Source: rockdalenewtoncitizen.com 8/30/24 COVINGTON — The Newton County Sheriff’s Office has introduced a new way for the public to access the Newton County Sex Offender Registry. The NCSO debuted the new feature Aug. 22 at its annual meeting with the Georgia Department of Community Supervision. The meeting is held each year to discuss updates and strategies related to sex offenders. This year’s meeting focused on monitoring homeless sex offenders and strengthening communication between law enforcement agencies. The NCSO presented a QR code system that will be available on all physical…
Read MoreTag: Georgia
GA: Georgia lawmakers hold out hope for bill that would restrict publication of mugshots
Source: georgiarecorder.com 2/26/24 Sheriff’s offices posting mugshots of booked people has been a commonplace practice for a while now. It also has some blood on its hands. “An 18-year-old committed suicide because they did not have the money to get the mugshot removed, and he could not get a job,” said Tyrone Democrat Rep. Derrick Jackson. Georgians who have not been convicted of a crime have lost their jobs and reputations because of their posted mugshot. Those with criminal records have unemployment rates at 27% according to the Prison Policy…
Read MoreGA: 73 Sheriff’s Offices Searched 9,232 Registrants to Find Only 3 Re-Offenses
Source: wnegradio.com 11/14/23 Thanks to an initiative involving 73 Georgia Sheriffs,… Due to the overwhelming success of the original initiative, Georgia’s Sheriffs have made this an annual operation… Preliminary reporting by the 73 participating sheriff’s offices reveals 12,092 registered sex offenders, 466 predators and 552 homeless sex offenders are currently living in their counties. During the one week operation, 9,232 residence verifications were conducted, … 3 warrants were issued for new sex offenses Read the full article
Read MoreGA: Police no help in removing squatters, sex offender allowed to stay
Source: FOX 5 Atlanta on YouTube TUCKER, Ga. – Much has been made over the years of squatters’ rights. “Squatting” is when someone lives in a home, likely rent-free, and has to be kicked out by the courts. Well, here’s a case with a street-side view into one of the most bizarre cases of trying to evict someone you may ever see. This story involves a legitimate homeowner, a home for sale, and a convicted child sex trafficker. Guess who has the upper hand? It’s the kind of tale that…
Read MoreGA: Effingham County Sheriff’s Office continues to keep “dangerous” sex offenders off the streets during Halloween weekend
Source: wsav.com 10/26/23 EFFINGHAM COUNTY, Ga. (WSAV) — Law enforcement in Effingham County is upping their presence in the public during the holiday weekend, and they are making sure sex offenders are not on the streets during trick-or-treating. “We want to make sure that the kids have a stressless event for Halloween,” Brian Bailey, public information officer with the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office, said. That is why Sheriff Jimmy McDuffie requires sex offenders with serious offenses to report to the jail on Halloween between the hours of 6 to 9…
Read MoreGA: Want to avoid sex offenders in your neighborhood this Halloween? Read this before trick-or-treating
Source: fox5atlanta.com 10/23/23 There are over 24,500 registered sex offenders in the state of Georgia. Only some of them have to follow a special set of rules on Halloween. Those who are on parole or probation must: Turn off all outside lights Not decorate their home for the holiday, or pass out candy Not answer the door, unless it’s for a law enforcement officer or an emergency responder In the past, the Atlanta Police Department has sent parole officers to visit the homes of sex offenders throughout the night to…
Read MoreGA: Do These Sex Offender Employment Restrictions Make Sense to Anyone?
Source: filtermag.org 10/19/23 In the month since I was released from Georgia Department of Corrections custody, I’ve been offered four different jobs. I could have been an account lead at a prominent insurance agency; a receptionist at the same agency, different location; an accountant at another insurance agency; and a paralegal assistant at a law firm. I submitted each offer to my local sheriff’s department, where each was promptly rejected. It appears there are only two available positions in the entire county I’d be allowed to work, one of them…
Read MoreGA: Georgia sheriff pleads guilty to groping TV Judge Hatchett
Source: yahoo.com 8/21/23 A Georgia sheriff pleaded guilty Monday to groping TV Judge Glenda Hatchett, who recalled being so stunned that she froze when the lawman grabbed and squeezed her breast at a hotel bar last year during a law enforcement conference. Bleckley County Sheriff Kristopher Coody pleaded guilty in Cobb County State Court to a misdemeanor charge of sexual battery and was sentenced to a year on probation, news outlets reported. He also resigned from the office he had held since 2017. “He so violated me, and at that…
Read MoreGA: Columbus prison inmate charged in cellmate’s homicide. Witnesses say he choked victim
Source: news.yahoo.com 5/10/23 An inmate who was being held at Columbus’ Rutledge State Prison has been charged with murder in the death of a cellmate. Nicholas Kyle Shaw, 32, faced charges of murder and aggravated assault Wednesday during a bond hearing in Muscogee Municipal Court. He is charged in the April 23 death of inmate Daniel Tyler Nichols, 26, authorities said. An investigator testified that on April 22, other inmates found Shaw atop Nichols in their cell, choking him. They pushed him off, and finding Nichols unresponsive, told Shaw he…
Read MoreGA: How Georgia’s Sex Offender Registry Traps People in Debt and Homelessness
Source: theappeal.org 12/8/22 In 2010, at age 20, after six years of engaging in sex work to survive, I was arrested and charged with pimping, pandering, and exploiting a minor who was over 16 years old. In 2012, I was convicted and sentenced to 30 years, with 14 to be served in custody, and forced to register as a sex offender. As my public defender so appropriately described it, I was depicted by the media as a sort of Guido the Killer Pimp and accused—I maintain falsely—of terrible acts befitting…
Read MorePA: Appeals court rules private housing development cannot bar sex offenders
Source: mdjonline.com 10/31/22 A state appellate court ruled a private housing development does not have the right to entirely ban registered sex offenders from living within their community. Ruling in a Monroe County case, the state Commonwealth Court said a 2016 restrictive covenant in the Lake Naomi housing community in Tobyhanna Twp. runs afoul of a state regulations that control where registered sex offenders can reside. The case has statewide implications because it marks the first time a state appellate court has addressed whether private homeowner communities must abide by…
Read MoreGA: Georgia deputy police chief arrested in Florida for soliciting prostitution
Source: foxnews.com 9/2/22 A Georgia deputy police chief was arrested in Florida after he allegedly solicited prostitution in the Sunshine State. Cartersville Deputy Police Chief Jason DiPrima was arrested Thursday in Polk County, Florida. He faces charges of soliciting another for prostitution, lewdness or assignation. Read the full article
Read MoreGA: US probation officer told Irish sex offender facing homelessness ‘to go and live in tent’
Source: breakingnews.ie 2/8/22 An Irish man who was jailed for trying to entice a child for indecent purposes was told to “go and live in a tent” by a probation officer in the United States, the Court of Appeal was told on Tuesday. Martin ___(46) was caught in a police sting in the State of Georgia after he sent a nude selfie to an Internet chatroom user he believed was 13-year-old girl. He later fled the US to Ireland while on probation, and has been fighting attempts to extradite him…
Read MoreGA: 11th Circuit Says a Sheriff Violated the First Amendment by Posting Warning Signs on the Lawns of Registered Sex Offenders
Source: Reason.com 2/1/22 Butts County, Georgia, Sheriff Gary Long cited no evidence to support his pre-Halloween stunt. JACOB SULLUM | 2.1.2022 6:25 PM A Georgia sheriff violated the First Amendment when he posted signs on the lawns of registered sex offenders to warn away trick-or-treaters, a federal appeals court said in a recent ruling. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit unanimously concluded that the signs amounted to unconstitutional government-compelled speech. The decision strikes a blow against irrational policies that stigmatize sex offenders without any plausible…
Read MoreGA: Georgia sex offenders take fight over ‘no-trick-or-treat’ warning signs to 11th Circuit
Source: courthousenews.com 12/18/2021 A group of registered sex offenders have asked the appeals court to overturn a federal judge’s ruling in favor of a sheriff’s office that posted signs telling trick-or-treaters to keep away from the offenders’ homes on Halloween. ATLANTA (CN) — A class of registered sex offenders asked an 11th Circuit panel Friday to overturn a federal judge’s ruling allowing Georgia sheriff’s deputies to put warning signs on their lawns before Halloween. The Butts County Sheriff’s Office has argued in legal briefs that it was merely trying to…
Read MoreGA: ‘Her death would not be in vain’: Petition could create new sex offender ID policy for ATL nightlife
Source: cbs46.com 9/30/21 ATLANTA (CBS46) — A new petition could make it harder for sex offenders to get into metro Atlanta bars and night clubs. The petition already has close to 10,000 signatures and it was started by friends of a local bartender who was kidnapped and raped. Chris Anthony said it doesn’t feel like it’s been almost two months since his friend 27-year-old Mariam Abdulrab was taken from him, “Honestly it still feels fresh you know when you don’t have any answers.” Police believe DeMarcus Brinkley kidnapped Abdulrab from her…
Read MoreGA: Removing the Scarlet Letter
[lagrangenews.com – 12/15/20] Decades ago, our state established the Georgia Sex Offender Registry (SOR). The purpose of SOR is to protect our citizens from sexually dangerous predators by identifying offenders that present the greatest risk of sexually re-offending. However, many people who are registered with SOR should not be because they pose no danger to society. Read the full opinion
Read MoreGA: Hundreds of Georgia sex offenders off ankle monitors as lawmakers seek legal fix
[tribuneledgernews.com – 7/11/20] A landmark court ruling has led to nearly half of Georgia’s most high-risk sex offenders being released from their ankle monitors over the past year, marking a legal quandary that state lawmakers fell short in addressing during the 2020 legislative session. State officials tasked with recommending how to monitor sex offenders in Georgia say legislation filed in the 2020 session would address the problem going forward by handing final authority to judges, rather than a state-run review board. But criminal defense attorneys argue the proposal does not…
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