[amp.miamiherald.com 5/10/18] A Miami-Dade judge on Thursday cleared the way for the county to dismantle a tent village of homeless sex offenders outside Hialeah, and a lawyer for some of the residents said the ruling leaves them no choice but to live on a roadside or street somewhere else. “They’ll most likely be relocating to another street corner,” Legal Services lawyer Jeffrey Hearne said after the hearing before Judge Pedro Echarte Jr. in Circuit Court. “New encampments will pop up. And this cycle will continue.” Kendall residents have already been…
Read MoreTag: Florida
FL: Jeanne Baker Debates Ron Book on CBS4 News
[floridaactioncommittee.org 5/8/18] Watch as Jeanne Baker shuts down a lying and very angry Ron Book on South Florida’s CBS Affiliate. Watch the debate Related links: Floridians for Freedom presents: Ron and Lauren Book EXPOSED! [ronandlaurenbook.blogspot.com 5/8/18] FAC Letter to Miami-Dade County [floridaactioncommittee.org 5/9/18] FDLE Memo to Law Enforcement Advising of Legislative Changes [floridaactioncommittee.org 5/9/18]
Read MoreFL: Hearing to take place this Thursday in Miami-Dade case
[floridaactioncommittee.org 5/8/18] A special-set hearing has been scheduled for this Thursday, May 10, 2018 at 10:15 on Plaintiff’s Emergency Motion for Temporary Injunction. Attorneys for the plaintiffs, homeless registrants, are seeking a stay of the County-imposed deadline to leave the encampment or be arrested. With nowhere else to go, if the Plaintiffs leave the encampment they would be arrested for violating the residency restriction. Read more Related links: Floridians for Freedom presents: Ron and Lauren Book EXPOSED! [ronandlaurenbook.blogspot.com 5/8/18] FAC Letter to Miami-Dade County [floridaactioncommittee.org 5/9/18] FDLE Memo to Law…
Read MoreFL: ACLU Sues to Stop Miami Homeless Sex-Offender Camp Evictions
[miaminewtimes.com 5/8/18] In 2007, New Times broke national news with a story about how a group of sex-offenders was forced to live in tents underneath the Julia Tuttle Causeway because of restrictive laws barring them from living within thousands of feet of schools or playgrounds. Their case became a focal point in efforts to reform the nation’s laws governing sex criminals. After a local outcry, the Tuttle colony was uprooted — but soon rematerialized near Hialeah, once again sparking national debate. After New Times wrote about the new encampment last…
Read MoreFL: Miami-Dade Sued Over Sex Offender Eviction
[floridaactioncommittee.org 5/7/18] A Lawsuit and Emergency Motion for Temporary Injunction were filed against Miami-Dade County on behalf of registered sex offenders legislated into homelessness and directed to live at an encampment on a street corner alongside active railroad tracks in a warehouse district in unincorporated Miami-Dade County. This is the fourth such encampment created by the County, after sex offender residency restrictions exclude registrants from living in most of the County. In an effort to shut this one down, the County recently amended their “overnight camping ordinance” to allow police…
Read MoreFL: Residents Of Homeless Sex Offender Camp Ordered Out Given Extension
[floridaactioncommittee.org 5/7/18] MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Residents of a homeless sex offender camp near Hialeah who have been ordered to leave have been given an extension. Originally, they were supposed to be gone from their roadside refuge near NW 36th Avenue and 71st Street by sunrise Monday. Now they have until Thursday, May 10th, to pack up and go. Monday morning, Miami-Dade police showed up the area but said they were not there for enforcement. Read more Related links: Officials give final notice to homeless sex offenders living in encampment [local10.com…
Read MoreFL: Walls closing in on Miami-Dade homeless sex offender issue
[floridaactioncommittee.org 5/7/19] I guess someone didn’t let Ron Book’s “Homeless Trust” know about the reprieve, because according to Local10 news, “workers from Miami-Dade’s Homeless Trust arrived Sunday night with police to give the offenders their eighth and final warning.” In fact, the Deputy Mayor had given assurance to Attorney Jeffrey Hearne from Legal Services of Greater Miami, who had prepared to file an immediate legal challenge to the (now 4th) forced eviction of sex offenders, that enforcement action would not begin until AFTER the 10th, which gives the County some…
Read MoreFL: Man accused of trying to kill sex offenders in Kissimmee
[UPDATED LINKS 5/7/18] [wesh.com 5/4/18] OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — Police said a man was locked up after he was accused of trying to kill sex offenders. Officers said he tried to set the men on fire. Jorge Porto-Sierra has been formally charged with four counts of attempted premeditated murder. Osceola County detectives said the 50-year-old confessed to deputies he tried to kill multiple people at the Friendly Village Inn on Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway. After his March 7 arrest, Porto-Sierra said he arrived at the motel to “barbecue all the…
Read MoreFL: Under threat of lawsuit, Miami-Dade grants reprieve to eviction of sex offenders
[floridaactioncommittee.org 5/4/18] Facing an imminent lawsuit to be brought by Legal Services of Greater Miami on behalf of the homeless sex offenders living alongside railroad tracks in Miami-Dade, the Deputy Mayor has granted a temporary reprieve to the forced eviction scheduled for Sunday, May 6, 2018. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, had sent a memo on March 21st, announcing plans to shut down the encampment of sex offenders living outdoors, legislated into homelessness by the County’s 2500 foot exclusion zone. Included in that plan was a deadline of May 6th for…
Read MoreFL: Miami-Dade Will Close Sex Offender Camp by May 6, Threatens Jail Time for Stragglers
Since 2014, a colony of homeless sex offenders has been rapidly growing by the railroad tracks near Hialeah. Nobody wants them there, including the dozens who call the ramshackle camp home. Everyone, from the Homeless Trust to the ACLU to the county commission, agrees the encampment is a public health and safety hazard. But for years, the sex offenders have said that restrictive county laws mean they have nowhere else to legally live and that county officials have failed to solve the problem. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Video Shows City Workers Destroying Property of Homeless Miamians
[miaminewtimes.com 4/25/18] The morning of April 17, Wilbur Cauley left all of his belongings in their usual place: stacked by a fence under the I-395 overpass at NW First Court and 13th Street. It was in the middle of a four-block area where about 30 homeless Miamians live. That morning, Cauley, an Army veteran in his late 50s who served three years in Germany, went to a nearby store for a soda. When he returned, he says, a man in a dark-green shirt was kicking bags that contained Cauley’s birth…
Read MoreFL: At schools, sexual predator monitoring should start inside the classroom
[floridaactioncommittee.org 4/24/18] Within the past three weeks two teachers from Lake Howell High School were arrested, as usual this was picked up in the news cycle. What stands out to me is how the news reports these arrests, it is reported as just a matter of fact simply to state that it happened. Every October almost every news station has a segment on Halloween and how parents must check the SOR to make sure their kids are safe during trick or treating. Lets put this in perspective for a moment,…
Read MoreFL: As Deadline Approaches for Homeless Ex-Offenders, County Threatens to Jail Them
A few miles from Miami International Airport, outside of Hialeah, sits a tent camp of about 280 homeless people. There’s no electricity or running water and no bathrooms. News reports describe the stench of human waste and garbage, tents that flood when it rains, and flies, mosquitoes, and rats infesting the area. “Animals live better than this,” one resident told a reporter. He and the others there are on the state sex offender registry. Miami-Dade County laws make it almost impossible for them to find places to live and bar…
Read MoreFL: Florida registry gets a new look
[floridaactioncommittee.org] The FDLE sex offender database has gotten a new look. The homepage of its sex offender search has a nautical feel, with a lighthouse logo and a ship-wheel icon. Aside from the design change, the ability to search by status (absconded, deceased, deported, etc.) appears to be gone from the new search query, though the results still appear. Another notable change is that vehicle and vessel information is no longer on a separate page, but appears below the registrant listing. The vehicle information, which is supplied by the DMV…
Read MoreFL: Jackson County Proposes 2500 feet Sex Offender Residency Restriction
[floridaactioncommittee.org] Jackson County, Florida is considering enacting a Sex Offender Residency Restriction (SORR). According to this article, the county currently has a 1000 foot ordinance, which they are looking to increase to 2500 feet. “Our whole goal is not to punish anyone, it’s just to make our community safer,” Jackson County Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Quinton Hollis said. In fact, studies have shown that residency restrictions DO NOT make the communities safer and may even increase recidivism by destabilizing former offenders. SORRs were just declared to be punitive in the City…
Read MoreFL: Ft. Lauderdale, Florida Sex Offender Residency Restriction Declared Unconstitutional
[floridaactioncommittee.org] The Ft Lauderdale Sex Offender Residency Restriction was declared unconstitutional. Wait… what?!?! A Florida SORR was declared unconstitutional? YES! The municipal ordinance in the City of Ft. Lauderdale that prohibited registered sex offenders from living within 1400 feet of schools, parks, playgrounds, school bus stops, etc. was found to violate the Ex Post Facto Clause of the Constitution! Hold on… what? Are you serious? YES! We’ve known for a while (since February 16th) but have been waiting to make the official announcement until we had an order back from…
Read MoreFL: Gov. Rick Scott Signs Two Sex Offender Bills Into Law
[UPDATED LINKS 3/26/18] [flsenate.gov, spacecoastdaily.com] As reported on spacecoastdaily.com State website links: https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2018/01301 CS/HB 1301: Sexual Offenders and Predators. GENERAL BILL by Justice Appropriations Subcommittee ; Fitzenhagen ; (CO-INTRODUCERS) Hager ; Spano Sexual Offenders and Predators; Reducing aggregate & consecutive number of days used to determine residency for purposes of sexual predator or sexual offender registration; provides for mandatory sentence of community control with electronic monitoring for certain offenses committed by sexual predators & sexual offenders if court does not impose prison sentence. Related links for CS/HB 1301: Governor Scott…
Read MoreFL: Orange Beach homicide victim identified as registered sex offender
[weartv.com] The Orange Beach Police Department has identified a homicide victim as a registered sex offender. Police said 53-year-old Raymond Curtis Dudley has been identified as the body found Thursday near Cypress Street and Wolf Bay. Investigators say Dudley is originally from Massachusetts and a registered sex offender. Police are asking anyone who may have been in contact with Dudley on March 21 to contact them at (251) 981-9777. See original article
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