Tag: Florida

FL: Gainesville city commissioners consider changes to city’s sexual offender ordinance

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Source: mycbs4.com 10/6/22 Gainesville, FL — Gainesville City Commissioners passed a motion to craft a proposed amendment to the current Sexual Offender and Sexual Predator Ordinance in place to mirror the state statute. “I think it just makes a consistency and so it’s legally defensible. You know, that we’re not sort of afield of what is already accepted through the courts and through the upheld state practices and just creates that predictability and consistency,” City Mayor Lauren Poe said. The City of Gainesville’s ordinance adopted in 2005 is similar to…

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FL: He Served 18 Months for a Sex Offense. He’s Re-Imprisoned Anyway, Possibly for Life.

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Source: flaglerlive.com 9/21/22 Under Florida law, imprisonment does not depend only on proven guilt of a crime. It can also result from the possibility of a future crime. The imprisonment can be up to life. The offender has few avenues of appeal. The case is not even public. The documents on which it is based are sealed from public view. It is a little known but disquieting side of Florida law, permissible under the so-called Jimmy Ryce Act, which allows the “involuntary civil commitment” of sexually violent and dangerous predators…

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FL: What do you think about Jacksonville not enforcing the sign requirement for sex offenders on Halloween?

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Source: news4jax.com 9/22/22  JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Two registered sex offenders filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Jacksonville because they want to decorate for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and other holidays. Thursday, the offenders asked the judge to pause the city sign requirement outside their home because they believe it’s unconstitutional. Sex offenders in Jacksonville are required to have signs posted outside their home that read “no candy or treats here” so that children don’t trick-or-treat at their homes on Halloween. Because of the lawsuit, the city of Jacksonville has…

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FL: Florida sex-offender registry challenge rejected

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Source: cbsnews.com 9/14/22 TALLAHASSEE – In at least the third similar case filed by out-of-state residents, a federal appeals court Wednesday rejected an Oklahoma man’s constitutional challenge to being kept on a Florida sex offender registry. A panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments by Douglas Lindsey, who was convicted in 1999 of statutory rape, sodomy, and lewd molestation in Oklahoma and was required to register in Oklahoma as a sex offender.  In 2009, he successfully requested to be removed from the Oklahoma registry. Lindsey moved to…

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FL: FAC sends letters to Sheriffs asking them to warn scam targets

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Source: Florida Action Committee 9/1/22 FAC has sent letters to the Sheriffs of all 67 Counties in Florida, asking them to warn registrants of the scam targeting registrants across Florida and all states. FAC also calls on the affiliate organizations in each State, encouraging them to send a similar request to the registration offices in their States. Scams targeting people on the registry have been taking place for years. Law enforcement has done very little to pursue the scammers or warn registrants about the existence of these scams. For that…

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FL: Brevard County sticks by tough ordinance restricting sex offenders

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Source: floridatoday.com 8/8/22 Brevard County commissioners reaffirmed their tough stance toward registered sex offenders by making only making minor changes to a regulation limiting where they can go — even as the measure is being challenged in court. The commission updated section 74 of the county code on Tuesday to allow businesses to register as a park so long as the business is used for recreation and is a place that children regularly visit. That will enable the owner to create a 1,000-foot buffer zone prohibiting any individual on the sex offender registry from visiting…

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FL: FDLE beginning investigation into death of Blackwater Corrections inmate

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Source: yahoo.com 8/3/22 The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating an inmate’s death at the Blackwater River Correctional Facility. FDLE’s Special Agent in Charge Chris Williams told the News Journal the agency is investigating the death of 35-year-old Andrew Thompson, but could not provide further information. According to the Florida Department of Corrections, Thompson died on July 27. Thompson was arrested in March 2021 and was sentenced to 45 years in prison on April 4, 2022, after pleading no contest to 12 counts of possessing child pornography and one…

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FL: WESH 2 Investigates allegations of sex offenders being allowed to vote

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Source: wesh.com 8/1/22 Morris ___ lives in Poinciana. Elections office records indicate he’s “eligible to vote in Osceola County.” His status is “active,” meaning he can vote next month and this November in Osceola County and in the 2020 general election, he did vote. Morris is also a registered sex offender. Because of this, he should be ineligible to vote under Florida law. WESH 2 checked online with the executive office of clemency, under Morris’s name and prison ID number. It confirms his civil rights have not been restored. By…

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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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