Tag: Wisconsin

WI: Judge: Wisconsin sex offender can visit sick son at hospital

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[washingtonpost.com 4/25/18] MILWAUKEE — A registered sex offender will be allowed to visit his severely ill 9-year-old son despite objections from Wisconsin Children’s Hospital, a Milwaukee County judge ruled Wednesday. The order from Judge William Pocan carries restrictions, however. Stuart Yates, 49, must give two-hour advance notice for his visits and he can only stay for six hours each time. Yates must also be with his son at all times. Yates was barred from the hospital on March 6 after hospital officials learned of his past. He was convicted of…

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WI: Many On GPS Monitoring Are Homeless

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[urbanmilwaukee.com 3/10/18] Michael walked out of the Oshkosh Correctional Institution in April 2017 at age 60 with $140 to his name, a record as a sex offender and a GPS monitoring bracelet strapped to his ankle. Michael, who requested that only his middle name be used to avoid public attention, was convicted of two child sex crimes, the most recent in 2006, for which he spent 10 years in prison. Upon release, he traveled to Vernon County, where he had committed his most recent sex crime, and stayed in a…

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WI: ‘I paid my debt:’ Sex offender allowed to visit sick son at CHW; but fight for visitation isn’t over

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[fox6now.com] MILWAUKEE — A registered sex offender will be allowed to see his son at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, but the fight for visitation isn’t over yet. Suffering in pain and severely ill, Kahlil Yates, 9, wants nothing more than to be comforted. “He can’t understand why I can’t be there all the time,” said Stuart Yates. Stuart Yates, 49, was forced to leave his sick son’s bedside on March 6 after he was kicked out of Children’s Hospital — told he had to leave because he was…

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WI: Wisconsin Act 174: Underage Sexual Activity better than Sexual Assault of Child but still a crime

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[narsol.org] By The Registry Trap . . . Yesterday, Governor Scott Walker signed 2017 Assembly Bill 414 (now 2017 Wisconsin Act 174), creating the brand new crime of Underage Sexual Activity. In a saner world, a statute specifically criminalizing consensual sex between teenagers wouldn’t be good news, but that’s not the world we live in. As you already know if you’ve read Robert’s story, his conviction for that very same act carries a much uglier name: 2nd Degree Sexual Assault of a Child. It’s also a registry offense. In addition,…

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WI: Losing Track

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[UPDATED links 3/4/18] [wisconsinwatch.org] Losing Track by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism explores flaws in Wisconsin’s GPS monitoring program for offenders. In 2013, the Center exposed problems including false alerts and lost signals that sent offenders to jail even when they did not violate terms of the monitoring. Full Series Related links: Opponents claim GPS monitoring violates civil rights; judges not so sure [Added 3/4/18] Homeless offenders create gaps in Wisconsin’s GPS monitoring system [Added 3/4/18] Electronic monitoring pioneer wants less punishment, more reward [Added 3/4/18]  

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WI: Did a Newspaper Inspire a Murder Attempt?

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[lifeonlist.org] Last July, the Hudson Star Observer in western Wisconsin wrote a story about a man moving into a building in town. His name was Brandon Langel. He was on the state’s sex offender registry for crimes he’d committed in 2008, for which he spent four years in prison. The paper ran the story because now he’d be moving into a building where three other registrants also lived. The paper interviewed a neighbor who lived right across the street. “It’s really concerning,” said Daniel Steltz, who had a wife and…

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WI: Sun Prairie alders eye sex offender residency ordinance changes after lawsuit threats

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[hngnews.com] Convicted sex offenders are threatening to file lawsuits over an ordinance that restricts where they can live in the City of Sun Prairie. City officials plan to head off litigation by considering changes to the city ordinance next week. It’s something other Wisconsin municipalities dealt with this year after a federal court ruled that ordinances restricting where convicted sex offenders could live were unconstitutional. Registered sex offenders aren’t allowed to live or loiter within 1,500 feet of a school, daycare center, park, playground, church, and other places where children…

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Fort council amends sexual offender domicile restrictions

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[Daily Jefferson County Union] To comply with recent federal court rulings, the Fort Atkinson City Council has amended its ordinance restricting the placement of sex offenders. At its meeting Tuesday, the council removed the domicile restriction from the ordinance that had prevented convicted offenders who did not live in Fort Atkinson at the time of their offense from moving into the city once released. When adopted in February 2016, many other municipalities were including the domicile restriction in their ordinances. Since then, in a federal case titled Hoffman v. the…

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WI: Milwaukee may dramatically loosen sex offender residency restrictions

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The City of Milwaukee may dramatically loosen its residency restrictions for sex offenders. The city’s current ordinance bans many sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of places like schools, parks, and day care centers. A measure set to be considered Monday by the Common Council would reduce that “buffer” to 500 feet. Full Article

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WI: Wearing a GPS monitoring bracelet is not punishment, court says

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GPS monitoring bracelets are not punishment. Oh, I’m sure they suck. They might chafe. They could cause blisters. They will cramp your style, keep you out of swimming pools, cause a funny-looking bulge in your nylons, spoil your suntan, tether you to a power source for an hour a day. They’ll subject you to derision — or worse. And they’re an enormous invasion of your privacy: Someone will always know where you are, and if you take off the monitor, they’ll come after you. But a monitoring bracelet is not punishment. The…

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