COLUMBIA — A South Carolina lawmaker is on a mission to change the way the state treats juvenile sex offenders. House Minority Leader Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Columbia, has introduced a bill that would allow teens who have been convicted of any sex offense and have been placed on the offenders registry to petition the courts to remove their names once they turn 21. … “By branding them that early, we have destroyed their lives,” he said. “We’ve got to figure out how to make it better.” He isn’t alone in…
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NC: Freedom Christian principal ‘exploded’ when told to keep sex offender off campus, documents say
When Joan Dayton, head of Freedom Christian Academy, was told she could not allow a registered sex offender on campus and keep it quiet, a former staff member said she “exploded,” according to court documents. Full Article
Read MoreNY: State Senate Enacts ‘Brittany’s Law’
New York State Senator Mike Nozzolio today announced that the State Senate has taken significant and important action in adopting a tougher stance against violent crime by enacting the “Domestic Violence Prevention Act-Brittany’s Law.” This legislation, Senate Bill 513, sponsored by Nozzolio, will create a publically accessible registry of convicted violent felons. Full Article
Read MoreIL: Granite City to begin collecting $100 fee from sex offenders
Sex offenders in Granite City will soon have to start paying a $100 fee to register with police, as required by law. In 2010, the state increased the annual fee for sex offender registration from $10 to $100 a year. But even before that action, the fee largely wasn’t being collected in the majority of Illinois municipalities, according to news reports, because most of the convicted sex offenders could not afford it. Full Article
Read MoreOUR OPINION: Restricting where sex offenders can live will not stop abuse
Maine – It’s hard to fault the Biddeford City Council for wanting to do something, anything, to help assuage the fears and frustrations related to the sexual abuse allegations that have come to light in recent months. The stories of abuse and the subsequent shame, anger and depression are enough to make your heart ache and blood boil, and to compel you to do whatever you can to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Restricting where child sex offenders can live, as Biddeford councilors did on Tuesday, is the most…
Read MoreMD: Lawsuit – Sex offender requirements applied retroactively
BALTIMORE — A class-action lawsuit claims the rights of at least 800 people listed on the Maryland Sex Offender Registry have been violated. The lawsuit, filed Friday in Baltimore City Circuit Court, says the state retroactively increased the length of time certain sex offenders had to remain on the registry. The Maryland Declaration of Rights prohibits laws that retroactively criminalize an act or impose a more severe penalty than was set when the act was committed. Full Article
Read MoreDo Sex Offender Registration Laws Do Any Good?
Last month a federal judge ruled that certain aspects of Michigan’s Sex Offenders Registration Act (SORA) are unconstitutionally vague. Sex offenders, for example, are forbidden to live, work, or “loiter” within 1,000 feet of “school property.” U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland noted that such “school safety zones” are not clearly defined, making it difficult to comply with the law. He said the term loiter is vague as well: Does it apply, say, to people attending their children’s parent-teacher conferences or their grandchildren’s school plays? Cleland said two other rules—requiring registrants…
Read MoreNE: Omaha Church Hires a Formerly Registered Citizen
Here’s a day-brightener: Omaha’s Lifegate Church hired as a pastor a man who used to be on the Iowa sex offender registry. [The pastor] didn’t serve any jail time and his name has been removed from Iowa’s sex offender registry after 10 years. In a news release, Lifegate Church said, “In considering Mike and Sharla for our Lifegate team, we fully informed ourselves through an exhaustive research, interview, prayer and consulting process that lasted several months.” Full Article From Nebraskans Unafraid
Read MoreMI: Does Michigan’s sex offender registry keep us safer?
It has been 10 years since ____ ____, a married father and caretaker at an Oakland County Catholic church, was convicted of groping a teenage girl over her sweater, a claim ____ vehemently denies. ____ , then-37 with a clean criminal record, was convicted of misdemeanor sexual assault and sent to jail for seven months. Though a misdemeanor, state law demanded ____ be listed on the same public sex offender registry as hard-core rapists, pedophiles and other felons. It has meant a decade of poverty, unemployment, harassment and depression for…
Read MoreAL: Charges Dismissed Against Former Child Sex Crimes Prosecutor For Lack Of Actual Minor In FBI Sting
(2012) There is an interesting ruling out of Mobile, Alabama where former child sex crimes prosecutor, ____ ____, was charged with solicitation of a minor over the computer. Special Judge Gaines McCorquodale dismissed the charge on a key missing element under the statute: an actual victim. Since ____ was speaking with an undercover officer posing as a 15-year-old girl, McCorquodale ruled that there was no victim as required under the language of the statute for child enticement. Essentially, no child, no enticement, no charge. Full Article
Read MoreMT: New law requires some sex offenders to live and work away from children
HELENA — Certain sex offenders employed near children in Montana must find new jobs, get special permission to work or face arrest. A state law that took effect last week prohibits high-risk sex offenders who victimized a child from residing or working within 300 feet of a facility that primarily serves people under age 18. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Driver’s license mistakenly labeled me a sex offender
ORLANDO, Fla. – A Florida woman who was issued a driver’s license that labeled her a sexual predator — by mistake — says she plans to file a defamation lawsuit against a county tax collector’s office. ____ ____, 42, said Thursday she was denied service when trying to book a room at a hotel, and has endured funny looks from cashiers when cashing checks because of the blue letters in the bottom-right corner of her license that say “SEXUAL PREDATOR.” Full Article
Read MoreVT: State senator arrested and charged with sexual assault
ST. ALBANS, Vt. – A Vermont state senator was behind bars Thursday night. WCAX has learned that ____ ____ is facing a slew of charges including sexual assault and human trafficking. Sen. ____ ____ , R-Franklin County, was at work inside the Statehouse Thursday afternoon. By Thursday night, he was being held at the Northwest Regional Correctional Center in St Albans. The Republican from Highgate was arrested and charged with sexual assault, prohibited acts and human trafficking. Full Article
Read MoreNC: Sex offenders can visit public libraries
A trip to the library landed ____ ____ in jail. In 2011, authorities caught ____ with explicit photographs of 15-year-old girls on his computer. He served 15 months in state prison and, after his release last year, became homeless. Last December the 46-year-old visited the Chapel Hill Public Library to job hunt on one of its free computers, he says. His probation officer had suggested that visiting a library was permissible, provided that a children’s event wasn’t being held there. Full Article
Read MoreDE: ACLU challenges GPS monitoring of sex offenders (Updated)
The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the constitutionality of a Delaware law that requires GPS monitoring of certain convicted sex offenders on probation. The complaint filed Monday targets a 2007 law that requires GPS monitoring of Tier 3, or high-risk, sex offenders who have been released from custody and are on probation. Full Article Update : ACLU of Delaware sues over sex offender GPS law (with copy of law suit)
Read MoreMI: Eliminating statute of limitations on child molestation could be unconstitutional
LANSING — A panel of Michigan lawmakers questioned the constitutionality of a bill to allow criminal cases against people accused of molesting children decades ago, despite emotional testimony from alleged victims of a Norton Shores man. House Bill 4231 would retroactively remove all statute of limitations on first-degree criminal sexual conduct of a minor. In 2001, the Michigan Legislature eliminated the statute of limitations on first-degree criminal sexual conduct, which prior to that was six years. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Couple found guilty of having sex on Florida beach
A jury Monday found a couple guilty of having sex on Bradenton Beach after only 15 minutes of deliberation. The convictions carry a maximum prison sentence of 15 years. ____ and ___ were charged with two counts each of lewd and lascivious behavior for having sex on a public beach on July 20, 2014.Video played in the courtroom during the 1- 1/2-day-long trial showed Alvarez moving on top of Caballero in a sexual manner in broad daylight. Witnesses testified that a 3-year-old girl saw them. Both ____ and ____ will…
Read MoreTX: North Dallas Mom Invites Sex Offenders To Tea
DALLAS (CBS 11 NEWS) – Sex offenders may be the last people you’d invite into your home. However, a North Dallas woman hosted a sex offender tea for three men on the sex offender registry. “We have to talk about this in polite society, and what’s more polite than tea?” asks Judy Safern. She also invited friends and neighbors over for the gathering and had plenty of them RSVP with an adamant NO! Full Article
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