Category: National

AK: Personal rights and stigma: when and where can sex offenders participate in the community? (Opinion)

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[KBBI Alaska] Towns across Alaska have to grapple with what to do once a known sex offender returns to the community after serving their punishment. Though there are clear limits in some areas, there are massive gray zones, as well. Residents in Homer are struggling to balance fairness with safety ahead of one of the Kenai Peninsula’s biggest celebrations.   Read more  

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NJ: Tracking Sex Offender With GPS Bracelet Violates Constitution (Supreme Court)

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Approximately two-thirds of all ex-prisoners are arrested within three years of their release. With a statistic like that, the risk of sexual predators reoffending is particularly concerning. However, strapping criminals who have served their time with a GPS is not a solution, according to the New Jersey Supreme Court. Full Article

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OK: Former Oklahoma state senator pleads guilty to child sex trafficking charge

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[thehill.com] A former Oklahoma state senator has pleaded guilty to a child sex trafficking charge, The Oklahoman reported Saturday. Former state Sen. ______, a Republican, had been accused of offering to pay a 17-year-old boy for sexual “stuff” earlier this year. Federal prosecutors will drop three additional child pornography charges against him in exchange for his guilty plea. “It is in my best interest and in the best interest of my family,” the former state senator wrote in plea deal paperwork signed this week, according to the Oklahoman. Read more…

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MA: Springfield Schools Athletic Hall of Fame changes mind, decides against inducting convicted sex offender

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[masslive.com] SPRINGFIELD – A Springfield Public Schools committee announced Thursday it will not induct a former basketball star into its Athletic Hall of Fame after parents protested over the player being a convicted sex offender. The decision to withdraw the nomination of ______comes two days before the annual induction ceremony on Saturday in the Central High School Gym. Mike Martin, the school department’s director of athletics, issued a statement that said the committee, “upon reflection,” decided to take back both the nomination and induction of _____.   Read more  

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I Shot a Sex Offender

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[Jewish Journal] I frequently write about the importance of listening to the other side on tough issues, but are some positions so odious that they never deserve a hearing? A couple of years ago, an Australian friend was directing a documentary about a difficult subject: child sex-abuse in his Jewish community. One of the interviewees was a former abuser who had gone on to live a normal family life for decades. My friend had filmed a conversation between this man and a well-known sex-abuse survivor who had become a whistleblower.…

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PA: This Vermont program might reduce sex offender recidivism. Could it work in Philly?

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Counting down his last days in prison, Greg thought about his daughter, and the grandson he’d never met. But his first days of freedom in Summer 2016 yielded more loss than gain. His fresh start was spoiled when Greg’s face appeared on the local television news. There were anticipatory town meetings, preceded by the police of his small Vermont town stepping up patrols, just for him. Within a couple months, Greg was asked to leave his stepfather’s house, before he ended up at a homeless shelter. Full Article

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MA: Tracking Sex Offenders: Chelsea PD first in state to try new tool

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[Boston 25 News] The Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board is under scrutiny for losing track of hundreds of sex offenders. Just last month, the state auditor testified on Beacon Hill the state sex offender registry board does not have addresses for more than 1,700 sex offenders. Now, one local agency is using a new tool to track them. The Chelsea Police Department is the first in Massachusetts to use the program that’s both an investigative tool and a public alert system. Read more  

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KY: Children’s Advocacy Center Of The Bluegrass To Receive Funds Resulting From Federal Government’s Forfeiture And Sale Of Residence Owned By Two Men Convicted Of Child Abuse

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The United States Attorney’s Office, the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, the FBI, the Fayette Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, the Lexington Police Department, and the Children’s Advocacy Center of the Bluegrass (CAC) jointly announced today that a portion of proceeds from the sale of the Lexington residence owned by two men convicted of child abuse will be shared with the CAC. Full Article

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VA: Petition claims DNA proves innocence of Virginia man sentenced to 100 years for 1990 rape of 10-year-old girl

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[Richmond Times-Dispatch] DNA proves a Virginia Beach man is innocent of the brutal 1990 rape of a 10-year-old girl who now doubts her courtroom identification of him as the assailant, contends a petition filed with the Virginia Supreme Court. ________, 45, convicted of rape, abduction, forcible sodomy and malicious wounding by a jury in 1991 and sentenced to 100 years in prison, has maintained his innocence, according to his lawyers with the Innocence Project at the University of Virginia School of Law.   Read more  

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IL: For Illinois Sex Offenders, Six Years Can Turn Into Life In Prison

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[WBEZ News radio] J.D. Lindenmeier completed his six-year prison sentence in 2011, but he hasn’t been released because he has nowhere to go. Inmates call these extra years behind bars “dead time.” The Rockford native committed a sex crime, and in order to get out of prison he has to meet the state’s long list of rigid parole requirements for those convicted of predatory criminal sexual assault. He could remain behind bars for the rest of his life if he doesn’t find appropriate housing. For Lindenmeier, that means finding a…

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PA: Registered sex offenders resign from fire departments after ABC27 investigation

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ABC27 Investigator Kendra Nichols found two local fire departments with registered sex offenders, Londonderry Fire Company near Middletown and Citizens Fire Company of Highspire. At the time of the investigation, both registered sex offenders had the fire department addresses listed on the Megan’s Law website as places of employment. ABC27 told the Londonderry Fire Company the results of the search and it took action. Full Article

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GA: Can’t pay for a lie detector test? For one man that could mean jail

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A North Georgia homeless man may go to prison for 18 months because he cannot come up with $250 to take a court-ordered polygraph test. Such a move would seem to violate a U.S. Supreme Court ruling declaring it unconstitutional to jail someone for failing to pay a fee or fine. But the man’s attorney, McCracken Poston, said the state Department Community of Supervision is nonetheless pushing for the punishment. “It’s crazy,” Poston told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, saying his client, Robert Murphy, has been unable to find a job since…

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KS: Kansas Supreme Court divided over offender registration law

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The Kansas Supreme Court is divided over whether a law requiring criminal offenders to register with local authorities after prison represents extra punishment. A 4-3 majority has concluded that registration for sex, drug and violent offenders is not extra punishment. Its latest decision came Thursday in the appeal of Djuan Richardson. He was convicted of selling cocaine in Sedgwick County in 2003 and pleaded guilty to violating the offender registration law in 2011. He later sought unsuccessfully to withdraw that plea. Full Article Related https://www.morelaw.com/verdicts/case.asp?n=107,786%20&s=KS&d=107522

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We’re Putting Sex Offender Stamps on Passports. Here’s Why It Won’t Curb Sex Tourism & Trafficking

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[InjusticeToday.com] On October 30th, the State Department announced that passports of people who are required to register as sex offenders because of an offense involving a minor will be marked with a “unique identifier” that will read: The bearer was convicted of a sex offense against a minor, and is a covered sex offender pursuant to 22 United States Code Section 212b(c)(l). The law which occasions this requirement, International Megan’s Law (IML), was enacted in 2016 under President Obama. In addition to the identifier requirement, IML allows for existing passports…

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WI: Court forces cities to revise sex offender rules

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[Wisconsin Journal Sentinel] In the interests of added protection, communities created restrictions on where convicted child sex offenders can live upon release, but something was left out of the political mix. In short, nothing in those ordinances addressed how the rights of sex offenders might be left unprotected under the U.S. Constitution, and as a result, those local restrictions have started to fray at the edges due to a 2017 federal court decision Following a successful lawsuit filed against Pleasant Prairie, which had required a 3,000-foot safety zone around places…

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