The Indiana Supreme Court must decide if a Howard County father can attend his son’s school activities despite his serious sex offender status after hearing arguments Thursday on an ex post facto claim. After being convicted of child solicitation in 2010, _____ ____ was sentenced to 18 months of probation and was ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years. However, the Howard Superior Court granted ____ special permission to continue attending his son’s school activities on school property, despite his sex offender status. But when the Unlawful…
Read MoreCategory: National
NE: Governor vetoes criminal conviction set-aside bill
[journalstar.com] Gov. Pete Ricketts issued his first veto of the session Wednesday, rejecting a bill (LB350) that would allow a person convicted of a misdemeanor or felony, with a sentence other than probation or a fine, to petition the court to set aside their conviction once their sentence is completed. Ricketts said the bill weakened confidence in the criminal justice system with its dramatic expansion of the ability of serious felonies such as murder, arson, human trafficking, armed robbery, drug manufacturing or distribution, and assault on a police officer to…
Read MoreCongress quietly preserves ability to pay sexual harassment settlements with taxpayer money
[thinkprogress.org] An overhaul of Capitol Hill’s workplace misconduct system is in jeopardy and likely won’t be attached to a government spending bill this week, diminishing the likelihood of reform before the midterm elections, according to Politico. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who introduced the bipartisan Congressional Harassment Reform Act last December, said on Monday that House and Senate leadership “stripped” provisions from the language from the spending bill at the eleventh hour. “I am appalled that House and Senate leadership removed provisions from the omnibus bill at the last minute that…
Read MoreOperation “Southern Impact II” – what the numbers don’t tell
[floridaactioncommittee.org] Parents nationwide have been fed misleading headlines touting the results of operation “Southern Impact II” which purportedly “nabbed 76 child-sex predators” and in which “13 children were rescued or identified as victims”. Without more, those are some scary numbers and what appears to be a very successful “operation”, but if you dig below the surface, it’s not so successful after all… For example; the phrase, “rescued or identified as victims”. Which is is? Were they rescued or did they merely “identify” them as victims? That makes a big difference.…
Read MoreMI: Felony charges dropped against Clinton Township sex offender in Ferndale
[macombdaily.com] Felony charges have been dismissed in Ferndale against a convicted sex offender accused of failing to give his correct address and vehicle information under the state’s Sex Offender Registration law. Joshua Owens, 26, of Clinton Township was arraigned on the two felonies in Ferndale 43rd District Court earlier this month. Owens was convicted in Macomb County Circuit Court in 2006 when he was a minor for third-degree criminal sexual penetration with a person under 16, and second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a person under 13. His attorney, Steve Lynch,…
Read MoreTX: Texas’ anti-gay sex-ed laws hurt kids
[dailytexanonline.com] Texas Health and Safety Code Section 163.002 lays out the guidelines regarding the instructional elements related to sexual education and STDs in public schools within the state. Hidden under points regarding an emphasis on abstinence-based sex ed is a restriction profoundly damaging to LGBTQ kids throughout the state of Texas. Specifically, this law states that sex ed instruction should include an emphasis “ … that homosexuality is not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public and that homosexual conduct is a criminal offense.” Read more
Read MoreWV: State Supreme Court Rules Probation Internet Restrictions Violate First Amendment
[UPDATED LINKS 3/20/18] [floridaactioncommittee.org] The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals has ruled that completely restricting a person’s access to the internet as a condition of their parole from prison is a violation of the First Amendment. “Like the statute in Packingham, Mr. Ross’s condition of parole ‘bars access to…sources for knowing current events, checking ads for employment, speaking and listening in the modern public square, and otherwise exploring the vast realms of human thought and knowledge,’” the decision states. Read more RELATED LINKS: Supreme Court says restricting internet access…
Read MoreNY: Gov. Cuomo’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Plan to Protect Your Kids
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo recently unveiled a legislative proposal packaged as part of a budget amendment to expand already onerous residency and presence restrictions for some sex offenders in New York. Full Article
Read MoreMA: The New Sex Ed: What Young People Need to Know About Sex Laws
[Keren Goldenberg at kgdefenselaw.com] Like everyone else living in New England, I could not avoid the exhaustive media coverage of the St. Paul School rape trial. From a legal perspective, there was nothing sensational about this case: a 15 year old student claimed that she had been forcibly raped by a senior at her school. The senior claimed that they fooled around but never had sex and the jury ultimately ruled that statutory rape (but not forcible rape) had been committed. The media frenzy was due to the fact that…
Read MoreTX: Registered sex offenders targets of latest phone scam
[ktsm.com] EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office says a telephone scam is targeting registered sex offenders in the county, trying to scam them out of money According to EPCSO, registered people around the county have gotten calls from someone identifying themselves as employees of the Sheriff’s Office. The scammers tell the registered sex offender that they are non-compliant with their registration and have warrants which will result in their arrest if they don’t pay a specific fine. The victim is then told to buy Money…
Read MoreNY: State police: Sex offender’s death accidental at Central New York Psychiatric Center
[lohud.com] State police have ruled that a sex offender’s death inside Central New York Psychiatric Center in Marcy was accidental. Investigators determined Philip Barbato, 47, accidentally hanged himself with string while alone inside a shower room, Trooper Jack Kelly said. Barbato had been locked up under the state’s Sex Offender Treatment Program, part of the civil-commitment law that allows for confining sex offenders who completed their criminal sentence, according to Kelly. Nursing staff tried to resuscitate Barbato and an ambulance responded Monday at 3:05 a.m. He was pronounced dead at…
Read MoreNJ: Opposition to Blanket Community Notification in New Jersey
[sexlawandpolicy.org] Today, SLAP Center delivered a letter to Assemblywoman Amy Handlin and Senator Christopher Bateman outlining our opposition to their proposal to allow for community notification of New Jersey’s Tier 1 registrants. New Jersey has three tiers of registrants, with only Tiers 2 and 3 currently available to the public. Tier 1 registrants are assessed as having little to no risk of re-offense and are not included on the publicly accessible registry, as such; the public is not notified of their registration information. Tier 1 registrants include people who were…
Read MoreYou’ve Got A Friend, But It’s Not U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions!
[blog.womenagainstregistry.org] U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke at a conference for the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Nashville, TN on Thursday, his focus, increasing the prison population! You would think that government would be more interested in decreasing prison population, wouldn’t you? The federal prison population has decreased from 220,000 to 180,000 over the past few years. To me, that would seem like a good thing, we’re getting a handle on crime and fairer sentencing. What part of that doesn’t Mr. Sessions get? He wants to pursue “longer”…
Read MoreNJ: How the new ‘child erotica’ law might help stop sex predators
[nj.com] A new law that further defines child pornography and more heavily prosecutes those who distribute and possess it went into effect recently, and law enforcers are hoping it’ll help keep offenders behind bars. The legislation effectively closes a gap where possessors of “child erotica” — photos or videos of children who are being portrayed sexually or exploited — but aren’t necessarily nude, wasn’t considered child pornography. They are now. The law was signed by Gov. Chris Christie in July 2017 and went into effect Feb. 1. Officials say it’ll…
Read MoreNational Registry of Exonerations 2017 report [document]
[law.umich.edu] The National Registry of Exonerations recently issued its 2017 report. Of the 139 exonerations they added to the registry in 2017, 21% were for sex crimes, not counting the two for registration crimes. About half of all the exonerations were based on the conclusion that no crime had been committed (as opposed to the finding that the exoneree was not the perpetrator). Eleven of these were child sexual abuse convictions. Download the Exonerations In 2017 report [PDF] The original path is: https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/ExonerationsIn2017.pdf
Read MoreNY: Bills re-instate residency/ proximity laws, Shelter Bans and end Statutes of Limitations
[once-fallen.blogspot] Read comments by once-fallen.blogspot Read NY Assembly Bill A9505C Read NY Senate Bill S7505B
Read MoreTrump’s ‘Bipartisan’ Nominees to Sentencing Commission Tilt Conservative
[thecrimereport.org] President Donald Trump’s four nominees to the U.S. Sentencing Commission include three well-known conservatives who may be inclined to support tougher sentences in federal criminal cases. The White House announcement Thursday described it as a “bipartisan group” of nominees, but if all of them are approved by the Senate, the voting majority of the six-member commission (two of whom serve as ex-officio, nonvoting members), could tilt rightward, according to observers. The commission, an independent judiciary agency, was created by Congress in 1984 “to reduce sentencing disparities and promote transparency…
Read MoreAt the Fox News Site, a Sudden Focus on Women as Sex Offenders
[nytimes.com] In November, there was the story of a 22-year-old science teacher arrested in Oklahoma for her “sex romp” with a male student. In September, an article told of a 38-year-old teacher who kissed a student and let him “touch her breasts behind Culver’s,” a burger joint in Kerrville, Tex. And in July there was a report on a 54-year-old music teacher in Georgia who, a headline announced, “blames male student, 17, for tricking her into having sex ‘like a used-car salesman.’” Instances of female teachers sexually abusing male students…
Read More