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
LA: Man removed ‘sex offender’ from his ID, and a judge dismissed the case. Why?
When a Lafayette Parish man removed the words “sex offender” from his state-issued ID, law enforcement officers said Louisiana law had been broken. A local judge saw things differently. Full Article
NJ: New Jersey could soon compensate those wrongfully put on sex offender list
[nj.com - 11/7/19] Dion Harrell spent two decades on New Jersey’s sex offender registry. He had trouble finding a job. He couldn’t be alone with his kids. For a time, he was homeless. But when a DNA test finally proved his innocence, the state had nothing to offer him for those years. “I was surprised I wouldn’t get compensation,” Harrell said at a hearing...
Kat’s Blog: Will Vagueness Take Down the Registry?
It’s well known, nothing is clear cut when it comes to the registry. The rules and regulations may vary slightly from state to state, but the vagueness with which these regulations were conceived and are enforced, is the same all over. Take Halloween for instance. In my neck of the woods, every year registrants were given letters by their P.O.’s or sent letters from...
AR: New sex offender laws now in effect in Arkansas
[ky3.com/ - 11/6/19 - NOTE that they linked to ACSOL at the bottom!] HARRISON, Ark. -- Harrison Police Detective Ted Schaeffer makes sure sex offenders in his city are registered. "It's almost a daily basis," he said. Right now, he said there are more than 30 offenders Harrison. ASecureLife.com listed Arkansas as having the second-highest number of sex offenders per capita in the nation....
ACSOL Emotional Support Group Meetings Available: Sat, Nov 23 in L.A.; Most Thursdays in Sac; Monthly on the phone
Emotional Support Group meetings will be held for those convicted of a sex offense and their loved ones. This meeting, which is based upon the format of 12 Step meetings, provides registrants and their loved ones with an opportunity to discuss personal challenges and share their experiences, strengths and hopes, with each other. Attendance is limited to individuals required to register, family members, and...
ACSOL Meeting November 16 in West Sacramento
Please mark your calendars for ACSOL’s upcoming meeting: Saturday, November 16 10 a.m. 1275 Starboard Drive West Sacramento, CA Registrants, friends and family and interested service providers are invited to attend these free meetings. There will be no law enforcement or media present in order to protect everyone’s privacy. The meetings start at 10 am and last about 2-3 hours. Topics of conversation include...
NEW Scam targeting registrants: Extortion letter
[floridaactioncommittee.org - 11/6/19] Courtesy of our affiliates at Texas Voices, we are learning of a new scam targeting persons on the registry. People are receiving letters in the mail with no return address, but personalized to them. The letter demands payment of money via bitcoin or they will notify all their neighbors of their status, their employers, their family members’ associates, church congregation, etc....
General Comments November 2019
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of November 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.
Australia: Police to review policies as footage emerges of bikie attacking child sex offender in watch house
[abc.net.au - 11/4/19] SA Police is reviewing its security practices as CCTV footage of a bikie attacking a child sex offender at the Adelaide City Watch House is posted online. Rebels bikie member Bradley Daniele posted the footage to social media of him allegedly attacking child sex offender _______. Police this morning confirmed a 26-year-old man from Mawson Lakes had been reported for the...
FL: Bringing Sense to Sex Offender Laws [Audio recording]
[Miami Law Explainer on soundcloud.com - 10/28/19] In the decade since the national shame of a colony of sex offenders made homeless by draconian residency restrictions, how far has the city and nation moved in finding humane and successful rehabilitation? Miami Law’s director of Tenants’ Rights Jeffrey Hearne parses the depressing lack of progress. Recorded October 28, 2019. Listen to the recording
Janice’s Journal: The Best Defense is a Good Offense
Have you noticed? The winds are shifting for the registrant community. One solid example of that is the recent federal court decision in Georgia that determined that the three registrant plaintiffs have paid their debt to society and are both rehabilitated and leading productive lives. In that decision, the court went on to assist registrants by shifting the burden of proof to the government...
Canada: SCC to rule if sex offender registry unfair to mentally ill
[advocatedaily.com] Sex offenders who have been found not criminally responsible on account of a mental disorder (NCRMD), and received an absolute discharge from the Ontario Review Board (ORB), may soon be permitted to have themselves removed from sex offender registries, says Toronto criminal lawyer John Fennel. Fennel, an associate with Hicks Adams LLP, says the issue is expected to be heard by the Supreme...
Halloween and Stranger Danger
[bostonreview.net - 10/31/19] Do you believe in the boogeyman? This is the pivotal question of the Halloween movie franchise. The tension around naming the movies’ antagonist foregrounds the problem of seeing him: “it” or “him,” “thing” or “human,” “The Shape” or “Michael Myers”? Even if you have never seen the original 1978 movie, you know the plot. On Halloween 1963, six-year-old Michael Myers kills...
IN: Justices reject Fifth Amendment appeal of sex offender treatment
[theindianalawyer.com - 10/31/19] The Indiana Supreme Court has found no constitutional violation against a father who refused to participate in a sex offender treatment program that he argued would violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Read more
NM: Sex offenders suing New Mexico sheriffs, DPS
ALBUQUERQUE, NM (KRQE) – More than a half dozen sex offenders who committed their crimes in other states say they’re being treated unfairly in New Mexico. Now, eight out-of-state sex offenders now living in New Mexico, calling themselves John Does, are suing the Department of Public Safety and various sheriffs to get their fair shot at a hearing. Full Article
Kat’s Blog: Prisoners Fighting California Fires
The California fires were raging across the CNN newscast, firefighters in yellow and orange turnout coats braving the hellish lines of fires that roared up and down hillsides, valleys and canyons. But wait, according to Bill Weir, reporter for CNN, those firefighters in the orange coats aren’t really firefighters, they’re prisoners from jails or prisons that have volunteered and been specifically trained to assist...
Could GPS-Tracked Sex Offenders Go Unmonitored During Power Shutoffs?
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – Hundreds of thousands of Californians remain in the dark as another round of planned power outages hit California. Parts of 29 counties and nearly 600,000 customers are affected. And now the shutoffs are raising new concerns that violent offenders could take advantage of the outages. Victims rights groups say the fear is real. They want to make sure offenders using tracking...
GA: Federal Judge Stops Halloween Signs
A federal district court judge today granted a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) that prohibits law enforcement in Butts County, Georgia from posting signs in the front yards of registrants' homes on Halloween. In his ruling, the judge stated that requiring registrants to allow the signs to remain in their front yards violated their First Amendment rights. Also in his ruling, the judge explained that...
Army sex offender argues that prison’s ban on contact with his children violated rights
A soldier convicted of a sex crime involving a child will argue in the military’s top court next week that a prison policy preventing him from contact with his own children violated his rights and unduly punished him. Full Article
NY: Church pulls plug on sex offender’s wedding
[poststar.com - 10/22/19] ...when word got out on social media in recent days that ______ was planning to get married days after his sentencing, and the invitation that was posted on Facebook talked of the "fairytale" relationship, the you-know-what hit the proverbial fan. The wedding was to be held Saturday at South Granville Congregational Church. Pastor Rick Backus said that he was aware _____...