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
Janice's Journal
General News Feed
Rep. Chris Smith Speaks About The Dangers Of Human Trafficking
Speaking at at the Borgata hotel in Atlantic City during the week before Thanksgiving, Rep. Chris Smith, R-NJ 4, delivered the following speech to hundreds of prosecutors at the County Prosecutors Association of New Jersey. ... Why International Megan's Law? We know from law enforcement, academia and media documentation that Americans on the U.S. sex offender registries are frequently caught sexually abusing children in...
Black victims demeaned in named violent crime laws
The slayings of Reagan Tokes and Alianna DeFreeze had much in common. Both were abducted, raped and killed in Ohio in 2017. Tokes was a 21-year-old college student, DeFreeze a 14-year-old seventh grader. Both their killers, previously convicted sex offenders, were subsequently found guilty. Yet only one victim got a law with her name on it — Tokes, who was white. That disparity in...
TX: Tejano singer convicted of rape to launch comeback tour
[washingtonpost.com - 12/4/19] HOUSTON — A Tejano singer who was convicted of raping an underage female relative and imprisoned for more than a decade is preparing to relaunch his career with a sold-out show in Houston, despite the original terms of his release barring him from visiting the city and surrounding county because the victim lives there. … “For every one person against him,...
TN: Justice Department Announces More than $376 Million in Awards to Promote Public Safety
[justice.gov - 12/4/10] $5,528,132 Will Support Crime-Fighting Efforts in the Western District of Tennessee MEMPHIS – The Department of Justice today announced that it has awarded more than $376 million in grant funding to enhance state, local and tribal law enforcement operations and reinforce public safety efforts in jurisdictions across the United States. $5,528,132 will support public safety activities in the Western District of...
UPDATED: 50-State Chart on Relief from Sex Offender Registration 11-21-2019
[ccresourcecenter.org - 11/21/19] We [Collateral Consequences Resource Center] have completed an overhaul of our 50-State chart on relief from sex offender registration obligations, to bring it up to date and ensure that it is thorough and accurate. This chart documents the duration of sex offender registration requirements, as well as legal mechanisms for early termination from such requirements. In conducting this review, we have identified...
MN: Is Minnesota’s Sex Offender Registry Helping or Hurting?
Minnesota’s Predatory Offender Registry was first passed in 1991. It was intended to assist law enforcement in quickly locating and clearing suspects in child predator and kidnapping cases. 28 years later, the registry covers 21,000+ individuals and requires registration for many more crimes, including “crimes against the person” — 27 of them. It costs over $1m to implement every year. Stacy Bettison recently published...
Tinder Lets Known Sex Offenders Use the App. It’s Not the Only One.
Match Group, which owns most major online dating services, screens for sexual predators on Match — but not on Tinder, OkCupid or PlentyofFish. A spokesperson said, “There are definitely registered sex offenders on our free products.” Full Article
Child Custody/Visitation Laws Applicable to Registered Persons
[sosen.org - 12/1/19] In my 2016 Jobs and Welfare Survey of 307 registered persons, I found that registrants in this survey were less likely to be married than the general population (34.43% of Regs vs 49% of gen) and less likely to have kids (54.93 Regs. vs 74% Gen. pop.). However, this still means many people forced to register on America’s sex offense registries...
PA: Attorney General – Cases could jeopardize Megan’s Law sex offenders registry
Survivors of sexual assault have shared with me their struggles in overcoming the traumatic harm caused by those who’ve preyed upon them. Their strength and courage inspires and drives me every day to pursue allegations of sexual abuse wherever we find it. In 1994, 7-year-old Megan Kanka was raped and murdered by her neighbor — someone her parents did not know had two prior...
General Comments December 2019
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of December 2019. 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.
Kat’s blog: The Flaw in Meghan’s Law
Our hearts go out to the Pennsylvania father who happened to be a registrant and who missed the birth of his third child for no reason other than the fact that he was a registrant. We can all put ourselves in this guy’s shoes and imagine the sense of devastation and embarrassment he must have felt when told he couldn’t attend the birth of...
Why there is no national domestic assault offender registry – yet
[foxnews.com - 11/30/19] It was a murder so brutal – and one that continues to haunt law enforcement in the quiet community of Osceola County, Florida. ... For those like Gibson, who are tasked with safeguarding the most vulnerable in the community, it has raised the question as to what more the justice system should and could be doing to support victims of domestic...
TX: Neighbors: Sex offenders may follow proposed Good Samaritan homeless shelter to area
[caller.com - 11/29/19] There was a time when Abel Palacious found himself homeless. Now, he lives across the street from the old Lamar Elementary School. The school, at the corner of Morris and 19th streets, could be converted into the largest homeless shelter in Corpus Christi. It would house 308 beds as the new location for the Good Samaritan Rescue Mission. The organization served Palacious when he was...
IL: Documented harassment of a registrant by a police officer
[uscourts.gov - 11/26/19 - 7th Circuit] The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires that state actors have, at a minimum, a rational basis for treating similarly situated people differently. Rex _____ alleges that Officer Tizoc Landeros prevented him from updating his Illinois sexual offender registration and otherwise used his official position to harass Frederickson purely out of personal dislike. Without an updated...
OH: Cleveland Police: Final warning for dumped child sex files sergeant
[bbc.com - 11/27/19] A police officer has been found guilty of gross misconduct after confidential files about paedophiles and their victims were found dumped in a recycling bin outside his home. Sgt Martin Skirving-Chehab, of Cleveland Police, took two carrier bags of paperwork home before his mother-in-law accidentally threw them out. The papers contained details about 55 sex offenders. A police misconduct panel gave...
WI: 65 percent of registered sex offenders approved for Green Bay housing exemption since Nov. 2018
[nbc26.com - 11/28/19] Darlene Esquivel did not want Theodore Blazek to be able to live next door. Blazek, a registered sex offender convicted of possession of child pornography, asked for an exemption to a Green Bay ordinance that bars registered sex offenders with a conviction involving children from living within 1,500 feet of schools, parks, and playgrounds. Blazek declined an on-camera interview, but said...
Nigeria launches first sex offender register
[theguardian.com/ - 11/25/19] Campaigners have hailed the launch of Nigeria’s first sex offender register as a vital step towards tackling reported cases of sexual abuse, which are rising across the country. The publicly accessible onlineregister of people prosecuted for sexual violence since 2015 will allow public bodies and police authorities to conduct background checks and identify repeat offenders. Oluwaseun Osowobi, the director of Stand...
Supreme Court Won’t Weigh Curbing U.S. Agency Powers
[bloomberglaw.com - 11/25/19] The U.S. Supreme Court refused Nov. 25 to once again consider whether Congress is disregarding a long-held legal doctrine and giving too much power to federal agencies. Last term a short-handed Supreme Court refused to reinvigorate the “non-delegation doctrine,” which prohibits lawmakers from effectively passing off their legislative authority to another branch of government. The doctrine was used to upend New...
WI: Gov. Tony Evers Vetoes Changes To Sex Offender Residency Requirements
[wpr.org - 11/25/19] Measure Passed Legislature With Unanimous Vote, Bipartisan Support Gov. Tony Evers has vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have lifted state restrictions on how close people convicted of sex crimes can live to schools. The bill, which passed the state Assembly and Senate unanimously, would have repealed a state law that bars sexually violent persons from living less than 1,500 feet...
MD: The Absurdity Of Charging 10-Year-Olds As Sex Offenders
A ten-year boy has just been charged as a sex offender as a result of a schoolyard game of tag that got out of control. As reported by the local CBS news affiliate: “the fourth-grade students were playing a game of tag that escalated when a boy began making inappropriate comments and movements toward the girls. One of the boys also wrapped his arms...