____ ____, a Clay County father who has long denied that he was a sex offender who molested his own son, received a telephone call Friday that he has wanted for nearly half his life. The call was from the office of Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon. The news: ____ had been pardoned of the crime he said he never committed, and he was told his name would no longer appear on Missouri’s sex offender registry. Full Article
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MO: Group seeks clemency for sex offender
State Rep. Jim Neely will join a group of his colleagues and concerned Missourians to call on Gov. Jay Nixon to grant clemency and pardon Earnest Leap, who has been a registered sex-offender for over 20 years because of false accusations shared by his son 27 years ago. Full Article
Read MoreMO: Sex-offender status poses a housing challenge for ill Army veteran
Army veteran Paul King struggles to find a place to call home. Shackled with poor health and a sexual-abuse conviction, King has seen his life deteriorate. Nearly blind and with failing kidneys, the 45-year-old King, who suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, has been in and out of hospitals over the past eight months. He lives in Peaceful Pines residential-care facility in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. The small facility can house 20 residents. “I feel like I have been left here to die,” he said during a visit with his sister, Carol…
Read MoreMO: Prosecutor scolds community for supporting molester
KANSAS CITY • A Missouri prosecutor has called out members of a small community for shunning a sexual abuse victim while publicly supporting a community leader who confessed to molesting her for more than a decade. In a scathing news release last week, Platte County prosecuting attorney Eric Zahnd listed 16 Dearborn residents who had either written letters or testified in court in support of ____ ____ after he admitted the girl’s claims were true. Full Article
Read MoreMS: ‘Lie’ begets lifetime of regret for Clay County father, son
Brodie Leap was 5 years old when he told what he now calls The Lie. He says he knew it was a lie the second he said it. He is 31 now, living in Oakview in Clay County, and he has known his entire life that it wasn’t true. Full Article
Read MoreMO: Supreme Court weighing adult sex offender registration for youth
The Missouri Supreme Court heard a case Wednesday that could have wide-ranging effects on children accused of serious sexual crimes. The case involves a troubled, developmentally delayed 14-year-old St. Louis boy accused of sexually assaulting his 41-year-old adoptive sister. But it also could challenge the state’s little-known juvenile sex offender registry, and the juvenile court’s ability to place children on the adult registry. Full Article
Read MoreMO: 3 relatives accused of staging kidnapping of boy to teach him a lesson
LINCOLN COUNTY, Mo. – A 6-year-old Missouri boy’s mother, grandmother and aunt are accused of staging a kidnapping, then holding the child for four hours to teach him about stranger danger. Full Article
Read MoreMO: Amendment 2 asks whether child sex defendants’ past acts can be used against them at trial
The Missouri Constitution currently bars testimony that past acts show propensity — that the accused is likely guilty of the same crime again. Amendment 2 would alter that rule in cases involving child sexual abuse, including allowing testimony about crimes that were never charged. Full Article
Read MoreMaking money off sex offender information
NEW BLOOMFIELD — How much money would you pay to know if any sex offenders live in your area? Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Kids Live Safe charges its subscribers $29.97 per month, or $59.88 per year, to tell them where registered sex offenders live in relation to their houses, schools or other places they frequent. Users can set up email alerts for up to four addresses, install filters to monitor their children’s online activity, and create profiles of their children to give to law enforcement if their children ever disappear. Full…
Read MoreMO: Defense attorney raises concerns about Missouri proposal on evidence in child sex abuse cases
JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri — A Missouri ballot measure that would allow allegations of past actions to be used against people facing child sexual abuse charges could lead to more wrongful convictions of the falsely accused, a prominent defense attorney said Wednesday. The proposed constitutional amendment is backed by prosecutors, sheriffs and police chiefs’ groups. It would allow past criminal acts — even alleged crimes that didn’t result in convictions — to be used to corroborate victim testimony or demonstrate a defendant’s propensity to commit such crimes when people face sex-related…
Read MoreMO: No place for sex offenders to go
Ol’ Chaplain Farris Robertson is at it again — housing multiple registered sex offenders in a residential Springfield neighborhood despite a city order to vacate. Attorneys with the city of Springfield, busy defending the city’s position in federal court, have decided to leave the residents of 1809 E. Crestview St. alone, for now. City officials are hopeful a court hearing, expected in early September, will put an end to the discussion and finally force the residents to disband. The city says, among other complaints, that far too many of the…
Read MoreMO: Springfield sued over order to close group home
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri nonprofit has filed a lawsuit contending that the city of Springfield violated federal and city laws when it ordered the closure of a group home for recovering alcoholics, drug addicts and sex offenders. Recovery Chapel and its executive director, Farris Robertson, said in the federal lawsuit filed Tuesday against the city and its Board of Adjustment that the city’s refusal to allow the group home violates the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as local zoning codes. Full Article
Read MoreMO: Sex offender presses for chance to be off registry
JEFFERSON CITY — Miniature hockey skates slide across the ice, scarring the surface. A boy jerks his hips back and forth, his eyes trained on his dad who is skating backward smoothly. Six-year-old Julian does his best to imitate the movements. Full Article
Read MoreMO: My Son, the Sex Offender: One Mother’s Mission to Fight the Law
In the run up to Halloween one year, Sharie Keil saw something that really made her jump: Missouri governor Jay Nixon, then the attorney general. He was on television to announce that registered sex offenders were hereby banned from participating in her favorite holiday. On threat of a year in jail, they had to stay inside and display a sign saying they had no candy. The goal was “to protect our children,” as Nixon put it, but Keil heard only a peal of political hysteria. Full Article
Read MoreMO: Area Counties to Charge for Sex Offender Registration
(ST. JOSEPH, Mo.) Sheriff’s departments from nine counties across northwest Missouri will be taking advantage of a law allowing them to charge sex offenders for maintaining the Sex Offender Registry program. Representatives from four of those counties met at the Buchanan County Sheriff’s office Monday to talk about the charges. Full Article
Read MoreMO: How robbing a pot dealer puts you on the sex offender list
On a January evening in 2004, four young men were visiting an acquaintance who lived in an apartment in Maplewood. Also living in the apartment was a 17-year-old who attended an alternative high school. His name was Eddie. Word was that Eddie sold pot. Full Article
Read MoreMO: Students to be charged with distributing child porn
ST. CHARLES COUNTY – St. Peters police say some St. Charles County students are likely to be charged with distributing child pornography. NewsChannel 5 has exclusively learned the case involves nude selfies taken and texted out by students at Fort Zumwalt East High School. Full Article / Video
Read MoreMO: Gladstone woman on a crusade for change following Hailey Owens’ death
GLADSTONE, Mo. — Donna Roesle is a mother of three adult kids. Hours after the murder of Hailey Owens, she organized an online petition in hopes of getting a law passed that will get tougher on criminals who commit crimes against children. “It’s just awful that somebody can go out there and grab an innocent baby and do this,” Roesle said. Roesle has a daughter who is expecting her first child. The outrage she felt after Owens’ sudden death has left a hole in her heart and pushed her into action.…
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