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
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MN: 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)…
Read MoreWI: “If this is winning, I don’t want it”
On the morning of July 5th, a white van left Fox Lake Correctional Institution. In the back, ____ ____, a Milwaukee man with a history of sex crimes. As a young man in the late ’80s, he had sex with two teenage girls; in the mid-’90s, forceful sexual assaults on adult women. After 22 years in prison, he’s getting out, his time served. No one wants a sex offender like ____ ____ living next door to them, and it’s certainly understandable. Municipalities across the state have codified this with ordinances that restrict where…
Read MoreFL: Sex Offender Fights Removal From Hospice
A Florida city’s sex-offender law faces scrutiny in litigation over whether a wheelchair-bound former doctor, convicted of patient abuse in the 1980s, should be forced out of a hospice due to its proximity to a school. A Palm Beach County court petition filed Aug. 31 claims ____ ____, a hospice patient with end-stage Alzheimer’s disease, has been threatened with arrest if he does not move out of Heartland of Boynton Beach, a nursing home near a local preschool. The City of Boynton Beach purportedly issued a notice to ____ and the…
Read MoreNC: New law bans sex offenders from fairs
Friday, the Cabarrus County fair celebrates it’s opening night. The fair runs through September 17 featuring rides, fair foods, a petting zoo and exhibit hall. But one thing you shouldn’t see this year: registered sex offenders. Full Article
Read MoreAZ: Supreme Court asked to reinstate no-bail law for some sex offenses
Prosecutors are asking the Arizona Supreme Court to reinstate a law that allows some people accused of sexual abuse of minors to be held without bail. Deputy Maricopa County Attorney David Cole said the constitutional provision limiting access to bail was adopted by voters in 2002. He said the state Court of Appeals, in overturning the law enacted by lawmakers to implement that amendment, failed to give “due consideration to the overwhelming will of the people.” Full Article
Read MoreMA: Judge says sex offender’s right to due process trumps public safety
In a recent ruling, a Superior Court judge said that concerns for public safety cannot trump a sex offender’s right to due process, FOX25 Investigates has learned. On Aug. 16, Salem Superior Court judge Timothy Feeley, found the Sex Offender Registry Board violated one sex offender’s constitutional right to due process. His status as a level two sex offender was published on the internet on the same day he was classified, before he could file an appeal. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Sex offender laws and the 6th Circuit’s Ex Post Facto Clause ruling
The Volokh Conspiracy: I wanted to add a few words to co-blogger Jonathan Adler’s posting about the recent 6th Circuit decision in Doe v. Snyder, in which the court voided application of the Michigan Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA) on the grounds that it imposes retroactive punishment on previously convicted sex offenders in violation of the constitutional prohibition against Ex Post Facto laws. Full Editorial Related MI: Court voids state sex offender registry for imposing unconstitutionally retroactive punishment [UPDATED]
Read MoreCO: Three sex offenders lose round in court
U.S. District Judge Raymond Moore on Aug. 30 denied a motion for a temporary restraining order, meaning Englewood can continue to enforce its sex-offender residency restrictions for now. However, he did agree to hear evidence in a Sept. 28 court session on the request for a preliminary injunction that would halt enforcement of the residency restriction. Full Article
Read MoreAZ: Homeless sex offenders still face 72-hour reporting despite 2006 rule change
PHOENIX – A court ruling says an Arizona law intended to make it practical for homeless people to register as sex offenders only goes so far. Full Article
Read MoreJacob Wetterling, Found at Last – R.I.P.
The remains of Jacob Wetterling have been found in Minnesota. Jacob was abducted in 1989 at age 11 in a case that scared, scarred and deeply saddened people around the globe. As his mother Patty texted to the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Saturday: “Our hearts are broken. We have no words.” Full Article
Read MoreMO: Doniphan men accused of killing sex offender, burning his body
DONIPHAN, Mo. — Two Doniphan men were charged Tuesday night after authorities say they admitted they shot a sex offender to death and burned his body in April. Matthew Brandon Bruce, 29, and Michael G. “Mick” Harris, 59, were charged Tuesday with the first-degree murder, armed criminal action, tampering with physical evidence and abandonment of a corpse. Full Article
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