MD - Are Sex Offender Registries Effective?

Original Article

07/03/2014

By Jemie Lee

MARYLAND - It gives a sense of security for many parents – having access to the state's sex offender registry.

"It's a way for us to be safe as parents for our children. I use an app to find out if there's any in the neighborhood. That's what my sister and I did before, and we actually found some. So we would know to keep an eye out, especially for my daughter that I'm worried about," Christie Sarminto said.

But a controversial ruling by the Maryland Court of Appeals could immediately remove about a third of those currently on Maryland's sex offender database. It's cause for concern, but experts say the registry itself isn't a good tool to keep our children safe.

"There are cases where someone is pleading to a lesser offense, which doesn't require registration on the sex offender registry," executive director of the Life Crisis Center in Salisbury, Md. Michele Hughes said.

Hughes was also on the governor's sex offender advisory board. She says she's seen cases where the judge won't order the offender to register, and many cases, especially those involving children, either never go to trial or end in a not guilty verdict.

"The child can't articulate clearly what happened to them, even though the child may have been offended against. Those people show up nowhere and those are the people you have to worry about, because no one is looking at them," she said.

So, what's the best way to keep our kids safe?

Hughes points to good parole and probation departments that have programs in which sex offenders go to therapy, take lie detector tests periodically, and are heavily monitored.

"There are a lot of studies that say that this works much better than sort of public shaming on the sex offender registry. So perhaps we need to look more at things like that and be less dependent on public lists," she said.

The problem is, these programs are extremely expensive, and funds are already limited. So until we can find a way to change the system, Michele says, for now, the responsibility lies on the parents.

"Parents should not get a level of comfort knowing that no one in their neighborhood for instance is on the sex offender registry, because it is not a panacea. You still need to be vigilant with your children. You need to make certain that your children are not left alone with adults, one on one," she said.

Hughes also says that often times parents focus solely on stranger danger, when in fact most children are not abused by strangers. They're abused by people they know and trust. So it's important to understand that the sex offender registry, and teaching our kids to run away from strangers, isn't enough to keep them safe.

See Also:

• Ruling could scrub quarter of sex offender registry

MD - Ruling could scrub quarter of sex offender registry

Original Article

06/30/2014

By Ian Duncan

One-fourth of the names on Maryland's sex offender registry could be removed after the state's top court expanded Monday on an earlier ruling that adding offenders from before the list was created violated the state constitution.

The Court of Appeals declared last year that the state could not require the registration of people who committed their crimes before October 1995, when the database was established. State officials removed the one name in question in that case but maintained that federal law required them to keep older cases in the database.

On Monday, the judges ruled in that case and another one that federal law doesn't override the state constitution.

"Where we have declared the retroactive application of Maryland's sex offender registry to be unconstitutional, the State must remove [the men's] information from the registry," Judge Clayton Greene Jr. wrote for the court.

Those who say the registries are punitive and do little to protect future victims hailed the ruling, but victims' advocates expressed disappointment. They see the registry as a useful tool to alert families to potential predators in their midst.
- You don't need the registry for that!  "Potential" predators are all around you, so are "potential" murderers, etc!

As many as 1,800 of the state's 8,000 registered sex offenders could be affected by the decisions, and other cases are pending that could expand the number of people whose names are scrubbed.

Maryland requires people convicted of certain sex crimes to register for 15 years, 25 years or for life, depending on the severity of their conviction, and publishes a searchable online database of those on the list.

Lisae C. Jordan, the executive director of the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said the ruling means Maryland will now need to look at other ways to track dangerous offenders.

"We cannot rely on the registry," she said. "We need to take other steps."
- You can't rely on the registry even without this case!

Nancy S. Forster, an attorney who argued the cases on behalf of the two men, said the court made clear that its decision should apply to anyone who was required to add their names to the registry even though their crimes took place before its creation.

She pointed to language in Greene's ruling, noting that the constitutional issue applies not just to the men who had sued but also "individuals similarly situated in Maryland."

"I believe this means that the state absolutely must remove these people automatically, without each individual having to go to court seeking removal," she said. "If the state does not remove them automatically, I will contemplate the need for a lawsuit."

David Paulson, a spokesman for the Maryland attorney general's office, said the state's lawyers will review the decision before offering legal advice to the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, which manages the list.

The state's high court was considering challenges brought by two men, who are identified in court records as John Doe and John Roe.

Doe is _____, a former teacher who pleaded guilty in 2006 to a single court of child sexual abuse for a 1984 incident involving a 13-year-old student. John Roe has not been identified, but according to court records he was convicted of third-degree sex offense in 1997 for conduct involving a 14-year-old victim.

The ruling last year was on _____' case alone. It examined state laws from 2009 and 2010 that made registering a requirement even for those convicted before the creation of the database.

The court ruled that requiring people to go back and register amounted to punishing them twice, a violation of the state's constitution.

After losing that case, officials reluctantly agreed to remove _____ from the registry but vowed to keep on fighting.

They took the fight back to court, after a trial court judge ordered the removal of _____' name from state and federal databases, and argued that federal law required that they keep the offenders' names on the list.

The Court of Appeals rejected that view.

MD - Chief of U.S. Senate staff arrested on child porn charges found dead one month later

Video Description (Excerpt):
Senator Lamar Alexander's Former Chief of Staff has been found dead after committing suicide while awaiting court proceedings on child pornography charges.

See Also:

• Chief of staff (Ryan Loskarn) for Sen. Alexander arrested over child porn charges, fired
• Former Alexander aide (Ryan Loskarn) commits suicide

MD - How Kirk Bloodsworth, wrongfully convicted for a crime he didn't commit, escaped death row

Original Article

01/29/2014

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.

The real green mile

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MD - Former Alexander aide (Ryan Loskarn) commits suicide

Ryan Loskarn

Original Article

01/24/2014

By Walter F. Roche Jr. and Ledyard King

Ryan Loskarn had been arrested in December on charges of possessing, distributing child pornography.

WASHINGTON - A former chief of staff to Sen. Lamar Alexander charged last month with possessing and distributing child pornography, was found dead in his parents' Maryland home, law enforcement officials said Friday.

Ryan Loskarn was found hanging at about noon Thursday, and the Maryland state Medical Examiner said Friday that Loskarn's death, initially reported by Politico, had been ruled a suicide.

"Carroll County Sheriff's deputies responded to a private residence ... for a report of an unconscious male, believed to be deceased," the sheriff's office reported Friday morning. "Family members reported finding 35-year old Jesse Ryan Loskarn unresponsive in his basement where he'd been residing with family since this past December."

Federal agents arrested Loskarn last month on charges that he possessed and intended to distribute child pornography. The arrest came as agents executed a raid on his southeast Washington residence.

Loskarn was accused of placing an external computer hard drive, later found to contain explicit videos, outside his second-floor window. Alexander, R-Tenn., fired him the same day.

The former aide had worked for Tennessee Republicans for more than a decade in several roles and became the senator's chief of staff in late 2011. He earned about $169,000 for fiscal 2013, according to records compiled by LegiStorm.

Loskarn made a rapid rise through the staff ranks in Congress, and the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call called him "one of the Senate GOP's top strategists and aides." The newspaper also had included him on its list of "Fabulous 50 Movers and Shakers."

He was born near Baltimore and graduated with honors in 2000 from Tulane University. That same year, he started in the office of Rep. Wally Herger, R-Calif., before joining the House Rules Committee in 2001.

In 2003 he became communications director for Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., a position he held until 2007.

His next move was to become communications director for the Senate Republican Conference, then headed by Alexander. The conference was charged with promoting GOP policy ideas and legislation.

Alexander stepped down as chairman of the conference in late 2011 and named Loskarn as his chief of staff in his personal office.

"For everyone involved, this is a sad and tragic story from beginning to end," Alexander said Friday in statement.

Prosecutors had delayed an indictment of Loskarn, hinting at a possible plea agreement. He had been released to the custody of his parents in Sykesville, Md., about 40 miles north of Washington, where he was ordered not to use the Internet and to wear an ankle bracelet.

In an unusual ruling issued in the case late last year, U.S. Magistrate John M. Facciola defended his decision to release Loskarn to his parents, citing measures taken to ensure that he would not have access to the Internet.

Officials believe that between November 2010 and March 2011, Loskarn made several purchases from a website offering child pornography DVDs. Loskarn also was accused of offering child pornography files for download from his home computer.

"I have prohibited the defendant's use of the Internet," he wrote in the two-page ruling. "I concluded, therefore, that the risk of his resuming the downloading of child pornography is not great."

The memorandum did not mention the risk of suicide. Previously, authorities had worried that Loskarn was a flight risk.

He faced a potential maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment on the charge of possessing child porn. The distribution charge carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years.

A status conference in the case had been scheduled for Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

MD - Is the sex offender registry providing incorrect info?

Original Article

Of course it is, the data is entered by humans who are prone to making mistakes. But, it only shows you where they sleep for a couple hours per night and doesn't prevent crime or really protect anybody, it only opens people up to vigilantism.

10/22/2013

By Joce Sterman

ABC2 INVESTIGATORS UNCOVER A FLAW IN HOW THE STATE'S SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY TRACKS INMATES IN CUSTODY. THE MISTAKES WE'VE UNCOVERED SHOW NOT ONLY IS THE STATE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR NOTIFYING WHEN OFFENDERS ARE RELEASED FROM LOCAL JAILS, BUT THAT THE FAILURES TO UPDATE THE REGISTRY PUT PEOPLE AT RISK.

In September people looking for convicted sex offender _____ wouldn't think they’d have to look hard to find him. The Maryland Sex Offender Registry said he was in jail. But ABC2 Investigators discovered the registry you rely on was wrong .

_____ himself helped us confirm the registry was incorrect. During a visit to his house in Glen Burnie, _____ told us, “I’ve been home. I haven't been locked up."

_____ had been living at home since records show he was released from the Anne Arundel County Detention Center on May 21. But that jail is exactly where the Maryland Sex Offender Registry said he was still living three and a half months later.

_____ is one of many sex offenders found on the streets and undetected on the registry. The news was disappointing to Anne Arundel’s Pat Parrish. She says she checks the state registry twice a week, looking for potential offenders in her neighborhood.

Paranoid person

"You've got to keep your eye on them, know where they're at," Parrish said.

The retiree is so familiar with the registry that over the summer she used it to identify and turn in a sex offender she saw taking a boy into the woods by her home. As Parrish scrolls through the pictures, she says she only takes comfort when she spots one word next to an offender: incarcerated.

"That person is in jail, so we don't have to worry about them," Parrish said.

But ABC2 Investigators found reason to worry, finding dozens of sex offenders whose registry pages were wrong about where they lived. Some of the offenders were listed as behind bars although they had actually been out of jail for weeks or months.

_____ is one example. He was convicted of a third-degree sex offense and was listed as living at the Prince George’s County Detention Center. But multiple records show he was actually free.

The profile for _____ was also incorrect. _____ a convicted rapist who will be on the registry for life, was listed in the Baltimore County Detention Center as of early September. But we found he’d been on the street since his release in July.

_____ is a lost inmate who still hasn't been found. The registry shows there’s now a warrant for his arrest. He’s been labeled as an absconder.

We took our findings from cases like _____ and _____ to Lisae Jordan, the Executive Director of the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
- So why them and not the police?

“With the registry, the errors you've uncovered here, we're grateful that you found them because that's really a problem," Jordan said.

It’s a systematic problem ABC2 News discovered by putting a sampling of Maryland's 1,500 incarcerated offenders through various government databases. The state's registry may have listed them as being in jail, but we used the Maryland Inmate Locator, Maryland Judiciary Case Search, the victim notification service VINE and even individual phone calls to detention centers to determine offenders we believed were no longer in custody were in fact out on the street.


"When we tell the public here's information about where these sex offenders are, that information should be correct and it's really appalling that it's not," Jordan said.

Russell Butler, the Executive Director of the Maryland Crime Victims’ Resource Center, says he was disturbed by our findings. He believes the failure to give victims, and the public, current and correct information about offenders could put people at risk.

“If this is a person who has harmed you, they may want retribution," he said. "They may want to re-victimize you, so you need to know they are out on the street."

Jordan also expressed confusion as to why it was so difficult to keep track of offenders, telling ABC2, "I don't understand why this is happening. These are people who are in state custody. We should know where they are."

In the sample group we supplied to the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, 20 percent of the inmates we found were actually on the street had been in state facilities, so there should have been little problem updating the registry.

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Media tries to justify ex-offender being beaten to death?

MD - Garrett BOE may draft sex offender policy

Original Article

09/25/2012

By Elaine Blaisdell

OAKLAND — The Board of Education is considering instituting a new sex offender policy for those who wish to attend their children’s events or activities.

In the past, sex offenders required permission to attend events but there wasn’t an official policy in place, according to Keith Harvey, director of human resources.

“By law we don’t have to allow sex offenders on school grounds,” said Harvey.

The policy would require that sex offenders fill out an application with the principal two weeks prior to the event, according to Harvey. The principal will make the determination within two weeks.

During the board meeting on Sept. 11, Harvey provided the board with information regarding the proposed sex offender policy. The board will review the proposed policy for at least a month, said Harvey.

“The policy goes into effect immediately if approved by the board,” said Harvey.

During the board meeting, Harvey also presented information on policy regarding appeals and hearings to the board. The appeals policy hasn’t been updated since it was adopted in 1988, according to the board’s public information office. The appeals policy will be operating in the same manner as the sex offender policy as far as implementation goes, said Harvey.

“It’s just a revision of the current policy, which is very outdated,” said Harvey.

The purpose of the policy is to set forth procedures for appeals and hearings to the board and to provide employees, parents and students an avenue to dispute a ruling or decision in specific situations to a higher authority, according to the board’s public information office.

Harvey also discussed appeals and hearings policies for student suspension and expulsion and for employee suspension or dismissal.

The policies can be viewed on the board’s website at www. ga.k12.md.us by clicking on BOE related information then by clicking on Boardroom Review.

The board held a special meeting on Tuesday to discuss the Fiscal Year 2012 audit and to make personnel announcements.