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
Indecent exposure charges filed against trans woman over L.A. spa incident
Prosecutors filed multiple counts of indecent exposure this week against a transgender woman whose alleged conduct was at the center of a viral video that sparked a pair of violent protests outside a spa in Westlake this summer, officials said Thursday. ______ Merager was charged Monday with five counts of indecent exposure, relating to an incident inside the Wi Spa on June 23, according...
CT: Changes To Sex Offender Registry Will Be A Tough Sell
Source: ctnewsjunkie.com 8/27/21 Sentencing Commission weighs need for change versus public perception by Lisa BackusAugust 27, 2021, 5:00 am The proposal to move some people off the state’s sex offender registry is going to be a “heavy lift,” according to members of the state Sentencing Commission. But members said it should lead to greater public safety by allowing police to focus on high-risk registrants instead...
A Culture Without the Possibility of Redemption Is a Toxic Culture
Source: thriveglobal.com 8/31/21 The paradox of social media, and so much of our technology, is that it keeps us locked in an eternal present, while at the same time creating an eternal archive that never fades away. The result isn’t just higher levels of anxiety, depression and loneliness, it also makes it harder for us to grow and evolve — which is, after all,...
General Comments Sept 2021
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of Sept 2021. 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.
An old arrest can follow you forever online. Some newspapers want to fix that.
Source: washingtonpost.com 8/31/21 The Boston Globe has joined a handful of newsrooms around the country doing something once unthinkable: changing old articles because they are ruining a person’s life. The newspaper on Friday launched its Fresh Start initiative, which allows people to petition to have information about them removed from or added to old stories, to have their names anonymized, or to have the...
ACSOL President Chance Oberstein to Discuss Travel Law Updates
ACSOL President Chance Oberstein will discuss travel law updates on September 17 at 11 a.m. (Pacific) during this year's ACSOL annual conference. Mr. Oberstein's presentation will address both domestic and overseas travel. "Registrants are traveling both domestically and internationally during the pandemic for both personal and business reasons," stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. "Not only must they be careful of COVID-19 restrictions, they...
MN: Long Weekend Protest Rocks Minnesota’s Shadow Prisons
Source: texansagainstcivilcommitment.com 8/29/21 MOOSE LAKE MN. Behind barbed wire fences a protest movement is swelling for an end to Minnesota’s Shadow Prisons, “treatment facilities” that detainees say are an unconstitutional death sentence. Nearly 800 people are held indefinitely outside of any criminal proceedings, after finishing prison sentences or without being convicted of a crime on civil allegations of being “mental ill” and “sexually dangerous”....
PA: Life sentence for Edwardsville man convicted of child pornography
Source: timesleader.com 8/27/21 WILKES-BARRE — In what attorneys believe to be the first in Pennsylvania, an Edwardsville man convicted by a Luzerne County jury of possessing child pornography was sentenced Friday to spend the rest of his life in state prison. Joseph J. Davis’ apology had no effect on Judge Tina Polachek Gartley, who expressed compassion for the jurors when they viewed video of...
Kansas Supreme Court Ruling: City Conviction Requires Sex Offender Registration
The Kansas Supreme Court ruled Friday that a man's municipal conviction for sexual battery requires him to register as a sex offender. The 5-2 decision comes in the case of a man, who was convicted in 2018 of sexual battery in violation of the Shawnee municipal code. At issue was whether he was required to register as a sex offender under the Kansas Offender...
FL: FBI Agent, Army Reserves Col. charged with sex crimes against children in Florida
Source: cbs42.com 8/27/21 FRANKLIN COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) — An FBI agent who investigated sex crimes against children has been arrested and charged with multiple sex crimes against children across several states, according to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies said Supervisory Special Agent David ____ was tasked with investigating crimes against children, including child pornography. But in February of this year, he was accused...
ACSOL’s Chance X. Oberstein Celebrated for Dedication to the Field of Law
Source: 24-7pressrelease.com 8/26/21 LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA, August 26, 2021 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Chance Oberstein has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process. Drawing inspiration from the...
CA: Sex offender in Marin County will be turned out on streets; unlikely allies say that’s not safe
Source: ktvu.com 8/26/21 SAN RAFAEL, Calif. - A 68-year-old registered sex offender has no time left on his stay at a Marin County hotel and his case manager is making an unusual plea for someone to house his client so that he doesn’t have to sleep in a tent under a freeway. "The day I get released, I’m supposed to be on the street...
Janice’s Journal: Uneven Results in Beginning of Petitioning Process
[ACSOL] The petitioning process under the Tiered Registry Law has begun. A quick look at the first 60 days of the process shows uneven results. The best news is that two petitions have already been granted. Both petitions were filed in San Diego County and both petitions did not trigger an objection from the county’s District Attorney. The good news is that court personnel...
Why Blanket Registration of Youth as Sex Offenders is Bad Public Policy
Source: thecrimereport.org 8/5/21 We praise children for their curiosity. How else are they to learn to navigate the world? But sometimes a child’s curiosity leads to a lifetime of punishment and ostracism. Sadly, this is the harsh reality of many children who were charged with a sex offense. Although it can be a difficult notion to accept, children may exhibit sexual behavior as part...
CA: YouTube host leads police to arrest suspected sex offender in EG
Source: egcitizen.com 8/18/21 The Elk Grove police on Aug. 11 arrested a 20-year-old man who allegedly visited Morse Community Park to have a sexual encounter with a minor in a restroom. “Ghost,” who is a YouTube channel host and the anonymous leader of an self-described movement called, Creep Catching (CC) Unit, announced that their decoy operation led authorities to arrest Timothy ___ of Elk...
New Report Finds IML Negatively Impacts Mobility of Registrants
The International Megan's Law (IML) has negatively impacted registrants' mobility across five dimensions, according to a newly released academic report. The dimensions are legally, bureaucratically, societally, subjectively and relationally. An advanced copy of that report can be viewed using the link below. According to the 200-page report, the IML is one part of a U.S. sex offence apparatus that continues to progress towards more...
IN: Federal Appeals Court OKs Indiana Sex Offender Registry Law
Source: wfyi.org 8/24/21 A federal appeals court said Indiana’s sex offender registry law does not violate the U.S. Constitution, overturning previous rulings. Indiana’s sex offender registry law does not require offenders to register if they were convicted before it was created in the 1990s. But it does require offenders who move to Indiana to register if they were registered in another state, even if...
Court Stops First Challenge to CA Tiered Registry Law
A judge in Sacramento Superior Court today stopped the first challenge to the Tiered Registry Law. The action was taken during a virtual hearing held before Judge Shama Mesiwala. The case in question involved a challenge to the assignment of individuals convicted of Penal Code Section 288(c)(1) to Tier 3, the highest tier. The basis of the challenge was the equal protection clause of...
Action Alert: Call before Aug 26 to support the Jeremy Rose family against job discrimination
Women Against Registry (W.A.R.) 8/24/21 NATIONWIDE CALL TO ACTION! We are all in this together so please take action as soon as possible and certainly before the program airs on KSTU-FOX 13 on August 26 in the evening! We were contacted by a registered citizen in Salt Lake City Utah a few months back. He was being vilified by Fox13 television station due to...
India: ‘My crime is I fell in love’: should India rethink tough laws on underage sex?
Source: theguardian.com 8/24/21 Laws intended to tackle child abuse are resulting in young men in consensual relationships being imprisoned. Activists argue a more nuanced approach is needed Mani*, 21, began dating Noor*, 17, two years ago. They couldn’t see each other during the Covid lockdowns, but when restrictions began to ease, they would meet on the deserted banks of a canal in a small...