Federal judge Virginia Phillips issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) today that prohibits the City of Murrieta from enforcing its residency restrictions against a registrant who moved to his sister’s home earlier this month. The TRO will remain in effect until August 15 when a hearing will be held to determine whether the judge will grant additional injunctive relief. “This is a great victory for registrants,” stated attorney Janice Bellucci. “For the first time, a federal judge has stopped the enforcement of a city’s residency restrictions in the state of…
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IN: First In The Nation To Create Child-Abuse Registry
Starting in July 2017, Indiana will become the first state in the nation maintaining a child abuse offender registry, The new law tracks anyone who has ever been convicted in Indiana of child neglect – or physical or sexual abuse of a child. The Offender Registry will be maintained by the Division of State Court Administration. Full Article
Read MoreCanada: Supreme Court says judges can ban convicted sexual predators from Internet
OTTAWA — The Supreme Court took steps Thursday to bring the law up to speed to protect children in the rapidly evolving realm of cyberspace in a ruling allowing judges to ban convicted sexual predators from using the Internet. The case turned on one narrow legal issue — whether a new law can be retroactively applied to case that predated it. As a matter of legal principle, the high court rarely allows laws to be applied retroactively, especially when it comes to changes in criminal law on how punishment is…
Read MoreNC: Bans sex offenders from spots children gather
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – North Carolina has banned some sex offenders from places children gather while a similar state law from 2009 remains under federal review. Gov. Pat McCrory signed a bill Thursday that would prohibit sex offenders who have been identified as threats to minors from places like arcades, parks, libraries and the State Fairgrounds during the fair. It takes effect in September. Full Article Related House Bill 1021
Read MoreTX: Rowlett Couple Harassed After Mistaken Sex Offender Notice
ROWLETT (CBSDFW.COM) – A Rowlett couple fear for their safety after police mistakenly listed their address as belonging to a sex offender. The Texas Department of Public Safety sent postcards to neighbors within four blocks of the house on Kirby Road, alerting them a “high risk” offender, ____ ____, lives there. “It’s been a nightmare, and I want it to be over,” said Michelle Swindle. Full Article
Read MoreA Defender Office for Supreme Court Advocacy?
An “independent federal public defender office charged with representing poor defendants before the United States Supreme Court” is necessary to fill gaps in legal services to the poor and “better balance the scales of justice between the government and the defendants,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said earlier this month. Full Article
Read MoreNY: Sex offenders are moved out of North Buffalo
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB)- Parents are relieved after two sex offenders are moved from a group home in North Buffalo. “I’m thrilled that they’re out of our neighborhood,” said Andy Bus, who lives down the road from the home. Full Article
Read MoreWI: Sex offenders contesting Pleasant Prairie ordinance
Six convicted sex offenders living in Pleasant Prairie allege the village’s restrictions on where offenders can live are so broad, they effectively banish them from the village in violation of their constitutional rights. A federal lawsuit filed in June alleges the ordinance violates the Ex Post Facto Clause of the U.S. Constitution because it retroactively applies the restrictions to offenders who committed qualifying crimes before the ordinance was enacted in April. Full Article
Read MoreEmotional Support Group Mtgs Resume in L.A. on August 6
Emotional Support Group meetings for registrants and their loved ones will resume in Los Angeles on August 6 at 10 a.m. The meeting will be held at the ACLU building, 1313 W. 8th Street, and free underground parking is available. There is no charge for attending the meeting. Participants are urged to arrive before 10 a.m. because access to the meeting will close at 10 a.m.
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Hand-to-Hand Combat in California Cities
Today we are conducting hand-to-hand combat with cities throughout the state of California in order to challenge their residency restrictions. There are more than 100 cities that have such restrictions and thusfar we have filed nine lawsuits. The series of lawsuits began last year when we challenged residency restriction in the City of Grover Beach that prohibited registered citizens from moving into most of that small city. It also prohibited registered citizens already living in that city from moving into a new home within the same city…..including Frank Lindsay who…
Read MoreAK: Anchorage man says an attacker who called himself the ‘avenging angel’ broke into his home and assaulted him with a hammer
Jason Vukovich, 41, waived his appearance at a court hearing Thursday in an unusual criminal case: the hammer attack he’s charged with carrying out against a man on a sex-offender list. While police and prosecutors won’t go into details, the victim of the attack, ____ ____, said Vukovich is the man who broke into his Anchorage home in late June and, wielding a hammer, called himself the “avenging angel” for hurting children. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Convicted sex offender running for county sheriff
BAY CITY, Mich. — A man convicted of sex crimes and ordered to register as a sex offender wants to be Bay County’s sheriff — and under Michigan elections law it’s legal for him to seek the office. Full Article
Read MoreHow a Plano legislator’s remarks bred strict sex offender laws
Recent research has challenged long-held assumptions that convicted sex offenders are very likely to commit new sex crimes and questioned how those assumptions were reached in the first place. Prior to that, though, one Texas legislator’s words were particularly influential on sex offender laws across the country. (Italics added for clarity.) July 1997: State Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, a former schoolteacher and proponent of the state’s strict 1995 Ashley’s Laws for sex offenders, attends a conference in Bellevue, Wash., about sex offender registries. She begins her speech by noting that…
Read MoreTX: Program to corral ballooning sex offender registry failing
… In 2011, Texas began a so-called deregistration process. The intent was to remove those who were unlikely to re-offend from the list and, in so doing, save taxpayers money. By focusing police attention on truly dangerous offenders, it would also improve public safety. By that measure, however, the program has been a bust. In the 5 1/2 years it has been in existence, only 58 sex offenders have been permitted to deregister from the Texas list — less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the current registry. Full Article
Read MoreNY: These guys are really bad – NY wins big victory in locking up sex offenders forever
Albany, NY — New York’s top court this month delivered a big victory to state prosecutors who want to remove some of the worst sex offenders from society — possibly forever. It dealt a blow to those who fear that the state is expanding a controversial confinement program beyond its Constitutional grounds. Full Article
Read More“Pokemon Go” leads players to California sex offender home
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — The addictive cellphone game “Pokemon Go” has led people to unlikely places to collect digital monsters – including the gates of a central California ranch that houses alcoholics and sex offenders. … But De Vaul, 72, told the Los Angeles Times that he was upset. “I have no idea what Pokemon is,” he said. “I have no idea who put the stop – if it was sabotage – because we don’t want kids showing up here.” If children visit the property, some sex offenders living there might…
Read MoreNV: Sex offender list case off Las Vegas court docket
LAS VEGAS (AP) – A state court in Las Vegas won’t hear arguments about a sex offender registry until the Nevada Supreme Court considers constitutional questions raised by lawyers representing 17 unnamed plaintiffs. Court officials said Monday the Tuesday hearing in Clark County District Court was canceled. Full Article
Read MorePervert Park: Where Sex Offenders Try to Be Normal
No one is more of an outcast in modern society than sex offenders. Nobody wants to know them. Nobody wants to think about them. Everyone would prefer that sex offenders just go away. And due to the harsh laws around sex offenses, they more or less have gone away. Pervert Park, which airs Monday at 10 p.m. EST on the PBS series POV, found some of them, and it makes for uncomfortable viewing. The subject inherently makes the skin crawl. But it is necessary as well. There are 800,000 registered…
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