News5 is looking into proposed legislation that could change how teens are punished for sexting. Felony child pornography charges are not off the table for students implicated in the Canon City scandal. We spoke with the President of the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council who says a new law is needed to properly prosecute juveniles caught sexting. Full Article Related CO: Canon City High School Sexting Scandal – Will Students Involved Be Registered Sex Offenders?
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MO: Prosecutor scolds community for supporting molester
KANSAS CITY • A Missouri prosecutor has called out members of a small community for shunning a sexual abuse victim while publicly supporting a community leader who confessed to molesting her for more than a decade. In a scathing news release last week, Platte County prosecuting attorney Eric Zahnd listed 16 Dearborn residents who had either written letters or testified in court in support of ____ ____ after he admitted the girl’s claims were true. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Eighth Grader Disciplined For Giving Hug To Friend At School
____ ____, 14, is now an eighth grader with a record. ____ was given suspension by Jackson Heights principal Sarah Mansur-Blythe (left) for a hug. That’s right. She hugged a friend who was having a bad day and was immediately reported for discipline under a hopelessly undefined prohibition on “inappropriate or obscene acts.” Full Article
Read MoreCO: Canon City High School Sexting Scandal – Will Students Involved Be Registered Sex Offenders?
Hundreds of Canon City High School students have allegedly taken and shared naked pictures of themselves. As minors, the legal consequences range drastically but they’re all serious. The big question on everyone’s minds now: will the students involved have to register as sex offenders for life? Full Article
Read MoreNC: Supreme Court bars registered sex offenders from some social media sites
RALEIGH – The N.C. Supreme Court has upheld a state law prohibiting registered sex offenders from using Facebook or other social networking sites that minors can join. In the split opinion issued Friday, the justices reversed an N.C. Court of Appeals ruling that found the 2008 law too broad and vague, and therefore unconstitutional. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Senate bill restoring 1,000-foot sex offender-free zone around schools clears judiciary committee
LANSING (WKZO-AM) — Legislation restoring a one thousand-foot zone around public schools where registered sex offenders cannot work or live has cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee. Committee chairperson Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, authored the bill in response to a federal judicial ruling that tossed out the law as unconstitutionally vague. “If sex offenders are hanging around schools, lets put them away,” Jones said. Full Article
Read MoreIN: Supreme Court scrutinizes sex offender registration requirement
INDIANAPOLIS | Indiana law, since 2006, has required sex offenders who must register in their home states to also register in Indiana if they relocate to the Hoosier State. But does a new Hoosier who committed a sex crime elsewhere prior to 2006 still have to register in Indiana? Or is that an unconstitutional “ex post facto” law that imposes a punishment that didn’t exist when the crime was committed? Full Article
Read MoreCO: Students in sexting scandal could face felony charges
Colorado parents are outraged and concerned as school district officials reveal new details on the “large scale” sexting scandal at Canon City High School. The school district says the scandal involves an equal number of boys and girls — including some who are only in eighth grade – who could face felony charges. This is forcing parents and administrators to re-evaluate how they monitor teen activity in a high-tech world, reports CBS News correspondent Carter Evans. At an emergency meeting Thursday night, concerned parents learned that possibly hundreds of students…
Read MoreMI: Sex offender suit says Michigan registry unfairly restricts housing, employment
GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A man on Michigan’s Sex Offender Registry contends changes in the law severely restrict access to housing and contain requirements so vague that offenders cannot know if they are in compliance. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Man arrested in child sex sting sues Orange County Sheriff Office
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A man arrested in a child sex sting is suing the Orange County Sheriff’s Office on claims of entrapment. ____ ____’s attorney said deputies tried to entrap his client, who he said never had any intentions of meeting a 14-year-old girl. Full Article Related http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-11-01/news/os-sex-sting-child-predators-arrests-20111101_1_youth-pastor-disney-worker-disney-employee
Read MoreMI: Inmate Who Killed Child Molester Offers Simple Explanation For Why He Did It
Steven D. Sandison, 51, a now-former inmate at Saginaw Regional Correctional Facility in Freeland, Michigan, offered a simple explanation for killing his cellmate, ____ ____, 67, in October 2014. “The reason I killed him was because he was a child molester,” Sandison told Chief Circuit Judge Fred L. Borchard on Monday, MLive reported. Full Article
Read MoreRI: Federal judge orders temporary halt to enforcement of relocation law for R.I. sex offenders
PROVIDENCE — Enforcement of a newly revised state law that prohibits high-risk sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school has been temporarily blocked by U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell. On Friday afternoon, McConnell granted a restraining order allowing Level III sex offenders who live within 1,000 feet of a school in Rhode Island to stay in their homes for at least a little longer. McConnell’s action bars the attorney general’s office and the Department of Correction from enforcing the law. Previously, they could not live…
Read MoreMN: States Struggle With What to Do With Sex Offenders After Prison
MOOSE LAKE, Minn. — Behind razor wire and locked metal doors, hundreds of men waited on a recent morning to be counted, part of the daily routine inside a remote facility here that was built based on a design for a prison. But this is not a prison, and most of these men — rapists, child abusers and other sex offenders — have completed their sentences. They are being held here indefinitely under a policy known as civil commitment, having been deemed “sexually dangerous” or “sexual psychopathic personalities” by courts.…
Read MoreRI: ACLU sues to stop new sex offender residency law
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — The new law forbidding Level 3 sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school in Rhode Island is not constitutional, the Rhode Island ACLU said in a lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Providence. Full Article
Read More‘Person of interest’ named in 1989 Jacob Wetterling disappearance
The boy was 11 when he was abducted while riding home on his bike. An Annandale man charged with possessing child pornography is a person of interest in the case, authorities said. Full Article Related Wetterling Family Statement
Read MoreWichita sex offender speaks out about Halloween treatment
A local registered sex offender is speaking out about what many parents call ‘Halloween’s biggest danger’: kids trick-or-treating at a registered sex offenders home. From the media coverage to police sweeps, the registered sex offender who does not want to be identified says fearing sex offenders on Halloween is being afraid of a problem that doesn’t exist. “The facts don’t match the hype,” he said. Full Article
Read MoreEnd Halloween hoax that wastes millions
Cambridge, Mass.—RSOL, Inc., a civil rights organization that advocates for evidence-based laws and the civil rights of law-abiding, registered citizens, calls for law enforcement entities to end the huge expenditure of tax dollars which are needlessly squandered each Halloween on a problem that experts in the field insist simply does not exist. (1) This year, a letter will be printed and sent to all parents in Barstow County, Georgia regarding registrants’ obligations at Halloween. This is in addition to various restrictions and requirements that apply only to those on parole…
Read MoreIN: Zach Anderson removed from Indiana sex offender registry after months-long court battle
Zach Anderson of Elkhart is off the Indiana sex offender registry after a months-long court battle over a criminal sexual conduct case. Anderson pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal sexual conduct earlier this year after having sex in December with a 14-year-old Niles, Mich., girl who told him she was 17. Anderson’s sentence included 25 years on the sex offender registry — a punishment his family thought was too harsh considering both Anderson, who was 19 at the time, and the girl said he did not know she was underage. Full…
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