Officials in Orange County are issuing a warning to county residents regarding the release of a “dangerous sex offender” from Coalinga State Hospital after more than 20 years. County District Attorney Todd Spitzer and Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Michelle Steel are also urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to intervene in the release of ___ ___ ___. They’re also asking that the governor reinstate the requirement that he register as a sex offender. … In 1985, Smith pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor sexual offense involving a child and had to register as…
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CA: Appeals court grants new trial to sexually violent predator because of prosecutorial misconduct
A convicted violent sexual predator will get a new chance for controlled release from a state hospital because of prosecutorial misconduct, a state appellate court ruled this week. Full Article Decision
Read MoreCA: Judge Delays Decision on Sexually Violent Predator’s Release Into East County
A judge has delayed a decision to release a man convicted of sexually assaulting several children in the 1980s back into the San Diego community during a hearing Friday morning. Full Article
Read More36 Years In An Illinois Prison Without a Conviction or Sentence
[wbez.org – 3/7/19] In 1982, Terry Allen was charged with sexual assault, but prosecutors offered him what seemed like a way out. No time in prison. No criminal conviction. So Allen went along with it. “At the time, I thought, well that’s a good deal, and I’ll get right on out,” Allen said. “I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.” Allen never faced criminal trial on the sexual assault charges. He was never convicted or sentenced for the alleged crime, but has nonetheless spent almost four decades behind…
Read MoreCA: Convicted sexual predator running for Coalinga City Council as write-in candidate
Coalinga, California – A convicted child sex predator who’s currently being housed in a state mental hospital in Coalinga wants to run for city council district 5 seat. An election flyer is being passed around the state hospital telling inmates to vote for Micheal St. Martin as a write-in candidate for the district 5 seat. Full Article Related: abc30.com
Read MoreThese sex offenders are begging to be deported. Why does California pay millions to keep them?
_____ _____ has a healthy kidney waiting for him in El Salvador. But he can’t get to it. Despite his pleas to be deported to his home country, where relatives have offered their organs for transplant, the state of California pays thousands of dollars for him to receive dialysis three times a week at Coalinga State Hospital. _____ is a sexually violent predator, among nearly 1,300 men in a special class of sex offenders who, under state law, are sent to the Fresno County mental health hospital after serving their…
Read MoreCA: Did California Authorities Suppress Research on Sexually Violent Predators?
[thecrimereport.org – 8/3/18] State laws that allow sexually violent predators to be locked up even after they have served their sentences are based on questionable assumptions that they continue to pose a danger to society, according to a study published in the American Criminal Law Review. The study focused on California where, according to the authors, research indicating that sexually violent predators (SVPs) are less likely to re-commit crimes than other offenders was suppressed because it challenged the constitutional legitimacy of the state’s SVP laws. The research in the mid-2000s…
Read MorePA: Sex predator law challenged by Cosby to get court review
Pennsylvania’s highest court will consider whether the state can lawfully designate certain sex offenders as sexually violent predators, as it’s seeking to do in the case of Bill Cosby. Cosby’s attorneys also are challenging the constitutionality of the law. But the state Supreme Court’s decision Tuesday to review the statute was made in response to an appeal by the state in a different case, not Cosby’s challenge. A lower court judge had found the process by which offenders are deemed predators unconstitutional. Full Article
Read MoreCA: Assessing the Real Risk of Sexually Violent Predators: Doctor Padilla’s Dangerous Data [Paper]
[ssrn.com – 7/16/18] Abstract This Article uses internal memoranda and emails to describe the efforts of the California Department of Mental Health to suppress a serious and well-designed study that showed just 6.5% of untreated sexually violent predators were arrested for a new sex crime within 4.8 years of release from a locked mental facility. The Article begins by historically situating sexually violent predator laws and then explains the constitutionally critical role that prospective sexual dangerousness plays in justifying these laws. The Article next explains how the U.S. Supreme Court…
Read MoreCA: Coalinga Patients Score Two Victories
Patients at Coalinga State Hospital scored two victories today — one in court and the other in the state legislature. As a result of the victories, the patients’ past votes as well as future votes in City of Coalinga elections are valid. Specifically, a Fresno Superior Court judge ruled today against the City of Coalinga which had attempted to invalidate the patients’ votes in November 2017 which contributed to the defeat of a one cent sales tax. In its decision, the Court noted that the patients’ votes were valid because…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Three Opportunities in Thirty Days
We have three opportunities during the next 30 days to Show Up – Stand Up – Speak Up. Our first opportunity is in Sacramento on April 24 when the Senate Public Safety Committee will consider Senate Bill 1143. If passed, that bill would require registrants convicted of an offense involving a minor to disclose their status as a registrant to potential landlords as well as to home sellers if the property is within one-quarter mile of a school or a park. The penalty for not making such a disclosure is…
Read MoreCA: We pay millions for sex offender therapy at Coalinga hospital. Most patients aren’t in it
Thirteen years after Coalinga State Hospital was built to treat the state’s sexually violent predators, some of the men there say they’re more like prisoners than patients, and that the multimillion-dollar facility once criticized for its amenities is a sort of purgatory failing to rehabilitate offenders — and therefore failing the public. Full Article
Read MoreCA: May 9 Hearing Scheduled for Bill That Would Disenfranchise SVP’s
The Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee is scheduled to hear AB 2839 which, if passed, would disenfranchise hundreds of men who are otherwise eligible to vote and have been designated sexually violent predators at Coalinga State Hospital. The hearing will take place on May 9 at 9 a.m. in Room 444 of the State Capitol. “ACSOL encourages its members to attend this hearing in order to protect the voting rights of almost one thousand registrants,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. AB 2839 was introduced by Assembly member Dr. Joaquin…
Read MoreCA: After sexual predators swung an election, new law would change California voting rules
Four months after the patients of Coalinga State Hospital doomed a 1-cent sales tax needed to maintain police and fire staffing in the city, the California State Assembly is weighing a change to state voting law that would limit sexually violent predators’ voting rights. Full Article AB 2839 Related Assembly Bill to Disenfranchise Coalinga Patients
Read MoreCA: Child porn ‘epidemic’ triggers Coalinga hospital lockdown, patients file lawsuit
Two patients at Coalinga State Hospital, which houses nearly 1,000 sexually violent predators, have filed a federal lawsuit against the hospital’s executive director and 10 other staff members for allegedly violating their civil rights during a recent crackdown on portable electronic devices that hospital officials say was prompted by a “child porn epidemic.” Sacramento civil rights attorney Janice Bellucci filed the lawsuit on behalf of two patients, Michael Saint-Martin and an anonymous claimant, in federal court Tuesday night. It asks the court to immediately halt a newly implemented hospital policy…
Read MoreCA: Coalinga Patients Attempt to Join City, County Lawsuit
Patients at Coalinga State Hospital filed today a motion in Fresno Superior Court that, if granted, would allow them to join an existing lawsuit that attempts to negate their votes taken in a recent City of Coalinga election. The City of Coalinga has blamed the patients for the defeat of its attempted increase in the city’s sales tax. “The voting rights of the patients at Coalinga State Hospital must be protected,” stated attorney Janice Bellucci. “The patients reside within the City of Coalinga and Fresno County has determined that they are eligible to vote…
Read MoreCA: Coalinga State Hospital said to be on lockdown, but no official confirmation given
Trash-littered hallways, jammed doors, broken windows and clogged sewage are problems reported at Coalinga State Hospital, which is being described as having “riot-like conditions,” according to emails sent to The Bee. On Monday morning, the hospital said it could not confirm if the facility was on lockdown, but that more information would be available Tuesday. The hospital has1,286 beds, according to its website. Of that, 941 patients, or 73 percent of the population in 2016, are classified as sexually violent predators. Full Article Related http://kmph.com/news/local/coalinga-state-hospital-under-lockdown-following-protest-by-patients https://www.facebook.com/KMPHFOX26/posts/10157163869879012
Read MoreAuthorities looked at nearly 1,800 homes for this convicted child predator, but none were suitable. He now lives in a motel
A convicted child predator, whose proposed home was destroyed in a suspicious fire, has been released and is living in motels in Fresno County. Liberty, the contractor hired to supervise Snyder 24 hours a day, and the California Department of State Hospitals looked at 1,749 homes in Fresno County as possible residences for him. Full Article
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