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
Kat’s Blog: A Mother’s Plea, Not So Different Than Ours
A recent, tragic shooting in New Jersey, a Federal Judge’s son killed on the family’s doorstep, her husband hospitalized with multiple gunshots. The Judge believes she was the shooter’s targeted victim because of her position on the bench. The Judge, was uninjured. Yesterday, Judge Esther Salas went on television and broadcast a desperate plea, asking those in power to do something to help those...
TN: Win in Tennessee – District Court Denies State’s Motion to Dismiss and Grants Injunction on Ex Post Facto Grounds
[floridaactioncommittee.org - 8/10/20] A Tennessee Federal District Court last week denied the State’s Motion to Dismiss and ordered an injunction preventing them from enforcing the sex offender registry against an individual whose offense pre-dated the enactment of the ordinance. The best part of this case was that the court based its opinion on Ex Post Facto grounds! Read the full article Link to PDF...
Sex offender loses COVID-19 contract at VA hospital after USA TODAY asks questions
[usatoday.com - 8/11/20] Ezekiel Lopez is a registered child sexual predator in Illinois who spent more than three years in prison for sexually abusing two teenage girls under his care. The conviction was not a barrier between Lopez and more than $700,000 in federal contracts to provide cleaning and janitorial services to help fight COVID-19 at the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital just outside Chicago. No rules specifically...
Sacramento Caravan: #SayTheirNames & Bring Our Loved Ones Home on Thursday, August 13
[#SayTheirNames] On Thursday, August 13 there will be a #SayTheirNames action at the CA Capitol Building followed by a car caravan to CDCR and a candlelight vigil at night to honor lives lost. For details, read this Facebook page, and click on the graphic at the top of the page. For a schedule, scroll down the Facebook page. Demand a #MoratoriumOnCovidBehindBars: * HONOR the...
BBC: Can Sex Offenders Change?
[bbc.co.uk - Available on BBC iPlayer on August 20, from 6:00 am UK time zone] Follow Becky Southworth as she steps into the unsettling world of sex offender rehabilitation. Meeting the sex offenders living in our communities, Becky tries to understand what drove them to commit these horrific crimes, whilst seeing what treatment is available to stop them committing any more. Becky’s father was...
ACSOL Phone Meeting on August 15
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 phone meeting. The meeting will be held on Saturday, August 15, beginning at 10 a.m. Pacific time and will last at least two hours. Discussions topics will include in-person registration during the COVID-19 pandemic, the upcoming Tiered Registry, residency...
FL: Get the Facts: Did a Florida Senate 9 candidate defend a sex offender?
[wesh.com - 8/7/20 - Smear alert] SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. —One of the Democratic contenders in the State Senate District 9 race covering Seminole and part of Volusia counties is the target of a negative mailer that claims she defended a sex offender. “I do not believe any of this nonsense. It's just trash,” Patricia Sigman said. Democratic candidate Patricia Sigman is furious about the...
NJ: Dem Congressman Once Lobbied Against Child Sex Offender Registry Bill
[dailycaller.com - 8/6/20] A Democratic congressman once fought against legislation that strengthened and improved the national child sex offender registry before taking office. Tom Malinowski, before becoming a Democratic congressman from New Jersey, lobbied against a 2006 bill that imposed tougher penalties on sex offenders, a review of congressional records and lobbying disclosures by The Washington Free Beacon found. He said that expanding sex...
LA: Acadia Sheriff’s deputies arrest registrants for not disclosing status on social media
[katc.com - 8/6/20] Acadia Parish Sheriff's deputies have identified seven sex offenders who have been in violation of sex offender social media laws, Sheriff KP Gibson says. Between March of 2020 and July of 2020, the sheriff's sex offender registry unit conducted an investigation of all registered sex offenders in the parish, to ensure they were following the law regarding use of social media....
Our System Is Not Doing the Thing It Says It Intends to Do: Deliver Justice
[jacobinmag.com - 8/5/20] Carceral solutions to sexual violence won’t deliver justice. We need investments in public services that will actually reduce sexual violence. In the last few years, the #MeToo movement has brought renewed attention to sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and the ways they are used by mostly powerful, wealthy men to maintain social and economic hierarchies. At the same time, the push for...
UK: Online naming and shaming ‘threatening offender rehabilitation’
[bailiwickexpress.com - 8/4/20] Some sex offenders undergoing rehabilitation have lost their jobs, and risk losing their accommodation, after a list of their names and past crimes was posted online, putting pressure on the Police and Probation Services. According to Detective Superintendent Stewart Gull, the recent spate of 'naming and shaming' local offenders online after their sentences have been carried out is posing serious problems...
CURE California Zoom Meeting August 8 at 11 AM Pacific
[curenational.org] Dear ACSOL friends, please consider joining the weekly California CURE Zoom meeting this Saturday: Saturday, August 8 11:00 AM to noon Pacific See below for how to connect, NEWS FROM LAST WEEK'S MEETING: Gale Sanders, the leader of the California chapter of CURE, had a temporary health problem kept her from being with us last Saturday. I look forward to introducing Gale this...
General Comments August 2020
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of August 2020. 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.
CURE California Zoom Meeting August 1 at 11 AM Pacific
[curenational.org] Dear ACSOL friends, please consider joining the California CURE Zoom meeting Saturday, August 1 11:00 AM Pacific Please let people know we are looking for volunteers to help us start California CURE. Gale Sanders is the leader. Charles Sullivan President, International CURE (received consultative status from the United Nations) Washington, DC HOW TO ATTEND: Zoom Meeting link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89537548040?pwd=R0FvRmY5UWNreFkxL25STlIvVFNUQT09 Or call 929-205-6099 Meeting ID:...
MI: Michigan’s top court kills lawsuit by wrongly imprisoned man
[washingtontimes.com - 7/30/20] DETROIT (AP) - The Michigan Supreme Court has stopped a man from suing the state after he spent more than a year in prison for a crime that wasn’t a crime. The man was behind bars for 17 months for failing to provide accurate information for Michigan’s sex offender registry. The Corrections Department then discovered that he actually wasn’t required to...
Early Jail Releases During Pandemic Didn’t Lead to Crime Spike: Study
[thecrimereport.org - 7/27/20] A study of 29 U.S. cities has found no correlation between the early release of detainees from the cities’ jails due to COVID-19 fears and any increase in crime in those cities between March and May. “The analysis confirmed that the amount by which a county changed their jail population wasn’t correlated with the amount of change in crime,” said the...
Kat’s Blog: Mississippi Senate Bill 2009
Here’s an example of a Bill being passed “before” it was thoroughly thought through. On July 1, 2020, Mississippi Senate Bill 2009, also known as Carly’s Law, was passed. The Bill prohibits future contact with the crime victim by a convicted “sex offender”; and for related purposes. Here’s a summary of the Bill. Section 1. 1) Except as otherwise provided in this section, it...
NY: Despite Politicians’ Assurances, All Sex Offenders are Not Barred from New ‘Homeless Hotels’
[westsiderag.com - 7/29/20] Despite reassurances from politicians that there are no sex offenders at the three new homeless shelters on the Upper West Side, the city can’t bar all sex offenders from city shelters, according to Isaac McGinn, spokesperson for the Department of Homeless Services (DHS). Only sex offenders deemed “residency restricted” can be banned from shelters that are less than 1,000 feet from...
Janice’s Journal: CA Action Alert: It’s Time to Protest Exclusion of Registrants from Prison Releases
In my last column, I implored the California Department of Corrections (CDC) to include registrants in its release of prisoners that began on July 1 due to a growing number of COVID-19 infections in the state’s prisons. Since that time, the number of prisoners infected with COVID-19 has increased dramatically in three of those prisons: San Quentin, Avenal and Chuckwalla. That is why I...
WI: A convicted sex offender has filed a federal lawsuit challenging Muskego’s rules that restrict where he can live
[amp.jsonline.com - 7/28/20] A convicted sex offender has filed a federal lawsuit challenging Muskego's rules that restrict where he can live, or whether he can live in the city at all. In the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee, Ronald E. Schroeder said the city's ordinances violates his constitutional rights by preventing his move from Waukesha to Muskego, where he has been invited...