously, it couldn’t have been what they call consensual, but it was playing.” Josh’s sister told their mother, who was alarmed. She wanted to ensure that, even if Josh’s intentions…
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Public-Place Laws Tighten Rein on Sex Offenders
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — Convicted sex offenders are barred from surfing at the famous pier in this Orange County city. In nearby Dana Point, they are prohibited from casting a fishing line in the harbor. And if they wander into a public park in Mission Viejo, they could be shipped back to jail for six months, following the City Council’s vote this year to ban them from a host of places where children congregate. “We need to protect our kids,” the Orange County district attorney, Tony Rackauckas, had told the…
Read MoreRape conviction reversed; Long Beach football star exonerated
LONG BEACH — A man convicted of rape nine years ago walked out of court Thursday an innocent man. Brian Banks, a promising football star at Long Beach Poly High with a scholarship offer from USC, had his 2003 conviction reversed by Long Beach Superior Court Judge Mark Kim after the victim in the case recanted. Nine years in the making, Banks’ battle to be exonerated lasted less than 30 seconds in court. It took only moments for the District Attorney’s office to “concede the matter” and Banks was no…
Read MoreOK: Gov. Mary Fallin signs Oklahoma sex offender bill
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Gov. Mary Fallin has signed legislation that bans registered sex offenders from living with minor children. Fallin signed the measure into law on Tuesday. Its author, Rep. Mike Sanders, says it will help protect Oklahoma children. Previously, state law didn’t prohibit a sex offender from living with a minor child. Sanders says he was surprised to learn that a sex offender was living with a child in his district. Full Article From HB NO. 3049 – Section 590 B. It shall be unlawful for any person…
Read MoreLife term for Briton who killed innocent man he suspected of pedophilia
LONDON — A 28-year-old Englishman was jailed for life Tuesday over the murder of a man he wrongly suspected of being a pedophile — bashing the older victim to death after the pair had sex. Christopher Hunnisett killed 57-year-old Peter Bick at the victim’s flat in Lewes — southeast England — after embarking on a crusade to “rid the world of pedophiles,” the Lewes People reported. Hunnisett was sentenced in London, having earlier been found guilty at Lewes Crown Court of the January 2011 killing. Full Article
Read MoreCity of Santa Ana Parks Ban Ordinance
City Council Meeting May 21, 2012, 6 pm 60 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana, California First Reading to adopt an ordinance to the Santa Ana Municipal Code pertaining to the proximity restrictions of registered sex offenders to children’s facilities. (The Main Library is to be included in the list of children’s facilities. ) Agenda – see page 154
Read MoreTX: Registered sex offender wins election in small Texas town
The controversy surrounding city elections in a town in the Texas Panhandle continues. That’s because one of the newly elected city council members has a checkered past. A pair of two-year terms on Skellytown’s city council were up for grabs Saturday. The results are in now and not everyone is happy. That’s because one of those spots is now being filled by a man who is a former mayor forced to resign. He is also a registered sex offender. Full Article
Read MoreIL: Charges Dropped Against Man Who Served 20 Years for Rape
Lake County prosecutors on Tuesday dropped sexual assault charges against a man accused in a decades-old Waukegan rape. “I’m feeling great,” said Bennie Starks. “The fight is not over yet. We still have one more hurdle, but it’s a great day.” Starks, convicted in 1986 of assaulting a 68-year-old woman, had served 20 years of a 60-year sentence when DNA evidence was retrieved that excluded him from the crime. Full Article
Read MoreMissouri House passes sex offender bill
JEFFERSON CITY • The Missouri House is sending a bill to the Senate that could drastically cut back the state’s sex offender registry rolls. After giving initial approval Tuesday night, the chamber took a second vote on the issue Thursday, advancing it to the other chamber. House Bill 1700 received near unanimous and overwhelmingly bi-partisan support in the Republican-controlled House. Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/political-fix/missouri-house-passes-sex-offender-bill/article_4353f458-789d-11e1-a594-001a4bcf6878.html#ixzz1v6k7D0Hk
Read MoreApartment Manager Found Dead In National City
NATIONAL CITY, Calif. — The nude, bloodied body of a South Bay apartment manager — reportedly a registered sex offender — was found early Tuesday on the doorstep of his residence, where he’d been stabbed to death by an unidentified assailant. A tenant of the complex in the 300 block of Norton Avenue in National City reported discovering the body at about 1 a.m. Full Article
Read MoreNew protections for job seekers with criminal records
It’s estimated 65 million Americans with criminal records face barriers when looking for work. Some of those barriers are within the law, but new federal guidelines want to prevent unreasonable screening out of job seekers. — Includes a call from a registrant offering a relevant perspective. Full Article / Audio
Read MoreLet Them Live With the Other Large Reptiles: The Failure of Residency Restrictions
America has a lot of harsh laws against sex offenders that shame and banish this unpopular group. Miami sends them to live in the swamps with the poisonous snakes and boa constrictors. Georgia bars them from living or working within 1,000 feet of a school bus stop. Pretty much the whole state is off limits for employment or domicile. California bans them from living in just about any of the cities. Those laws are under serious legal challenge, and the Georgia bus stop code is on hold pending the outcome…
Read MoreMothers of sex offenders share responsibility, burden of label
(CNN) — Christine Smith will never forget the moment she watched her 21-year-old son being led out of a Florida courtroom in handcuffs. “This is not happening, this is not happening, this is not happening,” she recalls thinking at the time. “Take me instead.” She sobbed because there was nothing she could do. Matthew, the second of her three children, was going to prison after pleading guilty to 10 counts of possession of child pornography. A judge in Duval County sentenced him in April 2010 to 18 months in state…
Read MoreMI: ‘Romeo’ not cleared, gets life on list
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) – He was a poster child for what was wrong with Michigan’s sex offender registry — a teen on the list for a one-night stand with an under-age girl. Then, the state passed sweeping reforms to the sex offender list, and it appeared Rick McQuillin’s name would be erased, and his life would change. A year later, Target 8 found his life has changed — for the worse. Full Article
Read MoreViewing child porn on the Web ‘legal’ in New York, state appeals court finds
Viewing child pornography online isn’t a crime, the New York Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday in the case of a college professor whose work computer was found to have stored more than a hundred illegal images in its Web cache. Full Article
Read MoreSex Offender at 12, Punished For Life
When Kevin was 12 years old he was slapped with a felony. His school’s principal caught him and his 10 year old friend sexually experimenting in the boy’s bathroom. He says it was consensual, that he wasn’t trying to hurt anyone, but Kevin was branded as a Level Two sex offender. His name and photo went up on Lewis County’s sex offender website and his life became a living hell. Full Article
Read MoreWant to Undermine Science in Public Policy? Start With Sex
The Huffington Post: For thousands of years, every reasonable person knew that the sun revolved around the earth. After all, people could see it happen with their own eyes. And when Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler used science to show otherwise, people laughed at them. It took a century for the idea that the earth revolved around the sun to even begin to catch on. Full Article
Read MoreEl Dorado County bans sex offenders from public parks
February 8, 2012: The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors gave initial approval Tuesday to a law that will make it a crime for registered sex offenders to frequent public parks. Full Article – County Ordinance [hana-flv-player video=”https://all4consolaws.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Movie-El-Dorado-County.flv” width=”400″ height=”330″ description=”” player=”4″ autoload=”true” autoplay=”false” loop=”false” autorewind=”true” /]
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