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
FL: CALL TO ACTION: Brevard County Commission Meeting
Source: floridaactioncommittee.org 7/27/22 The agenda for the forthcoming Brevard County Commission meeting has been posted and they WILL be discussing the amendment to their sexual offender/sexual predator ordinance. We are calling upon members to appear at the Commission meeting to speak against the ordinance and show support for the other members who will speak against it. The meeting will take place on August 2,...
House overwhelmingly passes Smith’s newest legislation to combat human trafficking
Source: insidernj.com 7/26/22 WASHINGTON—Ahead of this Saturday’s World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, the House of Representatives today overwhelmingly passed critical anti-trafficking legislation—the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2022—authored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) together with Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) in a strong bipartisan vote of 401-20. ... “Today’s legislation will also reauthorize the amazing work being done by...
ACSOL August 20, 2022 Meeting
Please join ACSOL Executive Director and civil rights attorney Janice Bellucci as well as ACSOL President and criminal defense attorney Chance Oberstein for our next meeting. The meeting will be held on Saturday, August 20, on Zoom beginning at 10 a.m. Pacific time, 1:00 PM Eastern, and will last at least two hours. You can use the Zoom app or call in using a...
TN: Former Rutherford County Sheriff’s colonel charged with sex offender registry violation
Source: dnj.com 7/22/22 A former Rutherford County Sheriff's Department colonel has been charged with a felony for sexual offender registration form violation. Edward "Eddie" T. ___, 63, of Murfreesboro, was taken into custody Thursday by Murfreesboro Police Department officers and U.S. Marshals. Eddie, who was fired from RCSO in 2005, was booked into the Rutherford County Detention Center Thursday and released on a $5,000 bond....
AL: Sheriff’s Office: Convicted sex offender arrested for SORNA violations
Source: whnt.com 7/22/ LIMESTONE COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) — A convicted sex offender was arrested this week after selling his home and leaving the state, according to the Limestone County Sheriff’s Office. Officials say an investigator with the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office was alerted on June 23 that Leonard, 70, of Lester, was in violation of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). According...
Dominica: Government to consider sex offenders registry and increase in the age of consent says Blackmoore
Source: dominicanewsonline.com 7/22/22 Minister of National Security and Home Affairs, Rayburn Blackmoore, says that the Government of Dominica is open to the idea of introducing a sex offenders registry and reviewing the age of consent on island, with a view to increasing it. His comments came at a press conference this week, which sought to educate the public on Dominica’s sexual offences act of...
WA: Conservative Christian pastor arrested for child rape after allegedly grooming underage girl
Source: msn.com 7/22/22 A 27-year-old right-wing youth pastor from Arlington, Washington has been charged with two counts of third-degree child rape for allegedly sexually abusing a girl who at the time was just 15 years old. The Everett Herald reports that prosecutors are alleging that Kendal ____ met a 15-year-old girl at a youth group in 2017, when Kendal was at the time 22 years old. The two...
PA: Ex-Police Chief Sentenced to Prison for Sex Crimes
Source: attorneygeneral.gov 7/18/22 HARRISBURG–Attorney General Josh Shapiro today announced that former Weissport Chief of Police Brent Getz, of Lehighton, Pa., was sentenced to Brent Getz was sentenced today to 16-32 years in prison followed by three years consecutive probation for the repeated rape of a child and will be required to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life under SORNA....
FL: The County Where Businesses Can Self-Identify As Parks in Order to Keep Sex Offenders Away
Source: reason.com/ 7/19/22 In 2020, an ordinance in Brevard County, Florida, permitted a business to certify itself as a place where children congregate—the moral equivalent of a park—thereby making it a crime for anyone on the sex offense registry to venture inside, or loiter nearby. The idea, apparently, was to make kids even safer from danger. But, "proximity" laws prohibiting sex offenders from public...
At least 181 K-12 educators charged with child sex crimes in first half of 2022
Source: foxnews.com 7/20/22 140 of the arrests, or 77%, involved alleged sex crimes against students At least 181 K-12 educators, including four principals, were arrested on child sex-related crimes in the U.S. in the first six months of 2022, ranging from child pornography to raping students. An analysis conducted by Fox News Digital looked at local news stories week by week featuring arrests of...
ACSOL Withdraws Support from Vigil
The board of directors for the Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) has decided to withdraw its support from the vigil planned for Washington, D.C., in March 2023. The decision is based upon a belief held by a majority of board members that it is no longer safe to conduct the vigil given the highly polarized environment in the nation's capitol. The ACSOL...
For People Just Leaving Prison, a Novel Kind of Support: Cash
Source: news.yahoo.com 7/9/22 Alwin Jacob Smith became a free man last summer after being locked up for 21 years because of what he calls “my little old rocky past” — most notably, robbery and drug possession. He worked hard while incarcerated, getting an associate degree in ministry, attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and substance abuse support groups, and eventually leading those groups as a peer...
LGBTQ People on Sex Offender Registries in the US (Paper)
Source: UCLA in escholarship.org 5/2022 The United States has the world’s largest prison population. Overall, mass incarceration disproportionately impacts people of color, people with disabilities, and the LGBTQ community. LGBTQ people are at increased risk for being targeted for sex crimes, as historical prejudice and stigma have depicted LGBTQ people—especially gay/bisexual men—as sexual predators. Despite this, little is known about LGBTQ people on sex...
This Doctor Helped Send Ramiro Gonzales to Death Row. Now He’s Changed His Mind.
Last September, a psychiatrist named Edward Gripon traveled to Texas’ death row to meet a man he helped put there. He had testified at the 2006 trial of Ramiro Gonzales, who was facing a death sentence for kidnapping, raping and killing Bridget Townsend when they both were 18 years old. “This is a man who has demonstrated a tendency to want to control, to...
SC: Sex offenders begin applying to get off South Carolina registry
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WBTW) — Sex offenders have begun petitioning the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division to be removed from the state sex offender registry, according to a spokesperson with the department. Offenders are now able to apply to be removed from the registry after legislation signed by Gov. Henry McMaster in late May set up parameters to do so. The bill was in response to a South...
NC: What is Dads Against Predators? What to know about group tied to alleged attack at NC Target
Source: charlotteobserver.com 7/6/22 An incident that police say led to a gun being fired in a North Carolina Target store has raised questions about the group “Dads Against Predators,” its history and its presence in the state. Three men with ties to the organization lured a 25-year-old man to a Winston-Salem Target in late June and attacked him, according to police, leading the man...
Why the U.S. Marshals Spend Millions on Sex-Offense Registrant Sweeps
Source: theappeal.org 7/8/22 The real aim of these operations might be to boost support for cops. Gary, a 62-year-old on Texas’s sex-offender registry, dates the problems with his neighbors to a visit by police in 2018. After a successful real estate career he lives in a relatively safe neighborhood outside Dallas, identifies as a conservative, and has friends on the police force. He’s donated...
WI: Wisconsin court rules against transgender sex offender
Source: wgno.com 7/7/22 MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled Thursday that a transgender woman cannot change her name because she is on the state’s sex offender registry and the law does not allow people on the registry to change their names. The court’s 4-3 decision upholds the rulings of two lower courts, which rejected the woman’s requests to change...
CA: Nicki Minaj’s husband Kenneth Petty on probation, house arrest for not registering as sex offender
Source: yahoo.com 7/6/22 Kenneth Petty, husband to rapper Nicki Minaj, has been sentenced to probation and house arrest for failing to register as a sex offender, NBC and CBS Los Angeles report. Petty is also ordered to pay a $55,000 fine, in addition to spending three years on probation and a year in home detention, according to the local news outlets. “We appreciate and respect the...
TN: Asset forfeiture laws expanded for sexual assault and kidnapping
Source: wkrn.com 7/5/22 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A new state law has expanded criminal asset forfeiture for 12 statutes, mostly surrounding rape and kidnapping. It’s one of the first laws of its kind in the United States. The new law means criminals who violate those laws could lose their homes, cars, weapons, and any property involved in the commission of the crime. State Representative...