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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WV: State Supreme Court Rules Probation Internet Restrictions Violate First Amendment
[UPDATED LINKS 3/20/18] [floridaactioncommittee.org] The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals has ruled that completely restricting a person’s access to the internet as a condition of their parole from prison is a violation of the First Amendment. “Like the statute in Packingham, Mr. Ross’s condition of parole ‘bars access to…sources for knowing current events, checking ads for employment, speaking and listening in the modern...
NY: Gov. Cuomo’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Plan to Protect Your Kids
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo recently unveiled a legislative proposal packaged as part of a budget amendment to expand already onerous residency and presence restrictions for some sex offenders in New York. Full Article
MA: The New Sex Ed: What Young People Need to Know About Sex Laws
[Keren Goldenberg at kgdefenselaw.com] Like everyone else living in New England, I could not avoid the exhaustive media coverage of the St. Paul School rape trial. From a legal perspective, there was nothing sensational about this case: a 15 year old student claimed that she had been forcibly raped by a senior at her school. The senior claimed that they fooled around but never...
TX: Registered sex offenders targets of latest phone scam
[ktsm.com] EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) - The El Paso County Sheriff's Office says a telephone scam is targeting registered sex offenders in the county, trying to scam them out of money According to EPCSO, registered people around the county have gotten calls from someone identifying themselves as employees of the Sheriff's Office. The scammers tell the registered sex offender that they are non-compliant with...
CA: California Lawmaker Banned From Hugging After Investigation
[usnews.com] SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A California state senator has been told to stop hugging people after an investigation concluded that his trademark embraces made multiple female colleagues uncomfortable. However, the investigation released Thursday found Sen. Bob Hertzberg's frequent hugs are not intended to be sexual and more often than not are not unwelcome. Hertzberg, a Democrat from the Los Angeles area, has earned...
NY: State police: Sex offender’s death accidental at Central New York Psychiatric Center
[lohud.com] State police have ruled that a sex offender’s death inside Central New York Psychiatric Center in Marcy was accidental. Investigators determined Philip Barbato, 47, accidentally hanged himself with string while alone inside a shower room, Trooper Jack Kelly said. Barbato had been locked up under the state’s Sex Offender Treatment Program, part of the civil-commitment law that allows for confining sex offenders who...
New book dispels myths about sex offenders
[UPDATED LINKS 4/19/18] [salemweeklynews.com] Even amid the national outcry about sex abuse and sexual harassment, very little is known about sex offenders or the treatments that best help them. Arguably the least understood population of the criminal justice system, sex offenders are subject to some of the country’s most punitive sentencing laws and their incarceration, life after prison and rehabilitation efforts are often misguided....
NJ: Opposition to Blanket Community Notification in New Jersey
[sexlawandpolicy.org] Today, SLAP Center delivered a letter to Assemblywoman Amy Handlin and Senator Christopher Bateman outlining our opposition to their proposal to allow for community notification of New Jersey’s Tier 1 registrants. New Jersey has three tiers of registrants, with only Tiers 2 and 3 currently available to the public. Tier 1 registrants are assessed as having little to no risk of re-offense and...
You’ve Got A Friend, But It’s Not U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions!
[blog.womenagainstregistry.org] U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke at a conference for the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Nashville, TN on Thursday, his focus, increasing the prison population! You would think that government would be more interested in decreasing prison population, wouldn’t you? The federal prison population has decreased from 220,000 to 180,000 over the past few years. To me, that would seem...
NJ: How the new ‘child erotica’ law might help stop sex predators
[nj.com] A new law that further defines child pornography and more heavily prosecutes those who distribute and possess it went into effect recently, and law enforcers are hoping it’ll help keep offenders behind bars. The legislation effectively closes a gap where possessors of “child erotica” — photos or videos of children who are being portrayed sexually or exploited — but aren’t necessarily nude, wasn't...
ACSOL CA Action CANCELLATION Alert for May 8 LA Court Murder Hearing
UPDATED May 1, 2018: The May 8 press conference and filing of lawsuit has been postponed. Future date to be determined and announced. Correspondingly, ACSOL will not be meeting as an organization at the hearing. Original (obsolete) March 16 posting: ACSOL members are encouraged to attend a court hearing on May 8 in Los Angeles County that will feature four men charged with...
CA: Vidak authors measure to prevent sex offenders from secretly moving in next door to schools, parks and child care centers
State Senator Andy Vidak (R-Hanford) today announced he is amending his Senate Bill 1143 to prevent sex offenders from secretly moving in next door to schools, parks, and child care centers. Click here (pdf) to view the bill’s amended language. ... “Given the Court’s and Brown administration’s reluctance to keep sex offenders from living near children, we looked into other possible solutions,” said Vidak. “Our SB...
CA Sex Offender Management Board to Release Recidivism Report
[ACSOL] The CA Sex Offender Management Board (CASOMB) will soon release the results of a 10-year study on recidivism rates for those convicted of a sex offense, according to a CASOMB member. The study is expected to include topics such as the number of people convicted of indecent exposure who later committed a sex contact offense. According to the board member, a preliminary copy...
National Registry of Exonerations 2017 report [document]
[law.umich.edu] The National Registry of Exonerations recently issued its 2017 report. Of the 139 exonerations they added to the registry in 2017, 21% were for sex crimes, not counting the two for registration crimes. About half of all the exonerations were based on the conclusion that no crime had been committed (as opposed to the finding that the exoneree was not the perpetrator). Eleven...
NY: Bills re-instate residency/ proximity laws, Shelter Bans and end Statutes of Limitations
[once-fallen.blogspot] Read comments by once-fallen.blogspot Read NY Assembly Bill A9505C Read NY Senate Bill S7505B
Trump’s ‘Bipartisan’ Nominees to Sentencing Commission Tilt Conservative
[thecrimereport.org] President Donald Trump’s four nominees to the U.S. Sentencing Commission include three well-known conservatives who may be inclined to support tougher sentences in federal criminal cases. The White House announcement Thursday described it as a “bipartisan group” of nominees, but if all of them are approved by the Senate, the voting majority of the six-member commission (two of whom serve as ex-officio, nonvoting...
At the Fox News Site, a Sudden Focus on Women as Sex Offenders
[nytimes.com] In November, there was the story of a 22-year-old science teacher arrested in Oklahoma for her “sex romp” with a male student. In September, an article told of a 38-year-old teacher who kissed a student and let him “touch her breasts behind Culver’s,” a burger joint in Kerrville, Tex. And in July there was a report on a 54-year-old music teacher in Georgia...
IL: Sex offender facing charges in Troy sues, says burden to prove innocence is too high
A Florida man facing child sex assault charges has filed a lawsuit against the state of Illinois alleging that the burden of proof placed on him to prove his innocence is too high. ____ ____ says Illinois' laws "allow convictions without proof," placing a crippling burden on the defendant and lowering the burden of proof for prosecutors so much so that they only need...
How A Trailer Park Becomes A Secret Haven For Sex Offenders
[cracked.com] "Sex Offender Trailer Park" sounds like either a great horror movie, a middling rock band, or a horrible sitcom. In real life, neighborhoods like that do exist, because of a problem society has no goddamned idea how to solve. In many cities, laws keep registered sex offenders from living anywhere near where children gather, which means there are only tiny areas where they...
When The Abuser Is A Child, Too
In 2005, a 17-year-old, Amie Zyla, made a plea to members of the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations. Zyla had been sexually assaulted at age 8 by a 14-year-old friend of the family. Nine years after was convicted in juvenile court, Zyla was horrified to see him on the local news. He had been arrested for luring children into his...