Category: National

PA: Megan’s Law for nursing homes gaining traction in Harrisburg

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Source: triblive.com 1/15/22 A state lawmaker is making good on a promise to repair a flawed system that permits aging and ailing convicted sex offenders to quietly enter long-term care facilities — often unbeknownst to patients and staff — where some easily are finding their next victims. A bill set to be introduced next week by state Rep. Rob Matzie, D-Ambridge, comes in response to a Tribune-Review investigation published last month detailing what experts termed a simmering crisis involving more than 900,000 sex offenders on Megan’s Law registries across the nation. After…

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FL: Former Coral Springs Cop Sentenced For Soliciting Sex From Teen

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Source: coralspringstalk.com 1/10/22 A former Coral Springs Police officer has been sentenced to 14-and-a-half months in state prison after pleading guilty to two counts of using a computer to sexually exploit a child, court records show. Steven Daniello, 64, who was arrested in January 2021, will also serve nearly four years of probation after completing his prison term, according to documents filed in Broward County Circuit Court. As part of his sentence, issued Jan. 4, Daniello will register as a sex offender, forfeit his law enforcement officer certification, pay $10,680…

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LA: Vermilion Parish Sex Offenders Are Getting Scammed

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Source: katc.com 1/6/22 Louisiana deputies says [sic] sex offenders are the latest target in a recent phone scam going on in the area. In recent days, Vermilion’s Sheriffs office says scammers have been posing as deputies. They are doing so in order to get cash from registered sex offenders. Detectives say the perpetrates search the online database for offenders, then call and threaten them with jail time. After they convince the victims, they would make them pay with gift cards and through bitcoin to avoid going to prison. Eddie Langlinais…

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TX: Austin sees hundreds of sex offender cases removed from police officer supervision due to defunding

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Source: foxnews.con 1/8/22 A source tells Fox News that one of the sex offenders moved to civilian supervision sexually assaulted an autistic teenager Hundreds of convicted sex offenders are no longer being monitored by sworn police officers in Austin, Texas due to the city’s move to defund the police and cut police academy classes.  As of 2019, there were about 1,600 registered sex offenders in Austin according to the state’s sex offender database. There is no law preventing any of them from living near schools or other places where children…

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Bureau of Prisons director slated to resign amid controversy

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The director of BOP is resigning after 30 years in the bureau The director of the federal Bureau of Prisons plans to resign amid reports of widespread corruption in the federal prison system. Michael Carvajal, who was appointed to his present position under the Trump administration, told Attorney General Merrick Garland he is resigning from the bureau after serving in it for 30 years, according to a report from The Associated Press that was confirmed by Fox News. Carvajal intends to stay until his replacement is appointed. Carvajal’s pending departure comes months…

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IA: New advocacy group emerging in Iowa

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Source: floridaactioncommittee.org 1/5/22 My name is Heather Wagner, and I’m a new Iowa contact for NARSOL. I have a passion for fighting the injustices surrounding those who have committed a sex crime, as well as the unfair laws forced upon our Registered Citizens (aka “Sex Offenders”). I have been an advocate on this topic for nearly three years, lending my voice as the first to speak on a sex crime with the criminal justice group FAMM (Families Against Mandatory Minimums) this past May. I have attached my work under my salutation, if interested…

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ID: Sex offender freed after appeal

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Source: cdapress.com 1/4/22 COEUR d’ALENE — A man previously convicted of sexually abusing two children is free after the Idaho Supreme Court ruled that he was deprived of his right to a fair trial. A jury convicted 39-year-old Robert J. Farrell-Quigle in 2018 of two counts of lewd conduct with a minor under the age of 16, a felony punishable by up to life in prison. First District Judge John Luster sentenced Farrell-Quigle to 25 years in prison, with 12 years fixed and 13 years indeterminate. That meant Farrell-Quigle would…

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ALI Leaders to Consider Revised Model Penal Code

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Source: ACSOL The leadership of the American Law Institute is scheduled to consider during its meeting on January 20 and January 21 the revised model penal code approved overwhelmingly by its members in June 2021.  The revised model penal code includes recommendations that state penal codes be changed in a number of ways, including but not limited to, reducing the number of sex offenses that require registration, limiting registration to a maximum of 15 years, and making the registry available only to law enforcement. After ALI members voted in favor…

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SC: It’s 2022 and these gay men are still on the sex offender registry for consensual sex

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Source: queerty.com 1/3/22 A lawsuit filed last month revealed that at least 19 people are still required to register as sex offenders due to past convictions under South Carolina’s “buggery” law for having consensual gay sex. The SC law, along with other states’ anti-sodomy laws, were made invalid in 2003, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Texas’ anti-sodomy law was unconstitutional. While pardons were granted for those targeted by the laws, the convictions still require them to remain on the sex offenders list in South Carolina and two other…

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FL: Homeless offenders in Brevard County struggle to find resources and shelter

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Source: floridatoday.com 1/3/22 Jason ____ is sitting in Brevard County Jail waiting to appear before a judge on a charge of violating parole. He’d rather be anywhere else, but the reality is he’s not wanted many other places. A charge against him made in 1998 at 15 years old, of which he was convicted in 2000, has marked him as a sex offender. He is one of 735 registered sex offenders in Brevard County, according to statistics from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. That status makes Jason something of a…

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VA: Professor’s redefinition of pedophilia could help offenders demand rights

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Source: nypost.com 1/1/22 On Nov. 8, Old Dominion sociology and criminology professor Allyn Walker gave an interview in which he asserted the need to destigmatize pedophiles by redefining them as “minor-attracted persons” (MAPs). Walker stated, “We have a tendency to want to categorize people with these attractions as evil or morally corrupt,” and that when people “hear the term ‘pedophile,’ they automatically assume that it means a sex offender, and that isn’t true.” Shortly after this interview, students at Old Dominion protested over the professor’s attempt to obfuscate the nature…

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IL: Changes will deny probation for some child pornographers

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Source: wgem.com 12/29/21 QUINCY (WGEM) – There’s a change to a law that has to do with possession of child pornography. Legislators closed a loophole that allowed family members found to be in possession of child pornography to escape jail time. Starting on Jan. 1, possession of child pornography when the child is a household or family member is a non-probational offense. This means the offender will serve jail time if convicted. Previously, this category of offenders could receive a sentence of probation for their pornography conviction. Read the full…

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Utah Action Alert: Support Senate Bill 52 to lessen restrictions on sex offenders

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Source: ksl.com 12/30/21 SALT LAKE CITY — A bill that could come up in the 2022 legislative session would change restrictions for sex offenders. The bill is sponsored by Utah state Sen. Mike Kennedy, R-Alpine. The bill that could come up in next month’s legislative session would amend the state’s sex offender registry. Senate Bill 0052 would allow registered sex offenders to go to places like schools and parks, if they are with an adult. Also, if passed, the bill would replace the term “sex offender” with “registrant.” Read the…

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PA: Another Blow to SORNA I with Failure to Register Conviction Relief

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Source: parsol.org 12/28/21 December 22, 2021 has seen the release of many case opinions from the PA Supreme Court (SCOPA) with Commonwealth v. David Santana being the biggest win for our advocacy efforts. In a 5-2 decision, SCOPA affirmed the Superior Court’s opinion that “Mr. Santana’s registration requirement under SORNA was an after-the-fact punishment, and therefore unconstitutional. Accordingly, he had no duty to comply with those requirements and his conviction for ignoring them, under 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 4915.1(a)(3) [failure to provide accurate information], was a manifest injustice and must be…

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MI: Former Detroit City Council president just before prison release: ‘What I did was wrong’

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Source: freep.com 12/24/21 Clouds hovered overhead on the morning Charles Pugh, 50, took his first steps to freedom outside the doors of the Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility into the brisk December air. Pugh was met by his friends and family who were waiting to pick him up in Ionia from the place where he had spent the last 5½ years following his 2016 convictions on two felony counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a child under 16. “What I did was wrong,” Pugh admitted to the Detroit Free Press…

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SC: Lawsuit: SC man says he still has to register as sex offender for having sex with another man

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Source: live5news.com 12/22/21 CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – A South Carolina man is suing Attorney General Alan Wilson and SLED Chief Mark Keel, claiming that he still has to register as a sex offender for a buggery charge in which he says he was convicted, and later pardoned, for having consensual sex with another man. The man, identified as “John Doe” in the lawsuit, says he was convicted for the charge in 2001, two years before the Supreme Court ruled that laws that criminalized homosexual sex violated due process and are…

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CO: Colorado board reverses controversial change to “sex offender” label

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Source: denverpost.com 12/20/21 Under pressure from the governor and the state’s public safety director, Colorado’s Sex Offender Management Board has reversed its controversial November decision to scrap the term “sex offenders” in its own guiding principles in favor of “adults who commit sexual offenses.” The board, commonly referred to as the SOMB, voted 16-2 on Dec. 17 to “table” the language-change matter and refer it back to a subcommittee. It’s possible the board votes again to change terminology in the future, but the tabling means it’s not likely to happen…

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Federal Circuit Court Affirms Below Guideline Sentence

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Source: ACSOL The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed today a below guideline sentence issued to a registrant by a federal trial court.  The registrant pled guilty to one charge — attempted coercion or enticement of a minor — and could have been sentenced to prison for up to 57 months.  Instead, the trial court sentenced the registrant to time served (two months) as well as 120 months of supervised release, one year of home confinement, participation in a sex offender treatment program and registration as a…

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