With an outcry from neighbors about recently released sex offenders living under a nearby bridge, the Ringgold City Council unanimously passed an emergency ordinance banning homelessness Monday night. Full Article Related COLUMN: Georgia City Wrong to Target Sex Offenders in New ‘Homelessness Ordinance”
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GA: Georgia sheriff’s office places ‘No Trick-or-Treat’ signs in sex offenders’ yards
[fox11online.com – 10/30/18] ACKSON, Georgia (WSYX/WTTE) — A Georgia sheriff’s office is placing “No Trick-or-Treat” signs in sex offenders’ yards in an effort to keep children safe. “As Sheriff, there is nothing more important to me than the safety of your children,” said Butts County Sheriff Gary Long. “This Halloween, my office has placed signs in front of every registered sex offender’s house to notify the public that it’s a house to avoid.” Long said Georgia law forbids registered sex offenders from participating in Halloween. That includes decorating their property…
Read MoreGA: DCS honors two Rome officers for work on sex offender law
Two Floyd County Department of Community Supervision officers received commendations Tuesday for the efforts to clarify the importance of ongoing supervision of sex offenders across the state of Georgia. Brandon Henderson and Cody Franklin were honored in front of their peers for raising questions that led to an amendment of state law this year. SB 174 was passed in 2017, which called for anyone who was on supervision, including sex offenders, but did not have any restitution owed, to be placed on unsupervised status after two years. “A lot of…
Read MoreGA: All registered sex offenders will gather in Council Chambers on Halloween
[Updated] With Halloween right around the corner, Grovetown is rounding up registered sex offenders to make the night a little less frightening for parents and children out trick-or-treating. Full Article Jones for Mayor Facebook Page Related Media Washington Post Article 10/24 http://metrospirit.com/beware-sex-offenders-grovetown/ 10/24 https://www.theblaze.com/news/2018/10/27/mayor-causes-stir-over-what-he-declared-will-happen-to-sex-offenders-on-halloween-night 10/27
Read MoreGA: Thomas County deputies keep ‘watchful eye’ on sex offenders
[walb.com – 10/4/18] THOMAS CO., GA (WALB) – Locating and registering sex offenders is a top priority for Georgia sheriff’s offices. The Thomas County Sheriff’s Office said they verify registered sex offenders multiple times throughout the year, as part of the “Operation Watchful Eye” initiative. Lt. Tim Watkins, Thomas County Sheriff’s Office chief investigator, said Halloween is one of those holidays that they make sure all registered sex offenders in the county are where they’re suppose to be. “They have to be inside their residence. They cannot have any decorations…
Read MoreGA: The Jolt: On Stacey Abrams’ ‘08 vote against banishment of sex offenders
[politics.myajc.com – 9/11/18] On Monday, the Georgia GOP again plunged deeply into the legislative record of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, launching an ad that assailed her vote against a sex offender crackdown as “too extreme for Georgia.” The 30-second spot targets her opposition to a 2008 bill that reinstated a range of restrictions that limited offenders from living, working or loitering within 1,000 feet of a broad range of places where children gather, including schools, churches, community swimming pools and bus stops. The Republican measure was pushed as a…
Read MoreIs it an unconstitutional taking of property without just compensation to require sex offenders to move away from their home if a school, etc is established near their home after their initial occupation?
In Mann v. Georgia Department of Corrections,653 S.E.2d 740 (Ga. 2007), the Georgia Supreme Court held that a state statute prohibiting registered sex offenders from living or working within 1,000 feet of any facility where minors congregate, see Ga. Code Åò42-1-15, constituted a taking of property as applied to a sex offender who was forced to move after a child care center opened a facility within 1,000 feet of his home. … The Seventh Circuit just came to the opposite conclusion in an opinion written by Judge Diane S. Sykes.…
Read MoreGA: Convicted sex offenders removed from registry
A little over two decades ago, ____ ____ stood before a judge and pleaded guilty to aggravated sodomy with his 6-year-old daughter. “____ ____ molested his biological daughter,” Chatham County Chief Assistant District Attorney Greg McConnell said. “He admitted that he made her perform oral sex on him but said it was accidental.” ____ , who was 37 at the time, was sentenced to 10 years — two to be served in prison — followed by eight years of probation. ____ served his time. And in 2014 the state of…
Read MoreGA: Can be placed on registry without meaningful due process
[twitter.com – Andrew Fleischman – 6/18/18] Today, the Supreme Court of Georgia held that Georgia could place a man on the child abuse registry without meaningful due process because he had no liberty interest to the contrary. Read more
Read MoreGA: Sex offender registry problems cost the state federal funds
Shortcomings in Georgia’s sex offender registration program are going to cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grant money, according to a letter the U.S. Department of Justice sent to the governor. Full Article
Read MoreGA: Pardon Lifts Requirement to Register as Sex Offender
Georgia’s highest court says a man convicted of sexually abusing a young girl no longer must register as a sex offender after receiving a pardon. Full Article
Read MoreGA: He was arrested for a sex act that’s no longer a crime. Years later, he remains convicted
[washingtonpost.com] Charlton Green was 20 when he was arrested after having oral sex with a 16-year-old male in a Georgia hotel room. He was convicted of a sex crime — not because the act was not consensual (it was), nor because the teen was not within the age of consent (in Georgia, it is 16). He was convicted because the incident happened in 1997, when oral and anal sex between consenting adults was prohibited under Georgia’s sodomy law. The conviction required him to register as a sex offender, a stigmatizing…
Read MoreGA: Can’t pay for a lie detector test? For one man that could mean jail
A North Georgia homeless man may go to prison for 18 months because he cannot come up with $250 to take a court-ordered polygraph test. Such a move would seem to violate a U.S. Supreme Court ruling declaring it unconstitutional to jail someone for failing to pay a fee or fine. But the man’s attorney, McCracken Poston, said the state Department Community of Supervision is nonetheless pushing for the punishment. “It’s crazy,” Poston told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, saying his client, Robert Murphy, has been unable to find a job since…
Read MoreGA: Sex offenders require constant vigilance from law enforcement
When ____ ____ set foot in South Georgia a few years ago, he had just spent 30 years in a Detroit prison for being a serial rapist convicted 10 times over. Because Palmer committed his crimes before June 4, 2003, under Georgia law, he is allowed to settle down anywhere with no restrictions. Yes, that’s right. Anywhere. He can settle in a home next door to a school or day care or playground — anywhere. “____ ____’s crime is so old (he) can live next to whatever he wants to.…
Read MoreGA: Sex offender argues mandatory ankle monitors are unconstitutional
As opposing attorneys argued the constitutionality of the Sex Offender Registry Review Board on Monday, several Georgia Supreme Court justices kept focusing on an aspect of the law that applies to the most dangerous predators: they must wear an ankle monitor for life but face no punishment if they don’t. Full Article
Read MoreGA: Man mistaken for child molester yells during fatal beating, ‘I have kids. It’s not me’
While being beaten to death, mistaken for a man his alleged attackers believed had molested a young girl, ____ ____. screamed, “I didn’t do this. I have kids. It’s not me,” a Bibb County prosecutor said at a Thursday hearing. Full Article
Read MoreGA: Supreme Court Hears Arguments Over Sex Offender Law
The Georgia Supreme Court heard arguments Monday over a state statute that dictates how “sexually dangerous predators” are classified. ____ ____ was designated a “sexually violent predator” in 2013, which is the highest risk designation and requires him to wear an electronic monitor for the rest of his life. ____ was convicted for exposing himself and performing a sexually explicit act via webcam to an individual he believed was a 14-year-old girl, according to court documents. Full Article Case Info
Read MoreGA: Madison County woman fires gun to ‘send message’ to sex offender
Authorities arrested on Saturday a 61-year-old Madison County woman after she allegedly fired two gun shots as a way of sending “a message” to a convicted sex offender she didn’t want on her property. Full Article
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