Recently the Honorable P.K Reiter made headlines by finding Chapter 841 of the Texas Health and Safety Code unconstitutional. On Monday, December 14, Judge Reiter agreed with Defense Counsel Bill Marshall’s conclusion that the involuntary commitment of Alonzo May under the recently amended law was punitive and a denial of the man’s due process rights under both Texas and U.S. Full Article
Read MoreTag: Texas
TX: Signs not answer to sexual assault
The passage of the recent ordinance requiring sex offenders to place a sign in their yard has generated quite a furor over how unfair this ordinance is to the offender and his or her family. Full Article
Read MoreTX: A first – visiting judge in Texas frees violent sex offender
HOUSTON (AP) — A visiting judge in Conroe has ordered, for the first time, the full release of a violent sex offender from the Texas civil commitment program. Reiter ruled that keeping May in the program would be unconstitutional. The state plans an appeal. Full Article
Read MoreTX: Proposed law would require sex offender signs [updated with approval]
GONZALES — The Gonzales City Council approved an ordinance at Tuesday night’s regular monthly meeting requiring registered sex offenders within the city limits to post signs in their yard alerting everyone to their crime. Though councilmen were quick to move forward with the motion, it took several more minutes to explain what the law could actually do. City Manager Allen Barnes started by stating that several cities in the area have passed similar ordinances and said the law has been upheld by the courts. The ordinance would require registered sex…
Read MoreTX: Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office to stop registering some sex offenders
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office will stop registering sex offenders who reside inside municipalities, it announced to cities in October. According to MCSO Lt. Brady Fitzgerald, these regulations were recently “discovered” by the Office, prompting a letter sent to cities sometime in September or October. … The city attempted to bargain with MCSO by offering to pay for 10 percent of their sex offender registrars’ salaries, which is roughly the workload created by the city. MCSO declined their offer. Full Article
Read MoreTide turns against U.S. residency restrictions on sex offenders
Nearly two decades have passed since Josh Gravens, then 12 years old, was playing with his 8-year-old sister and touched her body in an inappropriate way, landing himself on a sex offender registry. His sister forgave him long ago but Gravens still worries that the incident could force him out of his Dallas home. Concerns about sexual predators have led communities in 30 U.S. states to adopt laws limiting where registered sex offenders can live, typically keeping them away from schools, parks or other places where children congregate. Full Article…
Read MoreTX: 46 cities face challenge to sex-offender residency laws
AUSTIN — Forty-six small cities across Texas are facing a new legal challenge to their ordinances that regulate where registered sex offenders can live, including several in the Houston area. Texas Voices for Reason and Justice, a statewide criminal-justice advocacy group, announced Monday it has” initiated action to compel, through litigation if necessary,” the repeal of the ordinances in so-called “general law” cities — the latest challenge to the residency limitations in Texas and across the country. Full Article
Read MoreCampaign: Keep CCA out of Dallas
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) is trying to move into Dallas. Let’s say no! Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA, makes a huge profit off of locking up people and even entire immigrant families. Now, this deplorable company with a history of inhumane treatment and a plethora of human rights violations has set its sights on winning an 80 YEAR contract with Dallas County. Several years ago, CCA was kicked out of Dallas after repeated violence and ignorance of human suffering occurred at Dawson State Jail (nicknamed Texas’ Worst Jail).…
Read MorePeople 2015: Josh Gravens, Advocate for Outcasts
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 20 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Can Turkyilmaz. As a rule, convicted sex offenders don’t get much empathy, and usually for good reason. Often, cities don’t think twice about creating laws that restrict sex offenders’ lives to the point that they become unlivable. Full Article
Read MoreHomophobic “Romeo and Juliet” Laws Fail to Decriminalize Queer Youth in Texas. Can It Be Fixed?
Consensual gay sex was a felony in every state until Illinois repealed its sodomy law in 1961. Connecticut, Ohio, California, and other states soon followed. By 2002, thirty-six states either selectively enforced or had overturned their statutes. Lawrence v Texas (2003) marked the federal end of sodomy laws. Even though sodomy statutes are unconstitutional, a handful of states still think sex between same-sex partners is illegal. State Representative Mary Gonzalez of Texas is valiantly attempting to equalize the unfair treatment and criminalization of queer adolescents. Full Article
Read MoreTX: North Dallas Mom Invites Sex Offenders To Tea
DALLAS (CBS 11 NEWS) – Sex offenders may be the last people you’d invite into your home. However, a North Dallas woman hosted a sex offender tea for three men on the sex offender registry. “We have to talk about this in polite society, and what’s more polite than tea?” asks Judy Safern. She also invited friends and neighbors over for the gathering and had plenty of them RSVP with an adamant NO! Full Article
Read MoreTX: Texas Voices standing against sex offender residency restrictions
Texas Voices, a group made up of families of people on Texas’ sex offender registry and others who support reform of Texas sex offender statutes, has been quite active this session, and it’s a good thing. As Grits told their indefatigable leader Mary Sue Molnar when the organization began, every other criminal justice reform group and activist in the state, including me, will inevitably sell them out at the Legislature. When someone says of a proposal, “well, we can do that but we have to exclude sex offenders,” reform advocates…
Read MoreTX: Closing Sex Offender Loophole
SAN ANTONIO – A state lawmaker says he’s making good on his promise to close a loophole in Texas law that could put children of sex offenders in danger. You would think that a convicted sex offenders’ parental rights would be revoked, but that’s not always the case. And it took a brave woman coming forward to the Trouble Shooters to get lawmakers at the State Capitol to take action. Full Article
Read MoreSex offenders registry may put man back in prison for offence committed as child
Josh Gravens is trying to figure out how he’s going to tell his five children that he might be going to prison for a very long time. Gravens, 28, is a one-time convicted juvenile sex offender facing a possible 25 years to life sentence for a felony related to a crime he committed in his childhood, and for which he has been to prison already. The current charge is not a repeat sex offence; he just failed to correctly update his personal information with his local police department in Texas.…
Read MoreTX: Lawsuit targets Krum city law
The city of Krum was presented with a lawsuit Friday morning that alleges its sex offender residency restrictions are unconstitutional. Attorney Richard Gladden is representing 22-year-old Denton resident ____ ____ in the lawsuit. Gladden said ____ was convicted last year of sexual assault of a child in Tarrant County. Gladden said ____ grew up in Krum, but because of the city’s Sex Offender Registry Restriction Ordinance, he was ordered to leave his parents’ house in November. Full Article
Read MoreTX: Stranded triplets’ dad arrested on sex offender violation
HOUSTON — The father of month-old premature triplets who were staying in a hotel with his wife and toddler daughter with no money to get home was arrested Tuesday at a Houston motel for a sex offender violation. ___ ___ was arrested following his appearance in a KHOU-TV report about the family’s financial troubles. Full Article
Read MoreTX: State program out of space to hold sex offenders
AUSTIN – Six repeat sex offenders that Texas has deemed among its most dangerous are due to be freed from prison in the next month, and a state program designed to keep them off the streets is full The problem promises to get worse: More than three dozen violent offenders are slated for release in coming months, and four halfway houses where more than 100 are confined have served notice they want them out by the end of August, officials confirmed Thursday. Full Article
Read MoreTX: Re-commitment of sex offenders in Texas is unfair
Sex offenders, especially child predators, are some of the most reviled people on Earth. And because of the nature of their crimes, the public generally wants them put away for a long, long time. The question is: What’s long enough? Full article
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