Tag: Florida

FL: CALL TO ACTION: Brevard County Commission Meeting

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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, 2022, 5:00 PM, at 2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way, Viera, FL 32940 This is our opportunity to show up and speak out, please, please, please do…

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FL: The County Where Businesses Can Self-Identify As Parks in Order to Keep Sex Offenders Away

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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 places like playgrounds have not been shown to make kids any safer, says Emily Horowitz, a sociologist who researches sex offense law and policy. At the…

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FL: Florida teen creates fake online persona to catch child predator

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Source: www.wesh.com 6/29/22 FORT PIERCE, Fla. —A Florida teen is being credited with putting a child predator behind bars. According to WPBF, back in January, 38-year-old Zachary ___ of Jensen Beach started talking to who he believed was a 14-year-old girl named “Shayla” on the internet. “Shayla” was actually a 16-year-old boy who was trying to find predators in his area. “Here you have a 16-year-old boy wanting to take the matter into his own hands and find these child predators in his area, and he found one,” Callahan Walsh,…

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FL: A Florida appeals court approves ‘gain time’ for a man convicted of an attempted sex crime on a child

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Source: news.wfsu.org 6/12/22 Rejecting longstanding legal precedent, a state appeals court said Friday that a man convicted of attempted sexual battery on a child is eligible to be considered for early release from prison. The ruling by the full 1st District Court of Appeal turned down arguments by the Florida Department of Corrections and drew two dissents. It involved whether inmate McMillan Gould should be eligible for what is known as prison “gain time” after pleading no contest to attempted sexual battery on a child under age 12. Judge Adam…

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FL: As sex offenders around Tampa Bay age, where will they go for nursing care?

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Source: tampabay.com 6/9/22 John ___ spends his hours in a shed-sized room in St. Petersburg. Wipes, hospital dressing gowns and diapers are stocked haphazardly along narrow wooden shelves. John ’s feet, propped up on a large camel-colored reclining chair where he lies, are cracked and yellow. The recliner engulfs the cramped room, its edges almost touching the walls. A fly flits greedily about his motionless body. “I’m probably going to die here in my house,” he said. John, 75, had a stroke in 2013 that left him partially paralyzed. But…

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FL: Martin County sheriff wants to push out registrants who were pushed out of other counties

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Source: wptv.com 6/7/22 MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — Martin County commissioners Tuesday will consider expanding the distance registered sex offenders in the county have to live from playgrounds, schools and day care centers. Current registered sex offenders living in the county would be grandfathered into the new rule, if it is approved. Sheriff William Snyder is asking the county to change the requirement from 1,000 feet to 2,500 feet away. … “The reason we’re doing that is because we’ve interviewed predators and offenders coming in to register, which they’re required to…

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FL: ‘Groomer’ debate inflames GOP fight over Florida law

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Source: thehill.com 4/8/22 “Groomer” is the new favorite term being used by far-right commentators and activists to describe opponents of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, sparking outrage among LBGTQ advocates who say that it is a smear that feeds into a trope casting members of the community as pedophiles. The Florida bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis week, which opponents have decried as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, prohibits instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through third grade. “Groomer” started to gain traction as…

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FL: Pennsylvania tourist to stay on Florida’s sex-offense registry

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Source: orlandosentinel.com 4/4/22 TALLAHASSEE — A Leon circuit judge has dismissed a Pennsylvania man’s challenge to a Florida law that kept him on a sexual-offense registry after a 10-day family vacation to Disney World in 2015. Circuit Judge Angela Dempsey dismissed the case last week, in part finding that a statute of limitations had expired. The man, identified in court documents as John Doe, reported to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office when he came to Florida because he was on a Pennsylvania registry at the time as a result of…

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FL: [1970’s Teen] convicted in 2000 of molesting Boy Scout ordered to move out of home near family pool in The Villages

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Source: villages-news.com 3/24/22 A [1970’s teen] convicted of molesting a[nother] Boy Scout has been ordered to move out of his parents’ home located near a family pool in The Villages. [His alleged victim in the mid 1970s claimed that an older boy had molested him. Siegfried Hepp Jr who was born in 1961 took a plea deal 30 years later as he was obviously unable to prove he had not abused the younger boy scout in the mid 1970s, when he himself was just a teenager.  When sentenced, his sentence…

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FL: Homeless sex offenders arrested in December released, illustrates systemic issue, attorney says

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Source: floridatoday.com 3/8/22 Seven Brevard sex offenders arrested in December after their homeless camp was shutdown, were released from jail in January and February and their charges dismissed, court records show. They’ve all returned to the community but have lost their jobs and belongings. They are being housed in a Brevard hotel, according to the Florida sex offender registry. The men previously lived in a homeless camp set up on vacant, private land at 4820 U.S. 192 near Melbourne. Their GPS monitors and ankle bracelets were registered to the camp, requiring them to return there by a set…

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FL: Former Coral Springs Cop Sentenced For Soliciting Sex From Teen

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Source: coralspringstalk.com 1/10/22 A former Coral Springs Police officer has been sentenced to 14-and-a-half months in state prison after pleading guilty to two counts of using a computer to sexually exploit a child, court records show. Steven Daniello, 64, who was arrested in January 2021, will also serve nearly four years of probation after completing his prison term, according to documents filed in Broward County Circuit Court. As part of his sentence, issued Jan. 4, Daniello will register as a sex offender, forfeit his law enforcement officer certification, pay $10,680…

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FL: OPPAGA 2021 Sex Offender Registration and Monitoring Triennial Review

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Source: OPPAGA Report Summary: Both federal and Florida law facilitate oversight of sex offenders and predators living in Florida communities, with state agencies and local law enforcement monitoring, registering, verifying, and providing information about sex offenders. Florida is one of 17 states that is substantially compliant with federal sex offender registry requirements. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s (FDLE) sex offender registry lists more than 78,000 offenders and predators, of which, just over 30,000 reside in Florida communities, a number that has grown 62% since 2005. Approximately 6% of registered…

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FL: Homeless offenders in Brevard County struggle to find resources and shelter

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Source: floridatoday.com 1/3/22 Jason ____ is sitting in Brevard County Jail waiting to appear before a judge on a charge of violating parole. He’d rather be anywhere else, but the reality is he’s not wanted many other places. A charge against him made in 1998 at 15 years old, of which he was convicted in 2000, has marked him as a sex offender. He is one of 735 registered sex offenders in Brevard County, according to statistics from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. That status makes Jason something of a…

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FL: Sex offender registry laws don’t work. Here’s what might.

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Source: tampabay.com 12/16/21 The uncomfortable truth? Those who commit sexual offenses are usually not strangers. There are roughly half a million sexual assault incidents in the United States every year — and more than 11,000 in Florida alone. These numbers are troubling. So it’s no surprise that people search the sex offender registration website to make sure that no one convicted of a sexual offense lives near them or more worrisome, their children’s school, day care or neighborhood park. The premise is simple: to make people feel safer in their…

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FL: Ocala man torches neighbor’s home because of rumor victim was a pedophile, police say

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Source: clickorlando.com 12/14/21 OCALA, Fla. – Ocala police arrested a man Monday who they believe started a fire that damaged a mobile home in early December. Kenneth Bryant, 42, was arrested at Wagon Wheel Mobile Home Park. According to the arrest report, Bryant told police he couldn’t remember the incident because he was too intoxicated but said he was not fond of the victim because of rumors that the man was a child molester. Police said they responded to an arson call at the same mobile home park in the…

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FL: Members of homeless camp arrested on charges of violating probation after camp was shut down

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Source: yahoo.com 12/11/21 Note: This article is a follow up to the original article: ‘Literally nowhere else they can go’: Homeless camp shutdown leaves people with few options (floridatoday.com 12/8/21) A group of homeless people was arrested Friday afternoon for violating probation after their camp, where they were required by their probation officers to stay, was shut down and there was nowhere else for them to go. Of the 13 people who had been living at the camp, at least seven had GPS monitors or ankle bracelets registered to the site —…

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FL: ‘Literally nowhere else they can go’: Homeless camp shutdown leaves people with few options

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Source: floridatoday.com 12/9/21 Joshua Werbicki has made a home in the woods at 4820 Highway 192 near Melbourne. His driver’s license lists the campsite as his permanent residence. The GPS monitor he must wear as part of his probation requires him to stay at the camp at night. But Werbicki and approximately 12 others say they were told the property owner now wants the site bulldozed this week. They said they were originally given until 8 a.m. Wednesday to vacate by the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office. At least seven of them have GPS…

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FL: Florida Supreme Court makes it risky for a defendant to tell a judge ‘I’m innocent’

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Source: floridabulldog.org 12/7/21 The Florida Supreme Court is sending this message to criminal defendants: If you think you were wrongly convicted, keep it to yourself. Ignoring long-standing law, the justices decided that when defendants dare to dispute their guilt instead of owning the crime, state trial judges may pile on extra prison time. The court ruled last Thursday in the case of Alvin Davis, a 43-year-old black man with a lengthy rap sheet that includes convictions for attempted murder, robbery and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. After a jury…

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