From 2007: In the early 1980s, a therapist named Robert Longo was treating adolescent boys who had committed sex offenses. Their offenses ranged from fondling girls a few years younger than they were to outright rape of young children. As part of their treatment, the boys had to keep journals — which Longo read — in which they detailed their sexual fantasies and logged how frequently they masturbated to those fantasies. They created “relapse-prevention plans,” based on the idea that sex-offending is like an addiction and that teenagers need to…
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NC: Sex offender pleaded to living near day cares
GRAHAM — A registered sex offender pleaded guilty Monday to violating the state’s sex offender laws by living within 1,000 feet of two child-care centers. Before he was charged in April, Alamance County Sheriff’s deputies told ____ ____ ____, 52, that he couldn’t live at his residence on Morningside Drive in Burlington. In warrants, deputies stated that ____’s residence was within 747 feet of Unique Ventures Child Care Services and 638 feet from Gospel Tabernacle day care. … He pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of sex offender residence violation and one…
Read MoreFederal Youth Case on Trial
Two years ago federal prosecutors won a delinquency finding against a boy accused of engaging in sex acts when he was 10 years old with other young boys on an Army base in Arizona—one of the youngest defendants ever pursued by the U.S. Justice Department. The case, now being reviewed by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, could open a new front in a long-running debate about how to handle juvenile sex offenders, whose cases generally have been tried in state, not federal, courts. The records are sealed because…
Read MoreCity of Orange Gives Final Approval to Repeal of Sex Offender Ordinance
The City Council of the City of Orange, in a vote of 4 to 1, gave final approval on October 8 to repeal a city law that required registered citizens to post a sign in front of their residence on Halloween. The City’s first vote on this issue took place on September 24, only six days after a lawsuit was filed in federal district court challenging the ordinance. Prior to filing the lawsuit, the City was asked on September 3 to repeal the ordinance, but failed to consider the issue…
Read MoreThe Justice Department Prosecuted A 10-Year-Old As A ‘Sex Offender’
A federal appeals court is getting ready to hear the case of a boy who was prosecuted for engaging in sex acts with other boys when he was just 10 years old, The Wall Street Journal reports. Lawyers for the unnamed boy are appealing a court’s ruling that found him “delinquent” — the juvenile equivalent of guilty — for having sex with other young boys on an Arizona Army base. Full Article
Read MoreOrange County Deputies Fired After Brutal Jail Killing Want More Taxpayer Money
While a group of inmates inside “F Barracks” at Orange County’s Theo Lacy Jail beat, kicked, stomped and sodomized another inmate for as long as 40 minutes on October 5, 2006, Deputy Kevin Taylor, the senior ranking officer with oversight responsibilities for the area, sat on the other side of a large window and later claimed he was too busy to hear the victim screaming for his life or to see any hint of the gruesome killing reminiscent of a hyena attack. Though prisoners insisted Taylor informed inmate shot-callers that…
Read MoreLA: Allen Parish considers raising sex offender registration rates [UPDATED with action]
ALLEN PARISH, LA (KPLC) – “I don’t like seeing people leaving an adjacent parish to come here as a sex offender because it’s more affordable, which is what I’m trying to say,” said Allen Parish Chief Deputy Ricky Johnson. It happened first in Lake Charles, then in Sulphur, a raise in sex offender registration rates. And now, Allen Parish officials say they are feeling the effects of those decisions. “It’s not a mass exodus from Calcasieu Parish, but we’ve had a few sex offenders that came to Allen Parish and they basically voiced…
Read MoreAL: Student facing charges for streaking at football game dead of apparent suicide
HARVEST, Alabama – The Sparkman High School community is mourning one of their own after a student apparently took his own life. ____ ____, 15, hanged himself Wednesday and died this morning from his injuries, Madison County Coroner Craig Whisenant said today. ____ death came less than a week after he was arrested for streaking across the Sparkman High football field during the Senators’ Sept. 27 football game against Grissom High School. Full Article Related: WHNT Coverage (since removed – cached page)
Read MoreSex offenders congregate to reform laws they consider too harsh
American Bar Association Journal – More than 700,000 people are now registered sex offenders, and some among that group are fighting to change or overturn laws that they consider too harsh. More than 100 people attended a conference held in Los Angeles a few weeks ago to advocate for reform, the New York Times reports. Those attending the meeting—and other conferences like it—claim the sex offender laws are unconstitutional and ineffective. In California, for example, sex offenders can’t live within 2,000 feet of a school, park or playground. In the state’s Orange…
Read MoreSexual assault not rare among teens. Neither is feeling responsible.
Nearly 1 in 10 young Americans between ages 14 and 21 acknowledges having perpetrated an act of sexual violence at least once, and 4% of a nationally representative sample of American kids reported attempting or completing rape, a new study finds. While those most likely to report initiating unwanted sexual contact in their early to mid-teens were boys, girls were among the perpetrators as the age of respondents increased. Latino and African American youths, and those from low-income families, were less likely to have coerced another person to engage in…
Read MoreMugged by a Mug Shot Online
In March last year, a college freshman named ____ ____ was riding in a van filled with friends from Austin, Tex., to a spring-break rental house in Gulf Shores, Ala. As they neared their destination, the police pulled the van over, citing a faulty taillight. When an officer asked if he could search the vehicle, the driver — a fraternity brother of Mr. ____ who quickly regretted his decision — said yes. Six Ecstasy pills were found in Mr. ____’s knapsack, and he was handcuffed and placed under arrest. Mr. ____ later agreed…
Read MoreMO: Amendment would allow past allegations to be heard in child sex abuse cases
… Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd agrees, and he wants voters to pass an amendment to the Missouri Constitution in fall 2014 that would allow prosecutors in child sexual abuse cases to tell jurors about a defendant’s prior sex offenses, even allegations for which the person never faced charges. Full Article
Read MoreNY: Penile stimulation test unnecessary [UPDATED with decision]
NEW YORK (AP) — Subjecting a sex offender who is no longer imprisoned to “extraordinarily invasive” penile stimulation testing risks violating the premise that even convicts retain their humanity, a federal appeals court said Thursday. The ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan frees ____ ____ of a requirement that he submit to penile plethysmography, a test in which a man’s erectile responses are measured as he is shown sexually stimulating images. Full Article Also: http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/35a2e4f39f9147dfa18316e29264e7af/US–Sex-Offender-Stimulation-Test Court Decision (US Court of Appeals – Second Circuit) Commentary
Read MoreNo More Victims
Pennie Farrell, L.C.S.W., Ph.D., says, “80% of sex offenders who successfully complete a certified treatment program never commit another sex crime.” In this video, Dr. Farrell shares insights from her 21 plus years experience treating sex offenders. She explains what she is trying to accomplish with her website,http://www.SexOffenderInformationStat…, and she compares recidivism rates between treated sex offenders and other non-sex crime offenders. Other questions she explores are, Why are some sex offenders not treatable? Why do some fail while others succeed? What are the changes sex offenders go through in…
Read MoreUnfit to Practice?
In 2007 the civil litigator and former captain in the Army Reserves, now 56, was a JAG lawyer assigned to Los Alamitos Army Airfield when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in Virginia tracked hits on approximately 18 commercial child pornography websites. ICE agents in Project Flicker, as it was known, located a number of active and retired military members, civilians, and contractor employees – several of whom had Top Secret or higher clearances – who allegedly used their military email addresses to register for PayPal accounts to access…
Read MoreIs It ‘Very Offensive’ for Sex Offenders to Demand Just and Sensible Laws?
The New York Times notes a recent conference in Los Angeles aimed at calling attention to the excesses and injustices of laws aimed at sex offenders. The Times reports that the 100 or so attendees—sex offenders plus their girlfriends, wives, and mothers—”hope to convince judges, lawmakers and the public that indiscriminate laws aimed at all sex offenders are unconstitutional and ineffective.” Illustrating the mentality they are fighting, Nina Salarno-Ashford, a lawyer with Crime Victims United, tells the Times. [quote cite=”Nina Salarno-Ashford”]I find it very offensive that registered sex offenders are trying to defeat…
Read MoreGeneral Comments October 2013
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of October 2013. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MoreDE: ACLU Settles Lawsuit Over Sex Offender Residence
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP)- The American Civil Liberties Union has agreed to settle a federal lawsuit challenging a Dover ordinance that prohibits sex offenders from living within 500 feet of day care centers. The ACLU filed the lawsuit in February on behalf of Michael A. Justice, a registered sex offender who began living at his mother’s apartment before the ordinance was adopted. Full Article
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