Mary Sue Molnar estimates that she gets at least five calls a week from Texans on the sex offender registry who can’t find a place to live. Numerous towns around the state have passed ordinances prohibiting those on the list from residing within a certain distance — anywhere from 500 to 3,500 feet — of a school, park, daycare facility or playground. In some towns, that’s almost everywhere. “We’ve got people living in extended-stay motels,” says Molnar, who runs the sex-offender-rights group Texas Voices for Reason and Justice. “We’re in…
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MN: Well-meaning family takes in sex offender, inciting fear and outrage
The debate in Birchwood Village shows a problem that state leaders still have not figured out how to address: How to integrate sex offenders into a community. Full Article
Read MoreOH: Local Democrat slams GOP challenger for claiming he’s a ‘pedophile’
David Sparks, the Clayton Democrat running against State Rep. Jeff Rezabek, R-Clayton, says the Ohio Republican Party is putting him in personal danger with a new mailed campaign ad that Sparks says implies he is a pedophile. “I’m really upset that I’m being painted as a pedophile. It’s over the top. I’m afraid for my safety now,” said Sparks. “You know what society does to people they think are into kids. Full Article
Read MorePA: A deal is a deal – Supreme Court blocks retroactive registration boosts for sex offenders
Sex offender registration requirements can’t be increased for people who reached deals to plead guilty to sex crimes before Pennsylvania’s latest registration law took effect, the state Supreme Court has decided. The high court reached that conclusion in an opinion Justice Max Baer issued this week on three consolidated cases involving York County sex offenders. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Preliminary Injunction granted (Internet Identifiers)
The Judge’s Order was just filed in our Motion seeking to enjoin the enforcement of the Internet Identifier changes and WE WON!!! Source (FAC)
Read MoreFL: I’m an ex-sex offender. Florida should use fact, not emotion, to write laws
No matter how a person may have corrected his or her actions and paid for failures, in the state of Florida, it’s “once a felon, always a felon.” What is such a policy as this supposed to solve? Full Opinion Piece
Read MoreOR: ‘Incorrigible’ public masturbator shouldn’t be locked up for life, Supreme Court says
The Oregon Supreme Court on Thursday for the first time reversed a life prison sentence for an unstoppable public masturbator — saying Oregon’s three-strikes-you’re-out law for repeat sex offenders isn’t always constitutional. Full Article
Read MoreFL: The Dobbs Wire – A win in the 11th Circuit today!
A win in the 11th Circuit today! Miami-Dade is infamous for encampments of homeless registrants, permanent housing very scarce because of residency restrictions. Despite national media attention to bad laws that had people living under the Julia Tuttle Causeway–courts haven’t been much help. Now there’s an interesting development. A lawsuit in federal court challenging those residency restrictions had been dismissed. However, today a federal appeals court *reversed* that dismissal and sent it back to the original court for further proceedings. Congrats to John Doe #1, John Doe #2, John Doe…
Read MoreID: 104 sex offenders sue Idaho over its registry laws
A lawsuit challenging Idaho’s laws governing registration and community notification of sex offenders seeks a permanent injunction to stop the state and counties from enforcing portions of the law. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Boise federal court on behalf of 104 unnamed sexual offenders, identified as Does 1-104, argues that Idaho’s sex offender registry laws violate the U.S. and Idaho constitutions. Full Article Lawsuit
Read MoreIA: Sex offenders sue over Iowa’s civil commitment program
Nine men who were convicted of sex crimes, served their prison sentences and are now indefinitely confined to an Iowa mental health unit have filed a federal lawsuit against the state, claiming its civil commitment program is unconstitutional. Full Article
Read MoreGA: Man mistaken for child molester yells during fatal beating, ‘I have kids. It’s not me’
While being beaten to death, mistaken for a man his alleged attackers believed had molested a young girl, ____ ____. screamed, “I didn’t do this. I have kids. It’s not me,” a Bibb County prosecutor said at a Thursday hearing. Full Article
Read MoreMN: South St. Paul set to dramatically restrict where sex offenders can live
Eyebrows also raised when ____ ____ moved to the inner-ring suburb. ____ was busted for criminal sexual conduct in 2011 after repeated contact with a 10-year-old girl. But it was ____ ____’s arrival that caused South St. Paul, population 20,000, to go on the offensive. ____ is a convicted sex offender whose past includes repeated attempts at accosting females with a weapon. The City Council is in the process of deciding whether to implement one of the strictest residency restrictions for sex offenders anywhere in Minnesota. Full Article
Read MoreMN: What is deserved for a sex offender?
Two painful, recent stories illuminate complex controversies that surround Minnesota’s practice of locking up certain sex offenders in a “treatment program” after they’ve served prison sentences for their crimes. Full Article
Read MoreAZ: If You Change a Baby’s Diaper in Arizona, You Can Now Be Convicted of Child Molestation
The Arizona Supreme Court issued a stunning and horrifying decision on Tuesday, interpreting a state law to criminalize any contact between an adult and a child’s genitals. According to the court, the law’s sweep encompasses wholly innocent conduct, such as changing a diaper or bathing a baby. As the stinging dissent notes, “parents and other caregivers” in the state are now considered to be “child molesters or sex abusers under Arizona law.” Those convicted under the statute may be imprisoned for five years. Full Article Related PROSECUTORS WOULD NEVER DO…
Read MorePA: Supreme Court Further Restricts Sex Offender Registry
The registration of sex offenders in Pennsylvania, known as Megan’s Law, has had a tumultuous existence, including a number of revisions to comply with several successful challenges before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Last month, the state’s high court further refined the state’s sex offender registry. The Supreme Court made a ruling that will have an impact on determining which sex offenders will be considered lifetime registrants. The court narrowed the ability of the authorities to designate an offender as a lifetime registrant as the result of being convicted of multiple…
Read MoreNV: Sex offenders may face tougher scrutiny at UNR, TMCC
The University of Nevada, Reno and Truckee Meadows Community College now have the right to deny the admission of registered sex offenders. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Michigan asks federal court to revise opinion on sex offender registry rules
The state of Michigan wants a federal appeals court to take a second look at an opinion on the state’s sex offender registry. The U.S. Court of Appeals issued an opinion Aug. 25 saying Michigan’s sex offender registry rules cannot be applied retroactively to thousands of sex offenders. The state Attorney General and Solicitor General offices filed a Sept. 8 request with the federal appeals court for a second opinion. Full Article
Read MoreWI: Romeo and Juliet and Sexting – 17Year-Old Faces Child Porn, Assault Charges for Consensual Sex with Girlfriend
After being arrested, I was suicidal and hopeless,” ____ ____, a 17-year-old from Superior, Wisconsin, recalls. “As of right now, I am just hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.” The “worst” would be pretty bad. After discovering indecent photos of ____’s 15-year-old girlfriend on his cell phone—as well as a video of the couple having sex—authorities charged him with sexual assault of a child, sexual exploitation, and possession of child pornography. The sexual assault charge is considered a Class C felony, and carries a maximum (though unlikely)…
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