NC - Wrong age, wrong day.

The following was sent to us via the "Tell Us Your Story" form and posted with the users permission.

By Wrong Guy in NC:
its not too many talks of what really goes on in NC, so I'll enlighten everyone. My eyes have seen much pain but none like this. One day, I meet a female. Claims she's 18, I didn't check the signs of deceit until I was in too deep. She admits she's 15, I knew I messed up. Hadn't I just said I'm good at first, my downfall would've been overturned. After she's skipped school, came to my house, even ran away, the downward spiral gotten deeper. The cops wouldn't believe my statements, the pressure got me so intense, I said I was the last guy to have sexual intercourse with her, knowing I'd lied and put myself in harm's way. I had all the evidence that led to me actually being in another place at another time, but nobody listened. Maybe a few. My DNA wasn't recovered, nothing else. Only a lie.. Spent most of my days hiding, looking for a way out. Lawyers can't do a thing, nobody can. The girl who got me into this still manages to find me saying "we need to talk".. Until I turn 33-35, imma be on the LIST.

NC - Double punishment

The following was sent to us via the TELL US YOUR STORY form and posted with the users permission.

By Timothy:
I got out of prison in March, 2013. I spent a lot of tim hunting jobs and getting turned down after I was upfront with them about my crime. The would hire me and then call me a few days later and tell me there was something on my background check or simply not even offer the job. I was able to find a job working in an auto parts store but not before almost becoming homeless. I am still on that route but not as close as before. I am only working part time.

My passion is computers and photography but I can't do either with the laws that restrict me being a registered sex offender. I severed my time and paid my dues it is time for a fresh start in life without the past holding me and others back. I would love to be able to go to the park and take pictures but that could land me back in prison. I am not classified as a predator and why should I be treated like one. I made a mistake in life and paid for it. I like to say that I am a person that committed a sex offense not a sex offender as that would mean that I am currently doing it. I can not even post videos. pictures or anything the the internet as it go against the laws in North Carolina.

I take responsibility for my actions and even successfully completed the S.O.A.R. program in prison for learn why it even happened in the first place. It start as an accident and turned intentional and I regret that it ever happened. My life has been a mess since my wife passed away years before this incident. I even tried to put barriers in place to prevent it in the first place and my effects failed. I wish I could have won that battle but I did not and I am paying for it for the rest of my life now.

I need help, prayers and hope for a better future that I just don't see for myself. I have been talking to a psychologist and have even been suicidal. I just want a better life. I know the victim's life is never going to be the same and perhaps her life will improve without me in it. I could never ask her for forgiveness as that is something she would have to decide for herself.

I paid my debit it is time to move on for me and these laws restrict me so much. No Facebook, Flicker, Youtube, or anything that can be seen as social media is allowed. I have even looked into the age groups of different sites. I used Facebook and other sites in the past for work related to computers but now I can't. Job sites can also not be used because they are considered social media like Linkedin. There maybe others out there also but I would love to work back in computers again. That was my career for 23 years.

Thanks,

Tim

NC - Knock and talk should be called stalk and harass!

Original Article

If you are not on probation or parole, then you don't have to answer the door or any of their questions, and we'd recommend you don't either. Just show them your ID, and leave it at that, don't answer any questions.

01/24/2013

By Alicia Banks

SHELBY — A Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office SUV followed close behind an unmarked law enforcement vehicle. Both navigated the tight streets behind Holly Oak Park in Shelby.

Four men emerged from the two vehicles. They walked to the front door of a brick home on Osborne Street. A woman answered the door and spoke briefly to Cleveland County Sheriff Alan Norman.

“I spoke with the registered sex offender’s mom who told us where her son worked,” Norman said. “That information was consistent with our last visit.”

Sheriff’s office deputies conducted surprise “knock-and-talks knock-and-harass” across the county Wednesday. They visited about 104 homes.

The unannounced checks by the sheriff’s office are an effort to make sure registered sex offenders are staying in compliance with state laws.

“We want to ensure more safety from these individuals,” Norman said.

The county has 236 registered sex offenders. Some are currently detained in the county jail or in N.C. Department of Correction facilities in the state.

Multiple visits each year

The sheriff’s office is required, by law, to check on registered sex offenders at least once a year.
- Yes, once a year, after they register, to check that they are living where they say, but that is it, and anything more is harassment.

Deputies focused on three categories of convicted sex offenders during the two-day operation this week: aggravated, those who engaged in violent or forced sexual acts with someone of any age or younger than 12 years old; recidivists, or repeat offenders; and sexually violent predators, persons convicted of violent sexual offense with a mental abnormality or personality disorder.

“We do it multiple times per year,” Norman said.
- Which is basically harassment!

The department conducted a similar operation on Halloween, when sheriff’s deputies visited about 60 registered sex offenders across the county.

There isn’t a specific time when the knock-and-talks knock-and-harass happen, Norman said.

Protecting children

Deputies from various divisions, including community-oriented policing, school resource and patrol officers, assist with the operations.

“We haven’t had an increase in personnel in more than 10 years,” he said. “We can put these operations together in as short as a day and half’s notice.”

Norman said it’s “absolutely necessary” for his department to routinely check on sex offenders living in Cleveland County. He stressed the importance of protecting children through all means possible.
- Whatever you say!  If you really wanted to "protect" children through "all means possible," then you'd be taking the kids away from their parents, since most sexual abuse happens by those the child knows.

A N.C. General Assembly law bans sex offenders from using social networking sites such as Facebook because children are permitted to use them.
- Which is also unconstitutional!

But the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled Wednesday that an Indiana law banning sex offenders from using social networking sites is unconstitutional, noting it restricted free speech.

“I absolutely don’t agree with it,” Norman said. “Once you commit a crime and are on the registry, you give up your rights and any others that put you in contact with juveniles.”
- As long as you are on probation or parole, we would agree, but after that, you get those rights back, and it's unconstitutional, period, doesn't matter what you think, and just because someone is on the registry and lost some rights, doesn't give you the right to do anything you wish to those people, that is called harassment and corruption!

Twenty registered offenders will likely have follow-up visits in the coming days. Norman said fewer restrictions on offenders could cause them to recommit similar crimes.
- It could, that is a no-brainer, but does it?  Not based on the many studies out there which you all are ignoring!

NC - Scarlet letter for sex offenders?

Original Article

More is not always better! Also see the comments here.

09/25/2012

By Corey Friedman

Sheriff, attorney general say N.C. should comply with federal law; more information would be added to public registries

More information about registered sex offenders — including where they work and the cars they drive — will be added to North Carolina’s online offender registry if lawmakers comply with new federal rules.

North Carolina is among 35 states that have not adopted standards in the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, passed in 2006. State Attorney General Roy Cooper is urging lawmakers to pass the reforms.

“Tracking sex offenders nationally can make communities safer and better protect people, especially our children,” Cooper said in a statement to The Wilson Times. “North Carolina risks being left behind if it fails to strengthen the sex offender registry, and legislators should do what’s necessary to protect the public.”

Wilson County Sheriff Calvin Woodard said SORNA would give residents more information about sex offenders in their communities and set harsh public penalties for serious sex crimes.

“It’s public awareness,” Woodard said. “It tells people, ‘If you do this, it’s going to be like The Scarlet Letter.’ They’re going to have an “S” and “O” for sex offender on their chest. It keeps them in check.”
- So if you are so adamant about public awareness, then why not put all criminals on a public registry so we can all be aware of the criminals who live around us?

SORNA enjoys broad support from law enforcement, but the measure has faced high legislative hurdles in Raleigh. A bill to study the federal law’s implementation introduced more than a year ago remains stalled in the Senate’s Judiciary II committee, which Republican Sen. E.S. “Buck” Newton of Wilson co-chairs.

Newton said lawmakers will study the federal law carefully and determine whether North Carolina’s registry system should be changed. He said no one from the N.C. Department of Justice or other law enforcement agencies had contacted him about SORNA.

“We’re not too enthusiastic about being told what to do by the Justice Department,” Newton said. “We’ll make sure we do what’s right for the citizens of North Carolina.”

WHAT SORNA DOES

Included in the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, SORNA requires county sheriffs to collect more information about registered sex offenders and makes more of that data available on searchable public websites.

If state lawmakers vote to comply with SORNA, the North Carolina Sex Offender and Public Protection Registry would include offenders’ workplace addresses, the addresses of their schools or colleges and the license plate numbers and descriptions of any vehicles they own or operate.

“It’s the same principles and purpose of the laws we have now — protecting the public by providing information on known offenders,” said John Aldridge, special deputy attorney general at the N.C. Department of Justice. “By coming into full SORNA compliance, we have an expansion of that database of offenders, and that seems to get to the heart of it.”
- The heart of it being money!

SORNA also encourages states to include a reverse lookup function for phone numbers and email addresses on public sex offender registries. Website visitors could enter a phone number or email address, and if it’s registered to a sex offender, the site will show that offender’s conviction history and personal information.

Advocates say that feature would allow parents concerned about inappropriate text messages or emails their children receive to help identify the senders.

Aldridge said he wasn’t sure whether his office would recommend adding a reverse lookup function to North Carolina’s public registry.

“There would be quite a lot of things that would need to be done,” he said.

The federal law discourages posting sex offenders’ phone numbers and email addresses on public websites because “availability of this type of information could allow sex offenders to network with one another, reinforcing negative behavior and providing opportunities for coordinated criminal activity,” according to a U.S. Department of Justice briefing.
- Give me a break!  Are you people so ignorant you really think ex-offenders are going to get together to plan some mass molestation or something?  Apparently so!

SORNA also would expand the number of registered sex offenders in North Carolina by adding juvenile sex offenders to the public registry. Under current law, judges can require juveniles to register as sex offenders, but their information is stored in a juvenile sex offender registry accessible only to law enforcement, Aldridge explained.
- Yes, the more people they have on the list, the more money they get, and the same with prisons, the more in prison, the more money!

“That would be a fairly substantial change,” he said. “Even though they are on the juvenile registry right now for North Carolina, (the public registry) would be greatly expanded if we became SORNA-compliant. With SORNA, it would be an automatic determination.”

SORNA groups sex offenses into three tiers based on severity and requires registration for 15 years with annual address verification for Tier I offenders, 25-year registration and verification every six months for those in Tier II and lifetime registration and three-month verification for Tier III offenders.

Woodard said sheriff’s deputies already visit each of the county’s 133 registered sex offenders at their homes once or twice per year, an additional form of address verification not required under state law.

“Even though they check in, we go check them, too,” Woodard said. “We go above and beyond. We don’t check them just the mandatory, the minimum. We go above the minimum.”

SORNA also expands the number of crimes that require registration as a sex offender and sets standards for registration and address verification.

PUSH FOR COMPLIANCE

Fifteen states, including South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama and Florida, and 35 Native American tribes have substantially implemented the federal act’s requirements, according to the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking, a new agency that SORNA created.

Jurisdictions that didn’t pass SORNA rules by July 2011 will see a 10 percent cut in Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant funding. North Carolina law enforcement agencies and court systems took in $37.2 million in Byrne grants during fiscal year 2009.
- It's basically bribery.  If you do this for us, we'll give you some money!

If state lawmakers vote to comply with the federal law, they can use grant money to pay for it. The funds cut from federal grants to North Carolina “may be reallocated ... solely for the purpose of implementing SORNA,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

South Carolina already was updating its sex offender registry system when lawmakers there chose to comply with SORNA requirements. Computer software for the required updates cost the state $207,520 with an annual expense of $187,520.

“It’s something we’ve been working toward for quite a while,” South Carolina Law Enforcement Division spokeswoman Kathryn Richardson said. She said complying with SORNA didn’t require the state to hire more employees.

“Our current staff took on additional duties and worked very diligently to implement this,” Richardson said.

Some SORNA policies don’t require changes to state law, and the North Carolina attorney general’s office already has implemented those policies. They include providing more information about out-of-state convictions and creating a system to collect digitized fingerprints and palm prints for all registered sex offenders.

“We’re pretty much at the point now where until the law is changed, we’ve gone as far as we can go,” state Justice Department spokeswoman Noelle Talley said.

Cooper sent a letter to state House and Senate leaders in 2010 and 2011 urging them to adopt the legal changes that SORNA requires.

“North Carolina is a leader by making significant strides in the development of its sex offender registration, monitoring and notification programs,” Cooper wrote in the 2010 letter. “However, to maintain this standing and stay a step ahead of the criminals, we must make the required legislative changes to meet federal requirements of SORNA.”

Wilson County’s sheriff said he’s a strong supporter of SORNA compliance and believes the disclosure requirements will help law enforcement and the public.

“I personally feel like people need to know who’s staying beside them if they’ve committed a sexual crime,” Woodard said.
- Like we said above, what about other crimes, which are more dangerous?

Woodard called the federal law “a technology-informed piece” that will help law enforcement agencies share information about sex offenders in their jurisdictions.

“People who commit any type of crime are getting smarter, and it’s always going to take law enforcement and the justice system to get one step smarter,” he said. “It’s networking and technology at its best. Everyone’s on the same page under this program, and that’s wonderful.”

LEGISLATIVE HURDLES

Everyone’s not on the same page in the state General Assembly, where a bill to merely study — not implement — the federal law failed to reach a Senate floor vote last year.

The House Judiciary Committee introduced House Bill 772 to study SORNA compliance in April 2006. If passed, the bill would create a joint legislative study committee composed of five state representatives and five senators.

That committee would study SORNA requirements and compare the cost of implementing them with the loss of federal grant funding for failure to do so, according to the bill.

House members passed the bill on a 116-0 vote on June 3, 2011, and sent it along to the Senate three days later. The bill’s been stuck in committee for more than a year.

“We can certainly take a look at it in the next session, and if there are some changes we need to make to improve our registry, I’m certainly open to doing that,” said Newton, one of three Judiciary II committee co-chairmen.

Newton, a Wilson attorney, said the bill “hadn’t had any traction” in the 2012 short session because lawmakers were struggling to pass the state budget.

Newton said lawmakers periodically review the state’s sex offender laws and are committed to public protection.

“We’re always looking at our criminal laws and our sex offender laws,” he said. “We want to make sure we have the best policies in place for the citizens of North Carolina.”

Newton characterized SORNA as an unfunded federal mandate that would burden the state’s sheriffs with onerous requirements.

“We don’t need to be distracting law enforcement with policy mandated out of Washington that costs a lot of money,” he said.

No cost estimate for SORNA implementation has been produced, according to the N.C. Department of Justice, but officials say there would be significant expenses.

Aldridge, the special deputy attorney general, said implementing the law would create “a substantial increase in the need for additional personnel for law enforcement.”

The Department of Justice and State Bureau of Investigation would need more employees to manage the expanded sex offender database and ensure compliance with the new federal laws, Aldridge said.

Newton said he wasn’t sure if senators would hear the SORNA study bill in committee when the General Assembly convenes in January. While he hasn’t indicated he supports full SORNA compliance, Newton did express support for the law’s provisions to add more information to public sex offender registries.

“Generally speaking, more information for the public to be able to make themselves aware and protect themselves is a good thing,” he said.
- Yeah right, except when it comes to accessing government information.  If more information is good to help people "protect" themselves, then why doesn't the government become transparent like Obama and others said it would become?  Because more information exposes their corruption, that's why!

Senate leaders “strongly support efforts to crack down on registered sex offenders and increase transparency on their whereabouts,” said Amy Auth, spokeswoman for President Pro-tempore Phil Berger.

“While we have not determined our formal agenda for next year, we will continue to look at different ways to ensure that parents and law enforcement have the tools they need to protect families,” Auth said in a written statement.

DO REGISTRIES HELP?

While law enforcement groups have championed SORNA and cheerlead for compliance in every state, some counter that more stringent sex offender laws and longer registration periods could violate offenders’ constitutional rights.
- There is no "could" about it!  If we were adhering to the Constitution, then the laws would be found unconstitutional, but the Constitution is not worth the paper and ink it's written with, so therefore, anything is now possible.

SORNA’s three-tier registration system lumps statutory rape convicts with violent sexual predators, attorney Katherine Godin of the Rhode Island American Civil Liberties Union noted in a May 12 memo to state lawmakers there.

“Under the (Adam Walsh Act), an 18-year-old who has sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend will be branded a sex offender for the rest of his life and will be seen as posing the same threat to the community as someone who commits rape or first-degree child molestation,” Godin wrote in the memo.

States toughening their treatment of convicted sex offenders may lull residents into a false sense of security, the Rhode Island ACLU argues, by ignoring the statistical likelihood that children will be abused by a family member or close family friend.

“In fact, this community notification system distorts the fact that most sex crimes are not committed by some scary man lurking in the bushes,” Godin wrote. “Instead, 97 percent of child sex abuse victims up to 5 years old knew the offender prior to the offense.”

Academic studies show that offenders placed on public registries reoffend at roughly the same rate as those convicted before the registries were maintained, said M. Lyn Exum, an associate professor of criminal justice and criminology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

“I think there is this scarlet-letter stigma that is carried with this, and whether that’s good or bad, that’s a moral judgment,” Exum said. “There’s not compelling scientific research to show that individuals on sex offender registries have lower recidivism rates.”

Studies show that 5 percent of registered sex offenders will be convicted of another sex crime within three years of their registration. In a 15-year span, about a quarter of sex offenders will reoffend.

In some studies, the number of registered offenders convicted of a subsequent sex offense was slightly lower than the number of non-registered offenders.

“Those on the registries do offend less, but it’s a very small percentage,” Exum said. “In the research world, we say those percentages are not statistically significant.”
- Hell, even the facts are not statistically significant!

Nearly half of registered sex offenders said being listed on a public registry has limited their job prospects and cost them friendships, according to self-reported survey data.

“A significant minority report being attacked — being tracked down and confronted in such a way that they were physically assaulted,” Exum said.

While the public may need information about sex offenders in their communities, some scholars and civil liberties groups say those offenders deserve the opportunity to turn their lives around.

“In some ways, you’re sort of cutting off your nose to spite your face,” Exum said. “You’re putting these people on a registry and making it harder for them to reintegrate, which could increase the chance that they recidivate.”

Former officer pleads to charges of Child Molestation

View the article here

Notice on the original news article title, they did not include "Child Molestation"! You know they did that on purpose. The average citizen they would have splashed that on the title.

04/20/2007

BREVARD -- A former Transylvania County deputy, charged with six counts of sexual offenses against a 14-year-old boy, pleaded guilty to all the charges Thursday.

Charles V. McCrary II, 40, of 1597 Crab Creek Road, Penrose, was charged in January after the Sheriff's Office received a complaint about the deputy's sexual misconduct.

Assistant District Attorney Charlie Walker said McCrary will be sentenced Monday, July 23.

"The minimum he can receive is 16 years in prison," Walker said. "He could face as much as 20 years."

After entering his guilty plea, McCrary's bond was revoked and he was placed in the custody of the Sheriff's Department.

Walker said he was unsure where McCrary would be jailed while awaiting his sentencing hearing.
- I hope so, I think he's a flight risk. Leave his a$$ in jail until he's sentenced.

On Jan. 11, the State Bureau of Investigation received a report from Chief Deputy J.E. Gunter of the Sheriff's Office that a 14-year-old told him he had been sexually abused on several occasions by McCrary, according to search warrants.

During the interview with Gunter, the 14-year-old boy told authorities the first instance of sexual abuse happened in the summer of 2005.

In addition to the explicit sexual encounters, the boy told authorities he received several explicit e-mails from McCrary during the past two years.

Prior to his arrest, McCrary had been a school resource officer at Brevard High School.