The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that the state government’s requirement that registrants wear a GPS tracking device is an unreasonable search which violates the 4th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The Court’s decision is based upon the state government’s failure to prove that GPS tracking is “effective to serve the State’s interest in protecting the public against sex offenders.” “This is a courageous and wise decision,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “Our hope is that courts throughout the nation will choose to follow it.” In its…
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MA: Court Recognizes Harm to Registrants, Rules in Their Favor
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Council, the state’s supreme court, has ruled in favor of registrants who were trying either to terminate their duty to register or to change the tier level on which they were situated. In doing so, the Court recognized that there are significant challenges facing registrants including stigma and legal restrictions that make it more difficult to find stable housing or employment. The Court also recognized that the effects of registration are “continuing, intrusive, and humiliating” and could lead to threats of physical harm. Further, the Court…
Read MoreKS: Salina art organization directors resign amid concern over sex offender volunteer
[kake.com – 8/3/18] SALINA, Kan. (KAKE) – The SPARK Artist Resource Exchange was supposed to be an organization of artists who worked on projects across Salina. Instead, it’s become a controversy after a Facebook posts about one of its directors who is also a sex offender. The resource center is in the heart of downtown Salina. In the last several days, posts on Facebook revealed that program director ______ is a convicted sex offender. Parents were worried that he had contact with children. ______ was convicted in 2012 of possessing…
Read MoreMA: Court: Board needs proof in sex offender reclassification
[thesunchronicle.com – 8/1/18] BOSTON (AP) — The Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board has the burden of proof when determining whether a sex offender should not be moved to a less dangerous classification, the state’s highest court ruled Wednesday. The Supreme Judicial Court also ruled in separate cases that indigent sex offenders have a right to legal counsel in reclassification hearings, and that those hearings must be held within a “reasonable” period of time. The board already is required to provide “clear and convincing evidence” when initially determining which of three…
Read MorePA: Sex predator law challenged by Cosby to get court review
Pennsylvania’s highest court will consider whether the state can lawfully designate certain sex offenders as sexually violent predators, as it’s seeking to do in the case of Bill Cosby. Cosby’s attorneys also are challenging the constitutionality of the law. But the state Supreme Court’s decision Tuesday to review the statute was made in response to an appeal by the state in a different case, not Cosby’s challenge. A lower court judge had found the process by which offenders are deemed predators unconstitutional. Full Article
Read MoreMD: State funding to go toward ensuring sex offender compliance
The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office will soon receive over $24,000 from the state to help enforce Maryland sex offender registry and compliance laws. The Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention announced Tuesday that it is giving about $700,000 to help local law enforcement agencies in their sex offender registration, compliance and enforcement efforts. Full Article
Read MoreMO: SB655 changes Missouri’s sex offender list
A lot of people have been talking about how Senate Bill 655 adjusts how old one must be to get married in Missouri, increasing that age to 16. Clay County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Shannon Ryser said that is only one portion of the bill. He added that a portion also is dedicated to the sex offender registration list. “There is a much larger portion of the bill that significantly revises and basically overhauls the requirements of sex offender registration,” Ryser said. “Right now in Missouri, everybody that is convicted of…
Read MoreOH: Springfield Township man claims Ohio’s sex offender parole law won’t allow visits with son
A Springfield Township man filed a federal lawsuit challenging Ohio’s sex offender parole law as unconstitutional because it forbids him from seeing his 14-year-old son. Full Article Related https://reason.com/blog/2018/07/30/sex-offender-status-prevents-dad-from-se
Read MoreHI: Dozens of sex predators registered as living in Oahu parks
Hawaii’s sex offender registry is meant to keep people safe by requiring convicted sex criminals to submit their address to an online database. On the site, the public can check to see if a sex offender lives nearby. But a Hawaii News Now investigation has revealed some alarming gaps in the system, including vague addresses and dozens of convicted sex predators living places where you hope children can be safest. Full Article
Read MoreNY: Critics say pardons will give sex offenders access to schools
[timesunion.com – 7/24/18] ALBANY — Schools are generally off-limits for sex offenders, but not when it comes times to vote. A carveout in the state’s criminal trespass laws allows sex offenders to enter a school for the specific purpose of voting, including school district votes and other government elections, where the school is the polling site. The issue has jumped into the public’s consciousness as the result of outcry by some Republicans about conditional pardons recently issued by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo that could speed up the restoration of voting…
Read MoreICE arrests 2K child predators, skit compares it to ISIS
[onenewsnow.com – 7/23/18] ICE arrests 2After comedian Michelle Wolf compared the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Islamic terrorist group ISIS on a parody video, former ICE Director Thomas Homan condemned the skit and pointed out how the agency has “arrested over 2,000 child predators,” along with thousands of other depraved criminals. Joining the ICE attack bandwagon Wolff – who hosts her weekly Netflix show The Break with Michelle Wolf – mocked ICE while impersonating the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in the mock recruiting…
Read MoreHouse Judiciary Committee Falsely Claims Credit For Stopping 90% Of All Sex Trafficking Because Of FOSTA
[techdirt.com – 7/24/18] For no clear reason at all, the Republicans* on the House Judiciary Committee released a video on YouTube earlier this week praising themselves for stopping online sex trafficking via FOSTA/SESTA. It’s… quite something. The video makes a number of blatantly false claims from various members of the House Judiciary, but let’s focus mainly on the claims of Ann Wagner, whose original bill kicked off the process that became FOSTA/SESTA. She’s been spreading moral panic nonsense about sex trafficking and the internet for ages, so it’s no surprise…
Read MoreMA: Board wants Cosby deemed a sexually violent predator
[bostonherald.com – 7/25/18] Disgraced comic icon Bill Cosby will have to register as a sex offender in Massachusetts if he returns to his sprawling Shelburne Falls estate — and state and local authorities say they will be watching for him, the Herald has learned. Pennsylvania’s Sexual Offenders Assessment Board recommended to a judge yesterday that Cosby be declared a “sexually violent predator.” But the 81-year-old comedian’s conviction April 26 on three counts of aggravated indecent assault in Philadelphia is sufficient for Massachusetts authorities to require him to register here if…
Read MoreME: Strong board grapples with sex-offender housing limits
[sunjournal.com – 7/21/18] STRONG — Selectmen are facing a request from townspeople to prohibit registered sex offenders from living in specific areas of town. The request was made after a group of people alerted town officials that a resident at Valley Brook housing on Main Street is a lifetime registrant on the Sex Offender Registry. The housing complex is next to Strong Elementary School. “I had some members of the public with some concerns that there’s no sex offenders ordinance here in town,” Selectman Rodney Spiller said at a recent…
Read MorePA: Judge upends sex offender registration
WEST CHESTER >> A Common Pleas Court judge has ruled that a West Goshen man convicted of forcing himself sexually on a sleeping woman will not have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. In an order signed July 10, Judge Anthony Sarcione found that the law that defendant ____ ____ was required to report to state police as a sex offender was unconstitutional. He said the law, the Sexual Offenders Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), violated the fundamental right to reputation under the state…
Read MoreMO: Is your neighbor a convicted sex offender? Hundreds are missing in Jackson County
Jackson County has more convicted sex offenders than any county in Missouri. And hundreds of them are unaccounted for, posing a serious threat to public safety. Full Article
Read MoreIN: Detectives track down unregistered sex offenders
In a subterranean office at the Charles “Bud” Meeks Center for Justice, a small band of Allen County Sheriff’s Department detectives spend hours tracking convicted sex offenders. Full Article
Read MoreWA: Aging sex offenders on McNeil Island needed 557 medical trips last year
Serving the medical needs of an aging population civilly committed to the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island means more doctor appointments and costs. The off-island trips for care, for a time, were starting to mean a decline in actual sex-offender treatment. Full Article
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