Sex offenders from decades ago, who committed their crimes before the state’s registry was created in 1994, would have their names added to a registry supplement under legislation that advanced Monday. Full article
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CO: Should we stop labeling people ‘sex offender’?
KUSA – A state regulatory board debated Friday whether the label “sex offender” was too stigmatizing to people who committed sex crimes. Colorado’s Sex Offender Management Board regulates treatment, rehabilitation, and monitoring of sex offenders. Friday’s board meeting included a vote whether to eliminate the word “sex offender” from the board’s official policies. Suggestions for replacement words included “clients,” “defendants” and “individuals.” Full Article
Read MoreME: Maine’s highest court finds decision in sex offender case flawed
Justices tell a lower court to look again at a man’s challenge to being placed on the list retroactively in the wake of new legislation. A Maine judge must give further consideration to whether a man’s rights were violated by legislative action requiring him to be placed on the state sex offender registry retroactively, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled Tuesday. Full Article
Read MoreFL: To Entrap an Innocent
Florida police use sex-crime laws to bait men with no apparent interest in underage trysts. After a year-long investigation, WTSP, a CBS affiliate in Tampa Bay, Florida, has uncovered an alarming pattern of police trying to entrap innocent adults in sex crimes. The stings follow the basic pattern familiar to anyone who has seen To Catch a Predator, except “many of the men whose mugshots have been paraded out by local sheriffs in made-for-TV press conferences were not seeking to meet children online. Instead, they were minding their own business,…
Read MoreOffensive offender list (Editorial)
Kids do stupid things. And sometimes they do stupid things that are criminal. But unlike adults who commit a crime, we don’t subject kids to the same consequences, which sometimes can be harsh and life-changing. We take into consideration their immaturity and the likelihood that a young person’s behavior can be altered via counseling, oversight and education, and we cut them a break. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Police lured innocent men into online sex stings and seized their property, records show
Police posed as underage teens online to lure men into breaking the law as part of an apparent revenue scheme by Florida law enforcement agencies, according to an investigation of newly released public records. Emails and other online communications analyzed by WTSP-TV revealed that many of the men who were eventually arrested were not interested in meeting children but were instead seeking adult sex partners – until they encountered undercover officers. Full Article
Read MoreNY: Where should sex offenders live?
Albany – A local attorney told the state’s top court Monday that a county law restricting the residency of convicted sex offenders within 1,000 feet of schools should be superseded by state law and not be enforced. Full Article
Read MoreFL: 10 Investigates gets results with in-depth series on sex stings
TAMPA BAY, Florida — A drawn-out struggle to obtain public records has started to yield results for 10 Investigates, as local agencies have started releasing limited records – and providing insight – regarding how law enforcement conducts controversial sex “predator” stings. Full Article
Read MorePA: Lifetime registration mandate for juvenile sex offenders is unconstitutional, Pa. Supreme Court says
A Pennsylvania law that requires juveniles who commit the most serious types of sex crimes to register with police for life is unconstitutional because it breeches the youngsters’ civil rights, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday. Full Article
Read MoreNY: NY may need to free sex offenders
State mental health officials are trying to decide whether they will have to release civilly confined sex offenders because of a recent ruling from New York’s highest court. The odds are some of the offenders will be freed. The more pressing question may be: How many? Full Article
Read MoreSex offender lottery winner target of lawsuit
MOUNT DORA, Fla. – The victims of a sexual predator who became a lottery millionaire are now suing to win his wealth. Timothy Dale Poole won $3 million on a Florida Lottery scratch-off ticket he purchased at a Mount Dora 7-Eleven store on Dec. 6. In 1999, Orange County authorities arrested Poole following allegations that he sexually battered a 9-year-old boy. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in 2002. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Hillsborough’s controversial sex offender court is disbanded
TAMPA — For 14 years, criminal cases involving accused rapists, molesters and child abusers in Hillsborough County have been heard by a single judge in the sex offender division. Full Article
Read MoreNY: Sex offender housing restrictions not enforced in Utica
Oneida County and state laws restricting where registered sex offenders can live aren’t being enforced in Utica. Full Article
Read MoreVA: 1 out of every 148 Adult Males in Virginia is a Registered Sex Offender
The 2015 Report from Virginia State Police on the Monitoring of Sex Offenders Required to Comply with the Registry – We’ve Exceeded 21,300 RSO’s AND As of November 2014 1 out of every 148 Adult Males in Virginia is a Registered Sex Offender Full Article
Read MoreNY: Parents for Megan’s Law touts record on sex offenders as it seeks to expand into Nassau
Parents for Megan’s Law, a nonprofit that monitors convicted sex offenders in Suffolk County, has alerted police to 173 cases in which offenders allegedly reported inaccurate addresses, contributing to 38 arrests, according to the agency and new county data. Full Article
Read MoreIL: Former Illinois lawmaker registers as sex offender
ELGIN, Ill. (AP) – A former Illinois lawmaker who traded in child pornography has registered as a sex offender. Keith Farnham of Elgin is now listed on the Illinois State Police sex offender site as a “sexual predator” who possessed child pornography of a victim less than 13 years of age. The 67-year-old pleaded guilty to transporting child pornography in a federal courtroom in Chicago earlier this month. He faces up to 20 years in prison and remains under house arrest until his sentencing in March. Full Article
Read MoreFL: SEX OFFENDERS should not be allowed to purchase lottery tickets; they just might win
If proof were ever needed that an individual, once listed on a sex offender registry, no matter for what offense nor how long ago, is forever more thereafter considered unworthy of anything good ever happening in his life, this is it. A registrant in Florida won a three million dollar scratch-off lottery, and the wrath of every hater in the United States and then some was raised beyond the boiling point. Full Op-Ed Piece
Read MoreIN: Unregistered sex offenders featured on local billboards
NDIANAPOLIS –Marion County is launching a new effort to go after sex offenders who have not registered by putting them out there for the world to see. It is required by law for sex offenders to register with their local law enforcement so police – and citizens – know where they live. Those who have not registered in Marion County now risk being featured on billboard around town. The pictures of 40 unregistered sex offenders will be placed on one of three billboards around town to help police find them.…
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