[floridaactioncommittee.org] Tomorrow, at the regular meeting of county commissioners, the “Bovo Amendment” will be considered. The Amendment seeks to remove a safeguard contained in the overnight camping ordinance that would require homeless who are sleeping overnight on public property, be afforded the opportunity to go to a homeless shelter before being arrested. In other words, Miami-Dade wants the ability to arrest homeless sex offenders on sight. More specifically, since the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust Chair could not find a solution to the transient sex offender problem in 10 years, his…
Read MoreCategory: National
FL: ClearMyCase suit DISMISSED!
[floridaactioncommittee.org] We are pleased to have learned that Judge Dimitrouleas DISMISSED the lawsuit filed against us by ClearMyCase. For some time we’d been receiving complaints from FAC members and registrants from other states about a company out of Texas called ClearMyCase.com. The company had been using the State Sex Offender registries as a mailing list to solicit “fees” to help “de-register” people from the Sex Offender Registry. Read more
Read MoreNV: Las Vegas man says he killed over dislike of sex offenders, report says
[reviewjournal.com] By Mike Shoro Las Vegas Review-Journal A Las Vegas man told his neighbor he killed two homeless people behind a central-valley swap meet because one of them was a sex offender, court documents show. “The neighbor explained he had been sexually assaulted as a child and took offense to sex offenders,” 32-year-old Michael Thompson’s arrest report said. Prosecutors charged Thompson with two counts of murder Thursday in the Dec. 26 shooting deaths of Rhonda Ballow, 27, and Alfred Wilhelm, 53, court records show. Thompson remained in Clark County Detention…
Read MoreCT: 5 arrested after potential sex offender sting in Guilford
[wfsb.com] GUILFORD, CT (WFSB) – Five men were arrested during a sting in Guilford this weekend that was searching for potential sex offenders. Between Friday and Sunday, the Guilford Police Department and the Veterans 4 Child Rescue Foundation conducted a regional/multi-jurisdictional joint/parallel sting known as “Not in my Town” initiative. The focus of the sting was to arrest “potential sex offenders” after investigators had “arranged sexual liaisons” with fictional children. The fictional children reached out to the possible suspect through various social media applications over the internet. “They came to…
Read MoreMA: Westfield officials hesitant to repeal sex offender ordinance despite high court ruling
One resident and several councilors spoke out against repealing the city’s sex offender ordinance Thursday at the Westfield City Council meeting. The ordinance restricts where registered sex offenders may live and establishes “child safety zones” where offenders are not allowed. But a 2015 Supreme Judicial Court ruling indicates such ordinances are unconstitutional. Full Article
Read MoreNH: Sununu, NH lawmakers support ‘Marsy’s Law’
[fosters.com] CONCORD — After enduring years of sexual and physical abuse as a child, a New Hampshire woman moved out of state and far away from those traumatic events. But then she heard her perpetrator was trying to get off a sex offender list so he could get free housing. The state hadn’t told her about that, and she said she began to feel victimized again. The experience prompted her to join a campaign Tuesday to bolster the rights of crime victims by amending New Hampshire’s constitution. The Associated Press…
Read MoreFL: Another Reason why Sex Offender Registration Fees are a Bad Idea
[floridaactioncommittee.org] Sex offender registration fees are a bad idea. Setting aside the constitutionality of charging individuals for the “privilege” of registering as a sex offender – something that’s not only involuntary but that all would certainly prefer not to do – and claiming it’s not a “penalty”, it’s a logistical nightmare. Because of the public website and the stigma that comes with it, most registered sex offenders are either grossly underemployed or unemployed. Many of the collateral consequences of being a registrant are extremely expensive. Registrants are required, in most…
Read MoreFL: Inside the isolated US community dubbed the ‘Miracle Village’
[dailymail.co.uk] From the outside it looks like any sleepy suburb, but the so-called ‘Miracle Village’ contains a much darker secret. Indeed, half of the population in the Florida community are registered sex offenders, who are forced to live away from the rest of society. The so-called village, located outside of Pahokee, features in a new BBC documentary presented by Stacey Dooley looking at laws in the state that punish paedophiles and other sex offenders for life. Read more
Read MoreTX: Sex offender residency restrictions questioned in small cities
[floridaactioncommittee.org] AUSTIN — Registered sex offenders in small Texas cities were until last year challenging residence restrictions, arguing that “general-law” municipalities lacked authority to control where they lived. A new state law that took effect in September codified small cities’ legal standing to enact such ordinances, but now the attorney who in 2015 sued Krum over its ordinance is back in court, saying that the Denton County city’s newly enacted residence restriction, along with those of several other Texas cities, violates the statute. “If they’ve passed a new ordinance and…
Read MoreAmerican children’s high mortality rates; sex offenders are not the cause [opinion]
[floridaactioncommittee.org] The UK Daily Mail reported last week that “American children are 60% more likely to die before their 20’s than kids in other wealthy countries.” But how can that be? For a nation that prides itself on being pioneers in public health and safety, how is it that our youth are not as healthy or safe as they are in most other countries? In fact; the article pointed out that the US has the worst childhood mortality rate compared to 19 other developed countries with children of all ages…
Read MoreMA: Westfield moves to repeal unconstitutional sex offender ordinance
[masslive.com] By Hope E. Tremblay Special to The Republican WESTFIELD – The City Council’s legislative and ordinance subcommittee Thursday took the first step toward repealing a local ordinance that unconstitutionally restricts where registered sex offenders may live or visit. The motion to repeal the ordinance was made by Chairman Ralph J. Figy, who said a decision by the state Supreme Judicial Court indicates the ordinance goes against the state constitution. First Assistant City Solicitor Shanna R. Reed said Westfield has not received any notification from the state regarding the ordinance,…
Read MoreNH: Bill would use sex offender registry to discourage posting of nude selfies
[unionleader.com] CONCORD — In the wake of a report in the New Hampshire Sunday News about a website where nude selfies of young women are traded like baseball cards, the legislature is looking at tougher penalties to discourage such behavior. A House committee on Wednesday debated a bill that would add people convicted of revenge porn, or any nonconsensual dissemination of private sexual images, to the sex offender registry. Rep. Timothy Lang, R-Sanbornton, speaking in support of the bill, said the women whose nude or semi-nude pictures are disseminated online…
Read MoreUT: Sex offender treatment – Is it working?
If an individual is convicted of a sex offense, he or she is required to follow a number of rules, including registering as a sex offender, serving time in prison or on probation, and undergoing psychological treatment. Full Article
Read MoreWI: Did a Newspaper Inspire a Murder Attempt?
[lifeonlist.org] Last July, the Hudson Star Observer in western Wisconsin wrote a story about a man moving into a building in town. His name was Brandon Langel. He was on the state’s sex offender registry for crimes he’d committed in 2008, for which he spent four years in prison. The paper ran the story because now he’d be moving into a building where three other registrants also lived. The paper interviewed a neighbor who lived right across the street. “It’s really concerning,” said Daniel Steltz, who had a wife and…
Read MoreThe Concern for the Damage the Registry does to Young Offenders [opinion]
[sosen.org] Recently there has been major concern over youth being placed on the sex offender registry and a number of articles, not to mention some legislative attempts at change (such as Nebraska legislative bill 689), have been put forth to remove young people from the registry. The reason for this move is pointed out in articles such as ( http://jjie.org/2018/01/08/young-sex-offenders-shouldnt-have-to-register-its-ineffective-and-hurts-everyone-around-them/ ). The problem with articles such as these is they do not take into account the even more innocent victims of the sex offender registry, the children and families of…
Read MorePA courts put Megan’s Law in limbo
[altoonamirror.com] HOLLIDAYSBURG — Following the sentencing of an area man last month for indecent assault, Blair County District Attorney Richard A. Consiglio informed the judge that the next step in the process — a hearing to determine if the defendant was required to register as a sex offender — had to be delayed because of recent opinions by the Pennsylvania Supreme and Superior courts. Under those opinions, questions arose as to the constitutionality of the state law requiring sexual offenders to register with state police and to periodically update their…
Read MoreWA: The Island Where Washington State Sends Its Sex Offenders (video)
[VICE News channel on YouTube.com] Twenty minutes off the Puget Sound coast is an island that was the home to a state penitentiary until it closed in 2011. Now, it is used as a facility for the civil commitment of the state’s most violent sex offenders. Watch video
Read MoreNY: Justice Department probes state’s civil confinement of sex offenders
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is examining New York’s controversial system of civil confinement for sex offenders. The probe was revealed when an attorney with the Justice Department’s special litigation office recently interviewed a sex offender confined at the Central New York Psychiatric Center in Oneida County. Under New York’s decade-old Sex Offender Management and Treatment Act, convicted sex offenders can be kept in secure psychiatric hospitals indefinitely after their prison terms expire. If an offender is found to have a mental abnormality that makes the person…
Read More