Category: National

[Albuquerque Journal] The spookiest time of the year is fast approaching, and you have likely already heard about local law enforcement officers preparing to keep your area free of danger on Halloween night. They may be visiting schools to counsel kids on safe practices, they may be warning drivers about watching out for children on Halloween night, and in communities across America officers are fanning out to knock on the doors of registered sex offenders. The idea behind police visits to local S.O.s (as sex offenders are referred to) is…

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[theintercept.com] On September 28, attorney Michael David filed notice of a claim against the New York Police Department, the City of New York, and two unnamed police officers, referred to as John and Jim Doe. These plainclothes cops, alleged the claim, “brutally sexually assaulted and raped” his 18-year-old female client. David told me that within a day, he needed to amend the claim: The officers had been identified by police in the press as Brooklyn South narcotics detectives Richard Hall and Edward Martins. “What was strange,” said David, “was that…

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[The Florida Times-Union] The city has finally taken a giant step toward protecting all its residents by considering a ordinance that will amend the strict sexual offender housing requirements that have put the community at risk. The ordinance in question decreases the distance sexual predators must reside from places, such as schools, day care centers and parks or playgrounds, from 2,500 feet to 1,500 feet. Sound contradictory? How does reducing the distance an ex-felon must live from places children frequent make the public safer? It’s simple. It makes the public…

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[Richmond Times-Dispatch] A marquee policy initiative of Gov. Terry McAuliffe took center stage in the Virginia governor’s race Monday as Republican Ed Gillespie attacked McAuliffe’s approach to felon rights restoration as charitable to the point of being dangerous and Democrat Ralph Northam pushed back by saying Gillespie should be “ashamed” over his “fearmongering campaign.” The Gillespie campaign rolled out an ad Monday highlighting the case of a sex offender whose rights were restored late last year, months after he was arrested for having a massive child pornography stash. Gillespie said…

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[theindianalawyer.com] Three convicted Boone County sex offenders can return to their church congregations after the Indiana Court of Appeals determined that churches are not considered “school property,” so state statute cannot prohibit the offenders from going to church, even when children are present. The appellate court handed down that decision Tuesday in John Doe 1, et al., v. The Boone County Prosecutor, in his official capacity, et al., 06A01-1612-PL-2741. The case dates to 2015, when the Indiana General Assembly passed the “unlawful entry by a serious sex offender” statute, Indiana…

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[thecrimereport.org] In 1991, soon after he was sentenced to 56 years in an Ohio prison for a crime he did not commit, Roger Dean Gillispie began pestering fellow inmates to save the tinfoil from their tobacco pouches. He also gathered discarded teabags and cassette tapes—anything he could get his hands on to serve as makeshift building materials. Then each evening, after he returned to his cell from one of his prison jobs, he devoted countless hours to creating a model of a shiny, vintage Airstream camper. It was, for him,…

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[syracuse.com] The operators of summer camps, daycare centers and volunteer groups that work with children are a step closer to gaining access to an FBI sex offender database that could be used for background checks on prospective employees and volunteers. The U.S. Senate passed a bill backed by U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer that would close a loophole in the background check system and authorize the FBI to provide the information to organizations that work with children. Read more  

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[Washington Post] State officials abruptly removed 132 sex offenders from Virginia’s list of eligible voters last week, reacting to the latest problem emerging from Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s sweeping move to restore voting rights to felons who had served out their sentences. A spokesman for McAuliffe (D) said that the offenders, who are confined in a treatment facility under a form of civil commitment, had appeared on the list of eligible voters by mistake.   Read more  

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[sun-sentinel.com] Despite denying it, Broward and Miami-Dade school districts both have blamed schoolchildren for their own sexual abuse. The Sun Sentinel this week uncovered lawsuits in which the districts claimed children — from ages 8 to 14 — were wholly or partly responsible for what happened to them. The discovery came a week after Palm Beach County Schools came under fire for the same practice, after reports in the Sun Sentinel. In at least five sexual abuse lawsuits, involving children as young as 6, Palm Beach County Schools said students’…

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