Tag: Texas

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

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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…

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

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[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]  

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

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[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…

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TX: Proposed Kyle sex offender law has supporters and opponents

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[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…

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

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[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  

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

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[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…

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

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[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…

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TX: ‘Left to die’: Therapists say Texas sex offender treatment program too often fails on purpose

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[houstonchronicle.com 2/11/21] Texas’s civil commitment program for sexually violent offenders has earned a reputation as an unforgiving place. Much of that is by design. Each of the 378 men in it has already served his full prison term, some 20 years or longer. After their sentences were up, Texas evaluated them as too likely to re-offend, however, so they were ordered kept locked up indefinitely until ready to rejoin the free world. Their average age is nearing 60. The program’s sole facility, a collection of low buildings and temporary trailers,…

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TX: Beeville optometrist (!) appointed by Gov. Abbott to Texas sex offender treatment council

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[caller.com – 10/1/20] AUSTIN – Beeville optometrist Elizabeth Perez Aliseda has been appointed to the Texas  Council on Sex Offender Treatment by Gov. Greg Abbott. Aliseda owns Mira Vision Boutique in Beeville. She is also a member of the Texas Optometric Association and the American Optometric Association and a former president of the Coastal Bend College Foundation and the Beeville Rotary Club. Read more about this appointment of an optometrist who will manage sex offender treatment  

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TX: Proposal to Bar Ex-criminals from Affordable Housing in Texas Called Unfair

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[reformaustin.org – 9/22/20] Under draft rules being considered by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, anyone on the sex offender registry or those with drug manufacturing convictions would be permanently barred from state-supported housing. Others with violent felony convictions would be banned for three years, nonviolent felony offenders would be excluded for two years, and Class A misdemeanor offenses would result in a one-year ban. The possible new rules first reported on by the Houston Chronicle are opposed by fair housing advocates. “This will have a disastrous impact…

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TX: Texas man charged with murder of alleged sex offender near Carlsbad

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[amp.currentargus.com/amp/ – 7/17/20] A Texas man was charged with first degree murder in the March 16 death of an alleged Lea County sex offender living in Eddy County, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Carlsbad Police Department. Rodney Welch, 43, is presumed to have run over Richard Radcliff with a pickup truck. He was also charged with leaving the scene of an accident and knowingly causing death or bodily harm to Radcliff, the criminal complaint indicated. Read the full article  

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TX: Unfavorable Decision in the Hearn Case

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From TexasVoices: As many of you are aware our constitutional claim rested on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Santobello v. New York. In Santobello the Supreme Court ruled a state violates substantive due process under the Fourteenth Amendment when it breaches a plea bargain agreement with a criminal defendant. In our case the State of Texas did just that: it changed state law to require Jack, Donnie and Jimmy to register for life, long after they accepted a plea bargain agreement in their criminal cases. The negotiated terms of…

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TX: Texas church expelled from Southern Baptist Convention for hiring registered sex offender as pastor

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[tennessean.com – 2/18/20] The Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee expelled a Texas church Tuesday for employing a pastor who is a registered sex offender. The 80-plus member body, which acts on behalf of the Southern Baptist Convention when it is not in session, took a vote to disfellowship Ranchland Heights Baptist Church in Midland, Texas, during its regularly scheduled meeting in Nashville. Ranchland Heights is “no longer to be considered in friendly cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention,” said the Rev. Mike Stone, chairman of the Executive Committee. Read the full article  

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TX: Texas Sex Offender Registry Upheld by Fifth Circuit

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[bloomberglaw.com – 12/17/19] The Texas Sex Offender Registration Program, which requires sex offenders to make in person reports and restricts housing options, doesn’t violate the U.S. Constitution by depriving registrants of due process, the Fifth Circuit ruled. An individual convicted of a sex crime in a trial or plea agreement has received the minimum protections required by due process, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said Dec. 16. Secondary harms to registrants, such as finding housing, aren’t direct infringements by the state, the court said. The court…

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TX: Tejano singer convicted of rape to launch comeback tour

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[washingtonpost.com – 12/4/19] HOUSTON — A Tejano singer who was convicted of raping an underage female relative and imprisoned for more than a decade is preparing to relaunch his career with a sold-out show in Houston, despite the original terms of his release barring him from visiting the city and surrounding county because the victim lives there. … “For every one person against him, there are three more who support him,” said Vallejo, who noted that Lopez has been busy rehearsing. Tejano is a style of dance music that mixes…

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TX: Neighbors: Sex offenders may follow proposed Good Samaritan homeless shelter to area

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[caller.com – 11/29/19] There was a time when Abel Palacious found himself homeless. Now, he lives across the street from the old Lamar Elementary School. The school, at the corner of Morris and 19th streets, could be converted into the largest homeless shelter in Corpus Christi. It would house 308 beds as the new location for the Good Samaritan Rescue Mission. The organization served Palacious when he was homeless. Even so, he said he can’t support the shelter’s proposed location because registered sex offenders are allowed to stay at the Good Samaritan. He has…

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TX: ‘Wept like babies that day’: Man recalls family’s reaction after child sex abuse conviction overturned

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[kvue.com – 11/15/19] GEORGETOWN, Texas — For more than 20 years, Troy Mansfield was branded a “registered sex offender,” a shameful asterisk by his name that followed him everywhere. “I took my stepdad’s name and I wanted it to be a good name,” Mansfield said. “And I felt like somehow or another it got trashed by me, and I didn’t mean for it to.” The father of two sons struggled to support his family from a cleaning business, purposely in his wife’s name, Amy Mansfield. “We lived between $16,000 and…

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