[floridaactioncommittee.org 5/4/18] Facing an imminent lawsuit to be brought by Legal Services of Greater Miami on behalf of the homeless sex offenders living alongside railroad tracks in Miami-Dade, the Deputy Mayor has granted a temporary reprieve to the forced eviction scheduled for Sunday, May 6, 2018. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, had sent a memo on March 21st, announcing plans to shut down the encampment of sex offenders living outdoors, legislated into homelessness by the County’s 2500 foot exclusion zone. Included in that plan was a deadline of May 6th for…
Read MoreCategory: National
VA: Registered sex offender sues Stafford School Board for banning him from meetings
[fredericksburg.com 5/4/18] A Stafford County resident is suing the county’s School Board over a no-trespassing notice that effectively prohibits him from attending the board’s meetings because he is a registered sex offender. Melvin Allen filed a federal lawsuit this month claiming that the action violates his constitutional right to participate in public meetings. He is seeking unspecified damages. Allen received the notice barring him from “School Board-owned property” on May 3, 2016, presumably because he picked up his grandson from Winding Creek Elementary School the previous month, according to the…
Read MoreRI: 4 Cranston residents concerned about sex offenders, criminally insane living nearby
[abc6.com 4/30/18] CRANSTON, R.I. (WLNE) — Cranston East High School hosted a forum Monday night that many feel is long overdue, about a growing list of unwanted neighbors for those who live along Roosevelt and Pontiac Avenues. “With Cranston being the receiving community of not only sex offenders but now the criminally insane, our residents need to be aware of it,” said Rep. Robert Lancia. Since 2012, the sex offender population at Harrington Hall on Howard Ave has been steadily growing–now hovering around 30. “If you go hang out with…
Read MoreNew Federal sex offense bills: H.R. 5650 Nicole’s Law Act and H.R. 5622 PERSIST Against MST Act
[govtrack.us 4/27/18] H.R. 5650: Nicole’s Law Act of 2018 To direct the Attorney General to make grants to States that have in place laws that expand the protections offered to victims of sex offenses who are not in a familiar or dating relationship with the perpetrators of such offenses. H.R. 5622: PERSIST Against MST Act To improve the ability of the Department of Defense to address sexual offenses, and for other purposes.
Read MoreWA: Landlords sue Seattle over tenant history ordinance
[richmond.com 5/1/18] SEATTLE (AP) — A landlord group has sued the city of Seattle over an ordinance passed in August that prohibits them from making rental decisions based on a tenant’s criminal background. The Rental Housing Association of Washington sued the city in King County Superior Court Tuesday. The complaint alleges the city has violated property owners’ due process and free speech rights. It says landowners have a right to select their tenants and the ordinance is unreasonable. The Seattle City Council unanimously approved the “fair chance housing” ordinance in…
Read MoreSex Offender Laws Shame
[youtube.com 3/19/15 – Shame vs guilt] Shame is an unspoken epidemic, the secret behind many forms of broken behavior. Brené Brown is an American scholar, author, and public speaker, who is currently a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. Watch the video
Read MoreCO: Bill bans conflicts of interest on sex offender management board after Contact7 investigation
[thedenverchannel.com 5/1/18] DENVER — The Colorado House Judiciary Committee voted Tuesday to move forward with legislation that would ban members of the state’s sex offender management board from profiting from the treatment requirements they set. The sex offender management board, also known as the SOMB, sets the standards and procedures for supervision and treatment of convicted sex offenders in the state. Last year, Contact7 Investigates explored allegations of a conflict of interest within the board when it comes to polygraph testing mandated for offenders. Public records show the polygraph company…
Read MoreChild Sexual Abuse Prevention Isn’t a Soft Option
[medium.com 4/29/18 – alternatives to anti-registrant laws] Wouldn’t it be great if we could eliminate child sexual abuse (CSA) with a pill? But it’s a more complicated prospect than it seems. Who would you administer it to? Most child sex offenders are unknown to the police before they offend, and by then, it’s too late for their victims. So would you just administer this pill to everybody, to be on the safe side? And if you did, what if it had side effects? Thinking that we can eliminate CSA with…
Read MoreIL: ‘I’m Scared, Very Scared’: Mass Murderer Moves Into Home Near La Grange Elementary School
[UPDATED LINKS 5/2/18] [nbcchicago.com 4/30/18] Parents tell NBC 5 they’re shocked a mass murderer recently released from prison moved in right across the street from a suburban elementary school. _______, 77, just got out of prison after serving time for killing five people in a Yorkville restaurant in 1972. Neighbors say he’s living in a La Grange home with a family who took him in as part of an outreach program with their Hinsdale church. The home is across the street from Seventh Avenue School. … “How could a sex…
Read MoreCutting federal prison terms would endanger communities and reward criminals
[foxnews.com 4/27/18] Bills labeled “criminal justice reform” have circulated in Congress for the past three years, but while they are well-meaning, they would do far more harm than good. This includes a measure sponsored by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, titled the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act. The Grassley legislation would make our communities less safe by returning still more convicted criminals from federal prisons to the streets sooner. In addition, the Grassley bill would tie up hundreds of federal prosecutors, who would be forced to deal with sentencing reduction motions…
Read MoreBreaking down the Michigan bills+ Breaking down the Michigan bills intended to stop the next Larry Nassar
[bridgemi.com 4/24/18] It’s been three months since Larry Nassar was sent to spend the rest of his life in prison for criminal sexual conduct, after more than 200 women and girls said he sexually abused them. Now, representatives in Michigan’s state House are considering bills they hope will prevent other predators from following in his footsteps. There are more than 30 bills total, which range from more rigorous medical practice requirements to extending the statute of limitations on criminal sexual conduct prosecutions and lawsuits. Most have bipartisan sponsorship. Read more…
Read MoreNY: A Jury Rejected the Charges, but He Still Has to Register As a Sex Offender for Life
[reason.com 4/30/18] New York’s highest court says accusations can be considered for registration purposes even when the defendant was acquitted. In New York a defendant can be forced to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life based on accusations a jury rejected. So the state’s highest court ruled last week in a case that illustrates how fear and loathing of sex offenders lead to results that would be recognized as unjust and illogical in any other context. __________’s 13-year-old niece, identified in court documents as A.B.,…
Read MoreInstagram now bans registered sex offenders
[floridaactioncommittee.org 4/30/18] On April 19, 2018, Facebook owned Instagram, revised it’s Terms of Use. The new version replaces the prior version, which had been in place since 2013, can be found here: http://help.instagram.com/581066165581870?helpref=page_content Sadly, included in this months change is a ban on anyone registered as a sex offender. The restriction did not appear in the prior version. Read more
Read MoreIN: Indiana Supreme Court suggests declaratory judgment a better avenue to challenge collateral consequences
[floridaactioncommittee.org 4/30/18] Although the Indiana Supreme Court ruled against a registered sex offender father trying to attend his son’s school events, they did give him some guidance on how to go about his challenge. Douglas Kirby plead guilty to child solicitation eight years ago and was sentenced to eighteen months probation. While he was on probation (and until 2015) he was permitted to come on campus to see his son’s school activities. That was until Indiana passed a law in 2015 making it a felony for him to ” knowingly…
Read MoreFL: Miami-Dade Will Close Sex Offender Camp by May 6, Threatens Jail Time for Stragglers
Since 2014, a colony of homeless sex offenders has been rapidly growing by the railroad tracks near Hialeah. Nobody wants them there, including the dozens who call the ramshackle camp home. Everyone, from the Homeless Trust to the ACLU to the county commission, agrees the encampment is a public health and safety hazard. But for years, the sex offenders have said that restrictive county laws mean they have nowhere else to legally live and that county officials have failed to solve the problem. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Video Shows City Workers Destroying Property of Homeless Miamians
[miaminewtimes.com 4/25/18] The morning of April 17, Wilbur Cauley left all of his belongings in their usual place: stacked by a fence under the I-395 overpass at NW First Court and 13th Street. It was in the middle of a four-block area where about 30 homeless Miamians live. That morning, Cauley, an Army veteran in his late 50s who served three years in Germany, went to a nearby store for a soda. When he returned, he says, a man in a dark-green shirt was kicking bags that contained Cauley’s birth…
Read MorePassport revoked
[narsol.org 4/27/18] By Scott . . . I’m on the board of Illinois Voices for Reform and have been actively involved with the organization since 2012. I am on the registry for life as currently required by Illinois law due to an incident involving a minor back in 2008. I served two years of probation and successfully completed sex offender counseling in 2012. My wife and I love to travel, and we were fortunate to be able to travel to Europe for a week at the end of March. I…
Read MoreFederal SORN Policies
[sexlawandpolicy.org] There are few people as uniformly despised as people with sex offense convictions. It’s not hard to understand when you’re inundated with overblown reports concluding that all people on the registry are sexually recidivistic, incurable, and predatory. Overcome by outrage and fear we support any measures to protect against victimization, even if the proposed legislation is a sweeping and draconian measure. The last twenty-five years is a lasting testament to our panicked response to media hysterics and hyperbole, especially at the federal level. During this time, a number of…
Read More