MILWAUKEE — Thanks to a CBS 58 Bottom Line Investigation Milwaukee now has a new sex offender ordinance. CBS 58’s Investigative Reporter Sarah Barwacz brought the issue to lawmakers back in May after finding child predators living next to schools, daycare centers, and parks. It was legal for child predators to live next to schools and parks because there was no law against it. Some council members we spoke with felt Milwaukee had become overrun with offenders. After several months of working with lawmakers Tuesday we got a law passed. Full Article
Read MoreTag: Wisconsin
WI: Letters on sex offenders go out to Van Hollen, Wall
As expected, letters were sent out Friday to Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen and Corrections Secretary Edward Wall in connection with the city’s effort to force the state to do something about the disproportionate number of sex offenders who are being placed in the city. In his letter to Wall, Murphy noted that Grave Roberts, who runs the state’s sex offender program, stated that residency restrictions “inadvertently have negative effects on public safety.” “As such, we believe it prudent and an agency obligation for you to send an unequivocal statement to…
Read MoreWI: Controversial sex offender proposal tabled by Common Council
MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee Common Council’s Steering and Rules Committee on Thursday tabled a proposal to prevent sex offenders from living within a third of a mile from schools, parks and day cares. That may sound very thoughtful with regards to protecting children. But, speakers at the hearing Thursday offered another viewpoint. It’s pretty easy to go online and see if you’re living near a sex offender. But, police fear that could change. Convicted rapists could start to lie, set up a p.o. box someplace else, but truly be living in a home near…
Read MoreWhy single out sex offenders? Drug dealers, drunken drivers live among us
Letter to the Editor – This is in response to the uproar of a registered sex offender living in Allouez: I would rather know if a convicted drug dealer, wife beater or, for that matter, a person convicted of having DUIs lived next to me. They are not monitored such as a registered sex offender and therefore are not under as much scrutiny as the mentioned offender. Full Letter
Read MoreJustin Baker gets jail time, probation for arson to sex offender’s home
STURGEON BAY, WI (WTAQ) – The Door County man accused of setting fire to his neighbor’s home because he was a registered sex offender has been convicted. On Tuesday, Justin Baker pled no contest to recklessly endangering safety, while a count of arson was dropped. Baker was sentenced to 9 months in jail, placed on probation for three years, fined $500 and ordered to perform 75 hours of community service. Full Article
Read MoreWI: Man convicted of setting sex offfender’s house on fire
STURGEON BAY – A man who didn’t like that a sex offender moved into the neighborhood, so he set that man’s home on fire, was convicted Thursday. T.J. Robert Hunt pleaded no contest to arson, according to online court records. Three other counts were dismissed. Sentencing is scheduled for July 14 in Door County Circuit Court. Hunt and Justin Baker set fire to the residence of ____ ____. ____ was convicted in Michigan in 2009 of 2nd Degree Criminal Sexual Assault, according to the state registry. Authorities said the two cited…
Read MoreWI: Scott Walker’s administration fires new sex offender administrator
Madison — Gov. Scott Walker’s administration Wednesday dropped a controversial new hire charged with evaluating sex offenders for release back into Wisconsin communities, a move that came only hours after Walker said he opposed the psychologist. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first reported on the hire of Daniel Montaldi as “evaluation director” at the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center, a state facility for sex predators. Montaldi, who was to evaluate sex offenders and recommend to court officials which ones should be released, resigned from his post running Florida’s sex predator program six…
Read MoreWI: Sexting can be considered child porn, so what penalties should kids face?
MILWAUKEE —Research shows one in five teens are sexting — the sending of sexually explicit text or email messages. WISN 12 News investigative reporter Colleen Henry looks into the problem facing parents, police and prosecutors — what to do with kids caught sharing these explicit messages. It’s a digital world, which can change as quick as the click of a camera. “I do think it has desensitized us to what we put out there. We share everything else. Why not share a picture of us?” University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee junior ____ said. Full…
Read MoreWI: 7th Circuit upholds $100 annual sex offender registry fee
The $100 that Wisconsin sex offenders must pay every year for being listed on a registry is not an unlawful fine, a federal appeals court has ruled. But the court did not address other lifetime conditions of Wisconsin sex offender registration because it found the challengers lacked standing. The decision by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a ruling by a Green Bay federal judge, and also thwarted the plaintiffs’ request to proceed as unnamed. Instead, the court added their names to the case. U.S. District Judge William Griesbach…
Read MoreWI: Sex offender ordinance is working, Sheboygan officials say
Five years after Sheboygan first enacted strict limits on sex offenders seeking to live here, the city’s sex offender population has slowly waned, with the city now denying about a quarter of all residency requests it receives, records show. The 2008 ordinance essentially barred most registered sex offenders from living here without first receiving a waiver from a city committee and ultimately the Common Council. Since then, the city’s sex offender population has fallen by 13 percent, state records show, with 184 offenders now living at a Sheboygan address — some…
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