The Assembly Appropriations Committee is scheduled to consider the Tiered Registry Bill (SB 421) on Friday, September 1. The Committee will review dozens of that bills that day and determine which bills to release from the Suspense File. Bills not released from the Suspense File will no longer be viable. Bills released from the Suspense File will sent to the Assembly floor for consideration during the period September 5 through September 15. “The Tiered Registry Bill faces an important hurdle on September 1,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “It…
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Teen arrested on porn charges in Burrillville HS Dropbox case as explicit photos go global
[The Providence Journal] BURRILLVILLE, R.I. — The teenage girls may have believed that their intimate photos would stay private. However, more than 40 girls at Burrillville High School have learned the hard way that there is no privacy on the internet, after their “sexually explicit” photos and videos ended up in an online “Dropbox” site — which police say was controlled by a local 16-year-old boy and shared with his friends. Dropbox is a free online storage service that allows users to share and store files such as photos, documents…
Read MoreFalsely Accused of Rape, Former High School Football Star Finally Cleared [video]
LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) — After a decade, it was the judgment that Brian Banks and his lawyers from the California Innocence Project fought for: Case dismissed. Watch the video
Read MoreFalsely accused of satanic horrors, a couple spent 21 years in prison. Now they’re owed millions.
[Washington Post] Long before the age of the Internet and the fleeting spasms of mass hysteria that came with it (Remember Jade Helm? Pizzagate?), and going back to the late 20th century, when irrational fears moved slower and lasted longer, there was Satan. The “satanic panic,” some call it now. It began some time in the 1980s, when newscasters and fundamentalist Christian cartoons warned of the evils of the role-playing game “Dungeons & Dragons,” and stretched into the 1990s, when police and psychiatrists saw thousands of unfounded accusations of ritualistic…
Read MoreEx-cons should not be denied entrance into state bar associations
[The Hill, Washington D.C.] Another outstanding candidate was denied admission to the bar this past week because of an old criminal record. Reginald Dwayne Betts, an award-winning poet and memoirist and Yale Law School graduate who served time for a robbery conviction he incurred years ago as a juvenile, was denied admission to the bar of the State of Connecticut. The same week, the ACLU of Washington, along with 48 additional organizations, 34 attorneys, and 20 law school faculty members filed an amici curiae brief on behalf of Tarra Simmons,…
Read MoreAgency Recommends Disciplinary Action Against Platte County, Missouri, Prosecutor [article and radio recording]
[KCUR 89.3 Missouri] In a rare complaint against an elected prosecutor, the Missouri agency responsible for investigating allegations of lawyer wrongdoing has recommended that Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd be punished for professional misconduct. The matter now goes before a disciplinary hearing panel – two lawyers and one non-lawyer – which will hear evidence and recommend what discipline, if any, to impose. The Missouri Supreme Court is authorized to review the panel’s decision and impose punishment ranging from a public reprimand and suspension to disbarment. It’s highly unusual for…
Read MoreIt Could Be You Registered for a Sex Crime [Radio Interview Recording]
[Sex Law and Policy Center and KABF 88.3 FM Arkansas] The reality is that it’s incredibly easy to be registered for a sex crime. Lenore Skenazy of Free Range Kids discussed how your child is more likely to be victimized by the registry than by someone on the registry, at a recent conference. There is a load of truth to her claim, and it points to a much larger issue. These registries are punishment, and the lengths of punishment are only bound by the creativity of policymakers. In no way…
Read MoreCall To Action: Miami-Dade Homeless Encampment [Florida Action Committee]
[Florida Action Committee] After years of posting about the growing encampment of transient sex offenders in Miami-Dade County, it has taken some recent bad media exposure for the County to do something about it. And who do they appoint to spearhead the effort to relocate them? Ron Book! The same person who caused them to be homeless in the first place! Read more
Read MorePsychologist sues California prisons over anti-LGBT harassment
[Forensic Psychologist] Prisons are not known as bastions of healing energy. One of the challenges faced by prison clinicians in the violent and hypermasculine culture of prison is how to uphold their professional ethics when they witness abuse of prisoners by staff. Psychologists may feel internally conflicted, but they rarely file formal complaints that might jeopardize their careers or even their personal safety. So a lawsuit brought by a California psychologist against the Department of Corrections for alleged harassment of sexual minority prisoners is both rare and potentially groundbreaking. …
Read MoreParents protest changes to sex offender residency restrictions
TWENTYNINE PALMS — The City Council on Tuesday deferred a vote repealing local restrictions on where sex offenders can live and opted instead to hold a public hearing and return to the matter at a future date to be announced. Full Article
Read MoreWI: Sex offender sentenced to forfeit property to county
A convicted sex offender’s home has been sold and the Rock County Sheriff’s office is getting the money from it. Full Article
Read MoreA Full House Sees Twentynine Palms Council Postpone Sex Offender Restriction Vote
The Twentynine Palms City Council couldn’t stomach what it had to do. So, last night, instead of repealing local restrictions on where sex offenders can live, the Council deferred the matter until its next meeting when a public hearing will be held. Full Article Muni Code Staff Report
Read MoreSB 421 Update
The Appropriations Committee placed SB 421 in its Suspense File. The bill must be released from that file before it can be considered on the floor of the Assembly. The deadline for floor consideration is Sept. 15. If the bill does not get released from the Suspense File in time for consideration on the Assembly floor, it is dead. — Janice Bellucci
Read MoreOH: House bill to require mandatory prison for child sex offenders
Law enforcement sees so many of those convicted of soliciting minors for sex on just probation, able to re-offend as soon as they’re released. Victims of child sex abuse say the lack of proper penalties for offenders can be just as traumatic as the original abuse. Lawmakers are looking to put mandatory sentences in place to make sure this doesn’t happen to children in the future. Full Article
Read MoreEnd Juvenile Sex-Offender Registration: It’s Ineffective and Based on Rare Cases
U.S. sex-offender registration laws for both adults and juveniles have largely been knee-jerk reactions to horrific incidents of child abductions that ended in sexual abuse and murder or near-deaths. Captured by images of innocent children and moved by national news stories of sexual offenses committed by strangers, the public responded with grassroots efforts demanding that “something be done” to prevent the victimization of more children. Full Editorial
Read MoreFL: Sex Offenders Sent To Homeless Encampment Told To Find Housing, But Where?
The Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust is trying to shut down an encampment of sex offenders on the edge of Miami and Hialeah. Full Article Related FL: Tent camp of homeless sex offenders near Hialeah ‘has got to close,’ county says
Read MoreUnder legal threat, Victorville to repeal sex offender residency rules
[Victorville Daily Press] With threat of a lawsuit hanging over its head, the city will repeal local residency restrictions for registered sex offenders and defer to existing state regulations. The move is not unexpected. Cities across California have been forced to bow to pressure from sex offender law reformists in recent years, while courts have simultaneously limited local regulatory authority. In December 2014, the City Council reluctantly agreed to align its local ordinance restricting the movements of registered sex offenders with the statewide regulations already in effect. That decision came…
Read MoreFL: Tent camp of homeless sex offenders near Hialeah ‘has got to close,’ county says
Seven years after Miami-Dade County shut down a camp housing about 100 homeless sex offenders under a bridge in Miami, it’s now trying to deal with an encampment on the outskirts of Hialeah that has almost three times as many residents registered to live there. Full Article
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