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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Janice's Journal
General News Feed
PA: Does isolating sex offenders really work? Some experts say no
The arguments from experts who contend that residency restrictions such as those sought by Dawn Knull don’t work focus on concerns that the restrictions isolate sex offenders and make it more difficult for them to be rehabilitated. “It is a bad idea from the perspective of public safety,” said Mary Catherine Roper, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which...
AZ: U.S. judge knocks down Arizona’s child-molestation law, orders ex-teacher released
A U.S. District Court judge in Phoenix has found unconstitutional an Arizona law defining child molestation, and he ordered that a man who already has spent a decade in custody be released. In 2007, a Maricopa County jury found ____ ____guilty of five counts of molestation of a child and acquitted him of two other counts. An eighth count was dismissed by prosecutors. ____ was...
Internet Exclusion Bill (AB 558) Hearing Scheduled on April 18
The internet exclusion bill, AB 558, is scheduled to be considered by the Assembly Public Safety Committee on April 18. The committee hearing will begin at 8:30 a.m. in Room 126 and include consideration of more than 30 pending bills. "This bill must be stopped," stated ACSOL executive director Janice Bellucci. "If the bill becomes law, families will be harmed and victims will be...
Sen. Lara Pulls Tiered Registry Bill (SB 695)
Senator Ricardo Lara, the primary author of the Tiered Registry Bill (SB 695), has pulled that bill from further consideration. The bill had been scheduled to be heard by the Senate Public Safety Committee on April 18. The bill could continue if either co-author Holly Mitchell agrees to serve as the bill's sole author or a new author is identified. In order to remain...
General Comments April 2017
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of April 2017. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
UT: Audit slams Utah’s sex-offender treatment program in prison
Sex offenders in Utah often stay in prison months beyond their parole eligibility date because of a backlog of inmates awaiting treatment overseen by the Utah Department of Corrections, according to a state audit released Monday. Full Article
GA: Sex offenders require constant vigilance from law enforcement
When ____ ____ set foot in South Georgia a few years ago, he had just spent 30 years in a Detroit prison for being a serial rapist convicted 10 times over. Because Palmer committed his crimes before June 4, 2003, under Georgia law, he is allowed to settle down anywhere with no restrictions. Yes, that’s right. Anywhere. He can settle in a home next...
NCMEC Hypocrisy on “Stranger Danger”
Yesterday, Callahan Walsh of NCMEC—The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children—appeared on Good Morning America to urge parents to stop using the phrase “stranger danger”—the phrase that NCMEC itself popularized for decades. They rightly noted—finally—that most child sexual exploitation is from someone known to the child, not a stranger. Full Article Related Group that Put Missing Kids’ Pictures on Milk Cartons NOW Says,...
MN: Lawyers want high court to take Minnesota sex offenders case
Lawyers for sex offenders confined indefinitely to Minnesota's secure treatment program have asked a judge to stay all further proceedings while they ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review an appeals court finding that the program is constitutional. Full Article
AZ: Women working together to change sex offender notification process
Two North Valley women say they have their family lives and careers on hold, to fight for a safer community. Julie Read and Ann O'Brien, who live in the Norterra subdivision of the North Valley, started this mission after an old juvenile detention facility re-opened as the Maricopa Re-entry Center, a place where former inmates who were drug addicts and sex offenders would come...
Experts warn against teaching the phrase ‘stranger danger’
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is now encouraging parents to steer away from using the phrase "stranger danger," a slogan that has been taught for decades to emphasize to children the potential threat posed by strangers. Although the group moved away from “stranger danger” years ago, the phrase is so pervasive that many parents still teach it. The group renewed their...
MI: Man barred from visiting home county by court
The unusual restriction was upheld this week by a federal appeals court. When ____ ____ is released from prison this year, he can’t set foot in his home county, Baraga, while under the supervision of a probation officer. ____ was convicted of a sex crime in 2009. He has twice been returned to prison for violating conditions of supervised release. ____ admits that Baraga, a remote and...
UT: Wasatch prosecutor warns Utah senators he’s coming after them for sex-offender vote
The Utah Legislature approved a bill this past session giving judges more sentencing discretion in cases in which a defendant had consensual sex with a minor under age 14 if that defendant is under 21. The measure passed the House 42-31 and the Senate 15-11. Gov. Gary Herbert signed it into law. It changes slightly the mandatory-minimum requirement of 25 years to life and...
ND: Despite research, lawmakers OK bill keeping high-risk sex offenders from living near schools
North Dakota’s on track to have its first statewide restriction on where high-risk sex offenders can live, with lawmakers voting almost unanimously for a bill that would prohibit such offenders from residing within 500 feet of a school. House Bill 1334, which has received little media attention, quietly passed the House in February and the Senate this week. The bill has not yet been...
IL: Federal judge – City of Chicago did not violate rights of homeless sex offenders
A Chicago federal judge recently ended a lawsuit filed by two homeless sex offenders who claimed Chicago city officials violated their civil rights by not allowing them to comply with sex offender registry laws. Full Article
Senate Committee Approves SB 26
The Senate Education Committee today unanimously approved Senate Bill 26. The bill will next be heard by the Senate Public Safety Committee on April 18. The Committee made its decision despite testimony from ACLU lobbyist Natasha Minsker, civil rights attorney Nicole Pittman and ACSOL board member Roger Hunnicutt. During their testimony, the individuals expressed significant concern regarding how the bill will harm juveniles as...
TX: Bill would ban sex offenders from college dorms
Sometimes as a state representative, I come across laws that have outlived their usefulness, and at other times, glaring oversights that should have been addressed years ago. On Wednesday, in the House Committee on Higher Education, where I serve as Vice-Chair, I presented HB 355 which corrects one such glaring oversight, the prevention of registered sex offenders living in on-campus college housing. Full Article
NV: Bill would allow judge to decide on sex offender registry for Nevada youth
Nevada judges may end up deciding if juvenile sex offenders will have to register and appear in the public sex offender database. Under Assembly Bill 395 a judge would decide if a juvenile has to register while they are a minor and if they need to register as an adult after reaching age 21. Full Article
IL: Lawmakers eliminating time-frame protection for child sex offenders
Those who suffered sexual abuse and assault as children decades ago may soon be able to obtain justice by having their victimizers prosecuted. State Sen. Scott Bennett, D-Champaign, introduced Senate Bill 189 in January, which would eliminate the statute of limitations for all felony child abuse and sexual assault crimes. It already passed the Senate Criminal Law Committee, of which Bennett is a member,...
Briefing the Supreme Court: Promoting Science or Myth?
The United States Supreme Court is considering Packingham v. North Carolina, a case testing the constitutionality of a ban on the use of social networking sites by registered sex offenders. An issue that has arisen in the case is the state’s justification for the ban. North Carolina and thirteen other states represented in a friend of the court brief make three claims concerning the...