[ctnewsjunkie.com] HARTFORD, CT — A proposal that would allow some on the sex offender registry to petition to shorten their registration period or apply for removal from the registry was unanimously approved Thursday by the Sentencing Commission. The Sentencing Commission also approved recommending reducing misdemeanor sentencing from 365 days to 364 days. That one day would give immigration judges more discretion in deportation hearings. They decided to continue to study the issue of a constitutional amendment on pre-trial release and detention that would deny release to high-risk defendants and deny…
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VA: Action Item for Virginia 2018 Companion Bills, HB10 and SB112 to Expand the Victims Under a Hate Crime
[http://restoringintegritytovirginiaregistry.blogspot.com] A set of Companion Bills HB10/SB112 have been filed for the upcoming 2018 Virginia General Assembly session to expand the victims under a Hate Crime to also include disability, gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation to the categories of victims. The definition of a Hate Crime: Hate crime (also known as bias-motivated crime) is a usually violent, prejudice motivated crime that occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group. Examples of such groups include but are not limited…
Read MoreFL: New school program helps first-time sex offenders
[Ocala.com] Students engaged in consensual sexual activity Each school year, about three dozen Marion County students on average get kicked out of school after being caught groping or engaged in a consensual sex act on a school bus or on campus. To reduce the amount of lost instruction time, the School District will launch a new diversion program in January for first-time offenders in hopes of keeping these students in the classroom. Students caught in the act can forgo attending an alternative school if they attend six nights of after-school…
Read MoreVT: Judge strikes down Rutland’s limits on where sex offenders can live
[vtdigger.org] RUTLAND — A judge has shot down an ordinance in Rutland that limited where convicted sex offenders can live in the community. “The case hinges on the question whether the City of Rutland has the power to declare people nuisances,” Rutland Superior Court Judge Samuel Hoar wrote recently in the strongly worded 13-page ruling. “It does not.” The ordinance, which the city’s Board of Aldermen adopted in 2008, prohibited any offender convicted of a sex crime against a child from living in the city within 1,000 feet of…
Read MoreLA: Jury finds ______ guilty of 2nd degree murder in 2015 killing of his girlfriend’s convicted molester
[The Advocate] _____________, who confessed to fatally stabbing and strangling his girlfriend’s convicted molester inside the man’s Zachary trailer and stuffing his body into a 55-gallon container, was found guilty of second-degree murder Thursday in the brutal July 4, 2015, slaying. _____, 23, of Walker, faces a mandatory term of life in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 18 by state District Judge Tony Marabella. He will remain in custody until then. His girlfriend, _____, 20, also of Walker, pleaded guilty earlier this year to manslaughter, testified for the…
Read MoreKY: A lawmaker accused of molesting a teen killed himself. His widow calls it a ‘high-tech lynching.’
Dan Johnson posted a final message on Facebook to his friends and family Wednesday afternoon. It appeared to be a goodbye. In it, he denied the accusations that had tormented him and his family for the past 48 hours — that he, a Kentucky state representative and the self-proclaimed “Pope” of his Louisville church — had gotten drunk and molested a 17-year-old girl during a sleepover at the church years ago. Full Article
Read MorePA: Legislature moves to keep 17,000 sex offenders on state registry
HARRISBURG — The state House on Tuesday voted unanimously on changes to the state’s sexual offender registry intended to correct problems the state Supreme Court identified as unconstitutional. If left uncorrected, more than three-quarters of the more than 20,000 people now registering on the Megan’s Law list might need to be removed, according to data provided by the Pennsylvania State Police. Full Article
Read MoreTX: State law changed where sex offenders can walk within West Lake Hills
The city of West Lake Hills adopted changes to its sex offender ordinance to be in compliance with state law during the Dec. 13 City Council meeting with hope that the changes will cause Texas Voices for Reason and Justice to drop its lawsuit against the city. Full Article
Read MoreIN: ACLU says sex offender law is tougher on new Hoosiers
Three men have filed a lawsuit against the Indiana Department of Correction, claiming Indiana’s requirement that they register as sex offenders violates their Constitutional rights. Full Article
Read MoreJudge Roy Moore’s Child Sexual Abuse Was an “Open Secret”
[Psychology Today] It’s the people we know and trust, not strangers, who are most likely to engage in harmful sexual behavior. There has been a tidal wave of accusations of sexual abuse committed against women and/or children from powerful men in media and politics including Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Louis C.K., and Roy Moore, the former judge running for Senator in Alabama’s special election, and there will probably be many more, spurred on by the #MeToo movement. What makes these cases so maddening is that many people were aware…
Read MoreFL: Oconomowoc tweaks sex offender residency restrictions in wake of federal court decision
[Florida Journal Sentinel] CITY OF OCONOMOWOC – The common council on Tuesday, Dec. 5, voted to repeal and replace the city’s 2011 ordinance outlining residency restrictions for registered sex offenders, joining a handful of other area communities to do so in the wake of lawsuits and a federal court decision earlier this year. Under the new rules, registered sex offenders who did not live in the city at the time of their offense could petition the common council to move into Oconomowoc. Such offenders are currently barred from attempting…
Read MoreFL: Death of sex offender in Georgia State Prison suspicious
[Florida Action Committee] Charles Lee Broady was halfway into a three-year sentence for failure to register as a sex offender when he was found dead, hanging in his cell. Next week, Broady was supposed to appear in Federal Court in a case he brought against the Georgia Department of Corrections after officers allowed gang members to attack him. The previous attacks had been so bad that, after one, his heart stopped and he had to be revived. His family suspects foul play. Read article
Read MoreCT: Sentencing commission tackles three big criminal justice reforms
The public got a chance Monday to weigh in on three proposals that would change Connecticut’s criminal justice system in very different ways. One proposal would change which sex offenders would have to continue to appear on the sex offender registry; another proposes a constitutional amendment on pretrial release and detention, and a third would reduce a state sentence for a misdemeanor offense by one day to prevent more severe immigration consequences. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Inside the Remote, Little-Known Sanctuary for Sex Offenders
Seen from a distance, perhaps from a low-flying helicopter, or standing a few hundred feet away on a road that cuts through the green sugarcane surrounding it, Miracle Village, in Central Florida outside of Pahokee, looks like it could be a modest retirement community. Perhaps a modern-day off-the-grid commune, carved from a little spot of remote farmland. Miracle Village, though, is neither. It is a community devoted entirely to housing convicted sex offenders. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Zachery Anderson denied termination of probation
For someone who probably should not have been prosecuted in the first place, Zach Anderson is certainly continuing to get a raw deal from the system. Now 22, when Zach was 19 he had sex with someone he met on line who claimed she was 17. Turns out she was only 14. Even though she admitted to lying about her age, Zach was sentenced to jail time, probation and 25 years on Michigan’s sex offender registry. Full Article
Read MoreInternet Censorship Bills Wouldn’t Help Catch Sex Traffickers
[Electronic Frontier Foundation] In the most illuminating part of last week’s House subcommittee hearing on the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA, H.R. 1865), Tennessee Bureau of Investigation special agent Russ Winkler explained how he uses online platforms—particularly Backpage—to fight online sex trafficking. Winkler painted a fascinating picture of agents on his team posing as johns, gaining trust with traffickers, and apprehending them. His testimony demonstrated how, with proper training and resources, law enforcement officers can navigate the online platforms where sex work takes place…
Read MoreDon’t Rush New Sexual Harassment Policies, Some Women Lawmakers Warn
[governing.com] One of the top agenda items for state legislatures next year will be to address the rampant sexual harassment in state capitols. Lawmakers in more than a dozen states have been accused of sexual harassment — or worse — since the #metoo movement took off in mid-October. But several women in the Illinois legislature, which has already passed new laws in response to the outcry, caution that lawmakers should take their time when writing new sexual harassment policies. “When you’re in crisis mode, you tend to move quickly. I…
Read MoreMD: Theater cancels ‘A Christmas Carol’ after revelation that Scrooge actor is convicted sex offender
Faced with the revelation that their lead actor was a convicted sex offender and fearing the possibility of protests, the Fells Point Corner Theatre and the Collaborative Theatre Company have canceled their production of “A Christmas Carol,” which was scheduled to open Friday. Full Article
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