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
ND: Monitoring sex offenders effective
Tory Jacobson was a detective sergeant with the Moorhead Police Department in 2003 when he came up with an idea about how to keep better track of registered sex offenders. The law at the time required people convicted of certain crimes to keep law enforcement agencies informed of their whereabouts. The burden was and still remains on the offender to remain compliant, or face...
Two Federal Courts Call BS on Banning Sex Offenders From ‘Child Safety Zones’
A couple of years ago, ____ ____, a registered sex offender who lives in Hartford City, Indiana, received a citation for sitting in his brother's car. The car was parked outside his brother's house, which happens to be across the street from a school. By sitting in it, ____ violated a local ordinance prohibiting anyone convicted of a sex offense involving a minor from...
IN: Hartford City sex offender ordinance unconstitutionally vague
A 2008 Hartford City ordinance that restricted registered sex offenders from entering or loitering within 300 feet of broadly defined “child safety zones” is unconstitutionally vague, a federal judge has ruled. Full Article Court Opinion
NC: Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Absurdly Repressive North Carolina Sex Offender Law
North Carolina’s efforts to drive sex offenders out of public life hit another roadblock on Wednesday when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit held that two key provisions of a repressive sex offender law violate the Constitution. The ruling marks the second time this year that a federal appeals court has issued a harsh rebuke to a state for enacting outrageous...
MN: Should Fewer People be Listed in Minnesota’s Sex Offender Registry?
Minnesota’s sentencing practices for sexual offenders is coming into question by several groups, each taking up different issues with the status quo. As Alpha News reported the national pro-child, anti-crime group PROTECT is calling for tougher sentences in child pornography cases in Minnesota. The organization released a report titled “Children Betrayed.” It calls Minnesota’s sentencing practices “shocking and dramatically out of step with national...
Registrant Entrepreneurs Create, Sell Holiday Cards
Registrant entrepreneurs have organized to create and sell holiday cards which are available in a variety of sizes. Each of the 12 cards has a different sports theme ranging from golf to NASCAR racing. The cards can be purchased online at www.crazysantacards.com. The proceeds of all sales will benefit registrants and their families. "The holiday cards are beautifully illustrated and contain witty messages," stated ACSOL president Janice...
Janice’s Journal: The Many Wonders of a 4th Circuit Decision
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals rendered an important decision yesterday, Does v. Cooper, that is full of many wonders. We can only hope that this wonder-full decision will serve as a guiding light for additional federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, in the future. The greatest wonder of the 4th Circuit’s decision was the Court’s insistence that state laws which prohibited some,...
Federal judges challenge collateral consequences
Federal judges have begun speaking out about the burdens imposed by severe collateral consequences and the limited ability of courts to mitigate the resulting harm. This is particularly true in the Eastern District of New York, where some judges have openly lamented the lack of statutory federal expungement authority and have used their opinions and orders to call upon the legislature to ensure that...
Kentucky, Indiana among states not meeting federal sex offender registry mandates
Neither Kentucky, Indiana nor Illinois are among the 18 states in the nation meeting federal guidelines for sex offender registering and notification. In its most basic form, registering as a sex offender means providing certain information, including physical description, fingerprints, a DNA sample, social security number and Internet communication identities to the authorities in the area where the person is going to live, work or go...
OH: Proposal would lessen penalties for some sex offenders
Having sex with his now wife and the mother of his three children when she was a 14-year-old high school freshman earned ____ ____ a label he’s found impossible to shake: Tier II sex offender. Now ____ , and countless others throughout Ohio, may get a break. Proposed changes to Ohio’s sex offender registry would give judges more discretion on what conditions are placed on...
WA: Former Mesa mayor posts 21,000 sex offender names after long legal battle
This fall, Donna Zink posted a spreadsheet with the names of 21,000 registered sex offenders in Washington, two-thirds of whom had not been previously identified on public registries. Zink spent three years battling in court to release the information under Washington’s Public Records Act, during which she was frequently vilified as a would-be vigilante. To date, the Mesa-based public records advocate has received just...
UT: Sex offender doesn’t have to reveal sexual history, Utah Supreme Court rules
SALT LAKE CITY — A convicted sex offender does not have to reveal his complete sexual history as a condition of his parole, the Utah Supreme Court has ruled. Full Article
NY: SORA – The human cost of junk science
Of the nearly 40,000 persons on New York’s sex offender registry, 9,679 are displayed on its public website as Level 3, a warning that he or she presents the maximum risk of committing a sex crime of maximum seriousness. 14,087 persons are displayed as Level 2, meaning they’re moderately likely to commit a moderately serious sex crime. With so many Frankensteins at large, it’s...
Sex offender registries discourage rehabilitation (Opinion)
Ten years ago, ____ ____ shared a bottle of vodka and played video games with a fourteen-year-old girl in his basement. The two engaged in sexual activity. When her father's concern for her whereabouts led him to the home, she told him and the police she had no memory of the incident. ____ was sixteen. He was sentenced to five years, most suspended, and put on...
AL: Fire breaks out at home of sex offender who is feuding with neighbors
An investigation is underway after a Thanksgiving morning fire damaged the home of a convicted sex offender who has been in a running feud with his neighbors. Full Article Related AL: Sex offender billboard raised in ‘Hatfield and McCoy’ neighborhood feud
OH: Greene Co. family welcomes proposed changes to sex offender registry
A proposed change to the sex offender registry in Ohio has one family in Greene County hoping lawmakers will listen to their story when considering the change. News Center 7’s Natalie Jovonovich talked with ____ and ____ ____, a couple who first met as teenagers in a Clark County high school. ____ was a 14-year-old freshman, and ____ was a 19-year-old senior who met through...
DC: Fake News Onslaught Targets Pizzeria as Nest of Child-Trafficking
WASHINGTON — Days before the presidential election, James Alefantis, owner of a local pizza restaurant called Comet Ping Pong, noticed an unusual spike in the number of his Instagram followers. Within hours, menacing messages like “we’re on to you” began appearing in his Instagram feed. In the ensuing days, hundreds of death threats — one read “I will kill you personally” — started arriving...
FL: Dying, Wheelchair-Bound Sex Offender Must Leave Hospice Care Because There’s a Preschool Nearby
In Florida, a wheelchair-bound man with end-stage Alzheimer's must move out of the hospice where he's dying, because he is a registered sex offender and the hospice is too close to a preschool. Phew! That will certainly make the kids a lot safer. Full Article
Registered Sex Offender Barred from Child’s Campus Sues School District
A parent and registered sex offender is suing the Grossmont Union School District because he says he is not allowed on campus to take part in his child's education. The father told the district he is a registered sex offender, but the district would not give him the written permission he needs to go on campus, denying him what he and his lawyer, Janice Bellucci, say...
CA DOJ Makes Significant Changes to Megan’s Law Website
The California Department of Justice (CA DOJ) recently made significant changes to the state's Megan's Law website, including the addition of conviction and release dates on the profiles of about 50,000 registrants. The state agency agreed to add the dates as the result of a lawsuit filed in November 2015 and settled in August 2016. "The recent addition of conviction and release dates is...