On a November morning in 2013, Erica Hammel learned over the phone that her 1-year-old son Wyatt was near death — hospitalized with a skull fracture and brain damage after being violently shaken by a woman trusted to care for him. Hammel would later learn the woman had twice been convicted of child abuse — a revelation that led the Michigan mother to fight for a state-wide child abuser registry, which, if passed, would be the first of its kind in the nation. Full Article
Read MoreTag: Michigan
MI: Sixth Circuit Considers Internet Restrictions on Former Sex Offenders This Week
The Center for Democracy & Technology has filed an amicus brief in the Sixth Circuit case Doe v. Snyder, a case challenging unconstitutional registration requirements imposed on former sex offenders and brought by the ACLU of Michigan. CDT is joined on the brief by the First Amendment Lawyers Association and Professor David G. Post, an expert in Internet law. The court is holding oral arguments Wednesday, January 27. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Michigan Supreme Court takes sex offender list case
The Michigan Supreme Court has agreed to look at the case of a man who’s on the sex offender list for life, although his conviction was erased nearly 20 years ago. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Senate bill restoring 1,000-foot sex offender-free zone around schools clears judiciary committee
LANSING (WKZO-AM) — Legislation restoring a one thousand-foot zone around public schools where registered sex offenders cannot work or live has cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee. Committee chairperson Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, authored the bill in response to a federal judicial ruling that tossed out the law as unconstitutionally vague. “If sex offenders are hanging around schools, lets put them away,” Jones said. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Sex offender suit says Michigan registry unfairly restricts housing, employment
GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A man on Michigan’s Sex Offender Registry contends changes in the law severely restrict access to housing and contain requirements so vague that offenders cannot know if they are in compliance. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Inmate Who Killed Child Molester Offers Simple Explanation For Why He Did It
Steven D. Sandison, 51, a now-former inmate at Saginaw Regional Correctional Facility in Freeland, Michigan, offered a simple explanation for killing his cellmate, ____ ____, 67, in October 2014. “The reason I killed him was because he was a child molester,” Sandison told Chief Circuit Judge Fred L. Borchard on Monday, MLive reported. Full Article
Read MoreIN: 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 MoreMI: Anderson sentencing hits home with other parents
BERRIEN COUNTY, Mich. – The Anderson family of Elkhart are back to waiting, after an uneventful court appearance Wednesday afternoon. The judge delayed a decision on resentencing 19-year-old Zach Anderson who must register as a sex offender in Michigan and Indiana. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Judge reinstates harsher child pornography charges against teen accused of Catholic school threats
GRAND RAPIDS, MI — A judge has decided that charges of producing child pornography thrown out by a lower court judge should be reinstated against a 17-year-old Catholic high school honor student. In a hearing Friday, May 29, Kent County Circuit Court Judge Mark Trusock ruled in favor of the prosecution that teen Matthew Herrington potentially violated the law when he allegedly downloaded more than 133 images of child pornography. In a Grand Rapids District Court hearing from March, defense attorney Anthony Greene convinced Judge Jeanine LaVille that because his…
Read MoreIN: Campaign for Elkhart 19-year-old underscores broader concerns about sex offender registries
ELKHART — The requirement that 19-year-old ____ ____ register as a sex offender as part of his conviction for involvement with an underage girl isn’t just a concern for him and his parents, Les and Amanda Anderson. It’s part of a larger movement against what some critics see as indiscriminate and unfair placement of certain offenders on such registries. Full Article Related MI: ‘Old-fashioned scarlet letter’: Elkhart 19-year-old fights sex offender status after encounter with Michigan teen
Read MoreMI: ‘Old-fashioned scarlet letter’: Elkhart 19-year-old fights sex offender status after encounter with Michigan teen
As ____ ____ sits in the Berrien County Jail in St. Joseph, Mich., his parents worry. And plead. And fight. The young man from Elkhart, 19, pleaded guilty in Berrien County, Mich., Trial Court in March to a misdemeanor count of criminal sexual conduct for having sex — consensual sex — on Dec. 19, 2014, with a Niles, Mich., teen. She said she was 17, and met him in person after a whirlwind courtship in cyberspace that started with a meeting via the social app Hot or Not. Full Article
Read MoreDo Sex Offender Registration Laws Do Any Good?
Last month a federal judge ruled that certain aspects of Michigan’s Sex Offenders Registration Act (SORA) are unconstitutionally vague. Sex offenders, for example, are forbidden to live, work, or “loiter” within 1,000 feet of “school property.” U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland noted that such “school safety zones” are not clearly defined, making it difficult to comply with the law. He said the term loiter is vague as well: Does it apply, say, to people attending their children’s parent-teacher conferences or their grandchildren’s school plays? Cleland said two other rules—requiring registrants…
Read MoreMI: Does Michigan’s sex offender registry keep us safer?
It has been 10 years since ____ ____, a married father and caretaker at an Oakland County Catholic church, was convicted of groping a teenage girl over her sweater, a claim ____ vehemently denies. ____ , then-37 with a clean criminal record, was convicted of misdemeanor sexual assault and sent to jail for seven months. Though a misdemeanor, state law demanded ____ be listed on the same public sex offender registry as hard-core rapists, pedophiles and other felons. It has meant a decade of poverty, unemployment, harassment and depression for…
Read MoreMI: Eliminating statute of limitations on child molestation could be unconstitutional
LANSING — A panel of Michigan lawmakers questioned the constitutionality of a bill to allow criminal cases against people accused of molesting children decades ago, despite emotional testimony from alleged victims of a Norton Shores man. House Bill 4231 would retroactively remove all statute of limitations on first-degree criminal sexual conduct of a minor. In 2001, the Michigan Legislature eliminated the statute of limitations on first-degree criminal sexual conduct, which prior to that was six years. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Time to rethink sex offender rules (Opinion)
In the 20 years since Michigan decided it would be a good idea to keep tabs on sex offenders with a record of targeting children, the state’s sex offender registry has swelled exponentially. Full Opinion Piece
Read MoreMI: Parts of state’s sex offender law unconstitutional
Michigan’s Sex Offender Registry law is so vague that parts of it are unconstitutional, including the requirement that offenders stay at least 1,000 feet from schools, a federal judge has ruled. Full Article Related Michigan’s unfair sex offender list (Commentary) Sex offenders can be within 1,000 feet of schools after federal judge strikes down parts of law
Read MoreMI: Appeals judges call for change to sex offenders registration law
The state appeals court recently called for state lawmakers to amend the state Sex Offenders Registration Act to show it includes offenders convicted of nonsexual crimes against children. A three-judge panel of the state Court of Appeals made the statements in a March 26 opinion in which it denied the appeal of ____ _ ____, 48, of Sterling Heights, who along with two co-defendants was convicted in 2012 of 10 crimes related to imprisoning, assaulting and torturing four male juveniles for several hours in retaliation for breaking into his home.…
Read MoreMI: Animal abuse registry would be unfair, ineffective
We still have our doubts about Logan’s Law. It’s not a law yet, just a bill in the Michigan Legislature — again. First proposed in 2012, the law seeks to create an animal abuser registry to mirror the sex-offender registry that Michigan and many other states use to track those convicted of sexual assaults. The animal-abuse registry wouldn’t be a public list, although anyone with $10 could see it. Full Article
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