Tag: Wisconsin

WI: Wisconsin releases sex offenders from GPS bracelets after court ruling

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Source: captimes.com 8/8/23 The state Department of Corrections has begun releasing certain sex offenders from lifetime GPS tracking after a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision undermined the agency’s justification for keeping people on electronic monitoring beyond their sentences. The department confirmed to the Cap Times that it is in the process of identifying everyone who was forced to wear the GPS devices for the rest of their lives as the result of a now-debunked interpretation of state statute by former Attorney General Brad Schimel. As of Tuesday, it remained unknown precisely…

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WI: Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling gives hope to offenders on lifetime GPS

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Source: captimes.com 7/3/23 Benjamin Braam has already decided a recent Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling means he can stop recharging an electronic tracking bracelet the state forced him to wear for the rest of his life. The high court’s decision involved a case unrelated to Braam, but it shot down the rationale that former Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel used to justify the lifetime monitoring of one-time sexual offenders even after they completed their sentences and were no longer under court-ordered supervision. Authorities from the state Department of Corrections “called me…

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WI: Defense win! Multiple convictions in same case on same date don’t require lifetime sex offender registration

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Source: wisconsinappeals.net  5/30/23 State v. Corey T. Rector, 2023 WI 41, 5/23/23 affirming a case certified by the court of appeals, 2020AP1213; case activity (including briefs) Rector pleaded to five counts of possessing child pornography in a single case. He’d never been convicted of anything before. The sentencing judge ordered that he be placed on the sex offender registry until 15 years after the end of his sentence or supervision. The Department of Corrections then wrote the judge to say that, in its view, any two or more convictions of…

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WI: The Child Victims Act aims to support survivors of childhood sexual abuse

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Source: weau.com 5/8/23 EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) – Wisconsin legislators have proposed a new bill that would help survivors of childhood sexual abuse. The Child Victims Act extends the amount of time that victims of child sexual abuse can file private lawsuits against their abusers. The new length of time for survivors would be up to 45 years old, the same amount of time that they’re able to file criminal charges. Sexual assault advocate at Family Resource Center in Eau Claire, Amanda S., said sexual assault is considered one of…

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WI: MURPHY’S LAW: Supreme Court Race All About Sex Offenders

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Which is strange because the state high court will probably never rule on such cases. Just one day after the February 21 primary election, state Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewicz released her first ad for the general election, an attack on her opponent Dan Kelly entitled “Predator.” “Dan Kelly won’t keep our communities safe,” the ever-ominous voice of such ads informed us. “As a lawyer Kelly defended child sex predators who posed as ministers in order to prey on vulnerable young girls.” The ad goes on, adding more lurid detail,…

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WI: Mauston facing legal uncertainty over living facility for sex offenders: ‘They’re still going to need a place to live.’

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Source: wiscnews.com 2/9/23 Tammy Most and her husband have three children, their youngest being an 8-year-old daughter. They moved into their house near the heart of Mauston’s historic downtown area in 2012, but they didn’t know that their new home would come with a constant state of unease. … Directly across from Most’s residence sits 108 Wisconsin Street. It’s a modest two-story duplex, and it’s served as a rental property since 1997. The City of Mauston is contemplating legal action that would evict its tenants — at least three sex…

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WI: Oshkosh city council approves $1 million project to expand sex offender housing

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Source: fox11online.com 1/10/23 The Oshkosh City Council is giving the go ahead for a county-owned housing facility for sex offenders. Residential housing for sex offenders in Winnebago County has been in the works since early last year. After a meeting in Oshkosh Tuesday night, the last hurdle was cleared. “These are individuals who’ve served their time, gone through treatment,” Oshkosh board member Lynnsey Erickson said. “Continuing treatment, under intense supervision, we can’t just throw these people away.” The Oshkosh Common Council approved the city’s conditional use permit, meaning a facility…

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WI: Wisconsin Supreme Court considers dispute over ‘repeat offender’ law

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Source: captimes.com 10/20/22 The Wisconsin Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week in a case challenging the state’s interpretation of its repeat offender law as it pertains to crimes including sex offenses. At issue is whether multiple convictions stemming from the same criminal complaint warrant classifying someone as a repeat offender. The state argues that should be the case. Its argument relies heavily on a 2017 legal interpretation, issued by then-Attorney General Brad Schimel, of a 2006 state law requiring the state Department of Corrections to place certain sex offenders…

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WI: Man who had sex in park with 13-year-old girl to serve 90 days in jail

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Source: yahoo.com 9/5/22 Sep. 5—CHIPPEWA FALLS — A 21-year-old Fairchild man accused of having sex with a 13-year-old girl at a park in Chippewa Falls in July 2021 will serve 90 days in jail. Dylan J. ____ pleaded no contest Friday in Chippewa County Court to an amended felony count of third-degree sexual assault. He was originally charged with three counts of second-degree sexual assault of a child under age 16. Along with the jail sentence, Judge Steve Gibbs ordered _____ to complete a sex offender treatment course, serve three…

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WI: The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has restored a lawsuit over Hartland’s limit on sex offenders

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Source: jsonline.com 8/12/22 A small Wisconsin town’s attempt to ban more sex offenders from living there flunks one of two tests that would make it unconstitutional, a federal appeals court has ruled. The decision sent the matter back to a lower court for argument about the second test, and whether the local law should be thrown out. Hartland adopted an ordinance in 2018 after it felt it had more offenders per capita than other Waukesha County communities. A sex offender who wanted to move there sued, claiming the ordinance amounted to an…

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WI: Wisconsin court rules against transgender sex offender

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Source: wgno.com 7/7/22 MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled Thursday that a transgender woman cannot change her name because she is on the state’s sex offender registry and the law does not allow people on the registry to change their names. The court’s 4-3 decision upholds the rulings of two lower courts, which rejected the woman’s requests to change her name and avoid registering as a sex offender. Read the full article  

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WI: Sex offender ‘won’t be released’ unless he accepts housing

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Source: spmetrowire.com 7/1/22 The Stevens Point Police Department says a convicted sex offender has chosen to be homeless upon his release from prison on July 5. Cody ____, 28, was convicted in 2014 of having sexual intercourse with a then-13-year-old girl in 2010 after he invited the girl, and her friend, to his neighbor’s garage and provided them with marijuana that may have contained a “date rape” drug. Cody also had sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old in 2012 and had her text him nude photos of herself, police say. While…

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WI: Winnebago County approves $1 million housing project for released violent sex offenders

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Source: news.yahoo.com 6/22/22 OSHKOSH – The Winnebago County Board passed a resolution Tuesday night to spend just over $1 million to build a housing facility for certain violent sex offenders that state law requires the county to house. Multiple single-resident housing units would be built on county property near County Y to house recently released offenders. In 2018, then-Gov. Scott Walker signed a law shifting the responsibility to counties to provide housing or suitable housing to purchase for certain sex offenders who committed a sexually violent offense. Previously, it was…

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WI: Winnebago County unveils plan for million-dollar sex offender housing

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Source: fox11online.com 5/5/22 OSHKOSH, Wis. (WLUK) — Million-dollar housing for violent sex offenders could be coming to Oshkosh. The plan was introduced earlier this week. “It keeps us from having those uncomfortable conversations in the community that we shouldn’t have to have,” said Winnebago County Executive Jon Doemel. He’s trying to solve a years-long problem: a place to house violent sex offenders after their sentence is complete. “There’s no great solution that everybody likes but I think it’s the best solution for a really hard situation,” he offered. The Winnebago…

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WI: Racine County judge rules violent sex offender may be released from supervision and leave state

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Source: journaltimes.com 4/15/22 RACINE — A violent sex offender from Racine County, Hung ____, 52, has been released from all supervision and is being allowed to live out of state. This move comes as Racine County is finding it increasingly difficult to find homes for offenders who have served their criminal sentence — both in part due to community resistance to having offenders placed in certain neighborhoods, and because there are a limited number of landlords willing to house sex offenders. Those compounding factors are not directly related to Hung…

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WI: Kenosha Sex Offender Residency Board votes to allow man to reside near middle school despite objections for constitutional reasons

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Source: apg-wi.com 3/11/22 The Kenosha Sex Offender Residency Board, in a decision decried by residents who spoke against it, authorized an exemption to the city’s restrictions to allow a registered offender to live near a middle school. The board voted unanimously Thursday evening to allow Ronald W. _____ to reside in the 7900 block of 46th Avenue. The board made up of Veronica King and Lester Wright met in closed session before reaching their decision. Roughly a dozen concerned residents attended the meeting to voice their opposition to the exemption.…

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WI: County to work with municipalities on placement of violent sex offenders

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Source: apg-wi.com 10/6/21 Local municipalities will be part of the violent sex offender placement review process in Kenosha County under a resolution approved by the Kenosha County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. Erin Decker, who worked to draft the resolution, said it requires the county to work with local municipalities, makes the process more transparent and requests the State Legislature clarify and revise certain definitions within the state statute. “Right now the municipalities are not given a heads-up that this is going to happen until after the placement has been…

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WI: Wisconsin judge to plead guilty to federal child pornography charges

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Source: courthousenews.com 4/4/21 A Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge charged in state and federal courts with multiple counts of possessing child pornography has agreed to plead guilty to the federal charges, according to a plea agreement approved by prosecutors and filed with the court on Wednesday. Under the agreement, Brett Blomme, 38, would plead guilty to two felony counts of child pornography possession, forego his right to a jury trial and forfeit any property or assets connected to his crimes. Each count carries a mandatory minimum five-year prison sentence, five…

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