Registered sex offenders in Ohio are not allowed to reside within 1,000 feet of a school, but they are allowed to enter schools to vote, causing concerns for some elementary school parents in Brook Park. Full Article
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FL: Mentally ill man arrested after hunting down sex offender with hammer, deputies say
A convicted sex offender fended off an attack from a man wielding a hammer and “acting really nervous and sweating” who rang his doorbell Monday night, reports show. ____ ____, 54, opened the door of his Jardim De Largo Street home at around 9:30 p.m. to a man who allegedly lunged at him at him with the hammer, deputies said. Full Article
Read MoreHe ‘couldn’t fight back’: Mom of beaten baby wants abuser registry
On a November morning in 2013, Erica Hammel learned over the phone that her 1-year-old son Wyatt was near death — hospitalized with a skull fracture and brain damage after being violently shaken by a woman trusted to care for him. Hammel would later learn the woman had twice been convicted of child abuse — a revelation that led the Michigan mother to fight for a state-wide child abuser registry, which, if passed, would be the first of its kind in the nation. Full Article
Read MoreAL: Lawmaker introduces sex offender castration bill
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WIAT) — An Alabama lawmaker has a plan to permanently and physically punish someone convicted of certain sex offenses against children. The bill, known as HB 365, would make those sex offenders have to get surgically castrated before they leave prison. HB 365 was introduced by State Representative Steve Hurst, R-Calhoun County. He said the bill will be for sex offenders over the age of 21 that committed sex offenses against children 12 years old and younger. “They have marked this child for life and the punishment should fit the…
Read MoreWI: Supervisors balk at sex offender proposal
The Milwaukee County Board’s judiciary committee on Thursday delayed action on a proposed sex offender relocation information policy to give sponsors time to rewrite the proposal to comply with a county attorney’s opinion that found it unenforceable. County Corporation Counsel Paul Bargren says in an opinion that the policy drafted by Supervisors Jason Haas and John Weishan Jr. is in conflict with state law and the state constitution. Full Article
Read MoreNH: Nipple bill may make protesters into sex offenders
Under a proposed bill, women who bare their breasts in public as a form of political protest twice in a five-year period would be listed as low-level sex offenders for at least 10 years, said Gilles Bissonnette, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire. In objecting to House Bill 1525, Bissonnette said this may be an unintended consequence of the proposal, but its direct purpose is also problematic because it may step on free speech rights and equal protections for men and women. Full Article
Read MoreOH: Loophole in sex offender registry law aided online sexual predators
A loophole in Ohio’s sex offender registry law may have aided a Cleveland man and convicted sexual predator in soliciting a 14-year-old girl for sex on the internet. … Current Ohio law requires registered sex offenders to provide change of registered address, registered address verification, notice of intent to reside, and change of registered vehicle, email, Internet, and telephone information. “But we have found that there’s nothing in the law that requires it to be accurate,” Senator John Eklund, District 18, said of the internet information in particular. Eklund, a co-sponsor…
Read MoreCT: Court Considers Whether Blind Sex Offender Should Lose State Housing Subsidy
A legally blind Hartford man had been receiving benefits through a rental assistance program for years when state officials kicked him out because he’s on the state’s sex offender registry. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Hillsborough proposal to restrict sexual predators could backfire, experts say
TAMPA — Keeping sex offenders far away from children is a popular idea for obvious reasons. And the Hillsborough County Commission is considering a measure that would force sexual predators to live even farther from places where children gather than current law requires. But experts say the proposal — modeled on restrictions enacted in Pasco County and across the country — is likely to make offenders more dangerous, not less. Full Article Related Litigant against Pasco’s sex predator rule vows same in Hillsborough
Read MorePA: Superior Court upholds sex offender’s registration order
The state Superior Court upheld a Lackawanna County judge’s ruling that extends the time a convicted sex offender must report his whereabouts under Megan’s Law from 10 years to life. .. The court acknowledged the reporting requirements are a burden for Mr. ____, but it likened them to requirements of a person who is on probation and must meet with a probation officer. It therefore found the requirement was not punitive. Full Article Court Decision
Read MoreIN: Supreme Court rules sex offenders who move to Indiana must register
INDIANAPOLIS — A sex offender required to register in any other state must also register with Indiana police if he or she relocates to the Hoosier State, regardless of when the initial sex crime was committed. The Indiana Supreme Court ruled 5-0 Thursday that it is not an unconstitutional retroactive punishment for the state to require sex offenders with registration obligations elsewhere to also register in Indiana. Full Article Related http://www.theindianalawyer.com/supreme-court-ex-post-facto-laws-dont-apply-to-2-sex-offenders/PARAMS/article/39607
Read MoreNY: State Senate Approves Bill to Keep Sex Offenders out of Homeless Shelters Housing Children
The State Senate recently approved a bill that would prohibit dangerous Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders from being placed in shelters or other temporary accommodations used to house homeless families with children. Charging that “innocent little kids who are one step away from living on the streets should never face the additional horror of living side-by-side with potential sexual predators,” State Sen. Joe Addabbo, Jr. (D-Howard Beach) last week praised the Senate’s action. Full Article
Read MoreIN: Allen Co. S.O.R.N. Team – ‘It never stops’
ALLEN COUNTY, Ind. (WANE) – There are more than 450 sex offenders living in Allen County, keeping the local registry office very busy. The office focuses on three main components: offenders’ registrations at the physical office, the address verifications that the team leaves the office to do, and the investigations for violations. Full Article
Read MoreNY: Local Legislator Seeks Change to Sex Offender Registration Law
Thousands of sex offenders will come off the state’s registry this year. But one Broome County legislator and a local advocate have teamed up to bring change to New York’s Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA). The state law, enacted in 1996, requires level one sex offenders to be registered for 20 years. By 2016’s end, the whereabouts of many of these criminals will be untraceable — even for police. But a concerned local legislator has submitted an advisory resolution that would tighten registry regulations. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Pushing sex offenders into the next back yard (Editorial)
A question for our local elected officials: Who wants to be seen as pro-sex offender? Anyone?Anyone? Here’s the latest politicized push that could accomplish little and maybe even do some harm: local governments looking to all but ban sex offenders from living in our midst. And no, this doesn’t sound like a bad idea, until you consider the actual and practical facts. Full Editorial
Read MoreFL: Pahokee church opens its doors to sex offenders
PAHOKEE, Fla. – If you stop by First United Methodist Church in Pahokee, you’ll hear a united voice to the beat of 24-year old ____ ____. “I was going to be in a band,” he says. Inside this sanctuary, he’s a member of this congregation. Outside of it, in the eyes of the law, he’s a convicted sex offender. “I can’t live next to a park, playground, school, daycare, anywhere children congregate,” ____ says. Full Article
Read MoreNY: Sex Offender Can Press Case Against NIMBYs
BROOKLYN (CN) – A convicted sex offender can continue his federal civil rights case against a Long Island-based advocacy group he says repeatedly dogged him at his home in a campaign to rid the county of sex offenders, a federal judge ruled. The plaintiff, identified only as “John Jones,” sued the group Parents for Megan’s Law in federal court in Central Islip in January 2015, claiming it was hired by Suffolk County officials to monitor sex offenders and run them out of town in violation of their Constitutional rights. Full…
Read MoreLaw and Disorder: A minister, sex offender and advocate
Ten years ago videographer/photographer Max Schulte and I did a project about sex offenders in Monroe County. … While reporting, we met the Rev. David Hess, the minister at West Henrietta Baptist Church. Hess was a Level 1 sex offender — considered the least dangerous — who advocated for thoughtful laws. I did not know much of his story; he was instead a conduit to others whom we interviewed. Full Article
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