Source: altoonamirror.com 1/12/23 A Blair County senior judge has scheduled arguments in May to consider a constitutional challenge to state law requiring convicted sex offenders to regularly register their addresses and related information with state police. In recent orders, Senior Judge Timothy M. Sullivan set an April 11 sentencing date for Colby James ____ of Tyrone and a May 12 hearing date to consider the constitutional challenges being raised on ____ ‘s behalf to the state’s Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act. ____ , 22, who pleaded guilty in March…
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Court Grants Partial Motion for Preliminary Injunction in SORNA Regulations Case
A federal district court today issued a decision granting, in part, a motion for preliminary injunction that was pending in the SORNA regulations case. A copy of the court’s decision is being posted today on the ACSOL website, however, ACSOL must wait until the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) issues a press release before it publishes an article describing the court’s decision. PLF issued a press release regarding the decision on Wednesday, January 18. A copy of that press release is posted here on the ACSOL website. Download the PDF…
Read MoreAZ: Changes needed in sex offender registry rules
Source: azcapitoltimes.com 1/13/23 In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a rare spate of high-profile child abductions and murders, mostly sexual in nature, terrified America. With constant media coverage, parents across the country were easily led to believe that their children could be in imminent danger. As demands from the public, as well as a few prominent parents of missing or murdered children escalated, legislatures responded, and the sex offender registry was born. This primal need to protect our children from any possible harm resonates in us all. Human logic…
Read MoreCANCELED! SORNA Regulations Hearing January 13
Source: ACSOL The judge canceled the hearing in SORNA case scheduled for January 13. Instead of a hearing, the judge will make his decision regarding whether to grant the pending Motion for Summary Judgment based upon the written record only, with no oral arguments.
Read MoreIL: People with sex and gun convictions are required to register with police. CPD can’t keep up.
Source: wbez.org 1/11/23 Police turn away people trying to register, leaving them at risk of arrest. Some crime victims say the system fails them too. Outside a red brick building in Chicago’s Burnside neighborhood, Odell Whitehorn Jr. recently stood in a line with over a dozen men on a bitterly cold morning. Whitehorn is on the Illinois murder and violence against youth registry, for a crime he committed when he was eighteen-years-old, in 2000. Once a year, Whitehorn is required to register with the Chicago police. This was the fifth…
Read MoreNC: Dads Against Predators ‘lured’ man to store before gunfire, NC cops say. Warrants issued
Source: yahoo.com 1/30/23 Three members of the group Dads Against Predators “lured” a man to a store before gunfire erupted — and now warrants have been issued in the North Carolina case, officials said. The group members are accused of using the Meetup app to get the man to come to a Target store in Winston-Salem. When the man arrived on June 28, all three members started to beat him on the head repeatedly, according to the city’s police department. The 25-year-old man reportedly pulled out a gun and fired…
Read MoreWI: Oshkosh city council approves $1 million project to expand sex offender housing
Source: fox11online.com 1/10/23 The Oshkosh City Council is giving the go ahead for a county-owned housing facility for sex offenders. Residential housing for sex offenders in Winnebago County has been in the works since early last year. After a meeting in Oshkosh Tuesday night, the last hurdle was cleared. “These are individuals who’ve served their time, gone through treatment,” Oshkosh board member Lynnsey Erickson said. “Continuing treatment, under intense supervision, we can’t just throw these people away.” The Oshkosh Common Council approved the city’s conditional use permit, meaning a facility…
Read MoreOH: Ohio bans child sex offenders from working with kids
Source: news5cleveland.com 1/5/23 COLUMBUS, Ohio — A newly-signed law will stop convicted child sex offenders in Ohio from working or volunteering with kids. Convicted sex offenders in the state have always been able to work around children legally, much to the chagrin of parents like Rebecca Surendorff and others who realize nothing can be done. “This is, frankly, a crisis level, and we’re not giving it the thought and attention that it deserves,” Surendorff said. The law has not prevented it — until now. Read the full article
Read MoreIN: Seventh Circuit revisits controversial Indiana sex offender law
Source: courthousenews.com 1/6/23 The Seventh Circuit heard arguments over Indiana’s controversial Sex Offender Registration Act on Friday morning, and not for the first time. Instead, it was just the latest skirmish in an ongoing legal struggle between the Indiana Department of Corrections, the District Court of Southern Indiana and the judges of the Seventh Circuit. Indiana enacted the law known as SORA in 1994, requiring that those convicted of sex offenses in other states must also register as sex offenders in Indiana if they live or work there. It also…
Read MoreSC: Shield Ministries doctor explains treatment for sex offenders
Source: abcnews4.com 1/6/23 “When you have a pedophile leading pedophiles, it puts a really bad taste in your mouth,” Walterboro resident Kevin Lyles said. This is a common concern among Walterboro residents that live near Barracada Road. The executive director of Shield Ministries, David Truluck, is a registered sex offender planning to open a third treatment center and halfway house there. We took the resident’s concerns to Dr. William Burke, a doctor who treats sex offenders in the Shield Ministries program. Dr. Burke has performed around 10,000 evaluations on sex…
Read MoreUT: New bill would place certain minors on the Utah sex offender registry
Source: kslnewsradio.com 1/4/23 SALT LAKE CITY — Utah doesn’t require minors to register or follow sex offender guidelines, but a proposed bill in the 2023 Utah Legislative Session might change that. Utah’s registry, the Sex and Kidnap Offender Registry, currently has around 7,000 registrants, something that H.B. 122 would surely change. KSL’s Legal Analyst Greg Skordas said that Utah’s registry has historically been exclusively for adults, but HB122 would allow for juveniles to be added to the list, depending on the crime. “Certain minors, who commit offenses that would be…
Read MoreLA: Disgraced sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 100 years in high-profile sex crimes case
Source: wbrz.com 1/3/23 LIVINGSTON PARISH – A former Livingston Parish sheriff’s deputy was sentenced to 100 years in prison for a multitude of sex crimes — several involving children — on Tuesday, years after WBRZ broke the story of his being arrested in a case that reportedly has numerous juvenile victims. Dennis Perkins, first arrested in 2019 along with his wife Cynthia, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of second-degree rape, two counts of sexual battery of a child, one count of video voyeurism, two counts of production of child…
Read MoreNJ: NJ officials warn YouTube vigilante pedophile hunters to cut it out
Source: newsbreak.com 12/24/22 HACKENSACK, N.J. (1010 WINS) — The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office asked the public to stop posing as children online in an attempt to lure pedophiles for YouTube videos on Thursday. This style of vigilante pedophile hunting has become a popular form of schadenfreude-driven entertainment on YouTube and other video platforms. The content creators often model their makeshift stings after “To Catch a Predator,” the television show in which Chris Hansen would confront pedophiles with law enforcement waiting nearby. Read the full article
Read MoreSC: Stepdaughter of Shield Ministries director fights against his sex offender rehab plans
Source: abcnews4.com 12/29/22 Walterboro residents are coming together to keep registered sex offenders out of their neighborhood. Shield Ministries, a nonprofit organization, is planning to open their third treatment center at a vacant church campus in Walterboro. In Shield Ministries’ 2021 annual report, 70 percent of their applicants are registered as sex offenders. Neighbors say that has them worried for their children. “When parents can’t let their children go out to their yard and play because of fear, what quality of life is that?” asked Kevin Lyles, a resident who…
Read MoreIL: New Illinois sex offense laws taking effect Jan. 1
Source: mystateline.com 12/28/22 A handful of new Illinois laws that deal with sex offenses will go into effect Jan. 1. The first, filed as House Bill 4593, places the burden of proof on a defendant accused of soliciting sex from a minor or intellectually disabled person and claims they did not know the victim was a minor or disabled. Anyone who uses the defense must prove they were unaware of the age or disability status of the victim. Currently, that burden of proof is on the state. Gov. JB Pritzker…
Read MoreWY: Although Dept Of Corrections Wanted Child Sex Abuser On Probation, Wyo Supreme Court Says No
Source: cowboystatedaily.com 12/27/22 A Riverton man sentenced to a decade in prison for sexually abusing a 5-year-old while he was in his late teens is not entitled to have his sentence reduced to probation after completing Wyoming’s Youthful Offender Transition Program, the Wyoming Supreme Court has ruled. Joshua ____, 22, was sentenced by Fremont County District Court in June 2021 to between eight and 12 years in prison for sexually abusing a 5-year-old girl when he was 17. That sentence was reduced to between six and 10 years…
Read MoreCT: The man who vanished
Source: timesunion.com 12/17/22 THOMPSON, N.Y. — Something was wrong with David’s roommate. It was Monday morning, Dec. 5, and David was about to leave for work. He hadn’t laid eyes on Richard King, his friend of almost a decade, since Friday. Normally, Rich was out of the house they shared in this rural wedge of Sullivan County by the time David left for his job at the local high school. But when he saw his roommate’s car in the garage, David’s heart sank. “That was very unusual,” said the 46-year-old…
Read MoreTN: Chattanooga, Hamilton County money not housing sex offenders from Budgetel
Source: timesfreepress.com 12/22/22 No registered sex offenders displaced from the Budgetel Inn last month are being housed with city or county money, officials said after Hamilton County District Attorney Coty Wamp sent an email this week objecting to “free hotel rooms for child molesters.” Wamp identified four registered sex offenders who had been living at the East Ridge motel before she sought and received a court order for its closure as a public nuisance, and a fifth was later identified by the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office. Since the sudden shutdown,…
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