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
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...
Psychologist sues California prisons over anti-LGBT harassment
[Forensic Psychologist] Prisons are not known as bastions of healing energy. One of the challenges faced by prison clinicians in the violent and hypermasculine culture of prison is how to uphold their professional ethics when they witness abuse of prisoners by staff. Psychologists may feel internally conflicted, but they rarely file formal complaints that might jeopardize their careers or even their personal safety. So...
Parents protest changes to sex offender residency restrictions
TWENTYNINE PALMS — The City Council on Tuesday deferred a vote repealing local restrictions on where sex offenders can live and opted instead to hold a public hearing and return to the matter at a future date to be announced. Full Article
WI: Sex offender sentenced to forfeit property to county
A convicted sex offender's home has been sold and the Rock County Sheriff's office is getting the money from it. Full Article
A Full House Sees Twentynine Palms Council Postpone Sex Offender Restriction Vote
The Twentynine Palms City Council couldn’t stomach what it had to do. So, last night, instead of repealing local restrictions on where sex offenders can live, the Council deferred the matter until its next meeting when a public hearing will be held. Full Article Muni Code Staff Report
SB 421 Update
The Appropriations Committee placed SB 421 in its Suspense File. The bill must be released from that file before it can be considered on the floor of the Assembly. The deadline for floor consideration is Sept. 15. If the bill does not get released from the Suspense File in time for consideration on the Assembly floor, it is dead. -- Janice Bellucci
OH: House bill to require mandatory prison for child sex offenders
Law enforcement sees so many of those convicted of soliciting minors for sex on just probation, able to re-offend as soon as they're released. Victims of child sex abuse say the lack of proper penalties for offenders can be just as traumatic as the original abuse. Lawmakers are looking to put mandatory sentences in place to make sure this doesn't happen to children in the...
End Juvenile Sex-Offender Registration: It’s Ineffective and Based on Rare Cases
U.S. sex-offender registration laws for both adults and juveniles have largely been knee-jerk reactions to horrific incidents of child abductions that ended in sexual abuse and murder or near-deaths. Captured by images of innocent children and moved by national news stories of sexual offenses committed by strangers, the public responded with grassroots efforts demanding that “something be done” to prevent the victimization of more...
FL: Sex Offenders Sent To Homeless Encampment Told To Find Housing, But Where?
The Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust is trying to shut down an encampment of sex offenders on the edge of Miami and Hialeah. Full Article Related FL: Tent camp of homeless sex offenders near Hialeah ‘has got to close,’ county says
Under legal threat, Victorville to repeal sex offender residency rules
[Victorville Daily Press] With threat of a lawsuit hanging over its head, the city will repeal local residency restrictions for registered sex offenders and defer to existing state regulations. The move is not unexpected. Cities across California have been forced to bow to pressure from sex offender law reformists in recent years, while courts have simultaneously limited local regulatory authority. In December 2014, the...
FL: Tent camp of homeless sex offenders near Hialeah ‘has got to close,’ county says
Seven years after Miami-Dade County shut down a camp housing about 100 homeless sex offenders under a bridge in Miami, it’s now trying to deal with an encampment on the outskirts of Hialeah that has almost three times as many residents registered to live there. Full Article
UT: How plea deals are uniquely negotiated for sex offenders
Dressed in an ill-fitting jumpsuit and with hands in chains, ____ ____ stood on July 7 before Judge Darold McDade to be sentenced for his crimes. In late May, ____, 25, pleaded guilty to multiple felony charges: two first-degree felonies of attempted aggravated sexual abuse of a child, one second-degree felony of enticing a minor by the internet, and one third-degree felony of dealing...
PA: Megan’s Law list might get smaller
The number of sex offenders on the state’s Megan’s Law sex offender registry could drop as the result of a July ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, three Valley district attorneys and the Pennsylvania State Police say. Full Article
LA: Registered sex offender’s murder being investigated as hate crime
An elderly man from Many was killed this morning after being shot in the chest. According to the Sabine Parish Coroner's Office, sheriff's deputies arrived in the 1300 block of Matthews Lodge Road -- off of LA Hwy. 6 -- after an alarm tech found the man in the doorway of a home. The victim, identified as 72-year-old _____ _____, was located lying face-up on...
CA Action Alert: Support SB 421 – Call Assy Approp. Committee
The CA Assembly Appropriations Committee will be hearing the Tiered Registry bill--Senate Bill 421--on August 23. For many reasons, ACSOL is not planning on attending this hearing and we do not recommend you attend either. However, all registrants and supporters should call ALL the Assembly Appropriations Committee members at their Sacramento office. Here is a link to the members and their phone numbers: http://apro.assembly.ca.gov/membersstaff...
Taping began today! A Women Against Registry and Metamora Films Project
www.womenagainstregistry.org A message from the Women Against Registry (WAR) National Directors: W.A.R. is Becoming a Major Player For those of you who might not be aware, Women Against Registry is taking part in the 4th International Conference on Hate Studies in October, 2017. The conference, sponsored by Gonzaga University, will be held on the school’s campus in Spokane, WA. WAR’s participation, following on...
Metro officer who pleaded guilty to child porn presumably commits suicide
[KVVU-TV Las Vegas] A Metro police officer who pleaded guilty to child pornography charges earlier this year has died at the age of 25, one day before he was supposed to answer for his crimes. Investigators said Officer Ruben Delgadillo was using software to share one of the largest stashes of child pornography in Nevada. He was 24 years old when he was arrested last...