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
Janice’s Journal: A Bill Fails, A New Opportunity is Created
The struggle to pass the most recent Tiered Registry Bill (Senate Bill 421) is over. The Assembly Appropriations Committee stopped the bill yesterday when it refused to release the bill from the committee’s Suspense File. Because the bill was stopped, some registrants are breathing a sigh of relief. For if the bill had passed, they would have been identified as a registrant on the...
Yucaipa Council considers repeal for sex offender ordinance
At the City Council meeting on Monday, Aug. 28, the council discussed the consideration of repealing the sex offender residency restriction ordinance. The State penal code currently prohibits residency within 2000 feet of a public or private school, as well as parks where children regularly gather. The city of Yucaipa’s current ordinance is similar to state law, which also prohibits offenders from living within...
Assembly Committee Stops Tiered Registry Bill
The Assembly's Appropriations Committee today failed to release the Tiered Registry Bill (SB 421) from its suspense file. As a result, the bill is dead and will not move to the Assembly floor for a vote. "We are disappointed that the State of California will continue a lifetime registry for virtually all registrants," stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. "The Appropriations Committee...
IN: Judges find 2015 law unconstitutional as applied to registered sex offender
A 2015 law meant to prohibit certain sex offenders from entering school property is unconstitutional as it applies to a Howard County man who has already completed his punishment for his 2010 child solicitation conviction, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. Full Article
NC: Johnston County looks for near complete ban of sex offenders from school campuses
Sex offenders are already prohibited from living near schools, but Johnston County is considering completely banning them from campus. That includes parents of students at the schools if they are on the sex offender registry. The proposed policy permits parents on the registry to participate in parent-teacher conferences, provided they receive advance written approval of the school’s principal. Parents can also come to campus...
CO: Judge Finds Colorado Sex Offender Registry Unconstitutional
A federal court judge in Denver has called the public sex offender registry in Colorado “cruel and unusual punishment.” Full Article Also see: Millard-v.-Rankin-13-cv-02406-Colorado https://narsol.org/2017/08/federal-judge-holds-colorado-registry-is-punishment-violates-eighth-amendment/ http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/crime/article/Judge-Colorado-sex-offender-registry-12166975.php https://ijr.com/discuss/posts/964736/colorado-federal-judge-makes-head-turning-ruling-declares-sex-offender-registry-unconstitutional/ http://www.freerangekids.com/federal-judge-in-colorado-rules-that-the-sex-offender-registry-is-unconstitutional/ http://blogs.findlaw.com/tenth_circuit/2017/09/federal-court-finds-colorado-sex-offender-registry-unconstitutional.html
PA: Montco senator’s bill would remove sex offender registration requirement for custody crimes
[Bucks County Courier Times - Pennsylvania] After ____ ____ stole an SUV that was left idling in the parking lot of a Bristol Township convenience store, he quickly learned an 11-year-old passenger was in the backseat. Once the boy made his presence known, ____ pulled over and let him out before driving away, according to court records in the 2009 crime. The boy wasn’t...
CO: District Attorney Stan Garnett against Boulder limiting housing options for sexual predators
[Daily Camera Boulder News] On Tuesday night, the Boulder City Council will discuss whether it wants to draft a new policy limiting where in the city people deemed "sexually violent predators" can live. Ahead of the meeting, District Attorney Stan Garnett urged council members to resist such a policy. "When (a sexual predator) does get placed in the community, we want to know where...
Sex offender compliance operation results in 32 arrests in Sacramento County
[Sacramento Bee] A three-day operation by law enforcement agencies in Sacramento County to make sure convicted sex offenders are complying with sex offender registration requirements resulted in 32 arrests. The operation, which began Aug. 21, was carried out by the multi-agency Sacramento Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Team in conjunction with the Sacramento County Probation Department, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Parole Team, California...
Sex Offenders and Public Safety: A Four-Part Series
The public often hears news about sex offenders who commit the most serious crimes, but many of the sex offenses you don’t hear about – while disturbing – were not violent. In Virginia, for example, inappropriate touching, texting a lewd photo or using X-rated language in front of a minor can land people on Virginia’s sex offender registry. Full Article
Campaign to recall judge in Brock Turner sex assault case can resume
[San Jose Mercury News] In a victory for the campaign to oust Judge Aaron Persky, a retired San Francisco judge Monday ruled that proponents could immediately resume collecting signatures on petitions aimed at putting the recall on the June ballot. Retired San Francisco Judge Kay Tsenin is expected to make a final ruling Thursday in favor of the recall campaign on the underlying legal...
FL: Retired Officer Opposes Sex Offender Designation on New Florida Licenses
Shalimar, Florida’s WEAR ran a story on the newly designed Florida driver’s licenses. One surprising opinion about the new license came from a retired parole officer, who commented on the sex offender designation on licenses for those registered. Here’s what he had to say: “The new license turns heads in Okaloosa County; including Don Gatchell’s. He’s a retired parole officer with the state of...
CA Action Alert: Make Calls! Appropriations Committee to Consider SB 421 on Sept 1
The Assembly Appropriations Committee is scheduled to consider the Tiered Registry Bill (SB 421) on Friday, September 1. The Committee will review dozens of that bills that day and determine which bills to release from the Suspense File. Bills not released from the Suspense File will no longer be viable. Bills released from the Suspense File will sent to the Assembly floor for consideration...
Teen arrested on porn charges in Burrillville HS Dropbox case as explicit photos go global
[The Providence Journal] BURRILLVILLE, R.I. — The teenage girls may have believed that their intimate photos would stay private. However, more than 40 girls at Burrillville High School have learned the hard way that there is no privacy on the internet, after their “sexually explicit” photos and videos ended up in an online “Dropbox” site — which police say was controlled by a local...
Falsely Accused of Rape, Former High School Football Star Finally Cleared [video]
LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- After a decade, it was the judgment that Brian Banks and his lawyers from the California Innocence Project fought for: Case dismissed. Watch the video
Falsely accused of satanic horrors, a couple spent 21 years in prison. Now they’re owed millions.
[Washington Post] Long before the age of the Internet and the fleeting spasms of mass hysteria that came with it (Remember Jade Helm? Pizzagate?), and going back to the late 20th century, when irrational fears moved slower and lasted longer, there was Satan. The “satanic panic,” some call it now. It began some time in the 1980s, when newscasters and fundamentalist Christian cartoons warned...
Ex-cons should not be denied entrance into state bar associations
[The Hill, Washington D.C.] Another outstanding candidate was denied admission to the bar this past week because of an old criminal record. Reginald Dwayne Betts, an award-winning poet and memoirist and Yale Law School graduate who served time for a robbery conviction he incurred years ago as a juvenile, was denied admission to the bar of the State of Connecticut. The same week, the...
Agency Recommends Disciplinary Action Against Platte County, Missouri, Prosecutor [article and radio recording]
[KCUR 89.3 Missouri] In a rare complaint against an elected prosecutor, the Missouri agency responsible for investigating allegations of lawyer wrongdoing has recommended that Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd be punished for professional misconduct. The matter now goes before a disciplinary hearing panel – two lawyers and one non-lawyer – which will hear evidence and recommend what discipline, if any, to impose. The...
It Could Be You Registered for a Sex Crime [Radio Interview Recording]
[Sex Law and Policy Center and KABF 88.3 FM Arkansas] The reality is that it's incredibly easy to be registered for a sex crime. Lenore Skenazy of Free Range Kids discussed how your child is more likely to be victimized by the registry than by someone on the registry, at a recent conference. There is a load of truth to her claim, and it...
Call To Action: Miami-Dade Homeless Encampment [Florida Action Committee]
[Florida Action Committee] After years of posting about the growing encampment of transient sex offenders in Miami-Dade County, it has taken some recent bad media exposure for the County to do something about it. And who do they appoint to spearhead the effort to relocate them? Ron Book! The same person who caused them to be homeless in the first place! Read more...