Tag: Texas

TX: Protestors make alarming allegations about statewide sex offender treatment program in Littlefield

R H

Source: everythinglubbock.com 4/11/22 LITTLEFIELD, Texas – Protestors gathered in front of the Civil Commitment Facility in Littlefield on Saturday morning to shine a light on the injustices they said are happening within the barbed-wire fences of the former prison. Texas created the Civil Commitment Program in 1999; like 20 other states, this kind of program allows state agencies to mandate sex offenders, who have already served their time in prison, to partake in treatment programs intended to mitigate possible reoffending in the future. In 2015, Governor Abbott reformed the program…

Read More

TX: Public awareness event at the Texas Civil Commitment Program

R H

posted on FAC website 3/18/22 April 9th, 10:30am Central Time, in front of the Texas Civil Commitment Center, 2600 S. Sunset Ave, Littlefield, Texas 79339 @ 10:30am Please join us for a public awareness event at the Texas Civil Commitment Program on Saturday, April 9 to rally against abuses within the program and call for a meaningful pathway to release. Our plan for those who will be coming into town Friday the 8th of April, (the day before) is to stay at the Best Western Inn located at 2600 Hall…

Read More

TX: Automatic license plate readers helping to deter crime and track registrants in Houston-area cities

R H

Source: khou.com 2/21/22 HOUSTON — Some Houston-area cities are fighting crime by installing virtual gates around their communities. Dozens of cameras are taking millions of pictures of driver’s license plates each month. One local police chief said the technology helped catch 25 times as many suspects in wanted vehicles as the year before. Each time a vehicle passes one of the automatic license plate reading cameras in the Memorial Villages, a picture is taken. … In addition to stolen vehicles and missing persons, the Memorial Villages Police Department is alerted…

Read More

TX: Austin sees hundreds of sex offender cases removed from police officer supervision due to defunding

R H

Source: foxnews.con 1/8/22 A source tells Fox News that one of the sex offenders moved to civilian supervision sexually assaulted an autistic teenager Hundreds of convicted sex offenders are no longer being monitored by sworn police officers in Austin, Texas due to the city’s move to defund the police and cut police academy classes.  As of 2019, there were about 1,600 registered sex offenders in Austin according to the state’s sex offender database. There is no law preventing any of them from living near schools or other places where children…

Read More

TX: Former Staffers Condemn Cruel Treatment of Inmates at a Texan Prison for Sex Offenders

R H

Source: reason.com 8/12/21 The men must keep masturbation diaries, wear ankle monitors, and even use penile circumference gauges. Lenore Skenazy For many men serving time for committing sex offenses in Texas, their prison term never really ends—even if they complete their sentence. That’s because they’re required to enter a live-in mental health facility before returning to society. That facility—in Littlefield, Texas—is actually a former maximum security prison in the middle of a dirt field. “It comes as a surprise,” says Mary Sue Molnar, founder of Texas Voices for Reason and…

Read More

TX: Family of Texas teacher suing police after sting operation

R H

Source: floridaactioncommittee.org 8/10/21 The family of a Texas teacher are suing a local police department, claiming that a detective drove him to suicide by unjustly arresting him as part of a sting operation. A 39-year-old junior high school teacher from Conroe, Texas, poisoned himself to death with carbon monoxide just days after being released from the Montgomery County jail in August 2019. At the time of his death, Peterson was facing a charge of online solicitation of a minor, which is a felony punishable by up to 20 years in…

Read More

TX: Texas to be first state to make buying sex a felony

R H

Source: inforney.com 7/6/21 A new law that goes into effect Sept. 1 will make Texas the first state to punish sex buyers with a felony. HB 1540 was filed by state Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston. It passed both chambers of the state legislature and was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott. The new law creates a separate offense for buying sex and raises the penalty to a state felony subject to jail time. It expands first-degree felony human trafficking to include certain actions related to obtaining victims from shelters…

Read More

TX: Austin man to use backyard as homeless encampment site [EXCEPT FOR…]

R H

Source: spectrumlocalnews.com 7/6/21 AUSTIN, Texas — Josiah Ingalls isn’t giving up on his plan to use private land as an encampment for people experiencing homelessness. “Whenever you talk about housing and the homeless and that it’s not the government’s job and how people should do it and people should put them in their own backyard, well that’s what we are literally doing here,” Ingalls said. Ingalls is in the process of forming a nonprofit called Camp Haven Sanctuary, a temporary homeless encampment aimed at addressing the homelessness crisis in Austin. Camp Haven…

Read More

TX: Man sentenced to 40 years in prison for failing to register

R H

[Source: click2houston.com – 6/10/21] GALVESTON, Texas – A man has been sentenced to 40 years in prison by a Galveston County jury after he failed to register on the sex offense registry, according to the Galveston County Criminal District Attorney. Thomas Lee Alexander, III was required to register with local law enforcement because of a 1995 conviction for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in Harris County, according to the DA’s Office. In 2017, Alexander moved from Galveston to Indiana without notifying local authorities, and in 2019, the Galveston Police Department…

Read More

TX: 74-year-old man required to register was wrongly convicted in 1982, Dallas judge finds

R H

[dallasnews.com – 5/27/21] Nearly 40 years after Mallory Vernon Nicholson’s trial, a Dallas County district court judge has agreed with prosecutors and defense lawyers that his convictions for burglary and aggravated sexual abuse of a child should be overturned. Prosecutors in Nicholson’s 1982 trial failed to disclose reports from detectives and a doctor who evaluated the two victims that identified another suspect, according to court records signed last week by Criminal District Court 7 Judge Chika Anyiam. Nicholson “would not have been convicted in light of the suppressed evidence,” the…

Read More

TX: [UPDATED] 3 on the run in Texas City murder of man who was reportedly listed on the sex offense registry

R H

UPDATED STATUS: Sex offense registry status may have contributed to Texas City beating death, police say [galvnews.com – 5/29/21] [abc13.com – 5/24/21] TEXAS CITY, Texas (KTRK) — As Texas City police search for three people on the run after a 65-year-old man was beaten to death, details are emerging about what could have led to the attack, including the victim’s past conviction for indecency with a child. Police already have 30-year-old Christopher Daniel Gomez in custody for the murder of Daniel Sanders, who investigators say was jumped outside of Diamond…

Read More

TX: Kyle approves child safety zones to restrict sex offender residency within city

R H

[communityimpact.com – 5/4/21] After several months of discussion and amending guidelines, the city of Kyle has approved implementation of child safety zones that would restrict where registered sex offenders may reside. … City officials noted during discussion of the ordinance in February that based on its definition of common areas where children gather, residency within 95% of Kyle would be off limits for registered sex offenders. Read the full article Related: Kyle officials revisit safety zones designed to restrict registered sex offender residency [communityimpact.com – 4/20/21]  

Read More

TX: Convicted sex offender declared ineligible to run for Arlington mayor

R H

[dallasnews.com – 4/12/21] A convicted sex offender has been ruled ineligible to run for Arlington mayor, but his name will remain on the ballot because the deadline has passed to remove it, according to the city secretary’s office. Jerry Warden was one of eight candidates vying for the position of mayor. The city initially ruled that Warden could remain in the race after another candidate filed a complaint, but reversed that decision last week. Warden holds a lifetime listing on the Texas Public Sex Offenders Registry after being convicted in…

Read More

TX: Proposed Kyle sex offender law has supporters and opponents

R H

[communityimpact.com – 3/15/21] Kyle City Council will consider passing a new ordinance which would restrict where some individuals on the Texas sex offender registry can reside, regardless of whether or not the offender is on probation or parole. The ordinance, brought to council by Kyle Police Chief Jeff Barnett, specifically targets offenders convicted of crimes involving minors. Of the city’s 67 residents on the registry, nine were convicted of minor-related crimes. Kyle does not have the most sex offenders in the region—New Braunfels has 106—but its ratio to normal residents…

Read More

TX: Man who ID’d himself to police with sex offender card at Conroe Catholic school sentenced to 99 years in prison

R H

[click2houston.com – 3/11/21] CONROE, Texas – A jury sentenced a sex offender to 99 years in prison on Wednesday, officials said. James ____, 65, received the sentence for failing to comply with his sex offender registration requirements. Prosecutors said they presented evidence that ____was unlawfully present at the Sacred Heart Catholic School on April 26, 2019. Read the full article  

Read More

TX: What I learned working in a Texas prison: Retribution, not reformation

R H

[baptistnews.com – 3/11/21] I served as a pastor for 33 years and then worked nearly six years as a counselor at the most high-profile maximum-security prison in Texas. There, I ran the mental health department, nestled in the prison infirmary, which serves all the offenders and, in emergencies, staff and correctional staff. Looking back, I can say there is nothing in the Texas criminal justice system or the Texas Department of Criminal Justice that is right, meets the standards of “not cruel or unusual punishment,” nor is fundamentally rooted in…

Read More

TX: Convicted sex offender allowed to remain in Arlington mayoral race

R H

[dallasnews.com – 2/28/21] Arlington officials say a convicted sex offender can remain on the ballot for mayor after another candidates filed a complaint. Jerry Warden filed for the Arlington mayoral race on Feb. 11, joining seven other residents seeking to become the city’s 27th mayor. Mayor Jeff Williams is serving his third and final term, and is not eligible to run again for the position due to Arlington term limit laws. Warden holds a lifetime listing on the Texas Public Sex Offenders Registry after being convicted in 1996 on charges…

Read More