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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.

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Important News / Announcements

New Matching Grant Program

We Won! CA AB 1568 Author Withdraws Bill, So No Hearing June 16!

CORRECTION: Federal Court Declares Missouri Halloween Sign Law Violates U.S. Constitution

ACSOL Online Meeting June 20, 2026

ACSOL Conducts Successful Lobby Day in Sacramento

Janice's Journal

General News Feed

WI: Racine County judge rules violent sex offender may be released from supervision and leave state

Source: journaltimes.com 4/15/22 RACINE — A violent sex offender from Racine County, Hung ____, 52, has been released from all supervision and is being allowed to live out of state. This move comes as Racine County is finding it increasingly difficult to find homes for offenders who have served their criminal sentence — both in part due to community resistance to having offenders placed...

Survey volunteer alert to all registrants and family: Please tell us about your experience on the public registry

9/27/22 NOTE: THIS SURVEY HAS COMPLETED. NO MORE VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED. THANK YOU.     Dr. Emily Horowitz, author of "Protecting Our Kids? How Sex Offender Laws Are Failing Us" (Praeger, 2015) and Professor of Sociology & Criminal Justice at St. Francis College, is seeking to interview those listed on the public registry about their experience for a forthcoming book project. The interviews will...

SC: Apparent leniency in 19-year-old serial rapist sentencing has been attributed by many to his father’s job at the District Attorney’s office

Source: meaww.com 4/15/22 Bowen Turner's sentence of probation in one convicted case after being accused of raping three girls has led to widespread public fury. The controversy has also sparked an interest in his personal life. Orangeburg County Judge Markley Dennis sentenced 19-year-old Turner to just five years of probation despite charges on two counts of first-degree criminal sexual misconduct for separate assaults in...

UK: Man who complained about living next door to paedophile jailed for being a paedophile

Source: liverpoolecho.co.uk 4/12/22 A man who once complained about living next door to a convicted paedophile has been jailed - for being a paedophile. Darren ____, 53, once complained to his local newspaper that he was furious his housing association didn't tell him his neighbour was a sex offender. But he is now behind bars for subjecting a child to a series of sordid...

Making Headlines: The criminal legal system is massively punitive toward people who commit sex offenses

Source: inquest.org 4/8/22 The death threats started almost immediately. On April 3, 2020, The New York Post published the story of our case under an impossibly salacious headline: “Child rapist ordered released to keep him safe from coronavirus.” The article was no better, describing the underlying crime in vivid detail while underplaying how its subject’s multiple, severe medical issues made him vulnerable to COVID,...

SC: Former deputy, victims advocate arrested, faces registrant embezzlement charges

Source: wpde.com 4/11/22 CLARENDON COUNTY, S.C. (WACH) — On Friday, a former Clarendon County deputy and victims advocate was arrested by South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agents. Sabrina Mellerson, 34, has been arrested and faces charges of misconduct in office and embezzlement. SLED conducted the investigation at the request of Clarendon County Sheriff Tim Baxley.  According to reports, Mellerson is accused of taking money...

TX: Protestors make alarming allegations about statewide sex offender treatment program in Littlefield

Source: everythinglubbock.com 4/11/22 LITTLEFIELD, Texas – Protestors gathered in front of the Civil Commitment Facility in Littlefield on Saturday morning to shine a light on the injustices they said are happening within the barbed-wire fences of the former prison. Texas created the Civil Commitment Program in 1999; like 20 other states, this kind of program allows state agencies to mandate sex offenders, who have...

ACSOL Leaders to Educate Judges, DA’s and Others in San Diego Conference

Source: ACSOL Several ACSOL leaders will educate judges, district attorneys, public defenders, law enforcement and mental health professionals this week at the annual conference of the Forensic Mental Health Professionals.  The conference will be held on April 13 through April 15 in San Diego. ACSOL leaders participating in the conference include Vice President Catherine Carpenter who will make a presentation regarding registrants and the...

FL: ‘Groomer’ debate inflames GOP fight over Florida law

Source: thehill.com 4/8/22 “Groomer” is the new favorite term being used by far-right commentators and activists to describe opponents of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, sparking outrage among LBGTQ advocates who say that it is a smear that feeds into a trope casting members of the community as pedophiles. The Florida bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis week, which opponents have...
LGBT People on Sex Offender Registries: Results from a National Survey [5/10/22 Webinar]

LGBT People on Sex Offender Registries: Results from a National Survey [5/10/22 Webinar]

Source: williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu May 10, 2022 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM Pacific Time, 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM Eastern Time Sex offense registries have operated in the United States since 1947 but have been challenged since their inception on legal, efficacy, and ethical grounds. Sex offense registries ought to be subject to close examination. LGBT people are more likely than cisgender straight people to be...

UK: Laughing council worker goes to pub moments after dodging jail for leaking sex offender’s address to paedo hunter mob

Source: thesun.co.uk 4/9/22 A COUNCIL worker headed straight to the pub just moments after dodging jail for leaking a sex offender's address to a paedophile hunter mob. Customer services assistant Chloe Carr, 23, was seen laughing and joking with two friends after she was fined in Hull Crown Court for sharing the confidential information. Hull City Council Worker Carr told a paedophile hunter Facebook...

Restorative Justice for Sex Offenses? A Conversation About Possibilities [4/13/22 Webinar]

Webinar Topic: Restorative Justice for Sex Offenses? A Conversation About Possibilities Featuring Author Judith Levine & Social Worker Susannah Karlin Sponsored by the St. Francis College Departments of Sociology and Criminal Justice, and Women's & Gender Studies April 13, 2022 at 9:20 AM PST, 12:20 pm EST You may attend online Zoom Livestream or You may attend in-person at: Maroney Theater St. Francis College 180...

Wayne Logan: Card Carrying Sex Offenders

Source: Wayne A. Logan (Florida State University - College of Law) 3/22/22 Americans, it is commonly believed, have never been required to carry and show upon demand personal identification documents; the belief, however, is incorrect. Over time, select sub-populations have in fact been subject to such a requirement, including free-born and emancipated African-Americans until after the Civil War. This article examines the targeting of...

CA: Court Grants Contested Tiered Registry Petition

Source: ACSOL In the first known case involving a contested petition, California Placer County Superior Court granted the petition of a registrant convicted of PC 288(a) who had registered for more than 25 years.  The Placer County District Attorney asked the court to deny the petition in order to significantly enhance public safety. In this case, the court ruled that the DA's office "failed...

FL: Pennsylvania tourist to stay on Florida’s sex-offense registry

Source: orlandosentinel.com 4/4/22 TALLAHASSEE — A Leon circuit judge has dismissed a Pennsylvania man’s challenge to a Florida law that kept him on a sexual-offense registry after a 10-day family vacation to Disney World in 2015. Circuit Judge Angela Dempsey dismissed the case last week, in part finding that a statute of limitations had expired. The man, identified in court documents as John Doe,...

ACSOL April 16, 2022 Meeting

Please join ACSOL Executive Director and civil rights attorney Janice Bellucci as well as ACSOL President and criminal defense attorney Chance Oberstein for our next meeting.  The meeting will be held on Saturday, April 16, on Zoom beginning at 10 a.m. Pacific time, 1:00 PM Eastern, and will last at least two hours. You can use the Zoom app or call in using a...

OR: Oregon to join most states in compensating the wrongfully convicted

Source: oregoncapitalchronicle.com 4/1/22 Wrongfully convicted Oregonians will now be eligible for financial compensation for time of false imprisonment.  ... The act will pay $65,000 for each year of wrongful conviction and $25,000 per year of parole and supervision and each year an individual was wrongfully put on the sex offender registry.  Read the full article  

General Comments Apr 2022

Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of Apr 2022. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil. This section is not intended for posting links to news articles without additional relevant comment.

Stranger Dangers: The Right’s History of Turning Child Abuse Into a Political Weapon

Source: motherjones.com 3/28/22 Josh Hawley’s attacks on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson are part of a long, sad tradition. At some point between the ’80s and now, leaving children unattended in public became unthinkable. To let children as old as, say, 10 walk by themselves became grounds to investigate parents for neglect. As a child of the late ’90s and early 2000s, I knew latchkey kids...

CA: Please tell us your experience working with an America’s Job Center of California to gain employment

Source: Friends Outside of Los Angeles County Friends Outside of Los Angeles County would like to talk with persons who have a sex offense and who are working with an America’s Job Center of California (AJCC) to gain employment. The purpose is to gain information about your job-seeking experience through a 60-75 minute phone or zoom interview. All information is confidential and anonymous. Our...