[yahoo.com – 2/25/21] INDIANAPOLIS — The confrontation begins at a side door of Lebanon Senior High School. Viewers watched via Facebook Live as a woman approached the school, about 40 minutes northwest of downtown Indianapolis, and was greeted by Brian J. Boyer, a band teacher who, in that moment, was allegedly waiting for a 14-year-old girl to meet him for sex. “Do you wanna come out and talk to me for a minute?” the woman asked. “Basically, I brought you out here ‘cause we know who you are, I’m definitely…
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MN: Case challenging constitutionality of the Minnesota Sex Offender Program can move forward
[yahoo.com – 2/24/21] A protracted case challenging the constitutionality of Minnesota’s system for treating sex offenders outside prison has gained new life after a federal appeals court in St. Louis ruled that claims contesting the program’s unusual conditions of confinement can move forward. In a decision released Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit determined that allegations that clients of the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) were subjected to improper punishment and inadequate treatment should proceed. The decision sets the stage for another…
Read MoreWhat is Operation Talon? Truth behind Trump’s ‘sex offender’ program and 1997 mission set up by Bill Clinton
[meaww.com – 2/24/21] Operation Talon, a mission to target sex offenders who reside illegally in the United States, seems to have sparked much controversy on social media. On February 24, 2021, social media users expressed their disdain with rumors swirling that President Joe Biden had canceled Donald Trump’s initiative from his last few days of being in the White House. A thorough investigation now suggests that it wasn’t Biden but ICE officials. It was reported that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement had shelved it as they prepare to issue new…
Read MoreMA: 6-Year-Old Accused Of Sexual Misconduct, School Calls Police. Mother Alleges Racism.
[dailywire.com – 2/22/21] It was November 12, 2019, when Flavia Peréa received a phone call from her 6-year-old son’s school saying a girl in his first-grade class had accused him of touching her inappropriately. The phone call was from the dean of students, who, according to the Boston Globe, indicated that her son’s alleged behavior was a form of sexual harassment, something the boy wouldn’t even be able to understand at that age. The dean vaguely explained the situation to Peréa before adding as what the Globe characterized as “an…
Read MoreOH: Effort underway to charge sex offenders federally
[10tv.com – 2/22/21] COLUMBUS, Ohio — Preying on children and spending very little time in jail; it may surprise you just how many sex offenders have been multiple times before seeing serious times behind bars. There is an effort underway to charge those offenders federally. … Franklin County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Rick Minerd says it is disheartening for his investigators when an offender faces little or no jail time. “It is frustrating for law enforcement at times when we see repeat offenders. Let’s face it, law enforcement, it’s hard…
Read MoreICE cancels operation targeting sex offenders
[yahoo.com and Fox News – 2/20/21] Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is among several attorneys general urging Biden administration to reverse the cancellation. Click here to watch the video
Read MoreSouthern Baptists divided over politics, race, LGBTQ policy
[fox13memphis.com – 2/20/21] Divisions over race, politics, gender and LGBTQ issues are roiling America’s largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, ahead of a meeting of its executive committee next week. … The most recent disfellowship of an SBC church occurred a year ago when the executive committee ousted Ranchland Heights Baptist Church of Midland, Texas, because it employed a registered sex offender as pastor. Read the full article
Read MoreIA: No place for an old sex offender but Marathon
[stormlake.com – 2/18/21] An elderly sex offender from Marathon was removed from the Iowa Sex-Offender Registry on Tuesday so he can eventually end up in a nursing home, a development that “outraged” a former state senator whose last major proposal was to establish a geriatric sex-offender unit in Algona. Buena Vista County District Court Judge David Lester ruled on Tuesday Edward _____, 83, satisfied the state’s requirements to be removed from the registry. He’s been out of prison for more than five years; a Department of Corrections director in Sioux…
Read MoreAL: News 5 Investigates Female sex offenders
[wkrg.com – 2/17/21] MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — In February, two women have been arrested for sexually abusing minors. On Feb. 5, WKRG News 5 brought you the story of ______ a former Ruckel Middle School teacher charged with having a sexual relationship with a student. On Feb. 16, ______ was charged with sexually abusing a young child. Research shows women make up a small percentage of sexual predators. Research into sex offenders historically mostly focused on men. The Department of Justice reports the first articles on female sex offenders didn’t…
Read MoreWA: Say what? Child sex victims must prove they’re not wed to abuser? Scrub this law now
[thenewstribune.com – 2/17/21] Part of the job of a lawmaker is to be a law eraser. Washington legislators are sometimes asked to scrub anachronistic language from the statute books, not just because it’s embarrassing and offends our contemporary values, but because it can have damaging consequences today. Consider laws from the early 1900s that condoned sex between adults and children as young as 10 years old, as long as they were married. Believe it or not, this language has persisted for more than a century in state law, making Washington…
Read MoreFL: Urban City Walk Mission in Tallahassee (registrants can stay in their shelter)
[floridaactioncommittee.org for citywalkmission.com – 2/16/21] City Walk opened as a “Cold Night Shelter” in late November. Where the City and City Walk disagree is on the definition of a “cold night.” Our local government says it’s not a cold night until it is ‘35 degrees or below for three or more consecutive hours.’ So if it is 36 degrees and raining our local government says it’s not cold enough to activate. Many of our congregation are elderly, some in their 70’s and 80’s and many others with severe disabilities. A…
Read MoreND: Committee hears push to seal certain criminal records
[thedickinsonpress.com – 2/15/21] Individuals must be free of convictions for three years to have a misdemeanor charge sealed and five years for a felony charge. The time requirement begins after conviction of the crime. Crimes that are considered violent or that require registering as a sex offender are not eligible. Read the full article
Read MoreWA: Should People With Criminal Convictions Be Able to Work in Health Care? Bill in Legislature Would Relax State Laws
[chronline.com – 2/14/21] Washington lawmakers are discussing a bill that would end the automatic disqualification of people with certain criminal convictions from working with vulnerable populations in health care or home care. Bill sponsors say it would address the shortage of qualified caretakers and empower people with convictions to take charge of their lives. House Bill 1411 would allow people with certain crimes on their record to be eligible to apply for jobs with the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) at long-term care facilities or as in-home caretakers.…
Read MoreIn Furor Over Poet With Child Porn Conviction, Prison Abolitionists Debate the Limits of Mercy
[theintercept.com – 2/14/21] Is Poetry magazine “platforming toxicity” or promoting the “practice of freedom”? A bedrock principle of the prison abolitionist movement is that you don’t ask an incarcerated person what they’re in for. It’s more than etiquette. To eschew the identity that the punitive state assigns — which could be false — is to see someone whole. “Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done,” says Equal Justice Initiative founder Bryan Stevenson. Even a murderer is somebody’s baby. That’s the way guest editors Tara Betts, Joshua…
Read MoreDystopian AI Patent Uses Facial Recognition to Identify Homeless and Drug Users [and Sex Offenders]
[interestingengineering.com – 2/12/21] Last year, The New York Times reported that, in order to test its software, facial recognition startup Clearview AI collected up to three billion images from platforms including YouTube and Facebook without attaining users’ express consent. Now, a new patent application by Clearview AI, first discovered by Buzzfeed, details several potential uses for the firm’s software, including date matching, sharing “headshots of high-risk individuals,” and identifying homeless people and drug users. … The technology could also be used to identify a “sex offender” Read the full article
Read MoreTX: ‘Left to die’: Therapists say Texas sex offender treatment program too often fails on purpose
[houstonchronicle.com 2/11/21] Texas’s civil commitment program for sexually violent offenders has earned a reputation as an unforgiving place. Much of that is by design. Each of the 378 men in it has already served his full prison term, some 20 years or longer. After their sentences were up, Texas evaluated them as too likely to re-offend, however, so they were ordered kept locked up indefinitely until ready to rejoin the free world. Their average age is nearing 60. The program’s sole facility, a collection of low buildings and temporary trailers,…
Read MoreRacial Disparities Found in Federal Sex Crime Sentencing
[thecrimereport.org – 2/10/21] Researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio found that Black and Hispanic Americans charged in federal sex abuse cases are receiving disproportionately harsher sentences In a recent study published in the journal Sexual Abuse, the researchers explored what they said was a trend in more severe punishment over the past decade since Congress has enacted several pieces of legislation aimed at increasing the punishment in federal sex offender and child pornography cases. The researchers University of Texas at San Antonio criminology and criminal justice professors…
Read MoreNC: New NC bill would push sex offenders further away from school grounds
[myfox8.com – 2/10/21 – NC residents write and call!] CHARLOTTE, N.C. (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE) – Right now, in some North Carolina counties, sex offenders can live right beyond 1,000 of the front door of a school due to the way current laws are written. Now, one lawmaker is pushing to make sure they’re further away from those properties. In some areas, sex offenders could theoretically live right up to the school’s fencing if the yard is big enough, but if Senate Bill 52 passes, sex offenders won’t be able to…
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