The Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) is dedicated to protecting the Constitution by restoring the civil rights of registrants and their families. In order to achieve that objective, ACSOL will educate and litigate as well as support or oppose legislation. The ACSOL website and recordings are provided as a service to registrants, registrants’ families, and others for general information only. The information on the website and in the recordings are not designed to provide legal or other advice or to create an attorney-client relationship. You should not take, or refrain from taking, action based on their content. Prior results and case studies do not guarantee a similar outcome in future representations. ACSOL accepts no responsibility for any loss or damages that may result from accessing or reliance on content on the ACSOL website and recordings and disclaim, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, any and all liability with respect to acts or omissions made by registrants, registrants’ families and others on the basis of content on the ACSOL website.
Important News / Announcements
General News Feed
[Channel Islands California State University] [Approved by Janice] Are you the parent or the adult child of someone incarcerated? Do you experience stigma because of it? How does the experience affect your quality of life? What helps you cope? Researchers at California State University Channel Islands are seeking parents and adult children of the incarcerated to participate in a research study. The study...
[kearneyhub.com - 4/20/20] The Madison County Sheriff's Department has received complaints about unknown callers claiming to be representatives of the department. The calls specifically target registered sex offenders and make various threats or demands of money, according to a Facebook post from the sheriff’s department. The callers identify themselves as either Sgt. Downs or Sgt. Lyle, neither of whom work for the Madison County...
29
Apr
2020
[nbclosangeles.com - 4/30/20] Seven sex offenders who violated parole were released from jail early as part of the Orange County Sheriff's Department reducing its inmate population during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sex offenders were released months before schedule, despite being charged with violating their parole by cutting off their GPS monitors and tampering with their tracking devices, according to the Orange County District Attorney's...
[ACSOL] The Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) filed a lawsuit today in a federal district court challenging in-person registration requirements of both the City of Fresno and the County of Fresno. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California. According to the lawsuit, the city and county's requirement to register in person violates the due process clause...
27
Apr
2020
[hidesertstar.com - 4/24/20] YUCCA VALLEY — Facing costly litigation, the Yucca Valley Town Council discussed repealing the ordinance restricting where paroled sex offenders can live within town limits. The urgency ordinance repealing part of the Yucca Valley municipal code was approved 5-0. “It’s a tough decision for us to make,” said Councilman Robert Lombardo, adding he believed the town could prevail in a lawsuit....
[ACSOL] The Governor of Colorado has issued an Executive Order that temporarily suspends the requirement to register in person during the pandemic. Specifically, the Order suspends the requirement that registrants provide a current photograph or a set of fingerprints to verify their identity during registration. As a result, registrants are allowed to register using alternate effective means determined by local law enforcement. The purpose...
Some Tennessee Representatives and Senators seem hellbent on promoting a never- ending stream of bills that serve one purpose, to make the lives of registrants miserable. There are several state representatives in particular that concoct a constant barrage of new bills aimed specifically at “sex offenders”, bills that appear to be the “bread and butter” of these “representatives of the people.” If they’ve made...
[thehill.com - 4/21/20] These days, most of us are staying in touch with our loved ones by phone calls or video chats. A single phone call costs us nearly nothing, a video chat requires only a Wi-Fi connection. But for millions of people, it isn’t so easy. As jails and prisons suspend in-person visits, most incarcerated people and their families are paying outrageously high costs...
[womenagainstregistry.org and ccresourcecenter.org - 4/18/20] On April 17 a diverse bipartisan group of civil rights, advocacy, and business organizations, including CCRC, sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and SBA Administrator Carranza expressing concern over the restrictions imposed by the SBA on people with a record of arrest or conviction under two programs recently authorized by Congress in response to the COVID-19 crisis. The letter...
We don’t know why the Department of Justice declined to prosecute the supervisory FBI analyst who “knowingly possessed child pornography” in violation of federal law. We don’t know how many images he or she possessed. We don’t know the identity of the child or children who were exploited for the sexual gratification of this FBI supervisory analyst. We don’t know what vile sex acts...
[ACSOL] A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled today that the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department may continue to require in-person registration during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ruling was made during a telephonic hearing in response to ACOL's request for a Temporary Restraining Order. Although the judge noted that infection to COVID-19 is a "significant concern", she interpreted state law requirements to obtain fingerprints and...
16
Apr
2020
Those who live their lives on the registry knew it would happen, it was only a matter of time. The pandemic strikes, those in society that are used to everyday freedoms, suddenly forced to quarantine, out of work, told they may be under restrictions for a month, maybe two, at the most three before life returns to normal. Everyone jumps on board, eager to...
[bloomberglaw.com - 4/14/20] An Illinois man’s convictions on two counts of child pornography were tossed and resentencing was required on a third because the trial court improperly allowed the jury to hear confidential pretrial services information about his residence, the Seventh Circuit ruled. Defendant Michael Chaparro told the Office of Probation and Pretrial Services he had lived at the address linked to a computer...
[ussc.gov - 4/14/20] This study expands on prior Commission research by examining the geographic mobility of federal offenders. For this report, mobility is defined as having convictions in multiple states, including the location of the conviction for the instant offense. This report adds to the existing literature on offender criminal history in two important ways. First, the report provides information on how mobile federal...
[govtrackinsider.com - 4/8/20] A potential list of legally binding but to-be-determined “best practices” for internet companies could include almost anything. Context If somebody uses an open online platform such as Facebook, Craigslist, or Reddit to post illegal material such as child pornography, is the platform itself legally liable? Since the enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the answer has been no. The person...
13
Apr
2020
[mitchellhamline.edu - 4/3/20] By NYC Bar Committee | April 3, 2020 Dear Governor Cuomo: The New York City Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Operations Committee and the Sex Offender Registration Act Working Group write this letter to urge the temporary suspension of in-person reporting requirements for people on the sex offender registry in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. By continuing to require in-person reporting...
10
Apr
2020
Dear Registrants, Family Members and Supporters - Please join me and ACSOL President Chance Oberstein, a criminal defense attorney, for our "monthly" meeting to be held as a telephone conference call. The conference call will be on Saturday, April 18 at 10 am Pacific Time (1:00 Eastern) and will last from 2 to 3 hours. Topics of conversation will include information about COVID-19 and...
The Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) has filed an application for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) in Los Angeles Superior Court. If granted, the TRO would require both the Attorney General and the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department to temporarily stop in-person registration during the COVID-19 pandemic. The TRO application, filed yesterday, requests a hearing or a decision without a hearing on April 14....
Sex offenders who have completed their sentences but are still being held in Illinois prisons should be released as part of the effort to reduce the state’s prison population during the COVID-19 crisis, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court. The request for a temporary restraining order was filed on behalf of Marcus Barnes, a sex offender held at Graham Correctional Center, and...
A registrant died yesterday in a Florida jail. He was put into that jail about 60 days ago because he forgot to report his new home address to local law enforcement. The price he paid for his forgetfulness was death. Death due to exposure to the coronavirus. A local public defender tried to get this man released from jail. The public defender knew the...