Source: abcnews.go.com 7/19/24 NASHVILLE, Tenn. — HIV-positive people who were convicted in Tennessee of sex work under a decades-old aggravated prostitution law will no longer be required to face a lifetime registration as a “violent sex offender” under a lawsuit settlement finalized this week. Last year, LGBTQ+ and civil rights advocates filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Volunteer State’s aggravated prostitution statute, arguing that the law was enacted in response to the AIDS scare and discriminated against HIV-positive people. Read the full article
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Plaintiff Files Final Brief in Missouri Halloween Sign Challenge
Source: ACSOL Today the plaintiff in the case challenging Missouri’s Halloween sign requirement filed his final brief in federal district court. The brief includes testimony from the trial which took place in St. Louis on June 20. In the brief, the plaintiff repeated his argument that the Missouri state law that requires signs to be posted on Halloween violates the First Amendment because it is speech compelled by the government. The brief notes that the proper standard of review for this case is strict scrutiny, a burden the Attorney General…
Read MoreMO: Man sentenced to 10 years in federal prison without parole for possessing computer-generated images of child sexual abuse
Source: newstalkkzrg.com 7/19/24 [ACSOL is posting this as a warning of harsh sentences for computer images] SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A West Plains, Mo., man who is a registered sex offender was sentenced in federal court Tuesday for possessing hundreds of computer-generated images of child sexual abuse. Dace Allen _____, 24, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Roseann A. Ketchmark to 10 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Allen to 15 years of supervised release following incarceration. … This case was brought as part of Project Safe…
Read MoreSC: Church fires long-time pastor after finding out he was convicted 27 years ago of sex offense
Source: chvnradio.com 7/19/24 A church in South Carolina just fired their pastor after finding out some disturbing information about him regarding an assault on a 14-year-old girl. Pastor Donald _____ has been fired from his position at Eternal Church in Fort Mill, SC, in the U.S.A. It was recently revealed that Donald is a registered sex offender convicted of sexual misconduct with a 14-year-old girl, an incident that took place 27 years ago. … The Eternal church elders shared that a few leaders were aware of Donald ’s criminal past.…
Read MoreFL: Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor reportedly arrested again on felony charge over sex offender registration violation
Source: msn.com 7/19/24 [ACSOL is posting this due to it being a well-known figure dealing with multi-state registration laws] Pro Football Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor was arrested on Wednesday on a felony charge for failing to report his residence change as a registered sex offender, according to The Athletic. Taylor, 65, turned himself into the Broward Sheriff’s Office in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Wednesday and he was released on bail on Thursday, per the report. The incident is nearly identical to a situation in 2021, when Taylor was arrested for…
Read MoreFL: Westlake City Council blocks future registrants from living there
Source: cbs12.com 7/17/24 WESTLAKE, Fla. (CBS12) — The Westlake City Council unanimously signed off on plans to enact stricter requirements on sexual predators and offenders – with one minor change. The measure is designed to protect the youngest residents of the area’s fastest-growing city and its main focus is widening the zones where predators are allowed to live, keeping them further away from children. … Under the new regulations, schools, parks, community centers, playgrounds, and “other places where children regularly congregate” would be no-go zones. The proposal originally included libraries,…
Read MoreTN: ‘Disturbing’ recordings from inside child-predator sting shows police, MAGA operatives ignoring laws
Source: newschannel5.com 7/16/24 Recordings show police discussing luring predator suspect to a jurisdiction where he may not leave the jail alive NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — What happens when you give people with bizarre conspiracy theories a gun and a badge? Secret recordings from inside the troubled Millersville Police Department provide a sobering answer to that question. Those recordings — obtained from what was supposed to be a sting operation to nab sexual predators who prey on innocent children — show that, in their zeal to make some big cases, Millersville’s…
Read MoreCA: Montgomery County man gets $431,000 for time wrongly listed on sex offender registry
Source: wsls.com 7/13/24 MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Va. – A Montgomery County man is finally getting closure after he was convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. Closure in the amount of nearly half a million dollars. David Kingrea received over $55,000 last year from the Commonwealth for the time he spent in jail in 2014 for a crime he didn’t commit. But that’s not where David’s story ends. There was more money to come for the eight years Kingrea wrongfully spent on the Virginia Sex Offender Registry. “Being on the registry…
Read MoreID: ‘What is the relevance?’ Idaho sheriff’s office post about sex offender irks Satanists
Source: eastidahonews.com 8/8/24 [ACSOL note: this article makes an important point about the lack of relevance about a persons religion] CASCADE (Idaho Statesman) — The Valley County Sheriff’s Office included an intriguing detail recently when it announced that a suspect pleaded guilty to possessing or accessing sexually exploitative material of a child. The result was a lot of online chatter and controversy. In a Facebook post, the Sheriff’s Office wrote that the 22-year-old man was “a member of the Idaho chapter of The Satanic Temple.” … Groups such as the…
Read MoreTN: Death penalty for child rapists does more harm than good. Tennessee erred on new law
Source: tennessean.com 7/7/24 If you expand the pool of potential capital defendants to include non-lethal child rape, you substantially increase the potential for wrongful convictions. Against the advice of child service providers and experts, the legislature recently passed a bill to expand the death penalty to individuals who sexually abuse children. As the mother of three young children, I understand the desire to punish people who commit these reprehensible crimes. However, as someone who has served as a victim-witness coordinator for the Davidson County District Attorney’s Office, a probation officer,…
Read MoreMS: Mississippi’s sodomy law cost taxpayers nearly half a million dollars, but remains on the books
Source: dailykos.com 7/6/24 Mississippi coughed up more than $400,000 this year to attorneys who sued the state over an unconstitutional sodomy law that criminalizes oral and anal sex, and if a similar suit is filed in the future, it could pay even more money. The Legislature appropriated and paid the fees to civil rights attorneys from multiple legal organizations after Mississippi Attorneys General Jim Hood and Lynn Fitch spent years defending the antiquated sodomy law—Mississippi Code Section 97-29-59. But Mississippi could be on the hook for even more fees, according…
Read MoreAR: Civilian groups responsible for multiple arrests of alleged child predators in Arkansas
Source: 5newsonline.com 7/5/24 BENTON COUNTY, ARKANSAS, Ark. — Multiple different civilian groups have been credited with helping in the arrest of alleged child On June 26, Daniel ____ was arrested and booked in the Sebastian County Detention Center for possession or use of child sexual abuse material. An affidavit says that on May 26, officers responded to Rogers Avenue in Fort Smith for a disorderly conduct call. On the scene, officers made contact with three people claiming to be part of a group called Oklahoma Predator Prevention. The men…
Read More‘American Ninja Warrior’ winner Drew Drechsel sentenced to 10 years for child sex crimes
Source: msn.com 6/28/24 Andrew ‘Drew’ Drechsel, who won Season 11 of NBC’s American Ninja Warrior in 2019, has been sentenced to just over 10 years in prison after being charged with multiple child sex crimes. As reported by People, Drechsel was arrested at his home in Florida back in August 2020 after engaging in a sexual relationship with a teenage girl in 2014 after they met at an event. Read the full article
Read MoreSupreme Court takes sledgehammer to federal agency power in Chevron case
Source: thehill.com 6/28/24 The Supreme Court took a sledgehammer to executive agencies’ power Friday by overruling a prominent precedent that bolstered their ability to implement regulations in wide areas of American life, including consumer and environmental protections. In an 6-3 decision along ideological lines, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority upended a 40-year administrative law precedent that gave agencies across the federal government leeway to interpret ambiguous laws through rulemaking. Known as Chevron deference, the now-overturned legal doctrine instructed judges to defer to agencies in cases where the law is ambiguous.…
Read MoreSCOTUS Makes It Easier for Victims of Retaliatory Arrests To Vindicate Their First Amendment Rights
Source: reason.com 6/20/24 When someone claims to have been arrested in retaliation for constitutionally protected speech, what sort of evidence is necessary to make that case? Five years ago in Nieves v. Bartlett, the Supreme Court held that an arrest can violate the First Amendment even if it was based on probable cause, provided the claimant can present “objective evidence that he was arrested when otherwise similarly situated individuals not engaged in the same sort of protected speech had not been.” Today in Gonzalez v. Trevino, the Court said that showing…
Read MoreFL: MMA fighter turns vigilante: Man busts alleged child predator at Walmart
Source: abc45.com 6/21/24 DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — As a professional MMA fighter, Dustin “Scrappy” Lampros spends most of his days training for the ring. But in his free time, he fights for those who can’t defend themselves: hunting down predators who prey on children. One recent case involved Nicholas _____, 43, who was recently arrested for allegedly attempting to meet a minor for illicit purposes. The incident unfolded at a Walmart in Delray Beach. “I have the time to go and do this. Also, I have the skill set…
Read MoreCongress can score another bipartisan win for safety and justice
Source: thehill.com 6/18/24 As a recent eruption between members of the House Oversight Committee demonstrated, Congress doesn’t always model good behavior. But beyond the theatrics and gridlock that make headlines, many Americans might be pleasantly surprised to find encouraging examples of serious lawmakers working together. The bipartisan Safer Supervision Act is just that. The legislation, co-authored by Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Chris Coons (D-Del.), aligns with the research on what works to make communities safer and provide second chances, building on the success of the First Step Act, on which a Democratic Congress and…
Read MoreJudge Tosses Biometric Data Suit Against X
Source: reason.com 6/19/24 X’s child porn detection system doesn’t violate an Illinois biometric privacy law, the judge ruled. A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit concerning the software X (formerly Twitter) uses to find illegal porn images. The suit was brought by Mark Martell, who objected to X using Microsoft’s PhotoDNA software. Martell argued that PhotoDNA—which is used across the tech industry to detect and report child porn—required the collection of biometric data and that this collection violated Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). A win for Martell could have imperiled…
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