McKEES ROCKS - A woman on the Megan’s Law list, even though she never committed a sex crime, broke down while talking to Channel 11 Friday.
“I am not a sex offender. I would never hurt a child,” said _____.
_____ was in tears as she was about to face a judge in McKees Rocks for failing to register as a sex offender. Police said she moved without notifying state police.
Four years ago, _____ was convicted of interference with custody of children. That crime falls under the newest version of Megan's Law, and _____ must register as a real sex offender.
“Seventeen years of probation for not doing anything but trying to help a little boy that was in diaper and just a pair of socks?" _____ questioned the ramifications.
“If she changes any information we have to record, she needs to notify us right away," said trooper Robin Mungo.
Although _____ feels singled out, there are hundreds in our area who never committed a sex crime yet they, too, are now registered as sex offenders.
A former police officer was found guilty on Thursday of 12 misdemeanors in an incident in which he exposed himself and performed an "obscene sexual display" to several people passing by his home.
Christopher Roush, 42, was acquitted of the felony count of taking indecent liberties with a child, for exposure to a 14-year-old passenger in a car that passed by the Harpersville Road home at about 9 a.m. on April 7.
Several people testified they saw Roush standing "completely naked" in his front doorway, in view of the passing traffic. Several witnesses testified that he appeared to be masturbating with one hand, while holding the glass storm door open with the other.
One woman testified she was driving to a yard sale, with her 14-year-old daughter in the passenger seat, when she saw Roush. She said she screamed, then did a U-turn "to try to see the address."
Officer Thomas Gamache Jr., who was dispatched to the home on various complaints, testified that he saw Roush standing naked in the doorway, then closing the door.
Gamache said he was soon let into the home by Roush's roommate, who led him to Roush's bedroom. Roush didn't immediately answer, but soon came outside and began "belligerently" yelling at Gamache to get off his property.
Roush — who lost his job over the incident — testified Thursday he had no recollection of what he did. He testified that he came home from work at 1 a.m. after working the night shift, and "started to drink liquor."
"I woke up the next afternoon," he said, and when his roommate told him what he had done several hours earlier, "I didn't believe him." But hearing the litany of witnesses before him Thursday — including the wife of a trusted police officer friend — convinced him he had done it, Roush said. "I just don't remember it," he said.
Roush said he's in treatment for a severe drinking problem and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of several incidents, including his on-duty shooting of a pit bull 17 days before the April incident. The dog had to be euthanized.
He was also the first officer who responded to the grisly 2011 homicide scene in which a Newport News man stands accused of killing his wife and her three children.
In early 2010, when Roush was known as Christopher Miner, two juries acquitted him on charges that he had sexually assaulted two women in 2009.
Roush's lawyer, Robert W. Lawrence, asked Circuit Judge Ted Markow to throw out the felony charge involving the juvenile. That request was made on the assertion that Roush didn't know he was exposing himself to a minor, and had no "lascivious intent" in doing so.
Lawrence also asked Markow to "withhold a judgment" on the misdemeanors until after the judge had a chance to see psychologists' evaluation to see "what he was going through at the time."
Markow, a retired judge from Richmond sitting in on the case, agreed to strike the felony indecent liberties charge, saying that part of the case wasn't proven.
But the prosecutor, Suffolk Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Jim Wiser, argued against withholding a judgment on the seven counts of indecent exposure and five counts of making an "obscene sexual display."
Wiser said alcohol use doesn't excuse criminal behavior, and the judge needed to enter a factual finding. While the idea of withholding judgment was "appealing," Markow said, "I don't think I have a choice other than to find him guilty."
After the hearing, Roush apologized to Assistant Newport News Police Chief Joe Moore, who attended the hearing, for "embarrassing the police department." "I appreciate the apology," Moore replied.
MUSKOGEE - A Muskogee police Officer was arrested on accusations of assaulting, kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman at his home in Oktaha.
Mark Vernon Ridley was arrested late Wednesday, Muskogee County Chief Deputy Brandon Caster said.
Ridley, 39, was a 17-year veteran of the Muskogee Police Department, and had recently moved to Patrol Division after spending time in investigations, Cpl. Mike Mahan said.
Ridley is jailed on complaints of assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm during commission of a felony, kidnapping and sexual assault, Caster said.
Ridley had been placed on administrative leave in December, Mahan said, after allegedly assaulting the same woman then. A protective order was placed against him Dec. 18, then dismissed Jan. 14, according to court records. Another protective order was filed against Ridley on Wednesday, records show.
Authorities have not said whether that filing prompted the alleged assaults.
Mahan said Ridley remains on administrative leave.
The protective order filed against Ridley in December alleged that he sexually assaulted the same woman. Mahan said MPD requested the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation handle that case, and they submitted their findings to the Muskogee County District Attorney’s Office, who in turn called in a special prosecutor from Delaware County, to ensure an impartial investigation.
Caster said Wednesday’s incident allegedly began near Muskogee, and ended in Oktaha.
Less than 24 hours before going to trial, a former police officer pleaded guilty to engaging in sexual acts with a minor while he was on the Osage Beach police force.
Richard Calvino entered the guilty plea Tuesday afternoon before Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Hayden.
Calvino was scheduled for a jury trial in Morgan County on a change of venue. The trial was to get underway on Wednesday, Jan. 29.
Calvino, 59, was originially charged with sexual abuse in the first degree, sodomy, deviate sexual assault in the first degree with a victim aged 14-15, sexual assault in the first degree with a victim aged 14-15 and deviate sexual assault in the second degree with a victim aged 16-17.
Calvino pleaded guilty to two counts — deviate sexual assault in the first degree with a victim aged 14-15 and deviate sexual assault in the second degree with a victim aged 16-17. Calvino was given a suspended imposition of sentence, five years of supervised probation. He will register as a sex offender and must complete a sex offender class through probation and parole. Calvino will not serve jail time.
The charges against Calvino stemmed from allegations that date back from 1984 to 1990.
The filing of the case in 2011 came just within statute of limitations for such crimes in Missouri. Under state statute, the filing of charges for alleged sexual offenses against children may be filed within 20 years of the time the alleged victim turns 18-years-old.
The victim in this case turned 38 in 2011.
The charges were filed after an investigation by the Missouri State Highway Patrol in 2010 which began after the victim had memories resurface while undergoing therapy in Florida as an adult. She had begun seeing the therapist in May 2009.
The victim's age ranged from 11 to 16 during the time frame in question. Calvino's age ranged from 31 to 37.
During the Highway Patrol investigation, the victim had conversations with Calvino by phone, email and in person that officers recorded and preserved for evidence.
During an interview with a Highway Patrol investigator on Dec. 9, 2010, Calvino denied having any sexual relations with the girl.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges when he was arraigned and posted a $5,000 bond.
Since the case was filed in Camden County three years ago, the case has bounced from Camden to Morgan County and has been scheduled to go to trial at least four times.
Following the charges, Calvino continued to be employed with the Osage Beach Police Department until city administrator Nancy Viselli said he recently no longer had a job with the city.
Calvino was notified by the city on July 19, 2013, that, unless he could return to his job full time without charges pending against him, his last day would be Jan. 20, 2014.
Calvino's first day of employment with the city was July 1, 1981. At the time of his arrest, he was a lieutenant with the department.
Patty Wetterling, whose son Jacob was kidnapped and never found, posted the following statement on the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center website: “Because residency restrictions have been shown to be ineffective at preventing harm to children, and may indeed actually increase the risks to kids, the JWRC does not support residency restriction laws.”
In 2009, the Broward County Florida Board of County Commissioners Sexual Offender and Sexual Predator Residence Task Force reported they had reviewed available research about the effectiveness of residence restrictions and “found no empirical evidence to indicate that these laws achieve their intended goals of preventing abuse, protecting children or reducing reoffending.”
The Minnesota DOC analyzed 224 sex offenders released from Minnesota prisons between 1990 and 2002 who were re-incarcerated for a sex offense prior to January 1, 2006. There were only two where the offender contacted a juvenile victim at a park, and both offenders lived more than 10 miles away. They concluded that not one of the offenses would have been affected by any residency restriction.
In 2007, the Kansas Sex Offender Policy Board reported to the legislature: “Although resident restrictions appear to have strong public support, the Board found no evidence to support its efficacy.” Kansas Department of Corrections Secretary Roger Werholtz stated: “Residence restrictions don’t contribute to public safety. In fact, the consensus of experts in the field of sex offender management supported by available research and experience indicates they do just the opposite. Right now, it appears that the best alternatives are in the form of community wide education and training regarding steps that can be taken to educate parents . . .”
The California Sex Offender Management Board reported that 90% of people convicted of a sex crime have not been convicted of any sex crime before. The University at Albany [New York] School of Criminal Justice reviewed sex crime arrest records from the period 1984 through 2004 and found that more than 95% of those arrested had no prior convictions for any sex crime. More than 9 of every 10 who will harm a child cannot be on any registry or regulated by your law. They feel safer though and likely won’t be as vigilant.
I know you are concerned for the welfare of Milton’s citizens, but your ignorance of the realities and facts about sex offenders and residency restrictions threatens to place them at greater risk.
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We have noticed over the years that there are many websites out there who claim to give you "free" alerts and information about sex offenders, but in order to get this "free" report, you have to give them your credit card info and may be billed monthly for their "service."
You should NEVER have to give a site your credit card information or other personal information when the information is public and free elsewhere by the police or government.
The number of false rape claims made to police in Lincolnshire is higher than anywhere else in England and Wales.
New figures for the 12 months up to March 2013 show that 33 per cent of all alleged rapes against adults in Lincolnshire were later dismissed.
The report, released by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary on behalf of the Rape Monitoring Group, shows that across England and Wales the number of recorded rapes of both adults and children has steadily increased since March 2008.
There were approximately 6,000 recorded rapes of children and approximately 10,000 recorded rapes of adults in England and Wales during the 12 month period.
Lincolnshire Police received 110 reports of rape against adults, of which 36 were later declared as “no crimes”.
The force also received 98 allegations of child rape, with 19 per cent of these being declassified after investigations.
Detective Superintendent Rick Hatton, of Lincolnshire Police, said: “In Lincolnshire we are committed to investigating reports of rape and other sexual offences in thorough meticulous manner.”
“We have a specialist unit known as our ‘Emerald Team’ made up of highly trained and motivated officers and staff.”
“Thanks to the hard work put in by our partners and our own staff in the Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) we are ranked number one in the country in terms of the services we commit to victim support.”
“This ‘no crime’ rate reflects our ethical recording of crime. It shows that we investigate all allegations of rape.”
“Lincolnshire Police record reported offences as early as we can. This demonstrates transparency in our investigations.”
“If it is decided that the offence has not been committed an in depth report must be submitted. This must detail all the information and evidence which verifies and supports the conclusion that the offence did not happen.”
“The report is ultimately submitted to crime management bureau supervisors trained in NCRS compliance.”
“We cannot entirely explain why the percentage of rape ‘no crimes’ in Lincolnshire is higher than in other areas but we are affected by the relatively low level of such crimes in Lincolnshire.”
“This means that small variations in numbers can make large differences in percentage terms.” - So are you arresting the people who are making these false claims and putting them in jail / prison?
Chair of the Rape Monitoring Group, Dru Sharpling, said: “Rape is one of the most serious violent crimes and the impact on victims can be devastating.”
“It is absolutely crucial that the police and wider criminal justice system has all of the information available to ensure that victims are being believed and the police are following through investigations.”
“We will be seeking to improve on these data sets and will publish information at regular intervals to encourage and maintain performance improvements across England and Wales.”
PORT ORANGE - Concerned parents confronted a Volusia County school district administrator Thursday about why they were never told a sexual offender lived across the street from a Port Orange elementary school.
Sugar Mill Elementary School parents were upset with the answer they were given during a PTA meeting -- that it’s their responsibility to find out about these things, not the school district's responsibility to tell them.
That sex offender, who just last week lived a stone's throw away from the school.
He was living there legally because he was convicted before any laws governing where sex offenders can live were passed. However, parent pressure forced him to move out.
“I want the school just to put out a courtesy call that lets the parents know when there is an offender that moves in newly," said Cheryl Fidler, whose children attend the school. "The school knew for a week before we did.” - The mindless zombies also want Gubment to tell them when to go to sleep, what to eat, etc!
School district administrator Greg Akin told parents they need to find out who lives in their neighborhood using tools like the FDLE sex offender website.
”But from a school district’s standpoint, it’s not a requirement," Akin said. "It’s not one of our requirements, there are rules, laws and regulations that we have to notify any parent on any offender or predator.”
He said that’s the job of law enforcement to release that information and the responsibility of parents to find out.
Where's my food?
The meeting comes after Port Orange city council members decided to move forward on a proposed ordinance that would require public notification signs outside the homes of sexual predators living in the city. - Heil Hitler! He loved signs and badges as well.
Tuesday night they agreed to place the ordinance on the council’s meeting agenda next month for further consideration.
The signs would also include the predator’s name.
Last week council members unanimously passed an ordinance that places tighter restrictions on where sex offenders can live inside Port Orange city limits.
There is no empirical evidence supporting the continuation of the AWA. Yearly recidivism reports were not part of the act. The dangling carrot of losing 10% Byrne Fund Grant money is no comparison to taxpayer cost of monitoring registrants for life. Once adjudicated, penalty paid and living a law-abiding life registrants and their families should be allowed to live without punitive punishments.
According to a study by Levenson & Tewksbury, children of registrants are harassed, ridiculed, teased, physically attacked and fearful. Registrants are murdered. Last year in SC the wife was murdered too.
Recidivism rate for another sexual offense is 5.3% and 80-90% of sexual abuse is never reported which is clear and convincing evidence public registries don't work but prevention programs do.
TRENTON - State Sen. Diane Allen first introduced New Jersey’s Jessica Lunsford Act in June 2005, a few months after the 9-year-old Florida girl was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a twice-convicted sex offender.
In the ensuing years, Allen has reintroduced the measure every two years at the kickoff of a new legislative session, only to see it fall short of being signed into law.
This January marked the sixth time she has introduced the bill. She’s hoping it will be the last time.
“As you all know, Jessica was kidnapped, raped and buried alive back in 2005. Since then, I’ve had a bill in (the Legislature) to change many aspects of our law so we can make sure this kind of thing cannot happen to any children in New Jersey,” Allen said Thursday during a hearing on the latest version of the bill before the Senate Law and Public Safety Committee. - 10 million laws will not prevent another tragedy like this. You are, in our opinion, just exploiting children, fear and Mr. Lunsford for your own political gain.
“Unfortunately, we’re now one of only five states that haven’t passed any Lunsford laws,” she said during the hearing, the first by the panel of the new legislative session.
The new version of the bill seeks to impose a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life in prison for anyone convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child under age 13, except in certain circumstances of a negotiated plea agreement.
Current law permits a 10- to 20-year prison sentence for the crime.
Allen said the plea agreement clause was added at the behest of state prosecutors, who argued that there are some occasions when it’s in the best interest of the victims to permit a negotiated plea deal. In those cases, the bill allows an offender to be sentenced to a minimum of 15 years in prison.
The new bill also excludes previous language mandating that anyone found guilty of harboring an offender or hindering the arrest or conviction of a sex offender would face a mandatory sentence of six months in prison without the possibility of parole. Allen plans to introduce a separate bill with that penalty.
“Frankly, it’s a watered-down version. It is not the one the committee chairman (Donald Norcross, D-5th of Camden) was looking for or what I was looking for. But it is a start,” Allen said during the hearing.
Also testifying in favor of the measure was Gregory Quinlan of the New Jersey Family Policy Council. He pointed to a recent state auditor's report that said many New Jersey parole officers were failing to maintain regular contact with sex offenders they are assigned to supervise, including some convicts marked for mandatory parole supervision.
“This is why this (bill) is so important,” Quinlan said. “I just want to see this passed.” - So how would passing this law fix what you mentioned above? It won't!
There has been some progress in moving the measure forward. During the last session, two versions of the bill were approved by the Senate and Assembly, but the chambers failed to approve a single bill with the same language.
The Senate Law and Public Safety Committee voted 5-0 on Thursday to release the measure from the committee. Norcross said he hoped it could be fast-tracked through the Senate.
“This is why we put this bill No. 1 on our 216th legislative agenda,” he said.
Allen, who hosted Jessica’s father, Mark Lunsford, during a Statehouse news conference in 2011 to advocate for the bill, said New Jersey has waited too long to put the bill’s child protection measures into law. - When Jessica went missing it was said child porn was found on Mr. Lunsfords computer, and his own son molested a child but got a slap on the wrist.
“There is little as heinous as the sexual assault of a child, and it’s time we send a message that those types of monstrous actions are going to be punished severely,” she said. “Those vile enough to commit this type of a crime once should never be afforded the opportunity to put a second child and family through a similar tragedy.” - So why isn't your own son, and possibly you, in prison then?
CLAY COUNTY - According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's website, a registered sex offender is living just feet away from Clay Hill Elementary School.
The sex offender, who First Coast News has decided not to name, moved to the area at the beginning of January. According to the Clay County Sheriff's Office, he was arrested in September of 2004 for possessing and distributing child pornography. He served time in federal prison and according to the CCSO, he got off probation at the beginning of the month.
Under Florida law, sex offenders are not allowed to move within 1,000 feet of a school or park. CCSO said this sex offender lives 1,056 feet away from the elementary school. Detective Ryan Ellis said this man isn't doing anything wrong according to the law.
"He's not doing anything wrong," said Ellis. "He is currently within all of his guidelines of state statute, and he's in full compliance under Florida State Department of Law Enforcement regulations with sexual offender requirements and he's under full compliance with the sheriff's office."
However, parents are still concerned and angered by the recent move. One mother said, if he doesn't move, she might move her kids.
"I am considering pulling them out and putting them in home-school. That has crossed my mind. And, depending on how this turns out, that might be the right option for me."
A House committee easily passed a bill, 18-1, prohibiting restrictions on where sex offenders can live yesterday, noting that judges have twice ruled residency restrictions unconstitutional. Still, lawmakers predicted a tough fight in the Senate, which has rejected similar bills before.
“There is a perception that this bill is being soft on crime,” said Rep. Steve Vaillancourt, a Manchester Republican who voted for the bill. “All of us who have heard (this debate) know the benefits of the bill. But we’re going to need to explain it.”
Rep. Al Baldasaro, a Londonderry Republican, cast the lone vote against the bill, saying he didn’t want to tell his constituents they couldn't determine where sex offenders could and could not live.
As many as 11 communities have residency restrictions for sex offenders, said Rep. Renny Cushing, a Hampton Democrat. Londonderry is not one of them, according to the town’s website. Locally, Tilton, Northfield and Boscawen have such restrictions. Both Northfield’s and Tilton’s ordinances prohibit people convicted of sex crimes against children from living within 2,500 feet of schools, child-care centers and playgrounds. Boscawen’s ordinance was not available yesterday.
Tilton adopted its ordinance in 2007 and added this explanation to it: “Acknowledging that sex offenders who prey on children are at a higher risk of re-offending, the town of Tilton has a compelling interest and responsibility to protect the health, safety and welfare of its children by restricting access to areas where there (is) a high concentration of children.” - Once again a law passed based on lies and not the facts. Recidivism among sex offenders is lower than any other criminal, except murderers.
However, two judges have found otherwise. In 2009, a district court judge in Dover ruled that city’s residency restriction invalid because the city had not shown a “substantial relationship” between the ordinance and the protection of children. In 2012, Merrimack County Superior Court Judge Larry Smukler came to the same conclusion when the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union appealed Franklin’s ordinance.
Cushing, a member of the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, said the bill prohibiting residency restrictions is necessary because it will take costly legal fights to undo the 11 ordinances still in place across the state. “The simple thing that can be done is to pass a bill that incorporates the . . . courts’ decisions.”
Cushing also argued that restricting housing for sex offenders pushes them “underground,” in campgrounds, under bridges and to other places the police cannot monitor. He said communities are safer if the police know where sex offenders live and require yearly registration with the local police.
Baldasaro said he was concerned that if a sex offender moved into a Londonderry neighborhood, “everyone else wants to move out.” He added, “I want to support this bill, but I have to go back to neighborhoods in my district. Who is going to protect the neighbors?” - It is not up to the government or police to "protect" anybody, it's their job to enforce laws and respect the Constitution and the rights of others, not pass unconstitutional laws to help themselves look tough!
Rep. Larry Gagne, a Manchester Republican, responded to Baldasaro.
“My first term, I was pretty much a hard-liner,” he said. “I said, ‘Put (sex offenders) in outer space. Put them all on an island.’ But I changed my mind after a (police) sergeant came in and said, ‘If they go underground, we can’t find them.’ ”
Rep. Roger Berube, a Somersworth Democrat, questioned why the state Senate has rejected several similar bills from the House in previous years. “How can they get away with that?” he asked. “It doesn't appear the Senate is actually listening to the . . . court.” - And it appears you are not obeying your oath to defend the Constitution and the rights of others!
To that, Rep. Laura Pantelakos, chairwoman of the committee said, “Sometimes the Senate doesn't listen to anybody.”
PINELLAS COUNTY - A document obtained by 10 News indicates law enforcement may have crossed the line when trying to round up alleged sexual predators over the weekend -- and defense attorneys say entrapment cases could be built around the evidence.
The multi-agency sting, led by the Pinellas Co. Sheriff's Office and Clearwater Police Department, netted 35 arrests in "Operation Home Alone." The effort was coordinated by the region's Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force.
ICAC guidelines instruct undercover officers to "allow the investigative target to set the tone, pace, and subject matter of the online conversation."
But a Florida man, who says he responded to the officers' Craigslist ad, sent 10 News an alleged e-mail chain that indicates law enforcement is willing to bend, or break, their own ICAC guidelines to get "targets" to talk about sex with children.
In the exchange, an officer posing as a 12-year-old girl repeatedly engaged the man, who indicated she was too young to be on Craigslist. The topic of sex was also first introduced by the officer, an apparent violation of ICAC guidelines.
"There's no question they blur the lines," said defense attorney Jeffrey Brown of law enforcement officers. "But I think they can blur the lines because the ultimate resolution for a defense attorney is to go to trial."
And Brown said juries seldom have sympathy for accused predators, no matter what means were used to obtain evidence. He also said bending ICAC rules isn't necessarily breaking the law.
Brown added that the officers gave defense attorneys another possible entrapment argument by posting "casual encounters" ads on adult websites and only later suggesting they were 14 or younger.
Pinellas Co. Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, who was at the forefront of the Monday press conference announcing the 35 arrests, didn't make himself available to 10 Investigates for this story. But an agency spokesperson said they were reviewing the document provided by 10 Investigates.
"We are confident it was done within the process of the law and within all legal boundaries," said Pinellas Co. Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Cecilia Barreda.
Congress is notorious for bundling non-related items into a bill, this is one of the many examples. Now what does "sex offenders" and food stamps have to do with farming? To read more about this bill from another perspective, click here.
01/29/2014
WASHINGTON - The compromise farm bill passed Wednesday by the House sets policy for food stamps and farm programs. The bill would cut food stamps by around $800 million a year and continue generous farm subsidies. Some of what’s in the bill:
Test programs in 10 states that would allow new work requirements for food stamp recipients.
A prohibition on lottery winners, convicted sex offenders and murderers from receiving food stamps.
The end of so-called direct payments, government subsidies paid to farmers whether they farm or not. The payments now cost around $4.5 billion a year.
A new revenue insurance subsidy that would pay farmers in the event of “shallow losses,” or revenue losses incurred before their paid crop insurance kicks in. That program might kick in sooner than previously thought as some crop prices have dropped in recent months.
A separate subsidy program would trigger payments when crop prices drop. This is similar to current subsidies, though the new programs would kick in sooner, especially for rice and peanut producers. Producers would have to choose between these subsidies or the revenue insurance.
Stricter limits on how much money an individual farmer can receive — $125,000 annually on all payments and loans, when some were previously unrestricted. The agreement is less strict than either the House or Senate bills, which had put limits on how much a farmer could receive from individual programs. Language that would limit how many people in a farm operation may receive such payments was also passed by both chambers but taken out of the compromise bill, which would kick the issue to the Agriculture Department.
An additional $5.7 billion for government-subsidized crop insurance programs. A Senate amendment that would have lowered crop insurance payouts for the wealthiest farmers was struck from the final version.
A new dairy program that would do away with current price supports and allow farmers to purchase a new kind of insurance that pays out when the gap between the price they receive for milk and their feed costs narrows. The program is designed to help dairy farmers survive price collapses like they have seen in recent years. But it would not include a so-called stabilization program that would have dictated production cuts when oversupply drives down prices. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, called that “Soviet-style” and pressured negotiators to take it out. He was backed by large food companies which said the program could raise the price they pay for milk.
A new insurance program for cotton growers designed to bring the U.S. industry into compliance with the World Trade Organization. The WTO said in 2009 that Brazil could raise the tariffs on American goods because the United States had failed to get rid of subsidies the WTO said are illegal.
A test program that would allow 10 states to grow industrial hemp. Those 10 states have legalized cultivation but are unable to produce because of current federal law.
Land payments to Western states. The bill gives the government authority to make payments of $425 million to states which lose tax money because of federal lands, mostly in the West. That funding had expired at the end of last year.
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The Bossier Parish Sheriff's Office held a press conference Wednesday morning to address the issue of children sending and receiving nude photos and videos. Bossier Sheriff, Julian C. Whittington, says his office has been receiving a high number of complaints in recent days of young people sharing nude photos via cell phones, computers and social media sites.
BPSO hinted that they are working a number of cases which could result in charges.
"You could be arrested, you could go to jail, you could have to register as a sex offender for the rest of your life. This is not child's play anymore, this is serious business," remarked Whittington. Sexting is a crime punishable by fine, jail time and community service for a first offense. Distributing pornography involving juveniles is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
BPSO will be working with the District Attorney's Office, the Bossier Parish School Board and city law enforcement agencies in an effort to address the issue. Families with children in Bossier schools will be receiving letters that give suggestions about how to open a dialogue with their children. You can read the letter issued by BPSO here.
New Jersey has become the latest state to try to regulate how (and if) sex offenders can use social media, an increasingly tricky problem facing legislators around the country. But privacy experts say the laws are problematic, and probably unconstitutional.
The proposed bill would require all sex offenders in New Jersey to disclose the fact on all of their social media accounts.
A similar measure was introduced, but not passed, last year. The measure has been pre-filed for the 2014 legislative session. Donna Simon, an assemblywoman who sponsored the bill, said anyone caught violating the law, if passed, could face a $10,000 fine and 18 months in prison.
“Sex offenders are very sneaky and despicable,” she said. “What they will do is they will have a myriad of screen names and other identities to use for communicating to children.” - Underage children are not suppose to be on Facebook based on their terms of service. Why don't you teach kids in school, or better yet, the parents be parents and teach their own children about the sharing of personal information online or talking to people they do not know? A major study was done years ago that shows most children are approached by their peers about sex, not a stranger, although that does happen.
Of course, stopping even a small number of sexual assaults is a laudable goal, but in many cases, laws that limit social media access are quickly struck down in court, making the whole exercise nothing more than a waste of time and money. A year ago, a federal appeals judge ruled that an Indiana law that banned sex offenders from using instant messaging, social networking sites, and chat programs was unconstitutional. In that decision, a federal judge wrote that the law “targets substantially more activity than the evil it seeks to redress.”
Nathan Wessler, an attorney with the ACLU, says that New Jersey’s proposed law is a similar overreach. The law would require sex offenders to disclose all of their online accounts to law enforcement, including E-mail addresses, screen names, social media accounts, message board handles, and more. Similar provisions in laws passed in Indiana, Nebraska, Georgia, Utah, California, and Louisiana have been struck down. A law banning sex offenders from social media was struck down in North Carolina last year, but a New Jersey ban on social media for sex offenders that are out on parole was upheld.
“The reporting requirement is particularly problematic, because you have a right to engage in anonymous debate online,” Wessler said. “You have the right to ask about embarrassing medical matters online to write on the Facebook page of the Mayo Clinic or post on message boards. The government is requiring people to turn over these anonymous identities so they can watch what they’re doing online even when it’s protected anonymous political speech.”
Wessler says that besides being unconstitutional, the requirement is “onerous and impractical,” because it requires disclosure of things such as randomly-generated email addresses from Craiglist and disclosure of accounts that may have long-since been forgotten about.
The New Jersey law is modeled on a law passed in 2012 in Louisiana and goes a step further, too. It “requires person who are required to register as a sex offender to provide notification of that fact on social networking sites” and also has to include “notice of the crime for which he was convicted, the jurisdiction of conviction, a description of his physical characteristics, and his residential address.” The offender must also link to their sex offender profile on a social networking site.
That’s a lot of information, and a lot of it is impossible, logistically, to follow through with, Wessler says.
“It is literally impossible to include all that information in 140 characters, so anyone on the registry who wanted to use Twitter would be automatically violating the law,” he said, forcing people to “choose between complying with this restriction or giving up the ability to engage in conversation in what has become the new town square.”
Some social media networks, such as Facebook and Match.com, already ask that sex offenders not register for their sites in their terms of service.
All of this may sound overly sympathetic towards sex offenders, but laws that do mainly superficial things such as trying to ban sex offenders from social media run the risk of diverting attention from other prevention efforts. The stereotypical image of a creepy old man preying on unknowing children is a popular—and certainly scary—one, but in reality, few sex offenders use social media to perpetrate their crimes.
“Numbers suggest that Internet-initiated sex crimes account for a salient but small proportion of all statutory rape offenses and a relatively low number of sexual offenses committed against minors overall,” according to a 2008 study published in American Psychologist (PDF).
More than 90 percent of sex offenders personally know their child victims, and in over 50 percent of cases, the perpetrator is a family member—far from a creepy stranger they met online.
“These laws end up being counterproductive,” Wessler said. “They’re not tailored at all to addressing the harm the state should be concerned about. Anytime a legislature relies on inaccurate stereotypes of the problem, they’re diverting attention away from ways to address the real problem. It can create a false sense of security and divert law enforcement resources.”
And, if the goal is to rehabilitate sex offenders who have served their time in jail, requiring them to abstain from social media can seriously hinder that. Because sex offenders often have a difficult time finding jobs, many are self-employed and start their own businesses. If they want to start a social media page for their business, they’d be required to comply with the law.
“A lot of times, they’ll try to make their own goods and sell them online or start a business that you can’t successfully do without marketing online,” Wessler said. “Complying with this is probably going to completely destroy their ability to promote that business online.”
A Tri-City judge ruled Wednesday the personal information of low-level sex offenders in Benton County is not public information and shouldn't be released to a Mesa woman.
Judge Bruce Spanner's ruling comes after more than a month of deliberation about whether the data should be released to Donna Zink.
Zink has no "legitimate interest" in it, Spanner wrote in his 13-page decision. The information, if released, would cause irreparable harm to more than 400 Level 1 sex offenders. - And the online registry for other ex-offenders also causes irreparable harm!
Spanner said the information is considered confidential under other state and federal statutes and therefore is exempt from release.
"There is no showing that the information requested is either relevant or necessary," Spanner wrote. "Our Supreme Court has determined that Level 1 sex offender registration is in most instances 'confidential' and that the public has 'no legitimate' interest therein because those offenders do not pose any threat to the community."
Zink -- the former mayor of Mesa who sued the city in 2003 for withholding other kinds of public documents -- requested in July the names, birthdates, addresses, pictures and other information of the Level 1 offenders.
She requested the same information from Franklin County, and it has been released.
Zink has been in a legal fight with several Tri-City lawyers since making her request. She has said she plans to create an online database of the offenders because she believes people should know where someone convicted of any type of sex offense is living. She has said in court that Level 1 offenders can be dangerous, citing a recent Richland case in which a low-level offender is charged with raping and killing an infant.
Registration information for Level 2 and 3 offenders is routinely posted on sheriff department websites. But Level 1 offenders are considered the least likely to reoffend, and their information is not made public unless they fail to register.
The Benton County Superior Court ruling, however, only blocks the release of the personal information of 14 sex offenders.
Richland attorney John Ziobro, who represents those offenders, was the first to have his case for a permanent injunction heard.
Spanner granted the injunction, but it can be appealed to a higher court.
"For my clients, it's great," Ziobro said. "I haven't spoken to any of them, but I am sure they are ecstatic."
Lawyers for other clients told the Herald they are optimistic Spanner's ruling will be applied to their cases.
A temporary injunction was in place to prevent the county from releasing any low-level sex offender's personal information.
Benton County prosecutors do not agree with Spanner's ruling, saying the information should be released to Zink.
"There's still a whole lot left up in the air," said Ryan Lukson.
Richland attorney Greg Dow represents 20 other Level 1 offenders and is trying to form a class-action lawsuit to provide the majority of Level 1 offenders legal representation so they also can try to prevent the release of their personal information.
Spanner previously denied Dow's request, but he's filed an appeal.
"There's a lot of cleanup work left," said Dow, who praised Spanner's decision. "We need to find out what impact the judge thinks this has on the people who are not named as plaintiffs. There's 390 guys out there wondering, 'Am I protected or not?' "
Zink, who has been representing herself, could not be reached about the decision but took to social media Wednesday to blast the ruling. She said she is frustrated the court system is protecting sex offenders.
Zink wrote that Spanner's ruling will not stop her attempts to get the information.
"After all this they would serious(ly) think I was going to roll over," Zink wrote. "Let me give you a clue, when someone works this hard they are not going to quit. At least not till the Supreme Court weighs in. That is what appeals are for."
Zink has requested offender information from the Washington State Patrol database and from Yakima County. Temporary injunctions are in place in King County and Yakima County preventing the information from being released.
The state American Civil Liberties Union has gotten involved in the case with the state patrol. ACLU spokesman Doug Honig said attorneys are reviewing Spanner's decision.
Zink also requested around 80,000 emails from Benton County. The emails contain sex offender information and other sensitive police information. Spanner ruled information in the emails not pertaining to sex offenders can be released to Zink.
Zink's county requests for sex offender information could slow down a potential appeal, Lukson said.
Zink can't appeal a decision in her case until the county is done reviewing the emails. Lukson said it could take several years to do that.
If Zink withdraws the email request, it could speed up her potential appeal, Lukson said.
Kirk Bloodsworth spent two years on death row and lost a decade of his life after being wrongfully convicted and jailed for a crime he didn't commit.
The former US marine had, in just eight months, gone from an average citizen with a job and new wife to being found guilty of the brutal rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl and sentenced to death.
Despite having an alibi and not matching the police sketch issued at the time, prosecutors were determined to prove he was the man who had taken the life of an innocent girl.
Dawn Hamilton was found naked from the waist down in woodland near her Maryland home in 1984 in a crime which shocked America. She had been raped, beaten and killed.
"Witnesses described someone tall, with curly hair, a bushy moustache and tanned skin," Mr Bloodsworth said.
"I had hair as red as an apple and couldn't tan."
He remembers the shock he felt when he was arrested and how he turned around to look for someone else when police said "that's him" as he was put in handcuffs.
He also remembers the anger and disbelief he found after he was found guilty of all charges and sentenced to death in Baltimore County, Maryland, the following year.
It would take almost 10 years and DNA evidence to secure his innocence and freedom.
But it wasn't until 2003 that the taunts of being a child killer finally stopped and the real offender was charged with the crime.
Speaking exclusively to news.com.au from his Maryland home, Mr Bloodsworth said he can still hear the prison doors shut if he thinks hard enough and gets chills whenever he hears metal keys jiggle.
He said he tries to put it into words what he felt when he was told he was going to die, and just can't describe it.
"I guess it's like a doctor telling you you're going to die from cancer and nine years later saying 'sorry we've made a bad mistake'," he said.
Criminal justice advocate and exoneree Jeffrey Deskovic spoke at St. Thomas last week
In 1989, in Peekskill, New York, 16-year-old Jeffrey Deskovic was walking to school when he was stopped by a police car. He was wanted for questioning in the case of his raped and murdered classmate, 15-year-old Angela Correa. While his other classmates were in school mourning the girl’s loss, Deskovic sat in a small room for seven and a half hours. He had no food, no access to relatives and no attorney present. The police attached him to a polygraph machine with one goal in mind—to get Deskovic to confess to the murder by the end of the interrogation, regardless of his innocence. After feeding him copious amounts of caffeine to raise his pulse, playing good cop bad cop and using every scare tactic in the book, Deskovic was in a fetal position on the floor. If he confessed, they told him, he’d be set free and get to go home to his mother and grandmother.
“Being young, naïve, frightened, 16-years-old, not thinking about the long term implications, I took up their offer,” Deskovic told an overflowing auditorium at St. Thomas University last Tuesday night.
It wasn’t until 2006, after serving 16 years in prison, Deskovic was finally set free.
Since his release, he has been an integral part of successfully resisting the restoration of capital punishment in New York, delivered over 100 speeches across the United States and obtained his master’s degree in criminology.
Most recently, he founded the Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice, which seeks legislative changes to prevent wrongful convictions, works to exonerate the wrongfully convicted and helps exonerees in their reintegration into society.
“What is it that can be learned about the causes of wrongful conviction and the reforms?” Deskovic asked the audience full of criminology students. “What is it that my case illustrates?”
A woman claimed she had been raped to cover up an affair, a court has heard.
Jessica Gore, 32, of Curtis Road in Ashford has been given an eight month suspended prison sentence after she falsely claimed she had been raped in September last year.
Gore reported the sexual assault to police on September 24.
She said a man had come up behind her in an alleyway near Curtis Road when she was on her way back from babysitting.
At the time of the claims detectives in Ashford were investigating a series of sexual assaults in the area.
Detectives from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate took on the investigation after a description of the man given by Gore resembled an efit image issued by police.
Enquiries revealed, however, that Gore had been seeing another man and the claim of rape had been made up as an excuse to her husband for her returning home late.
A week after the complaint was made. Gore was charged with perverting the course of justice and at Canterbury Crown Court on Tuesday Judge Heather Norton sentenced Gore to an eight-month suspended prison sentence.
After the conclusion of the case Detective Inspector Richard Vickery said: "Kent Police takes very seriously all reports of rape and sexual assault and all are fully investigated by experienced detectives."
"In this case, the allegation of rape proved to be untrue but was not admitted until after extensive enquiries had been carried out by detectives at a time when there was understandable public concern about a number of earlier assaults being carried out in the Ashford area."
"I would echo the comments made by Judge Norton in court that this is a very serious type of offence and by its very means strikes fear into the hearts of women, undermining actual victims. Gore had lied to family, friends and the police and her deception was uncovered by the police investigation and not her own admission."
DALLAS - La'Cori Johnson, a five-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department, was arrested at police headquarters Tuesday, just after he resigned.
He was charged with sexual assault, a second-degree felony.
According to the arrest affidavit, the assault occurred September 9, 2013. Johnson detained a woman and a man in the 9200 block of Larga Drive, near Bachman Lake. He ordered the man to leave, but told the woman she had an outstanding warrant.
The affidavit states he ordered her into the back seat of his marked car and when she began to cry, he said, "Why are you crying? You don't have to go to jail if you do what I tell you to do."
According to the affidavit, Johnson drove his squad car a short distance, to a dead end circle in the 3300 block of Storey Drive, behind an apartment complex. The affidavit said he got into the back seat, took off his gun belt, placed it beside them, and raped the woman.
"With any sexual assault, the victim is going to have lasting damage from that attack; but in this particular case, the damage extends beyond the victim, and it impacts the entire public," said Dallas attorney Kimberly Priest Johnson.
She is not directly involved in this case, but is outraged by it, saying it shakes the public trust.
"You know, the public thinks things like, 'Is this person the only Dallas police officer who has done this? Might there be other victims that Johnson has attacked?'"
The affidavit says Johnson dropped off the victim on nearby Clydesdale Drive and she walked home, telling her mother what happened.
Police said the victim reported the incident to them on October 4. Johnson was placed on leave at that time, according to a statement from Dallas police, and a public integrity investigation began.
An internal affairs investigation started January 24. Johnson was questioned by internal affairs Tuesday.
Then he submitted his resignation, was arrested, and booked in jail.
His bond was set at $25,000.
"When it's by a police officer, on a citizen, while that police officer is on duty, in a marked car, pulling someone over, seeking this out, it's at the top of egregiousness," Kimberly Priest Johnson said.
The Dallas Police Department says La'Cori Johnson was hired as an officer in April 2009 and was assigned to the Northwest Patrol Division.
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The Missouri Legislature overwhelmingly passed legislation last year that would remove many juvenile offenders from the public sex offender registry, which is posted on the Internet. It would not have lessened the punishment for any offender. Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed the legislation and then launched a misleading campaign in which he highlighted some of the worst offenders on the registry.
Let me tell you my son Zach’s story, as it gives a very different perspective. It shows how harmful the sex offender registry can be for juveniles who should not even be classified as sex offenders, much less be on a public registry for the world to see.
Zach was a typical boy. He loved playing baseball and even made the all-star team with the American Legion. He loved hunting with his dad, being with his friends, playing video games and so often making us laugh. He was a kind-hearted, life-loving spirit.
At age 14, Zach was coming into his sexuality. Like many of his friends, he searched the Internet for girls his own age. But girls his age in sexually explicit pictures are classified as child pornography. When he downloaded them, he had no idea he was breaking the law. He believed that if something was readily available on the Internet, it must be OK.
Through the years he randomly viewed his downloaded library. One of the videos Zach downloaded was tagged by a federal agency that tracks child pornography. A few months after Zach turned 18, in 2008, St. Charles County deputy sheriffs were at our door to confiscate his computer. He was later called to the sheriff’s office for an interview. He went willingly and without a lawyer, thinking he had done nothing wrong.
At 6:30 on the morning of Jan. 7, 2010, our nightmare began. Federal agents knocked on our door with an arrest warrant for Zach. My husband and I hired a lawyer, who informed us Zach was facing four to 10 years in prison. We were in complete shock. On July 1, 2010, Zach was sentenced to 40 years of supervised release and a lifetime on the sex offender registry.
Zach was also ordered to take sex therapy. The therapy was more harmful than helpful. Part of his treatment was being forced to say he received sexual gratification from watching children have sex, which he did not. If he refused, he was threatened with being kicked out of class. That would have landed him in prison.
Zach became depressed and felt hopeless. He was prescribed anti-anxiety pills by his doctor. The doctor told me he believed Zach’s anxiety was caused by the treatment he was getting from his mandated sex therapy classes.
Zach would often sit in his room, a prison of its own. He felt like a freak, an outcast and completely powerless. I can only imagine what it is like knowing all your friends are at the first wedding ever in their circle of friends, dancing and celebrating at an occasion you should be part of but are not allowed.
Those on the sex offender registry cannot go anywhere where children might be present. Not to a friend’s wedding. Not to their grandmother’s funeral. Not to a baseball game. Not even to McDonald’s for a hamburger.
Zach was working for our family’s roofing company but was told he couldn’t work on a roof that housed children or had play equipment in the yard. He attempted to find employment elsewhere because children are in almost every home on which we work. But no one wanted to hire a registered sex offender.
Zach tried to look happy and calm for me, but I saw the fear and panic in his eyes. It was a hopeless situation for a 20-year-old boy who made a mistake when he was just a child. On Nov. 4, 2010, I lost my son. The autopsy report deemed his death an accidental overdose. Those of us who knew him well thought he just wanted to escape his pain.
The laws are terribly flawed. Those in Zach’s situation are dealt a “one size fits all” punishment. The laws need to be changed. What happened to Zach and our family should never have to happen to others.
This ban affects all ex-offenders, not just "child molesters!"
01/28/2014
By Eric Nicholson
For a portrait of the Kafkaesque nightmare criminal residency restrictions can create, go read about the permanent sex offender camp that took root several years ago beneath Miami's Julia Tuttle Causeway. Thanks to a local ordinance barring them from living within 2,000 feet of any place that children congregate, there was quite literally nowhere else for them to go.
It stands as an object lesson in how not to do public policy. It's a lesson that Grapevine has yet to learn.
Last week the Grapevine City Council, citing a "frightening and high" risk of recidivism, unanimously passed an ordinance (PDF) barring those convicted of sexually assaulting a child from living within 2,000 feet of places where kids "commonly gather." This includes, but is not limited to, schools, parks, day cares, public swimming pools, hiking and biking trails and "video arcade facilities." - Recidivism is low not high, but the politicians continue to push the myth! These residency laws will only force people into homelessness or to cluster in your neighborhood.
Look at a map of Grapevine, take note of all the parks and schools and kid-centric businesses, add in about 20 licensed child care centers, several of them operating out of people's homes, and a registered sex offender's housing options more or less disappear.
Maybe that's what the City Council was after. It's an understandable impulse, keeping the most thoroughly despised class of criminal out of one's city. But a 2,000-foot buffer is excessive and, research suggests, will do nothing to make the children of Grapevine any safer.
In a study posted on the website of Texas Office of Violent Sex Offender Management, Louisville justice administration professor Richard Tewksbury and Lynn University human services professor Jill Levenson pick apart the rationale for sex offender residency restrictions.
Sex offenders, the researchers write, pose a relatively small danger of re-offending compared with other criminals. Molested children are typically preyed upon by relatives or trusted caretakers, not strangers. Offenders who can't find a legal place to live have a tendency to "disappear," failing to register with local law enforcement agencies who must then expend resources attempting to track them down.
More than anything, though, such restrictions don't work. Here's Tewksbury and Levenson reviewing some of the research:
A 2004 Colorado study found that sex offense re-offenders were randomly located and did not live closer to schools and parks than those who did not re-offend. In Minnesota, a 2003 study failed to find a relationship between proximity to schools and re-offending. A subsequent Minnesota study concluded that "there is very little support for the notion that residency restriction laws would lower the incidence of sexual recidivism, particularly among child molesters," and that "rather than lowering sexual recidivism, housing restrictions may work against this goal by fostering conditions that exacerbate [problems with] sex offenders' reintegration."
But dry academic reasoning tends to be ignored in the face of the kind of visceral fear and anger that comes with the thought of child molesters.
Educating the public about sexual abuse is the key, not an online hit-list.
01/29/2014
There are renewed calls for an official online sex offender register in New Zealand, following the conviction of an 89-year-old man on 42 abuse charges.
The Wellington man pleaded guilty to 42 charges of doing indecencies to girls and boys, attempted rape and unlawful sexual connection from between 1973 to 1991.
On Monday he was sentenced to a year's home detention.
During sentencing Judge John Butler said the man had previous convictions as early as the 1950s, for obscene exposure and attempted indecent assault.
"How many more children must be abused before politicians show some courage and introduce an online sex offender register to protect the public from offenders like this?" says trust spokesman Garth McVicar.
"This predator, hiding in a man's clothing, has been able to prey on innocent children for a period spanning 50 odd years."
The situation proves the need for an official register, he says, adding that the lack of one is the courts protecting predators.
"It appears that our Justice Establishment is hell-bent on protecting sex-offenders rather than protecting our women and children from them."
"The establishment is, in effect, underwriting the actions of pedophiles and creating thousands of victims".
Many countries have official sex offender registers available online.
