Category: National

AK: Data shows Arkansas 3rd highest rate of registered sex offenders in U.S.

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Source: 5newsonline.com 5/16/22 ARKANSAS, USA — There are 767,000 registered sex offenders across the nation and 18,000 of those live in Arkansas. The data says that just under 600 registered sex offenders per 100-thousand residents. This data comes from safehome.org. Senior industry analyst, Corie Colliton says since there is no national sex offender registry, they’ve been compiling the data from each state since 2019.   “Arkansas does have a high number of child sex abuse victims per 100,000 minors in the state. It was higher than any other state. Almost…

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IN: Out-of-state sex offender registration requirement does not violate Indiana Constitution

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Source: theindianalawyer.com 5/16/22 The Court of Appeals of Indiana has upheld a finding that the retroactive application of the state’s sex offender registration requirements does not violate the Indiana Constitution’s ex post facto clause. Tracey Williams Crowley petitioned the St. Joseph Circuit Court in 2021 to have his name removed from the Indiana Sex and Violent Offender Registry. He had been convicted in Michigan of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, a felony, in 1988. In 2004, Crowley moved to Indiana. As he was required to do in Michigan, he registered as…

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Janice Files Lawsuit that Challenges Denial of Military Base Access to Registrant Retirees

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Source: ACSOL A lawsuit was filed today in a federal district court in California challenging the denial of access to a military base of a military retiree solely because he is required to register.  The lawsuit claims that the military retiree’s right to due process was violated when he was denied access without prior notice in November 2021 to Vandenberg Air Force Base which is located near Santa Barbara, California.  The lawsuit asks the court to require the commander of Vandenberg Air Force base to allow the plaintiff access so…

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SOLPRC’s Guide for Practitioners to New Federal SORNA Regulations Effective January 7, 2022

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Source: mitchellhamline.edu 5/2/22 On December 8, 2021, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) published regulations regarding the implementation of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”). The new regulations are notable for their emphasis on the responsibility of individuals with prior sex offense convictions to ensure compliance with Federal SORNA even where relevant state registration schemes maintain different requirements. In light of the new regulations, and with the assistance of a number of attorneys and academics working in this area, SOLPRC has prepared a short guide to assist legal practitioners…

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MD: Law would ban student sex offenders from Washington County Public Schools’ property

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Source: heraldmailmedia.com 5/6/22 A proposed policy would ban students that are registered as sex offenders from taking classes on property owned by Washington County Public Schools The student can still take classes, but at another location off of school property. “I would just say that this is not one that you necessarily want to see come up on your policy committee agenda, but to me it seems that the main motivation here is that we are protecting our students by denying entry of student-registered sex offenders,” school board member Pieter…

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WI: Winnebago County unveils plan for million-dollar sex offender housing

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Source: fox11online.com 5/5/22 OSHKOSH, Wis. (WLUK) — Million-dollar housing for violent sex offenders could be coming to Oshkosh. The plan was introduced earlier this week. “It keeps us from having those uncomfortable conversations in the community that we shouldn’t have to have,” said Winnebago County Executive Jon Doemel. He’s trying to solve a years-long problem: a place to house violent sex offenders after their sentence is complete. “There’s no great solution that everybody likes but I think it’s the best solution for a really hard situation,” he offered. The Winnebago…

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KS: Internet child sex crimes convictions will require registration as offenders in Kansas

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Source: wibw.com 5/5/22 TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – A bill to allow those convicted of drug offenses to seek relief from the offender registration act and require those convicted of internet child sex crimes to register as a sex offender has been signed by the Kansas Governor. Kansas Governor Laura Kelly says on Thursday, April 5, she signed Senate Bill 366, which will create a way for drug offenders to seek relief from the Kansas Offender Registration Act and allows expungement of the offense if relief is granted. The bill also…

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VA: Chesterfield police arrest 16 in online operations involving sex solicitation of minors

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Source: richmond.com 5/4/22 Chesterfield County police special victims’ detectives conducted two recent online sting operations involving sexual solicitation of minors that resulted in the arrest of 16 suspects on a total of 31 charges, many of them felonies, police announced Wednesday. The planned operations were the department’s seventh and eighth of this type since June 2020. As in past cases, detectives on March 31 and April 28 intercepted suspects who believed they were soliciting sex from minors through various social media platforms. The suspects communicated with people they believed to…

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SD: This South Dakota man was removed from sex offender registry after 10 years: ‘You still have the chance’

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Source: news.yahoo.com 5/1/22 Taylor Hughes was stuck in Mitchell because the roads to Plankinton were closed. A spring snowstorm had blown in and the convicted sex offender had no way to get back to his home. It was 2018, and Hughes had three years left before he could petition to be removed from the sex offender registry. His mom had suggested he stay at her apartment for a day or two. If it was longer than three days though, Hughes was risking his chance to start over, since sex offenders…

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SC: SC Legislature can’t keep delaying fix on sex-offender registry

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Source: postandcourier.com 4/29/22 Even though it’s supposed to be independent and uninfluenced by the political branches of government, the S.C. Supreme Court still manages to be a good team player. Too bad the Legislature isn’t. Nearly a year ago, as The Post and Courier’s Seanna Adcox reminds us, the high court ruled unanimously that South Carolina’s toughest-in-the-nation sex offender registry is unconstitutional, because it gives an unappealable lifetime sentence to people most of us wouldn’t think of as dangerous sex offenders. Think 15-year-old boys who had consensual sex with their 15-year-old girlfriends,…

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US appeals court ruling could ‘eliminate internet privacy’

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Source: theregister.com 4/28/22 Tech terms of service dissolve Fourth Amendment rights, EFF warns The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday affirmed the 2019 conviction and sentencing of Carsten Igor Rosenow for sexually exploiting children in the Philippines – and, in the process, the court may have blown a huge hole in internet privacy law. The court appears to have given US government agents its blessing to copy anyone’s internet account data without reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing – despite the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. UC…

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CT: Sex offender’s lawsuit reinstated in email address battle

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Source: apnews.com 4/25/22 HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A convicted sex offender has made a “plausible” claim that providing his email address and other internet identifying information to Connecticut officials violates his free speech rights, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday in reinstating his lawsuit against the state. The decision by a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan mirrors other court rulings around the country that determined some states’ laws violated sex offenders’ rights. James Cornelio, a former New York City lawyer, was convicted in…

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IL: Attorneys for sex offender release statement about arrest

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Source: ourquadcities.com 4/22/21 Attorneys for a registered sex offender have released a statement following their client’s arrest for unlawful presence. Sterling Police arrested Craig D. ____, 25, of Sterling Wednesday, April 20 on three counts of unlawful presence within a school zone by a sex offender, according to a news release from the Sterling Police Department. Craig, a registered sex offender, is alleged to have been on the property of Franklin Elementary School on three separate occasions when children younger than 18 were present. Attorneys for Craig have released a…

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MN: Locked Up For Good—Or Forgotten?

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Source: minnesotamonthly.com 4/19/21 Minnesota has the highest per-capita commitment rate of sex offenders nationwide, and one of the lowest release rates The Minnesota Sex Offender Program housed at Moose Lake is tucked away in the woods, off State Highway 73, about 120 miles north of Minneapolis. The high-security facility surrounded by fences topped with razor wire is out of sight and out of mind for most Minnesotans, which leads those locked inside—some who already have served time and others who haven’t even been charged of a crime—to call it a…

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SC: No sex-offender status for men convicted under anti-sodomy law in South Carolina

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Source: postandcourier.com 4/22/22 COLUMBIA — Men convicted under South Carolina’s anti-sodomy law will no longer be required to register as a sex offender, according to a settlement agreement. The settlement was reached April 22 between Attorney General Alan Wilson, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel and the state’s ACLU chapter. ACLU attorneys filed the federal suit four months prior in the U.S. District Court of South Carolina on behalf of “John Doe.” The South Carolina man said he was convicted in 2001 under the state’s “buggery” law for…

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Registrant exploitation websites are officially legal?

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Source: msn.com 4/19/21 Scraping public data is legal, the U.S. Ninth Circuit of Appeals has ruled in a potentially landmark decision.  The decision follows a ruling by a federal court of appeals that reaffirmed its earlier decision, notably that web scraping (data harvesting, en masse) of data that’s made available to the general public, does not violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). The CFAA is used to determine what can be described as “hacking” under US law. Read the full article  

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NC: Registrant running in part to correct failures in justice system

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Source: reflector.com 4/19/21 A candidate for Greenville City Council said his conviction in 2009 for indecent liberties with a child, which landed him on the state’s sex offender registry, was due to systemic problems with the judicial system. William ___, 68, of Greenville was found guilty by a Pitt County jury on two counts of indecent liberties with a child on April 22, 2009. He served two consecutive sentences totaling three years and two months for the crime that court documents said took place July 1-8 of 2007. According to…

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IL: Roxana rally targets Cone Barn

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Source: thetelegraph.com 4/10/21 ROXANA — Since 2006, Tanea Berry and her husband, Josh, have been neighbors to the Cone Barn at 323 N. Central Ave. in Roxana. They have memories of both of their children walking next door and grabbing ice cream. But recently the Berrys, along with other community members, don’t have that same sense of comfort in letting their children near the ice cream shop. The Cone Barn was recently bought by Terry Hogan whose husband, Terry _____, is on the Illinois State Police Sex Offender Registry. Court…

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