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
[thenation.com - 7/18/18] If Childish Gambino’s song “This is America” and Boots Riley’s film Sorry to Bother You perfectly distill the absurd comedy and violent hell of the United States circa 2018, then Madeleine Baran’s In the Dark does the same in podcast form. The audio-documentary series dropped the haunting final episode of its second season earlier this month, and, like Donald Glover’s and...
In Mann v. Georgia Department of Corrections,653 S.E.2d 740 (Ga. 2007), the Georgia Supreme Court held that a state statute prohibiting registered sex offenders from living or working within 1,000 feet of any facility where minors congregate, see Ga. Code Åò42-1-15, constituted a taking of property as applied to a sex offender who was forced to move after a child care center opened a...
[kenoshanews.com - 7/12/18] Nicholas Fitzpatrick is now homeless. After serving time for sexual assault — he pleaded guilty to having sex with his 14-year-old girlfriend when he was 17 — Fitzpatrick hoped to move into a home in Trevor. However, that home is less than 1,000 feet from a tiny park known as Jason’s Pond, and that runs afoul of Salem Lakes’ sex offender...
[wcpo.com - 7/14/18] CINCINNATI -- The punishment for teenagers caught sharing sexually explicit images could be lessened in Ohio. A House bill would allow first-time offenders who are 18 or younger a chance to have their charges dismissed upon completion of a program that explains the impact of sexting. Through the program, teens would review relevant laws, examine how sharing explicit material affects personal...
Please join me and ACSOL President Chance Oberstein, a criminal defense attorney, for our "monthly" meeting to be held telephonically. The conference call will be on Saturday, July 14 at 10 am Pacific Time (1:00 Eastern) and will last from 2 to 3 hours. Topics of conversation will include information about the domestic and overseas travel, the Tiered Registry, residency restrictions and other current...
The Maywood City Council began a two-step process aimed at repealing its residency restrictions during a regularly scheduled meeting on July 11. The second step is expected to take place during the Council's next meeting on July 25. As currently drafted, the Maywood residency restrictions prohibit individuals convicted of a sex offense from living in virtually all of the city. A lawsuit challenging the...
14
Jul
2018
[michiganradio.org - 7/14/18] The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the state of Michigan over its handling of the state's sex offender registry. In 2016, the 6th Circuit Court ruled that aspects of Michigan’s Sex Offender Registry Act, SORA, were unconstitutional. The court’s opinion specifically noted portions of the act which allowed the state to retroactively impose punishments on individuals without due process. The...
In the span of just one week, three courts have issued decisions that significantly harm registrants. Those decisions affect registrants’ marriages, homes and overseas travel. It’s a lot to absorb in a short amount of time. It’s too much to fight at this time. But fight we must in the near future. In the first of those decisions, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals...
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld residency restrictions adopted by the state of Illinois that prohibit anyone convicted of a sex offense involving a minor from living within 500 feet of a school, playground, child-care center, child day-care home and group day-care home. According to the decision, which was issued on July 11, the restrictions can even be applied to individuals who...
13
Jul
2018
A federal district court dismissed the recent IML challenge yesterday when it granted the government's Motion to Dismiss a legal challenge to the International Megan's Law (IML). That challenge, filed in January 2018, was based upon alleged violations by the State Department of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). A link to the court's decision follows below. Due to the court's decision, the State Department...
12
Jul
2018
[womenagainstregistry.org 7/12/18] The Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) 'Families Rally for Justice Reform' event began Tuesday at 9 AM with breakfast at the FAMM office in Washington, D.C.. Kevin Ring - President and the other officers are very dedicated to justice reform and sentencing reform while continuing to make the communities safe. Some of the family members who had traveled from various states for...
[abc7.com - 7/11/18] WASCO, Calif. -- Authorities say a convicted child molester was beaten to death by another inmate just days after arriving at a California prison. Wasco State Prison officials said Wednesday that 19-year-old Andres Ayon began striking 66-year-old Agustin Duran in the face and chest with his fists Saturday night. Guards broke up the assault with a pepper spray grenade. Duran was...
11
Jul
2018
The City of Pico Rivera repealed its residency restrictions which prohibited registrants from living in most of that city, on either a temporary or a permanent basis, and the repeal of the city's restrictions will become effective on July 12, 2018. The City's repeal followed the filing of a lawsuit in federal district court on February 22, 2018. "The Pico Rivera lawsuit is number...
A little over two decades ago, ____ ____ stood before a judge and pleaded guilty to aggravated sodomy with his 6-year-old daughter. “____ ____ molested his biological daughter,” Chatham County Chief Assistant District Attorney Greg McConnell said. “He admitted that he made her perform oral sex on him but said it was accidental.” ____ , who was 37 at the time, was sentenced to...
Massachusetts is hardly soft on sex offenders, being one of only 20 states and the District of Columbia that incarcerate people convicted of sex offenses after they’ve completed their criminal sentences based on what they might do in the future. This practice is so antithetical to our Constitution that sexually dangerous person laws require careful calibration. Full Article
[ACSOL 7/9/18] The Third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's ruling that an individual convicted of a sex offense does not have the right to sponsor his foreign born wife for citizenship in the United States in a decision published on July 5. The court's decision was based upon its interpretation of language in the Adam Walsh Act (AWA) which allows the...
09
Jul
2018
The federal judge to whom the IML lawsuit was assigned has canceled today's hearing on the government's Motion to Dismiss the entire case. According to Judge John F. Walter, he will make a decision based solely upon the documents filed both in support of, and in opposition to, that motion. The judge has no deadline by which he is required to make a decision...
08
Jul
2018
[standard-democrat.com - 7/6/18] DEXTER, Mo. — A man found dead in his Dexter home last week was stabbed, according to the Stoddard County coroner. Law enforcement began investigating the homicide of Jimmy Lynn Casey, 66, after a home-health worker found his body June 28. “Mr. Casey was stabbed,” said coroner Kenny Pope. “We do know from the wounds he had, one of the wounds...
[wdtn.com - 7/9/18] PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) - An inmate suspected of killing a pregnant mother in Clearwater last year is accused of beating another inmate so badly, the man now relies on a feeding tube and is unable to speak, deputies said. According to an affidavit, Charles Groucho Allen and James Sutcliff Mills were housed in the same pod at the Pinellas County...
[wpsdlocal6.com - 7/7/18] PADUCAH, KY – Another set of eyes are looking out for you, but these ones are electronic. We told you on Tuesday about an under-staffing problem at the Paducah Police Department. They need to hire about six more officers. But in the meantime, the department is getting some help from this pretty cool tool. John Smith is a patrol officer. He’s...