Tag: Florida

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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FL: Sex offender freed from prison moves in near family pool in The Villages!

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Source: villages-news.com 12/4/21 A 60-year-old sex offender released last month from a Florida prison has moved in with his mother near a family swimming pool in The Villages. Edward ______ was released Nov. 25 from a state prison. He has registered a permanent address at 1312 La Estrellita Way in the Village of Santiago, not far from the El Santiago swimming pool and recreation center, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Read the full article  

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FL: Serena’s Law: Closing a loophole that allowed sexual abusers to continue working with kids

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Source: winknews.com 11/24/21 There’s a loophole that allows sexual abusers to continue working with children been if an organization does a background check. But, because of one young woman’s bravery, the system is fixed. … Now, “Serena’s Law” requires each clerk of court to post the identity online of someone who has an injunction or restraining order filed against them for the protection of a minor. She wants to focus on educating others about what abusers do. Read the full article  

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FL: Sheriff says tech companies not doing enough to stop child porn

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Source: abcactionnews.com 11/4/21 A local sheriff is calling out big tech companies, saying they’re not doing enough to stop the spread of child pornography. In late September, Polk County Sheriff’s Office investigators made a major bust, identifying suspects in possession of child pornography that originated from countries all over the world. “They’re finding everything. They’re finding things that you can’t even conceive of or we can talk about publicly,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. “Two years old, four years old, seven years old, eight years old. This last case…

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FL: V.M. Ybor has a sex offender problem, residents say

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Source: floridapolitics.com 11/6/21 Hillsborough County has an ordinance against clustering sex offenders, but no one enforces it. When Kim Headland first moved to the V.M. Ybor area 20 years ago, she said there were few if any sex offenders registered in her neighborhood. “Since then, hundreds —  if not thousands — of offenders have been funneled into our community,” she told the Tampa City Council on Thursday. “Much to the financial benefit of a few property owners and the perceived benefit of TPD.” V.M. Ybor is named for cigar manufacturer…

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FL: 16 Registered Sexual Offenders And Predators During Halloween Initiative Were Arrested

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Source: atlanta.cbslocal.com 11/2/21 The Polk County Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit, along with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, conducted a Halloween sexual offender/predator compliance initiative during the month of October, 2021. The operation was aimed at ensuring compliance with Florida’s registration laws for convicted sex offenders and sex predators (FSS 775.21 & 943.0435) within Polk County*. Detectives charged 16 suspects with failure to comply with sex offender registrations laws and/or violation of probation. … There are 1,255 Sexual Offenders and 142 sexual predators registered in Polk County. Read the…

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FL: Florida Man Sentenced to Life in Prison for Killing Fellow Convicted Child Sex Offender Cellmate. He ‘Stomped’ on His Throat

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Source: lawandcrime.com 10/21/21 A judge in Florida this week sentenced a 44-year-old man to spend the remainder of his life behind bars for the brutal murder of his former prison cellmate—a convicted child sex offender—whose throat he crushed. A Santa Rosa County jury on Tuesday found Jimmy Ray Carruthers guilty of second-degree murder in the 2019 death of his 78-year-old cellmate, David Kever, the Pensacola News Journal (PNJ) reported. Immediately after the jury returned the guilty verdict, Circuit Court Judge Darlene Dickey handed Carruthers the life sentence. In a press…

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FL: Orange County sergeant accused of abuse of power terminated

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Source: msn.com 10/7/21 A sergeant with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office has been terminated after the sheriff’s office said he abused his power during a traffic stop. … An internal investigation into a traffic stop found Vidler purposely targeted Jeremy Dewitte, a registered sex offender who has a history of arrests for impersonating a police officer. Initially, Vidler said he was pulling the convicted felon over for carrying a firearm, but it turned out to be a pepper ball gun. A sheriff’s office internal investigation found the pepper ball weapon was in plain view and…

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FL: Citrus County judge says being on the sex offense registry for life is punishment

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Source: chronicleonline.com (found by Florida Action Committee) Howard decided on Monday a lifelong label as a sex offender was a suitable punishment for Ashlee _____, the Dunnellon 21-year-old who sexually coerced and molested a teenage boy. After Ashlee _____pleaded no contest to her fate, Howard adjudicated her guilty of soliciting a child for sexual conduct, two counts of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child between 12 and 16 years old and three counts of transmitting harmful material to a minor. For the first six years of registering as a…

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FL: Florida Faces Challenges On Sex Offender Registry

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Source: miami.cbslocal.com 9/28/21 TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) — Florida is facing two constitutional challenges from men who live in other states and contend they have been improperly kept on public sex-offender registry lists in Florida. Oregon resident Moji Momeni filed a lawsuit Friday in Leon County circuit court alleging that his constitutional privacy and due-process rights have been violated because Florida continues to list him as a registered sex offender, though he stopped being required to register in Oregon last year. Momeni, who was convicted in 2006 on sexual-abuse charges in Oregon,…

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FL: DOJ Now Investigating Florida Sheriff’s Office For Using A Federal Grant To Fund Its ‘Predictive Policing’ Harassment Programs

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Source: techdirt.com 9/21/21 The Pasco County (FL) Sheriff’s Office believes in “intelligence-led policing.” This is its formal slang for harassing residents until (in the office’s own words) “they sue or move.” The Sheriff’s Office turns anyone with a criminal background into a suspect-for-life. Deputies visit residences and residents on the “intelligence-led” shit list multiple times a month, demanding answers to questions they have no business asking. When residents fail to comply, nuisance (in every sense of the word) citations are issued for things like uncut grass or missing mailbox numbers.…

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FL: Letter to the Editor: Sex offender registry issue needs to be addressed

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Source: nwfdailynews.com 9/2/21 As a counselor in the state of Florida, I think it’s time to address challenges concerning social media and illegal sex with minors, and the growing number of designated sex offenders in our state (356/100K – total 76,000 in Florida – 800K nationally). All sex offenders are not child molesters. Pedophiles and rapists are. The US Bureau of Justice reports the average age of a sex offender is 14! Policemen, prosecutors, and judges need to stand up against this bad law. It’s the only law that allows continued punishment after sentencing…

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FL: FBI Agent, Army Reserves Col. charged with sex crimes against children in Florida

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Source: cbs42.com 8/27/21 FRANKLIN COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) — An FBI agent who investigated sex crimes against children has been arrested and charged with multiple sex crimes against children across several states, according to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies said Supervisory Special Agent David ____ was tasked with investigating crimes against children, including child pornography. But in February of this year, he was accused of exposing himself to a 14-year-old girl in a “lewd and lascivious manner,” while on vacation in St. George Island. The investigation began in Franklin County…

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