[mypanhandle.com – 1/29/19] JACKSON COUNTY, Fla. – On Monday, Rocky Ali Beamon was sentenced to death in Jackson County, Florida, for First Degree Premeditated Murder. The conviction and sentence come from the 2012 murder of Bruce Hunsicker at the Apalachee Correctional Institution in Sneads, Florida. Reports said Beamon and Hunsicker were both inmates at the prison, and subsequent confessions by Beamon revealed that the motive for the murder was primarily Hunsicker’s status as a sex offender. Reports also said that Hunsicker also owed Beamon money. After watching the victim for…
Read MoreTag: Florida
Florida State Senator Lauren Book introduced Senate Bill 540 that includes the establishment of a “Soliciting for Prostitution Registry”
[flsenate.gov – 1/25/19] SB 540: Human Trafficking GENERAL BILL by Book Human Trafficking; Requiring the owner or operator of a public lodging establishment to train certain employees and create certain policies relating to human trafficking by a specified date; requiring the Department of Children and Families, in consultation with the Department of Law Enforcement and the Attorney General, to establish a certain direct-support organization; requiring that the criminal history record of a person who is convicted of, or enters a plea of guilty or nolo contendere to, soliciting, inducing, enticing,…
Read MoreFL: Women Against Registry Call to Action – Video visits replacing in-person visits.
Seminole County Jail inmates can no longer handle letters or pictures mailed by family and friends as a new system requires those incarcerated to view digital copies of their messages. Under an agreement between the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office and Smart Communications Holding Inc., a Tampa-based company, the jail also plans to replace all in-person visits at the jail with a video-visitation system. SEE: https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-ne-seminole-county-jail-mail-20190111-story.html?fbclid=IwAR3YhVlYIZa2oPyeq6XJzEep-Z7F44kPdZrbhkocnQxM0UyQWjwPEZrJI5o If you are in Seminole County please call your state senator and representative to express your concern about the rights of the families who have…
Read MoreFL: Miami-Herald: FAC Opinion Published
[floridaactioncommittee.org – 1/4/19. Not available on miamiherald.com] An opinion piece in response to a recent article in the Miami Herald was published today. The text of the response and an image of the article as it appeared are below. Your December 31, 2018 article, “Report: Number of sex offenders living in Florida is growing.” correctly points out that the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) does not include any explanation for the rise in the number of sex offenders in our State. However, the reason is obvious.…
Read MoreFL: Report: Number of sex offenders living in Florida is growing
[miamiherald.com – 12/31/18] TALLAHASSEE, Fla. The number of sex offenders and predators living in Florida has been rising steadily for more than a decade, according to a new report put together by legislative auditors. The report issued late last week stated that nearly 29,000 registered sex offenders and predators now reside in the state. That’s an increase of 53 percent since 2005, when state legislators first ordered their auditors to review the state’s efforts to keep an up-to-date registry of sex offenders. The report by the Office of Program Policy…
Read MoreRonald L. Book: I thought sexual abuse only happened to other people’s children. Then I woke up.
[usatoday.com – 12/10/18] Nearly 17 years ago, I woke up from a nightmare I didn’t realize I was in. If you’re a parent whose child has suffered sexual abuse at the hands of someone you know and trust, you will understand what I mean. Sitting in a family counselor’s office, the world as I knew it came crashing down as I learned that my eldest daughter, Lauren, had been sexually, emotionally and physically abused nearly every day from the ages of 12 to 16. I worked hard to provide my…
Read MoreFL: Over 1 Million Felons Win Right To Vote With Amendment 4
In a key ballot initiative, Florida will restore voting rights to citizens convicted of certain felonies after they have served their sentences, including prison terms, parole and probationary periods, AP has projected. Voting rights will not be restored to those convicted of murder or felony sexual offenses. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Ex Post Facto Lawsuit Filed (FAC)
A lawsuit was filed in Federal Court challenging the Florida Sex Offender registry. The suit is a facial challenge, filed on behalf of persons required to register in the State of Florida. It argues that the registry violates the Ex Post Facto clause of the constitution, constitutes Cruel and Unusual Punishment, violates Procedural Due Process, violates Substantive Due Process, is unconstitutionally Vague, has no rational relationship to its purpose and asks the Court to permanently restrain and enjoin the FDLE from enforcing the registration statute. More from Florida Action Committee
Read MoreFL: Banished
[themarshallproject.org – 10/3/18] The sun has barely risen over Miami, and Dale Brown loads an orange shopping cart with everything he owns. Through the morning’s swampy heat, he pushes the cart to the edge of the railroad tracks, where he hauls the items one at a time into some overgrowth and covers them with branches. His tent from Wal-Mart, meticulously rolled and packed. A garbage bag with clothes and a blanket. He unscrews the lid to a plastic gallon jug and empties his urine into the brush. “You feel like…
Read MoreFL: What Would Dr. King Do? The Case Against Amendment 4 on Felon Voting Rights
[floridaactioncommittee.org – 9/21/18] Florida leads the nation with over 1 million citizens disenfranchised and unable to vote due to felony convictions. The path to having their voting rights restored is long and difficult, and has been found unconstitutional by a federal judge. This November, Floridians who are able to vote will determine whether convicted felons who have completed their sentences, including parole or probation, will automatically have their voting rights restored. With two glaring exceptions: those convicted of murder or a sex offense. The problem with Amendment 4 is that…
Read MoreFL: The Last Victim: One man caught in the day-care hysteria decades ago still seeks justice
[nationalreview.com – 8/23/18] On January 23, 2014, the Florida Parole Commission sent Frank Fuster a letter informing him that, owing to a recent policy change, it had determined that his initial interview was scheduled for March 2134. No, that isn’t a misprint. His first parole hearing is scheduled in 120 years. And this for a crime that, by any fair reading of the evidence, not only did Fuster not commit but never even happened. Thirty-three years ago, Fuster, along with his young wife, Ileana, was convicted of sexually abusing children…
Read MoreFL: Pinellas County man jailed for registry violation assaulted and on feeding tube
[wdtn.com – 7/9/18] PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – An inmate suspected of killing a pregnant mother in Clearwater last year is accused of beating another inmate so badly, the man now relies on a feeding tube and is unable to speak, deputies said. According to an affidavit, Charles Groucho Allen and James Sutcliff Mills were housed in the same pod at the Pinellas County Jail on June 17. Officers said the two men started arguing over a remote control and things quickly escalated. Allen punched Mills in the face, causing…
Read MoreFL: Face Scans for International Travelers at Florida Airport
[voanews.com – 6/21/18] ORLANDO, FLA. — Florida’s busiest airport is becoming the first in the nation to require a face scan of passengers on all arriving and departing international flights, including U.S. citizens, according to officials there. The expected announcement Thursday at Orlando International Airport alarms some privacy advocates who say there are no formal rules in place for handling data gleaned from the scans, nor formal guidelines on what should happen if a passenger is wrongly prevented from boarding. Airports in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, New…
Read MoreFL: Florida Court Decisions from Last Week
[floridaactioncommittee.org – 6/12/18] Last week the Florida Supreme Court rendered an opinion in Levandoski v. State a case that resolved the conflict between the 1st and 4th District Court of Appeals over whether ‘sex offender probation’ conditions had to be disclosed to the defendant at sentencing. The Supreme Court upheld the 4th DCA’s opinion that, “the court’s oral pronouncement that Levandoski would be subject to ‘sex offender probation’ was sufficient to impose each of the components contained in section 948.30″. In other words, telling the defendant that he would be…
Read MoreFL: Duval County rolls out drivers license restoration program
[floridapolitics.com – 5/30/18] Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams and State Attorney Melissa Nelson on Wednesday rolled out the ‘KEYS 2 Drive’ (Knowledge Empowers Your Success) diversion program. The program will help those facing primary charges of driving without valid licenses, or suspended or revoked licenses, to get valid drivers’ licenses. … Sex offenders are ineligible for the program, … Read the whole article
Read MoreFL: A decree bars police from harassing homeless people. Miami has moved to terminate it
[miamiherald.com – 5/30/18] Miami has asked a federal judge to terminate a 20-year-old legal agreement that protects the city’s homeless from undue police harassment — a change that would allow the police to arrest the homeless for loitering. The city on Wednesday filed a motion in U.S. District Court to terminate the Pottinger agreement, a 1998 consent decree that prevents police from arresting homeless people for “life-sustaining” activities such as sleeping on the sidewalk, starting a cooking fire or urinating in public. The agreement stems from a landmark lawsuit brought…
Read MoreFL: Safety versus second chance: A home for sexual offenders has neighbors up in arms
[tallahassee.com – 5/26/18] Nestled in a pocket of land surrounded by the I-10 overpass and Mission Road sits the Moon Lane neighborhood. A dirt road that runs along the interstate wall leads to several mobile homes hidden behind a barricade of drooping trees and unkempt foliage. Cornered off and relatively quiet, homes are scattered around the unpaved road with no real boundaries. But, residents of the area are beginning to draw a line in the sand. Neighbors on Moon Lane are fighting to remove a rehabilitation home for sexual offenders…
Read MoreFL: Police Now Shuffling Tent City Sex Offenders Around Miami-Dade
[miaminewtimes.com – 5/24/18] In 2009, California artist Scott Gairdner made the “Sex Offender Shuffle,” a viral video parodying Miami-Dade’s treatment of sex offenders. With a catchy beat and ’80s-style cinematography, the four-minute spoof of the 1985 Chicago Bears’ “Super Bowl Shuffle” mocked the way sex offenders are shuffled from one location to another under the guise of public safety. Nine years later, the sex offender shuffle is playing out in real life in Miami-Dade. After being forced to leave a longtime encampment near Hialeah, a group of homeless sex offenders…
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