IN: Man Exonerated After Serving More Than 25 Years for a Rape DNA Testing Proves He Didn’t Commit

A judge today granted a motion by the Delaware County Prosecutor’s Office to dismiss the 1992 rape charges against William Barnhouse based on new DNA evidence proving Barnhouse’s innocence of the crime. With Delaware County Prosecuting Attorney Jeffrey Arnold’s consent, the Innocence Project and the Wrongful Conviction Clinic at Indiana University McKinney persuaded a Delaware County court to reverse Barnhouse’s conviction on March 8, 2017 based on this new evidence. Further proceedings in the case were scheduled for May.  Arnold’s decision to dismiss the indictment against Barnhouse, who has dealt…

Read More

Two Federal Courts Call BS on Banning Sex Offenders From ‘Child Safety Zones’

A couple of years ago, ____ ____, a registered sex offender who lives in Hartford City, Indiana, received a citation for sitting in his brother’s car. The car was parked outside his brother’s house, which happens to be across the street from a school. By sitting in it, ____ violated a local ordinance prohibiting anyone convicted of a sex offense involving a minor from entering a long list of “child safety zones”—including schools, parks, libraries, swimming pools, athletic complexes, movie theaters, and bowling alleys— or “loitering” within 300 feet of…

Read More

IN: Life parole lacks active monitoring

Earlier this year, 33-year-old ____ ____. was charged with molesting four local children. He recently agreed to plead guilty and to disclose details about even more victims. The Mishawaka man admitted to similar incidents before, in two other Indiana counties. He left prison in 2010, and as a sex offender on parole, he was subject to strict rules including no alcohol, drugs or pornography. He couldn’t be around children or change addresses without permission. That period of parole supervision, which included frequent contact with a parole officer and the possibility…

Read More

IN: Judge keeps sex offender’s voting suit alive

A registered sex offender’s lawsuit against the Indiana Secretary of State and other parties will proceed, a federal judge ruled Thursday, denying the defendants’ motion to dismiss. Blackford County resident ____ ____ filed the federal suit alleging his First and 14th Amendment rights were violated because he cannot vote at the local polling place located in the Blackford County High School auxiliary gym. ____’s suit challenges I.C. 35-42-4-14 that prohibits “serious sex offenders” from entering school property. The law took effect in 2015, and ____ meets the definition of serious sex offender…

Read More

IN: Supreme Court rules sex offenders who move to Indiana must register

INDIANAPOLIS — A sex offender required to register in any other state must also register with Indiana police if he or she relocates to the Hoosier State, regardless of when the initial sex crime was committed. The Indiana Supreme Court ruled 5-0 Thursday that it is not an unconstitutional retroactive punishment for the state to require sex offenders with registration obligations elsewhere to also register in Indiana. Full Article Related http://www.theindianalawyer.com/supreme-court-ex-post-facto-laws-dont-apply-to-2-sex-offenders/PARAMS/article/39607

Read More

IN: Senate unanimously passes legislation to create child abuse registry

New legislation is making its way through the Indiana General Assembly to create an online public registry for convicted child abusers. Indiana State Sen. Carlin Yoder authored the bill known as Kirk’s Law in honor of a 19-month-old boy who died under the care of his babysitter in Northern Indiana. The Senate unanimously passed the bill 49-0. It is currently in the House, recently referred to the Committee on Courts and Criminal Code. Full Article

Read More

IN: Supreme Court scrutinizes sex offender registration requirement

INDIANAPOLIS | Indiana law, since 2006, has required sex offenders who must register in their home states to also register in Indiana if they relocate to the Hoosier State. But does a new Hoosier who committed a sex crime elsewhere prior to 2006 still have to register in Indiana? Or is that an unconstitutional “ex post facto” law that imposes a punishment that didn’t exist when the crime was committed? Full Article

Read More

IN: Zach Anderson removed from Indiana sex offender registry after months-long court battle

Zach Anderson of Elkhart is off the Indiana sex offender registry after a months-long court battle over a criminal sexual conduct case. Anderson pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal sexual conduct earlier this year after having sex in December with a 14-year-old Niles, Mich., girl who told him she was 17. Anderson’s sentence included 25 years on the sex offender registry — a punishment his family thought was too harsh considering both Anderson, who was 19 at the time, and the girl said he did not know she was underage. Full…

Read More

IN: 20-year-old on sex-offender registry gets leniency

An Indiana man, who was looking at spending more than two decades on the sexual offender registry for a dating app hookup, got some good news. A judge has resentenced Zach Anderson to two years’ probation — a decision that will keep him off Michigan’s list and possibly off Indiana’s as well. Anderson was 19 when he had sex with a 14-year-old Michigan girl who had told him she was 17. Even if the sex was consensual and even if the girl did lie about her age, it is not…

Read More

IN: Suit – Law impedes sex offender’s voting rights

HARTFORD CITY – The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana on Tuesday filed a federal class action lawsuit on behalf of a Hartford City man concerned that a change in state law might impede his ability to vote. A new law went into effect July 1 that prohibits “serious sex offenders” from entering school property. “One of the consequences of this is that these persons will be prohibited from voting at their designated polling place if it is located on school property,” the ACLU’s suit, filed in U.S. District Court in…

Read More

IN: Indiana sex offender’s porn ban tossed out by appeals court

A federal appeals court panel has overturned a lower court’s order banning an Indiana sex offender from viewing adult pornography. The panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit ruled Thursday that a probation requirement barring convicted sex offender Jeffrey P. Taylor of Logansport from accessing “legal adult pornography” was not supported by evidence in his criminal case. The decision, however, has little actual impact on Taylor. His probation period ended Friday — the day after the appeals court decision was issued. “Since the service…

Read More

IN: ACLU – RFRA must let sex offenders worship at churches with schools

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed Wednesday what appears to be the first lawsuit that invokes the state’s new new Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Their clients? Registered sex offenders who believe their religious freedom is being denied by another new law that bans them from attending any church located on the same property as a school. Full Article

Read More

IN: LGBT proposal still faces debate, but a provision protecting the transgender community is spurring concern

Some fear the ordinance, if approved, could be used as a pretext by sexual offenders falsely claiming transgender identities to enter bathrooms of the opposite sex. … Concerns like his aren’t lost on Councilman Brian Dickerson. Registered sex offenders, Dickerson worries, “could use this to prey upon future victims,” claiming transgender identities to enter public restrooms of the opposite sex. He doesn’t support the ordinance “in whole or in part in any way.” Full Article

Read More