[Ocala.com] Students engaged in consensual sexual activity Each school year, about three dozen Marion County students on average get kicked out of school after being caught groping or engaged in a consensual sex act on a school bus or on campus. To reduce the amount of lost instruction time, the School District will launch a new diversion program in January for first-time offenders in hopes of keeping these students in the classroom. Students caught in the act can forgo attending an alternative school if they attend six nights of after-school…
Read MoreTag: Florida
FL: Oconomowoc tweaks sex offender residency restrictions in wake of federal court decision
[Florida Journal Sentinel] CITY OF OCONOMOWOC – The common council on Tuesday, Dec. 5, voted to repeal and replace the city’s 2011 ordinance outlining residency restrictions for registered sex offenders, joining a handful of other area communities to do so in the wake of lawsuits and a federal court decision earlier this year. Under the new rules, registered sex offenders who did not live in the city at the time of their offense could petition the common council to move into Oconomowoc. Such offenders are currently barred from attempting…
Read MoreFL: Death of sex offender in Georgia State Prison suspicious
[Florida Action Committee] Charles Lee Broady was halfway into a three-year sentence for failure to register as a sex offender when he was found dead, hanging in his cell. Next week, Broady was supposed to appear in Federal Court in a case he brought against the Georgia Department of Corrections after officers allowed gang members to attack him. The previous attacks had been so bad that, after one, his heart stopped and he had to be revived. His family suspects foul play. Read article
Read MoreFL: Inside the Remote, Little-Known Sanctuary for Sex Offenders
Seen from a distance, perhaps from a low-flying helicopter, or standing a few hundred feet away on a road that cuts through the green sugarcane surrounding it, Miracle Village, in Central Florida outside of Pahokee, looks like it could be a modest retirement community. Perhaps a modern-day off-the-grid commune, carved from a little spot of remote farmland. Miracle Village, though, is neither. It is a community devoted entirely to housing convicted sex offenders. Full Article
Read MoreFL: With more sex offenders, probation officers want more money
With an increase in some of the state’s most dangerous sex offenders living outside of prisons and on probation, some of the state officers assigned to watch them have asked the Legislature for a raise to keep the most experienced on board. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Miami-Dade Commissioners Want Cops to Arrest Homeless Sex Offenders on Sight
For 12 years, Miami-Dade’s registered sex offenders have been barred from living within 2,500 feet of any school, playground, or daycare. They’re effectively homeless by law, and today hundreds live in squalor in makeshift “tent cities” under bridges, near trailer parks, and on roadsides. After New Times reported on a camp near Hialeah, county officials called these encampments inhumane and unsanitary and promised a solution. That solution, though, apparently isn’t to amend the law or to find transitional housing. Two commissioners now want to simply put the offenders back in…
Read MoreFL: Arsonist burns down accused child molesters Pasco County home
The home of a Pasco County man accused of molesting a 7-year-old girl caught fire Thursday morning, and investigators say arson is to blame. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Sex offenders may soon be able to live closer to schools, day care centers in Jacksonville
Registered sex offenders in the River City may soon be able to live closer to schools, public libraries and other places children frequent if the Jacksonville City Council has anything to say about it. The city council will undergo a second reading of city ordinance 2017-667 on Tuesday. The bill’s primary function is to reduce the required distance a registered sex offender or predator can reside near various locations from 2,500 feet to 1,500 feet, according to the bill’s description. The bill also advises, if passed, that new and upcoming…
Read MoreFL: Sex offender sues ECSO over ‘defamatory’ billboard calling him sexual predator
An inmate is suing the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, claiming one of its billboards mislabeled him as a sexual predator, instead of a sex offender. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Sheriff sued after threatening to arrest fugitives who sought hurricane shelter
A Florida sheriff who threatened to jail fugitives with warrants if they sought shelter during Hurricane Irma has been sued by a man who claims he was denied entry to a shelter. The Orlando Sentinel reports the lawsuit filed Sunday by Nexus Services, an organization that provides legal help to immigrants, claims Andres Borreno was denied entry to a shelter in Polk County after sheriff’s deputies told him he would have to submit to a background check before entering a shelter. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Pasco to open shelter for sex offenders
Registered sex offenders who need to evacuate because of Hurricane Irma now have an option: The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office will set up a space for them in the shelter at Wiregrass Ranch High School in Wesley Chapel” They need someplace to go just like any other citizen,” sheriff’s spokesman Kevin Doll said. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Sheriff bans sex offenders from Hurricane Irma shelters
The sheriff of Polk County Florida is warning sex offenders to stay out of Hurricane Irma shelters. Sheriff Grady Judd said, “It’s important to understand. If you’re a sexual predator and a sexual offender, we’re not gonna let you sleep next to any five, or six, or seven year old babies. Period. Our shelters are going to be safe.” Full Article Follow Up: http://www.businessinsider.de/grady-judd-florida-hurricane-irma-response-arrest-warrants-2017-9?r=US&IR=T
Read MoreFL: Retired Officer Opposes Sex Offender Designation on New Florida Licenses
Shalimar, Florida’s WEAR ran a story on the newly designed Florida driver’s licenses. One surprising opinion about the new license came from a retired parole officer, who commented on the sex offender designation on licenses for those registered. Here’s what he had to say: “The new license turns heads in Okaloosa County; including Don Gatchell’s. He’s a retired parole officer with the state of Florida who worries an old, but remodeled feature – a mandatory sexual offender identification on the card – may be too much. “My honest opinion now…
Read MoreFL: Sex Offenders Sent To Homeless Encampment Told To Find Housing, But Where?
The Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust is trying to shut down an encampment of sex offenders on the edge of Miami and Hialeah. Full Article Related FL: Tent camp of homeless sex offenders near Hialeah ‘has got to close,’ county says
Read MoreFL: Tent camp of homeless sex offenders near Hialeah ‘has got to close,’ county says
Seven years after Miami-Dade County shut down a camp housing about 100 homeless sex offenders under a bridge in Miami, it’s now trying to deal with an encampment on the outskirts of Hialeah that has almost three times as many residents registered to live there. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Hundreds of Miami Sex Offenders Live in a Squalid Tent City Near Hialeah
Cradling a heavy box of Budweiser against his flour-dusted apron, Mario Medina clicks open the door and greets two waitresses behind the counter at La Cascada, a retro Cuban pizza parlor in Northwest Miami-Dade. Besides the voice of a sports commentator on the TV and sporadic blips from arcade games in the back, the restaurant is quiet, and all five tables are empty. It’s 30 minutes into the lunch rush hour, but only three weary patrons in construction boots sit hunched over glasses of cold beer at the bar.“Before, we…
Read MoreFL: Woman’s License Mistakenly Marked ‘Sexual Predator’
A Florida woman took her children to Disney World for a fun weekend, but was denied service at the hotel. When she asked why she was not allowed to stay there, she was shocked by the response. Now, the mother is taking legal action. Tammy Lemasters was denied service at Disney World and when she asked why, she was told it was because her driver’s license listed her as a sexual predator, the New York Daily News reports. She was shocked by the revelation, as she has no history of any…
Read MoreFL: Registered sex offenders listing Walmart as their home address
Attention Walmart shoppers, pervs in aisle seven! Customers at the retail giant’s store in Cocoa, Florida, were shocked to hear that at least 16 registered sex offenders have listed the place as their home address, WFTV reported. State law permits homeless offenders to use the address of the closest physical address for their registration. Full Article
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