Tag: Illinois

IL: Former GOP House speaker agrees to settlement with man whom he allegedly molested as a child: report

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Source: rawstory.com 9/15/21 On Wednesday, CBS 2 Chicago reported that former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) has agreed to a “tentative” settlement with the man who alleges he paid him off to cover up child sex abuse. “The man, referred to only as James Doe in filings, brought the breach-of-contract lawsuit in 2016 in a bid to force Hastert to pay the unpaid balance of the hush money, nearly $2 million. Hastert’s lawyers said the 2010 deal was void after Doe spoke about it to others,” said the report. “A…

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IL: Democrat-Sponsored ‘TEXAS Act’ Would Allow $10K Bounties On Sexual Abusers…

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Source: nprillinois.org 9/14/21 Two weeks after Texas effectively banned abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, a Democratic state lawmaker in Illinois is proposing a law based on Texas’ model — but turned on its head. State Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago), who in 2019 sponsored law defining abortion as a fundamental right in Illinois, is introducing a bill dubbed the “EXpanding Abortion Services Act,” the acronym of which spells TEXAS. The Texas law is uniquely designed, allowing private citizens the right to bring a civil lawsuit against anyone who performs an…

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IL: ‘Predator hunter’ leader indicted after alleged sting operation to trap supposed sexual predators

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[nbcnews.com – 5/28/21] An Illinois man who created a Facebook group known to track potential sexual predators was charged in connection with a sting operation that went awry in early January, prosecutors said Monday. Kyle Swanson, 30, was indicted on a charge of unlawful restraint, obstruction of justice and assault in connection with his involvement with the KTS Predators Hunter Organization, according to court records. For more than two years, the vigilante group has posed as children on social media, tricked men into meeting up at public spaces in Illinois…

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IL: Bill would make no-contact orders for sexual offenders permanent

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[newschannel20.com – 4/14/21] SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WICS/WRSP) — A new bill making its way through the Senate would protect sexual assault survivors from their attackers for life. Senate Bill 2277, sponsored by State Sen. Steve Stadelman, D-Rockford, aims to protect sexual assault survivors from ever seeing their attacker again. This legislation would make civil no-contact orders permanent if the assailant is criminally convicted of sexual assault. Currently, under law, people must renew no-contact orders every two years. Read the full article  

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WI: Pros and cons: Housing for released prisoners [including registrants] raises debate

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[thetelegraph.com – 3/27/21] APPLETON, Wis. (AP) — Julie Angell was nervous. She was about to get out of prison, but didn’t have anywhere to go. Even with help, the challenges faced by many people getting out of prison can be immense and it isn’t uncommon for some to end up homeless if they’re unable to afford a place of their own or can’t find somewhere willing to rent to them. There is similar transitional housing in communities all over Wisconsin — 377 beds in 44 locations — meant to provide…

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IL: Current policies funnel large number of… [people] …into one building. That needs to change

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[chicago.suntimes.com – 3/25/21] The state’s job is to balance the needs and rights of… [people with a prior conviction] …with those of all others. A single building in Englewood, a neighborhood with plenty of struggles, has been home to not one or two or even three… [people listed on the registry] …— but to literally dozens. That strange and — for most Americans — troubling fact came to light recently when people in the neighborhood became aware of, and objected strongly, to one man in particular who had moved into…

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IL: Illinois House bill would change sex offender residence requirements

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[wandtv.com – 3/18/21] SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) – A bill moving through the Illinois House of Representatives would change how close a registered sex offender could live to a school, playground, or childcare facility. HB3913 would amend the Unified Code of Correction and allow a registered sex offender to reside within 250 feet of any the restricted facilities. State law currently requires they live 500 feet. The bill sponsored by Rep. Camille Lilly and Rep. Kelly Cassidy would also remove a weekly requirement that a registered sex offender must register their address…

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IL: Apartment building where sex offenders have stayed should be shut down, Englewood residents say

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[chicago.suntimes.com – 3/8/21] Englewood residents protested outside an apartment building Monday that they said had become a frequent home to paroled sex offenders. The latest to move-in is Cayce ____, convicted in the 1997 sexual assault and murder of 20-month-old Quortney Kley. ____moved to the 6600 block of South Perry Avenue last week from Crystal Lake after residents in that McHenry County city petitioned for his removal. ____ is on mandatory supervised release — got out of prison in February after serving 24 years of a 48-year sentence, according to…

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IL: Hundreds of Southern Illinoisans are required to register as sex offenders. But are we any safer?

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[thesouthern.com – 11/27/20] SPRINGFIELD — Illinois’ sex offender registry, which now includes more than 32,000 people — most of them men, though some women, as well — has rapidly expanded since its first iteration in 1986. Then, it included four qualifying crimes. Today, there are more than 30 crimes that trigger mandatory registration, including some repeat misdemeanor offenses. In recent years, policy makers and advocates, both for offenders as well as victims, have been raising questions as to whether the registry, and the ever-increasing rules around it, really makes the…

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IL: A timeline of how Illinois registered sex offender database was created

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[pantagraph.com – 11/25/20] When Terry Parke, a state representative from Pittsfield, the chief sponsor of the Habitual Child Sex Offender Registration Act, discusses his 1986 bill, he describes it as “one of the most important laws the Legislature would consider that year.” The law requires habitual child sex offenders to register with police within 30 days of release from prison and remain registered for 10 years. “We are having an epidemic in Illinois … of sex crimes against our children,” Parke said. But state Rep. Larry Hicks, a Democrat from…

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IL: Name Change for Transgender Sex Offender Debated at Seventh Circuit

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[courthousenews.com – 11/6/20] CHICAGO (CN) — A Seventh Circuit panel heard arguments Friday over whether a Wisconsin law barring convicted sex offenders from changing their name amounts to free speech infringement. The underlying lawsuit was brought in Milwaukee federal court in May 2019 by Karen Krebs, a transgender woman from Kenosha, Wisconsin, who cannot change her name due to a 1992 conviction which required her to register as a sex offender. Wisconsin law makes it a Class H felony for anyone who is required to register as a sex offender…

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IL: A Veteran Cook County Judge Has Been Repeatedly Blocked from Hearing Sex Offense Cases. Here’s Why.

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[bettergov.org – 10/22/20] A Chicago teenager pleaded with Cook County Judge James Linn to impose the maximum prison sentence on the man who sexually assaulted her and her two sisters for several years and threatened to kill them if they told anyone. “Help us ensure that there will be one less rapist out on the streets,” the woman, then 19, wrote in a victim impact statement read aloud at the sentencing hearing in May 2011. “At the end of the day, I just want justice to be served the correct…

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IL: Inside the Endless Nightmare of Indefinite Detention Under “Civil Commitment”

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[inthesetimes.com – 8/19/20] In June 2019, after serv­ing more than 29 years in Illi­nois pris­ons, Otis Arring­ton expect­ed to be released to free­dom: He had fin­ished his time, which he describes as dif­fi­cult and trau­mat­ic, and his exit date was pend­ing. But three days before he was slat­ed to get out, Arring­ton says he was informed that he would, instead, be placed under a new form of con­fine­ment — one with no end date, met­ed out after he had already com­plet­ed the pun­ish­ment imposed by the crim­i­nal courts. “I was sup­posed to get out, and…

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IL: Lawsuit dismissed after sex offenders living at Aurora ministry find new homes

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[dailyherald.com –  7/27/20] Sex offenders who sued to stay at the Wayside Cross Ministries halfway house in downtown Aurora after a judge ruled it is too close to a playground have dropped their litigation after all of them found alternative housing. The lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed Friday, according to Kane County court records and their attorney, Adele Nicholas, who credited the Kane County state’s attorney’s office with giving the 18 men time to move instead of arresting and essentially evicting them. Read the full article  

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IL: High court upholds ban on sex offenders in parks

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The state’s criminal code completely bars child sex offenders from entering public parks, despite an exception written into a similar but separate part of the law, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled last week. The 5-2 majority held that the exception in Section 11-9.3(a-10) of the Illinois Criminal Code of 2012, which allows child sex offenders to visit public parks with their minor children when other minor children are present, cannot be read into Section 11-9.4-1(b), which prohibits a child sex offender from “knowingly be[ing] present in any public park.” Full…

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IL: Porn Convictions Tossed Due to Use of Confidential Information

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[bloomberglaw.com – 4/14/20] An Illinois man’s convictions on two counts of child pornography were tossed and resentencing was required on a third because the trial court improperly allowed the jury to hear confidential pretrial services information about his residence, the Seventh Circuit ruled. Defendant Michael Chaparro told the Office of Probation and Pretrial Services he had lived at the address linked to a computer containing images of child pornography. Read the full article (ONLY with a subscription!) Read the court document  

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IL: Lawsuit – Release Sex Offenders Who Have Served Their Time

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Sex offenders who have completed their sentences but are still being held in Illinois prisons should be released as part of the effort to reduce the state’s prison population during the COVID-19 crisis, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court. The request for a temporary restraining order was filed on behalf of Marcus Barnes, a sex offender held at Graham Correctional Center, and about 300 other sex offenders who remain in prison because they have not located state-approved housing required for their release. Full Article

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IL: Registered sex offenders can stay at Wayside Cross a little longer after ruling again delayed

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[chicagotribune.com – 1/21/20] The child sex offenders living at Wayside Cross in Aurora can remain at the ministry for at least a while longer, after a judge again delayed ruling on their request to temporarily block enforcement of a sex offender residency law pending the outcome of a lawsuit. The Wayside Cross residents are seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, which would allow them to remain at the ministry until their lawsuit challenging enforcement of a sex offender residency law is resolved. Kane County Circuit Court Judge Kevin…

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