Last week I wrote about the accused and their accusers. But they were all living. What happens when fresh accusations of sexual offenses are leveled against those who are deceased? In East TN a young man recently accused a priest and a former bishop in the Diocese of Knoxville of sexual offenses which he says occurred in the 1990’s. (The lawsuit also contends that a Catholic School music teacher, still living, had also attempted to be inappropriate with the accuser. While this teacher remains employed by the school, the diocese…
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Kat’s Blog: The Truth Lies Somewhere in the Middle
On Wednesday, Massachusetts criminal prosecutors dropped their case against actor Kevin Spacey. Spacey had faced a criminal charge of indecent assault and battery in connection with a reported July 2016 incident at the Club Car restaurant/bar in Nantucket. His accuser, an 18 yr. old busboy at the restaurant, had accused Spacey of groping him. The accuser’s mother, a former TV anchor, filed the complaint more than a year after the alleged incident supposedly occurred. Spacey pled “not guilty” and faced up to five years in prison if convicted. The alleged…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Tennessee Temporary Restraining Order Extended Indefinitely
We were all waiting for July 11, 2019 the court date for the preliminary injunction regarding whether or not TN registrants would be allowed to continue to reside in their homes with minor children. July 10th 2019 an Agreed Order Extending the Temporary Restraining Order, was filed in The United States District Court for The Middle District of TN At Nashville. What should have been a slam-dunk win for registrants, even according to the judge who stated “plaintiffs have demonstrated a strong or substantial likelihood of success on the merits…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: The Media Loves To Hate “Sex Offenders”
The manner in which news about sexual offenses is reported by the media affects public opinion and perception of “sex offenders”. Registrants seldom receive good press and it seems too often that “as the media goes, so goes the law.” While re-offense rates for registrants are on the decline compared to other types of offenses, news media ignores and fails to report these facts. Positive facts about registrants just don’t make for eye-catching headlines, they don’t create the hype and moral panic that media relies on to sustain its self.…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Registrants and a Defeatist Attitude
Recently I read some comments on another advocacy website pertaining to TN’s new law effective July 1, 2019, in which adult registrants may not reside overnight in a home with a minor in it. The comments that caught my attention weren’t the “we’ve got to fight and do something about this” comments, but instead, the number of defeatist comments, “nothing is changing, we’re only fooling ourselves, we’re not winning, little wins mean nothing”. One person even went so far as to say something to the effect that they felt like…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Where Does the Burden of Proof Lie?
Just by virtue of being on the registry comes the erroneous assumption that all registrants are a danger to the public. With some of what I’ll call, the lesser offenses, public urination, skinny dipping, sexting, etc. it doesn’t really seem that the state or federal courts “prove” that a registrant is a threat to the community. In the eyes of the law, a “sex offender is a sex offender” and the same registrant label is slapped on everyone for 10yrs. to life. Who bears the burden of proof that a…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Tennessee’s New Law: A Form of Birth Control for Registrants
Several months ago several TN Senators and Representatives were hell-bent on passing a two-fold law aimed at further punishment against registrants. The first part of the law would have increased the boundary restrictions for registrants from 1,000 ft. to 2,000 ft., thankfully, this portion of the law was abandoned. However, the second part of the law was passed and it is already bringing in to question the amount of “functioning gray matter” that these legislators actually have. Here’s the new law as it is written: State of TN /Senate…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Accusations
A recent story out of Logan, Utah got me thinking about how those who are wrongly accused, whether a registrant or not a registrant, are treated so vastly different in the eyes of the world. On April 23, 62 yr. old Michael Fife (not a registrant) was killed after being accused of a sexual assault aboard a Cache Valley Transit District bus. A 16 yr. old female called her 17 yr. old brother and told him that she had been sexually assault by Fife. A few minutes later, the brother…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Does Law Enforcement Belong In Your Group Setting?
Therapeutic treatment groups, no matter what kind, are usually carefully monitored settings where one can feel safe enough to talk about very personal and intimate issues. “Sex offender” treatment groups should be no exception. The therapeutic groups that many registrants are mandated to attend are also supposed to be safe havens, settings where registrants can open up in a group of their peers, about difficult issues they are dealing with. So why are parole officers sitting in on “sex offender” therapy treatment sessions? It doesn’t seem right and it doesn’t…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Pornography: A Public Health Crisis?
They are at it again- Lawmakers across the country declaring pornography a “”public health crisis”. This isn’t new by any means, several years ago lawmakers were calling pornography an “epidemic”. This week lawmakers in the Arizona state government approved a measure urging the state to prevent “exposure & addiction” to porn. 15 other states legislative chambers have adopted similar measures. Is it true? Is pornography an epidemic, a public health crisis? I thought those scare tactics were supposed to be used for real “population panic” like the plague. According to…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Human Sexuality VS Human Kindness
Human Sexuality is described as the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, erotic, physical, emotional, social or spiritual behaviors. But many of us seem to have taken a wrong turn somewhere, we’ve misconstrued human kindness with human sexuality. Look at poor Joe Biden, accused of invading several women’s sexual boundaries by giving them what they are now saying were “unwanted hugs” sometime ago. (Never mind that they didn’t complain about it until he threw his hat in the presidential ring.) Joe grew up in an era…
Read MoreKat’s blog: The Definition of Words Matters
Watch the current goings on in Washington. Politicians have become fluent at arguing over the definition of words. During the Clinton administration it was the word “is” that Pres. Clinton needed defined. Now, with Attorney General Barr the word “summary” is an issue. I don’t know about the folks in Washington but where I come from all you have to do is look up the definition of a word in the dictionary. It’s not rocket science. Definitions of words are pretty clear cut aren’t they? While those in Washington may…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Why We Stay
Recently Fox News did an article on Law & Order TV Director Jace Alexander (son of actress Jane Alexander). Mr. Alexander was sentenced in NY to 10 yrs. probation and registration as a” sexual offender”, on child pornography charges. He had faced up to 7 yrs. Imprisonment. But this piece isn’t so much about Mr. Alexander as it is about his wife, actress Maddie Corman and his family and the reason they stayed with him and supported him through this ordeal. Maddie Corman told the Times of London that she…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: A Time to Reflect
Easter, a holiday with candy, decorations, family visits and children participating in Easter egg hunts. A holiday that so far, is fine for registrants to celebrate. Halloween, candy, decorations and children, yet it’s outlawed for registrants. I don’t get it, it doesn’t make any sense. We could say that there’s the religious element to Easter therefore they can’t take that away from us. But, there are those whose Wiccan religious beliefs include celebrating Oct.31st, Halloween, is their right to celebrate their religion denied them? I’m not certain how one religious…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: TN HB407 Smells of Genocide
As I watched the TN General Assembly video/April 10th/Finance, Ways & Means Committee/ Vote on part two of HB407, I couldn’t help flashing back to a definition I had learned in a World History class. Genocide: In 1948 the UN approved its Convention on the Prevention & Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), which defined genocide as any of a number of acts “committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethical, racial or religious group”. This includes causing seriously bodily or mental harm…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Living in the Gray Zone
A local “sex offender treatment group” recently had a guest speaker from the sheriff’s office. He was there to speak about the do’s and don’ts of the registry. My first thought was “shouldn’t everyone in group have been informed of the do’s and don’ts when they were first put on the registry? Isn’t that when registrants should be provided with all the information they will need to be informed registrants? Instead, they wait till the registrants are all assembled in a treatment group that the registrants are paying for to…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: We are More Than a Mugshot
Last week’s Miami Herald article bothered me. You know the one, “Karma caught up with these sex offenders and predators, Florida cops say”. It was called Operation Karma, the totally unnecessary round-up of registrants, in this case, 26 of them, whose only “crime” was neglecting to follow through with some tiresome registration requirement, listing a new home address, registering a motor vehicle, a media account, updating employment information, etc. I suppose this “operation” served two purposes, it gave the police of Polk County, Fl. something to do that particular day…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Winning One Battle at a Time
TN House Bill 407 went before the house committee on Wednesday. In summary, the bill which was proposed by House Rep. Doggett and Senator Hensley sought two amendments to the current registrant residency restriction law. First, it sought to increase from 1,000ft to 2,000ft, the current residency restrictions for registrants. Second, it asked to mandate that no registrant whose victim was a minor, shall knowingly reside or conduct an overnight visit at a residence in which a minor resides or is present. For weeks before this committee meeting myself and…
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