FL: Police cameras show confusion, anger over DeSantis’ voter fraud arrests

Source: tampabay.com 10/18/22 TALLAHASSEE — When police went to arrest Tony Patterson outside his Tampa home in August, he couldn’t believe the reason. “What is wrong with this state, man?” Patterson protested as he was being escorted to a police car in handcuffs. “Voter fraud? Y’all said anybody with a felony could vote, man.” Body-worn camera footage recorded by local police captured the confusion and outrage of Hillsborough County residents who found themselves in handcuffs for casting a ballot following investigations by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ new Office of Election Crimes…

Read More

UT: Utah Court of Appeals reverses sex offender’s conviction, claiming state failed to prosecute case for 2 years

Source: fox13now.com 10/17/22 SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Court of Appeals has reversed a sex offender’s conviction after they say prosecutors failed to notify him they’d charged him or were prosecuting him. In to a 74-page document filed by the Utah Court of Appeals on Friday, Judge Ryan Harris said the appellant, Chad Hintze, wasn’t made aware of a charge against him for two years. The charge, according to the documents, stemmed from an incident in June of 2016 in which Hintze and a teenage girl were eating and…

Read More

MS: George, Greene counties recognized for keeping sex offenders 100% compliant

Source: wkrg.com 10/14/22 GEORGE COUNTY, Miss. (WKRG) – Employees from the Sheriff’s offices in both George and Greene counties were recently recognized for their work to keep all registered sex offenders in their jurisdictions compliant with state law. “[Citizens] should definitely be proud of these counties. They are really working hard to ensure that their communities are as safe as possible and everyone is aware of the registered offenders in their area,” said registry director Megan Costilow. Most sex offenders must re-register and update their address every three months. Each…

Read More

WA: U Washington students defend themselves from potential sex offender threat following assaults near campus

Source: foxnews 10/13/22 Students at the University of Washington are sounding the alarm on the handful of registered sex offenders who live near the Seattle campus, which has recently been plagued by crime.  “I ordered two things of pepper spray, and my parents keep texting me asking about how my individual room locks, and if there is bars on my basement window,” student Jacqueline Niles told Fox 13.    The University District of Seattle, which surrounds UW’s campus, has seen repeated instances of crime in recent weeks, including a shooting…

Read More

NY: No jail time for Cuba Gooding Jr. in forcible touching case

Source: nbcnews.com 10/13/22 Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. resolved his New York City forcible touching case Thursday with a guilty plea to a lesser charge and no jail time after complying with the terms of a conditional plea agreement reached in April. Prosecutor Coleen Balbert said Gooding has stayed out of trouble and completed six months of alcohol and behavior modification counseling, allowing him to withdraw his misdemeanor plea and plead guilty to a harassment violation. Balbert said she has received “positive reports for the last six months” from Gooding’s therapist. The actor…

Read More

MI: Jury Convicts Man For Vile Act With Elmo Doll

Source: thesmokinggun.com 10/12/22 A jury yesterday convicted a Michigan man of aggravated indecent exposure for using a Tickle Me Elmo doll to masturbate while he was inspecting a residence on behalf of a potential purchaser. Kevin ____, 60, was found guilty of the misdemeanor following a one-day trial in Oakland County Circuit Court. The jury acquitted ____  of malicious destruction of property, also a misdemeanor. Judge Phyllis McMillen scheduled ____’s sentencing for December 2. The indecent exposure count carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a $2000…

Read More

Amended Complaint Filed in SORNA Regulations Lawsuit

Source: ACSOL An amended complaint was filed in federal district court yesterday in the lawsuit challenging SORNA regulations which became effective in January 2022.  The amended complaint adds three plaintiffs using the pseudonyms “John Does 2, 3 and 4.”  The amended complaint also includes the two original plaintiffs —  John Doe 1 and ACSOL.  According to the amended complaint, John Does 1 through 3 are no longer required to register in the states in which they currently reside, however, they are required to register under SORNA.  John Doe 4 is…

Read More

FL: ‘Nationally-recognized’ teacher arrested in Fort Lauderdale for sex assault on minor after Tinder meet

Source: local10.com 10/10/22 FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A teacher who has worked in schools in Miami-Dade and Broward and who received a presidential award is facing charges in Broward County Court for allegedly sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy who went on to write a college entry essay about it in school, police said. Fort Lauderdale police officers arrested Carlos _____, 46, on Oct. 3, Broward Sheriff’s Office corrections records show. The case started in Connecticut after a school counselor’s report, police said. Faced with the evidence, _____ surrendered to FLPD,…

Read More

How vigilante ‘predator catchers’ are infiltrating the criminal justice system

Source: washingtonpost.com 9/22/22 It began with a live-streamed shaming in an Olive Garden parking lot. It ended with an Indiana cop on trial for child solicitation. By Jessica Contrera DANVILLE, Ind. — The jury was waiting. They’d cringed when they learned what kind of case they’d hear in this Indiana courthouse. Child solicitation. But don’t worry, the county prosecutors assured them. There would be no graphic pictures. There would be no testimony from an abused child. Because in this case, there was no child. The man charged with the crime…

Read More

Sexual crime conviction in 1999 cancels out 29 years of service to country

Source: narsol.org 10/7/22 By Captain Charles Munsey . . . Today, October 5, I started out as I routinely do — cup of coffee, morning devotions, a quick breakfast, and then on the road to take care of chores. First, I stopped by my daughter’s home in Rockledge to drop off something for her and converse with her and my grandson for a while. Then I set off for Patrick SFB (Space Force Base) to take care of chores there — pick up prescription meds, get a haircut, and then…

Read More

TX: More than a dozen sex offenders in Lamesa ordered to move

Source: kcbd.com 10/6/22 LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – More than a dozen registered sex offenders are living too close to children, that’s according to the Lamesa Police Department. The chief of police confirmed that 19 residents received notices stating they were in violation of the city’s code of ordinances. Eugene Gaspar is a registered sex offender who said the department gave him 90 days to move, or face a fine of up to $500 a day. Gaspar said the notice came as a surprise because officers at the Lamesa Police Department…

Read More

German Court Grants Protection to former Florida Sex Offense Registrant on Human Rights Grounds

Source: floridaactioncommittee.org 10/7/22 Taken from the FAC article: SOURCE: Steven Whitsett, Baden-Württemberg, Germany Sending registrants back to prison for mere administrative violations of Florida’s sex offender registry violates human rights law.  How’s that for a bit of good news? After paying my “debt to society” by completing a lengthy prison term in Florida and two years of supervision, I decided that I didn’t owe anything further and was not going to be persecuted in my own country for the rest of my life.  So, I packed my bags and boarded…

Read More

FL: Gainesville city commissioners consider changes to city’s sexual offender ordinance

Source: mycbs4.com 10/6/22 Gainesville, FL — Gainesville City Commissioners passed a motion to craft a proposed amendment to the current Sexual Offender and Sexual Predator Ordinance in place to mirror the state statute. “I think it just makes a consistency and so it’s legally defensible. You know, that we’re not sort of afield of what is already accepted through the courts and through the upheld state practices and just creates that predictability and consistency,” City Mayor Lauren Poe said. The City of Gainesville’s ordinance adopted in 2005 is similar to…

Read More

OH: Woman quits haunted house job in Columbia Station over registered sex offender co-workers

Source: news5cleveland.com 10/3/22 COLUMBIA STATION, Ohio — A registered sex offender may have been scaring your children for fun at a Northeast Ohio haunted house. It’s a tip received by News 5 Investigators, and in less than 24 hours, we learned two felons were fired. Kim Neubauer says she worked at the Spooky Ranch in Columbia Station for one day this season before quitting. “I did not want to go back this year but I thought I’d try it. I want to go have some fun and make some money. I wish…

Read More

11th Circuit upholds Alabama’s sex offender registry law after waiting seven years

Source: talkingpointsmemo.com 8/3/22 The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling in a case on Monday more than seven years after the matter was first filed, and hours after TPM published an article about the delay. The 81-page ruling was per curiam, meaning that all three judges on the panel – Ed Carnes, Jill Pryor, and Kenneth Ripple, visiting from the 7th Circuit – signed off on it, but no one judge claimed authorship. The case first hit the 11th Circuit in 2015. Michael McGuire, a homeless Black man…

Read More

IA: Former Iowa City schools counselor awarded $12 million after being wrongfully imprisoned for 6 years for sex offense

Source: press-citizen.com 9/30/22 Donald Clark won $12 million in a lawsuit he filed against the state of Iowa on Thursday, years after being exonerated and released from prison on false charges that he sexually abused a student while working as an Iowa City elementary school counselor. A jury awarded Clark $8 million in past emotional distress damages and $4 million for future damages after he spent six years in prison starting in 2010. He was released in 2016 when his conviction was vacated. That year, the court found that his…

Read More

NM: GOP uses racism to promote anti-registrant occupational limits to win votes

Source: abqjournal.com 9/29/22 An altered image of darkened hands cutting a white child’s hair sure does appear to play on racist fears and should be denounced by the political party that created it. The Republican Party of New Mexico recently mailed flyers to voters in several state House districts showing a barber with darkened hands. “Do you want a sex offender cutting your child’s hair?” the flyer asks. Democrats are calling this political flyer created by the Republican Party of New Mexico a racist “dog whistle.” The flyers cite two…

Read More

OH: Man charged with raping child found dead with alleged victim’s relative, troopers say

Source: fox19.com 9/14/22 ASHTABULA COUNTY, Ohio (WOIO/Gray News) – A child rape suspect was found dead along with a family member of the alleged victim Sunday morning. The deaths are still being investigated, but Ohio State Highway Patrol said they believe it was a murder-suicide. Troopers found the bodies of 34-year-old Wesley Thomas and his 31-year-old girlfriend at the New Lyme Wildlife Area in Ashtabula County around 8:20 a.m. Sunday. Officials said the bodies were found with gunshot wounds on the ground near a vehicle, and a gun was found…

Read More