Tag: Virginia

VA: Neighbors concerned about plans for a sanctuary for people listed on the registry in Wise County

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Source: wcyb.com 7/5/21 WISE COUNTY, Va. —An East Stone Gap community is concerned after learning a sanctuary for people with a sex offense conviction in their past might be intentionally relocated to their neighborhood. Residents of the Inby Lane Mobile Home Park received this letter from their landlord. Image of letter Longtime resident Vernon Porch Jr. has an eight-year-old daughter. Porch says he plans to leave the mobile home park. “Most of the time we have eight kids here just playing at my house and we can’t live here anymore…

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VA: Virginia lawmakers squash repeal of civil commitment law

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[13newsnow.com – 1/28/21] RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia lawmakers have squashed a proposal to repeal a decades-old Virginia law that allows the state to hold certain sex offenders at a psychiatric facility after they complete their criminal sentences. Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday voted to send the bill to the Virginia State Crime Commission for a study, ending its chances of being passed this year. Democratic Sen. Joe Morrissey was the lead patron of the bill. He argued that the current system is unfair and punishes offenders twice…

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VA: Virginia bill would end civil commitment of sex offenders

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[abcnews.go.com – 1/19/21] RICHMOND, Va. — Two Virginia Democratic lawmakers are spearheading a push to repeal a decades-old law that allows the state to hold certain sex offenders at psychiatric facilities indefinitely after their criminal sentences if they are deemed “sexually violent predators.” Critics say civil commitment laws are fundamentally unfair and violate the constitutional prohibition against punishing someone twice for the same crime. Supporters counter that the laws protect society from repeat offenders who are unable to control their behavior. Sen. Joe Morrissey and Del. Patrick Hope, both Democrats,…

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VA: Virginia Crime Commission recommends eliminating all mandatory minimum sentences

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[virginiamercury.com – 1/7/21] Members of the Virginia Crime Commission voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to endorse legislation stripping all mandatory minimum sentences from state code. The sweeping proposal, which lawmakers plan to introduce when the General Assembly convenes later this month, would eliminate mandatory jail and prison terms attached to 224 offenses that range from drunken driving to child rape. Lawmakers on the commission who backed the proposal — all Democrats — called it an important step to restore sentencing discretion to local judges and juries. … Most of the mandatory minimum…

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VA: Shipyard superintendent, porn convict, seeks online access at work

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[dailypress.com – 6/16/20] A superintendent at a local shipyard wants access to the internet at work despite being convicted of a child pornography charge 12 years ago. Willoughby Warren “Billy” Colonna IV, of Colonna’s shipyard in Norfolk, is asking that his prison release terms be amended to allow him to use the internet at his family’s Norfolk ship repair business. The Virginian-Pilot reported in 2008 that Colonna, now 40, is the grandson of the shipyard’s owner and an heir apparent at the company. “His responsibilities are limited because of the…

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VA: Convicted Sex Offender Elected to Virginia Senate

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[theohiostar.com – 11/11/19] One of the many Democrats elected to the Virginia Senate on Tuesday is a convicted sex offender and disbarred lawyer, according to Breitbart. Joe Morrissey was jailed and lost his license to practice law after being convicted of having sex with his 17-year-old secretary. He pled guilty to a misdemeanor in the ensuing court case and served for only three months in a “work-release term.” He was also forced to resign from his seat in the Virginia House of Delegates, but then ran again in the special…

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VA: Patrick Hope column: Virginia’s sexually violent predator laws have gone too far

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[richmond.com – 9/29/19] The “lock ’em up and throw away the key” era of criminal justice is over. Virginians have reassessed their views on criminal justice to better address mass incarceration weighed against costs and the likelihood to reoffend. Policies ripe for reform include: resentencing prisoners who were convicted as youth; repealing mandatory minimums; legalizing marijuana; abolishing the death penalty; ending solitary; reinstating parole; ending cash bail; and creating alternatives to incarceration. Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring has a strong track record of criminal justice reform. But there’s one enforcement…

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VA: Our Man in Arlington

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A culture-clash of a trial will resume in late September in Arlington Circuit Court. The scantly reported-on civil procedure involves the disturbing topic of predatory sexual behavior and the Virginia laws intended to protect potential victims. The trial, preliminaries for which I attended Aug. 26, involves an Arlington family eager to spring a son from an open-ended incarceration they feel the state is pursuing to make a statement against a gay man. Full Article

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VA: In Arlington, a judge must decide if a nonviolent sex offender should stay incarcerated after serving his sentence

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[washingtonpost.com – 8/23/19] Philip Fornaci is a civil rights lawyer based in Washington. Roger Lancaster is the author of “Sex Panic and the Punitive State.” On Monday, the Circuit Court in liberal Arlington County will be the scene of a heavy-handed morality play, with prosecutors seeking lifelong incarceration for a young gay man who has already paid an extraordinary price for youthful, nonviolent sexual indiscretions. Virginia, like 19 other states and the federal government, has a Sexually Violent Predators Act (SVPA). Under these laws, people who have completed their criminal…

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VA: Hearing Thursday: EFF Tells Court That Clicking on a URL Isn’t Enough Evidence to Justify A Search Warrant

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[eff.org/ – 1/29/19] Identifying IP Address That May Have Connected to a URL Doesn’t Amount to Probable Cause Richmond, Virginia—On Thursday, January 31, at 8:30 am, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will ask a federal appeals court to find that the act of clicking on a URL or weblink isn’t sufficient evidence for law enforcement to get a warrant to search someone’s home. The hearing involves a child pornography prosecution in which law enforcement obtained a warrant to search a defendant’s home based on the attempted connection to a URL…

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VA: Longer sentences for violent sex predators

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[fredericksburg.com – 7/2/18] THE Commonwealth of Virginia recently announced plans to expand a facility that treats convicted sex offenders who have served their prison sentences, but are considered too dangerous to release back into the community. It is alarming that the center has already exceeded its initial residency projections just 10 years after opening in 2008. The Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation in Burkeville will increase its current capacity from 258 to 450 beds to make room for former inmates classified as sexually violent predators (SVPs). The $110 million project…

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VA: Police: Scammers targeting elderly, sex offenders by demanding money with person info

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[wset.com – 6/21/18] LYNCHBURG, Va. (WSET) — Virginia State Police said they have been alerted to an alarming increase in phone scams targeting seniors and convicted sex offenders. Police said scammers are threatening people into paying hundreds of dollars in gift cards. One popular scam making the rounds across the state is where the caller tells the person, most of the time an elderly person, on the phone that a relative has been arrested and incarcerated so they need money in order to be released from jail. Police said the…

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VA: Groundbreaking Monday for $110 million expansion of treatment center for civilly committed sex offenders

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Officials kick off a 258-bed expansion of Virginia’s sex offender treatment center Monday, but caution it could run out of room again not long after completion. The Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation holds and treats sex offenders after their prison terms have ended if they are deemed by courts to be “sexually violent predators” who remain too dangerous to be released. Full Article

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VA: Registered sex offender sues Stafford School Board for banning him from meetings

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[fredericksburg.com 5/4/18] A Stafford County resident is suing the county’s School Board over a no-trespassing notice that effectively prohibits him from attending the board’s meetings because he is a registered sex offender. Melvin Allen filed a federal lawsuit this month claiming that the action violates his constitutional right to participate in public meetings. He is seeking unspecified damages. Allen received the notice barring him from “School Board-owned property” on May 3, 2016, presumably because he picked up his grandson from Winding Creek Elementary School the previous month, according to the…

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