Justin 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

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WI: 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…

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WI: 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…

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WI: 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…

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WI: 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…

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WI: 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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