Source: youtube.com / KSL 10/26/23 The Utah Department of Corrections is auditing the state’s sex offender registry and hiring additional staff after the KSL Investigators discovered more than 100 convicted sex offenders missing from the registry. Watch the video
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ME: Registrant falsely accused of mass murder because he has the same name
Source: usatoday.com 10/26/23 The claim: Image shows suspect in Maine shooting, previously arrested for child pornography An Oct. 26 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) includes a photo of a man it claims is the suspect in a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, that left 18 people dead. “Lewiston Maine Mass Shooting Suspect Robert Card Has Been Previously Arrested For Child Pornography & Is A Registered Sex Offender Who CAN NOT LEGALLY POSSESS A FIREARM!” reads part of the post. The post garnered nearly 30 shares and more than 350 comments…
Read MoreGA: If I Join a Church After Prison, How Much of My Past Is Safe to Disclose?
Source: filtermag.org 10/25/23 Last Sunday, I tried to work up the courage to go to church. I did some Googling of the churches sprinkled around the Georgia county where I currently live. There are dozens; I could take my pick. But when I think about meeting a new congregation, I freeze. Do I introduce myself as trans? As someone who just got out of prison? As a registered sex offender? Or do I make up some story that’s easier? In September I was released, after 13 years in Georgia Department…
Read MoreFL: Accused sex offender released back into community after being found incompetent to stand trial
Source: wftv.com 10/23/23 PINE HILLS, Fla. — A community learned on Monday that an accused repeat sex offender will be released back into their community, again. Channel 9 first reported on 56-year-old Joseph ____ since 2020. ____ has recently been found incompetent to stand trial and is not currently facing time for any of his charges. In the courtroom, parents of the alleged victims were livid. They did not want him to be released anywhere near their daughters, who he’s accused of attacking in Pine Hills. Deshawn Browdy spoke in…
Read MoreGA: Want to avoid sex offenders in your neighborhood this Halloween? Read this before trick-or-treating
Source: fox5atlanta.com 10/23/23 There are over 24,500 registered sex offenders in the state of Georgia. Only some of them have to follow a special set of rules on Halloween. Those who are on parole or probation must: Turn off all outside lights Not decorate their home for the holiday, or pass out candy Not answer the door, unless it’s for a law enforcement officer or an emergency responder In the past, the Atlanta Police Department has sent parole officers to visit the homes of sex offenders throughout the night to…
Read MoreMO: Briefs Filed Regarding Request to Stop Missouri’s Halloween Sign Mandate
Source: ACSOL Briefs have been filed by both parties, in support of and in opposition to, a motion for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO). If the motion is granted, registrants in Missouri would not be required to post signs on the front door of their homes on Halloween. Plaintiff’s reply brief was filed today as required by the court. That brief focuses on the fact that the sign mandate violates the First Amendment because it is compelled speech, required by the government and objected to by the registrant. The brief…
Read MoreFL: Residents want ‘clustered’ sex offenders out of Tampa neighborhood
Source: fox13news.com 10/20/23 TAMPA, Fla. – After more than two years of delays, Tampa city council members on Thursday finally received a report on the housing of sexual predators who are currently ‘clustered’ in the V.M. Ybor neighborhood. … “Commencing in 2009-2010, multiple properties on Nebraska Avenue underwent rapid transformations, becoming high-density hubs for newly released sex offenders, predators, and felons. This resulted in a concerning surge in V.M. Ybor’s sex offender and predator population. Despite initial opposition, the situation persists, prompting the need for critical intervention. One glaring issue is the Department of Corrections’ ongoing…
Read MoreGA: Do These Sex Offender Employment Restrictions Make Sense to Anyone?
Source: filtermag.org 10/19/23 In the month since I was released from Georgia Department of Corrections custody, I’ve been offered four different jobs. I could have been an account lead at a prominent insurance agency; a receptionist at the same agency, different location; an accountant at another insurance agency; and a paralegal assistant at a law firm. I submitted each offer to my local sheriff’s department, where each was promptly rejected. It appears there are only two available positions in the entire county I’d be allowed to work, one of them…
Read MoreAR: Arkansas Parole Board Denies Release to Sex Offender For Failure to Find Appropriate Housing
Source: prisonlegalnews.org 9/15/23 On February 2, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas dismissed a state prisoner’s habeas corpus petition challenging denial of his parole because he did not have approved sex offender housing. While bad news for him, the decision is instructive for any prisoner facing housing restrictions when paroled or on probation. Charles Isaac Wilson, Jr., is serving a 40-year sentence for a 2010 conviction for delivery of cocaine. In November 2021, the state Parole Board recommended he be transferred from the state Department…
Read MoreWV: A convicted sex offender using signs to voice his first amendment right. And the complaint made against him
Source: youtube.com 10/10/23 A heated neighborhood dispute was escalated in the South Hills area of Charleston, West Virginia, after a convicted sex offender used yard signs targeting children to make his point. Watch the video
Read MoreFL: Volusia councilman seeks to strengthen sex offender ordinances
Source: youtube.com 10/16/23 On Tuesday, a Volusia County commissioner is expected to propose new rules to crack down on local sex offenders. District Three Councilman Danny Robins told News 6 that he wants to make the county safer, so he compiled data from law enforcement agencies including the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Watch the video
Read MoreNY: Opinion: The case for fixing probation and parole
Source: cityandstateny.com 9/22/23 On Sept. 17, 2021, when I was running the notorious Rikers Island jails, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the Less Is More act into law, reducing parole revocations for non-criminal, technical violations. When she did so, she applied the act retroactively to all people incarcerated for 30 days or more for parole violations like drug use, missed appointments and curfew violations. Unfortunately, Isaabdul Karim had only been incarcerated for 29 days, missing his release opportunity by a single day. Two days later, Mr. Karim died of COVID-19 in…
Read MoreParents, investigators recall long quest for answers after Jacob Wetterling’s 1989 abduction
Source: abcnews.go.com 10/12/23 A new “20/20” examines the chilling case that remained unsolved until 2016. Nearly 34 years ago, the abduction of an 11-year-old boy from a dark road in rural Minnesota terrified the community and went on to become one of the biggest mysteries in the state’s history. Jacob Wetterling was kidnapped at gunpoint a half-mile from his St. Joseph home just after 9 p.m. on Oct. 22, 1989. He was never seen alive again. The chilling case, which remained unsolved until 2016, is the focus of a new…
Read MoreFAC President Speaks to UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva Switzerland
Source: Florida Action Committee 10/16/23 Today, our FAC President Gail Colletta addressed the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva Switzerland to call out the United States’ failure to address the inhumane Registry scheme and specifically the practice of allowing states to create Sex Offender Residency Restrictions (SORRs). Gail had only two-minutes to define the problem and ask the UN to hold the United States accountable for the violation of numerous human rights. While there is more that needs to be done to abolish the Registry entirely, her presence today…
Read MoreNY: They Were Supposed to Be Free. Why Are They Locked Up?
Source: thenation.com 10/14/23 No one wants a person convicted of a sex offense in their neighborhood. So New York keeps them in prison long past their release dates. Jory Smith was supposed to be free. His sentence had been up for five days on August 28, 2020, when officers at Marcy Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in upstate New York where Smith had spent almost five years, summoned him to a conference room. But instead of releasing him, they said they were taking him to another prison. Confused, Smith asked…
Read MoreCT: New Fairfield proposes ordinance to ban sex offenders from public places frequented by children
Source: newstimes.com 10/16/23 NEW FAIRFIELD — The town is proposing a new ordinance that, if adopted, would ban convicted sex offenders from public places frequented by children. With the goal of preserving and promoting “the health, safety and general welfare of the children” and protecting them from “the threat of sexual abuse from sex offenders,” the proposed ordinance would “enact reasonable regulations restricting sex offenders from entering child safety zones,” according to the text of New Fairfield’s draft sex offender ordinance. The idea for the ordinance came from local law enforcement, First…
Read MoreMO: Motion for TRO Filed to Stop Missouri Halloween Sign Requirement
A motion for Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) was filed today in federal district court asking the court to stop enforcement of a Missouri state law that requires registrants to post a sign on the front door of their home on Halloween. If the motion is granted, enforcement of the Halloween sign requirement could be stopped statewide. “It was important to make this request today so that the court could issue its ruling prior to Halloween,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci, who is now the lead attorney in the case. …
Read MoreMN: CA suspect in 2003 St. Paul rape is charged after testing of DNA evidence
Source: startribune.com 10/10/23 [ACSOL note: we are posting this to show how an unusually long delay of charges is possible, even reaching to another state] Since 2012, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office and its law enforcement partners have been chipping away at their backlog of sexual assault kits holding evidence in unsolved cases. By Paul Walsh Star Tribune Testing of DNA evidence nearly 20 years after it was collected has led to a man’s arrest on allegations that he raped a woman in a vehicle. Shawn P. ____, 48, was charged…
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