PORT ORANGE — Registered sex offender ____ ____ ____ lives 2,112 feet from Spruce Creek Elementary School. He and other offenders who have served their sentences have been the targets in recent months of politicians including the Port Orange City Council who have enacted new regulations in the name of safety. Port Orange expanded its requirement for sex offenders to live further than 2,500 feet from schools, day-care centers and playgrounds, while in March Gov. Rick Scott signed a package of bills tightening penalties and prison sentences for sex offenders and…
Read MoreCategory: National
OH: Police – Sex abuse allegation led to Fostoria fire
FOSTORIA, Ohio (AP) — One of the suspects charged in a house fire that killed two people who were hearing impaired acted out of revenge after accusing the home’s owner of sexually abusing a child, a detective said in court. Three people have been charged in connection with the fire on May 26 that was ruled arson. Full Article
Read MoreNH: House committee passes bill prohibiting restrictions on where sex offenders can live
A House committee easily passed a bill, 18-1, prohibiting restrictions on where sex offenders can live yesterday, noting that judges have twice ruled residency restrictions unconstitutional. Still, lawmakers predicted a tough fight in the Senate, which has rejected similar bills before. Full Article
Read MoreOK: Sex registry law needs overhaul
In 2007, the Oklahoma State Legislature approved a new law that required all sex offenders be classified under a three-tier system that placed offenders in a specific category depending on the nature of the sex crime. However, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (DOC) went a step further and made the new registration law retroactive to 1998. However, in June 2013, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled the retroactive application of the rule was unconstitutional. Full Article
Read MoreIA: New HIV law to remove stigma of registered sex offender
Changes to Iowa’s HIV criminal transmission law won’t change ____ ____’ felony conviction but it does mean he will no longer bear the stigma of registering as a sex offender. ____ has fought his conviction in court and pushed for reform of the state’s HIV criminal transmission law. He still is waiting on a decision about his case by the Iowa Supreme Court. Full Article
Read MoreTN: Man spent 11 years in prison for rape he didn’t commit
NASHVILLE — ____ ____ didn’t rape that 12-year-old girl in March 1999. It’s a truth he bore for 11 years and three months in a Tennessee prison cell. Few believed him until DNA evidence in 2008 proved he didn’t sexually assault a preteen neighbor. Three more years passed before he was released from prison — and even then he still faced being tried on the charges all over again. But April 4, in light of the DNA evidence and a wavering victim, prosecutors in Marshall County finally dropped all charges. Full Article
Read MoreMA: Most sex convicts do not win release
Despite the release of a convicted sex offender who is now accused of raping and beating a woman at knifepoint Sunday, state courts are much more likely than not to keep convicted sex offenders locked up indefinitely after they finish their prison sentences. Between 2010 and 2012, juries and judges sent 57 of the 83 convicts who sought release back to detention, even though their sentences were up, according to statistics kept by the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association. Full Article
Read MoreOH: 9-year-old boy charged with sex crime
CENTERVILLE, Ohio (WDTN) – Crimes are committed by the very young. Sometimes the child doesn’t realize he or she is crossing the line, but if a complaint is filed and an investigation produces evidence, a prosecutor has to begin legal action. They can be small and still be a criminal and end up in a juvenile facility. The case involving the 9-year old boy happened on Fernshire Drive in Centerville recently. He is now charged with gross sexual imposition, accused of pulling down the pants of another child and touching him inappropriately…
Read MoreNJ: Judge allows two friends to testify that teen told them she had sex with teacher
MORRISTOWN — A Superior Court judge ruled today that the prosecution may use testimony by two witnesses who said a then-16-year-old student at a Paterson high school told them she had sexual relations with a teacher from Parsippany. Full Article
Read MorePA: Myerstown man sentenced for failing to register as sex offender
More than two decades after receiving probation for an indecent assault charge in Florida, ____ ____ finds himself serving a prison sentence in Lebanon County today because he failed to register as a sex offender in Pennsylvania. ____, 52, of 411 N. College St., Myerstown, said he did not know of a change in law that occurred in December that requires him to register as a sex offender with Pennsylvania State Police. Full Article
Read MoreIL: Chicago police fail to register sex offenders 601 times in just three months
On February 13 of this year, ____ ____ went to the Chicago Police Department Headquarters to register as a sex offender. He was one of 22 people who were turned away that day because the office was simply too busy. That’s according to police records. A month later, on March 21, ____ ____ was approached by Chicago police officers on the West Side of Chicago. Full Article
Read MoreTX: Rise in Overturned Sexual Abuse Convictions from DNA Testing
Being accused of a crime you haven’t committed can be devastating. Unfortunately, several wrongly convicted individuals are just now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel after years behind bars. Falsified claims are a serious threat and this issue is quickly becoming recognized by mainstream media. In particular, false allegations involving child sexual abuse or child abuse can wreak havoc to family relations and cause lingering stress. Recently thousands of untested DNA rape and sexual abuse kits were sent to a third party crime lab for testing after…
Read MoreCO: Man punished as sex offender, but was never charged with sex assault
____ ____ was sent to prison twice for parole violations related to being a sex offender even though he has never been convicted of a sex offense and the woman who originally accused him of rape recanted. ____ is one of about 800 convicts in Colorado who have been “administratively” classified as a sex offender and must abide by stringent rules when paroled as though they were convicted of rape or child molestation. Full Article
Read MoreNH: State’s sex-offender registry overreaches (Editorial)
The N.H. Supreme Court is pondering the fate of a man convicted, several decades ago, of sexually assaulting his teenage stepdaughter. The man has served out his prison sentence, undergone years of counseling and been deemed “rehabilitated” by the court. Now in his 60s, he is disabled. None of which would be fodder for the state’s highest court, except that since he was released from prison in 1990, the state has repeatedly enacted laws calling for those convicted of sexual assault against children to register with the police, so a…
Read MoreWA: Wanted sex offender lists false address to shock of family in that home
VANCOUVER, WA (KPTV) – Deputies are searching for a convicted child molester in Clark County, and investigators know ____ ____ isn’t at the address he gave to them. Upon his recent release from jail on drug charges, _____, 38, listed his address as a home in Vancouver. That was a huge shock to the family who actually lives there, since they have no idea who he is. Full Article
Read MoreWA: Woman says her husband is mistaken for a sex offender
A Rancho Reata woman claims that a recently released photo of a sex offender is causing trouble for her husband. The two men reportedly look alike, and neighbors are confusing Kristin Daniel’s husband for a convicted sex offender who lives about a mile away. Full Article
Read MoreNY: Dozens charged in child porn case in NYC area
NEW YORK (AP) — Seemingly respectable members of the mainstream — a police officer, a paramedic, a rabbi, an airline pilot, an architect, a Boy Scout leader — were caught using the Internet to collect and trade child pornography, federal officials said Wednesday. Full Article
Read MoreTX: Under trafficking law, sex with minor can mean life in prison
____ ____ was a 43-year-old prison guard who met a young girl online and had a sexual relationship with the 14-year-old for about a year. A few years ago, such a crime would’ve put him behind bars for two to 20 years for sexual assault of a child. But a Hays County jury this week gave ____, now 45, life in prison without the possibility of parole, under a relatively new trafficking law targeting people who transport young victims for sexual purposes. Full Article
Read More