What I want you to know about being the sister of a convicted sex offender

Original Article

09/26/2014

By Natalie

I used to believe in monsters. Until my brother became one. Three years ago, I got a call that my brother had been arrested for molesting his step-daughter. Certain there had been a mistake, I was obviously dumbfounded. Until he confessed. Through slurred words, drunken ramblings and tears that, yes, he had, and on more than one occasion. The arrest was just the very first drop in a roller coaster of emotion.

This event has single handedly shaken my world like nothing before it. It has transformed my family in a way I could have never imagined. Each of us in separate and different ways.

I'm happy to say I think it's made me a better person. I know this may be hard for some people to reconcile but what I want people to know is there are no such things as monsters. I no longer believe in "bad" people. My message to my daughters (and yes, I have all girls and one is the same age as the victim) is there is no such thing as "bad guys." There are good people who make bad choices.

Before you start to type your heated disagreement let me stress that I in no way condone or excuse my brother's behavior nor any other kind of deviant, illegal behavior. My brother was the perpetrator in this instance not the victim. But I refuse to crucify him either. And that's what I have really learned. Who am I to proclaim an individual, made in Christ's image, a monster? How can I possibly know the many facets of one person? Can anyone of us be defined so narrowly? Would you want to be? It makes us feel safer to categorize and label others because we can distance ourselves, disassociate with our fellow human beings and relieve ourselves of the all-consuming question, "How could this happen?"

Rest of the story

Sex Offender: Testimony

Video Description:
I edited out the parts I am assuming YT found to be "offensive" I wish they would tell me what number range they have a problem with when they ban a video but it is what it is.

This video is made to glorify God not to make excuses for anyone least of all myself so if you are a troll, move along, nothing to see here.

Kat's Story: 2004 Things Go Bad

TX - Journey of Hope With Rodney Mathers

Rodney Mathers

Original Article

10/07/2013

Welcome.

It sucks being a sex-offender. For most of us it was a stupid, illogical decision that not only created a "victim" ( regardless of the circumstances), but also has cost us family, careers, and our freedom.

As if that wasn't enough, there are the judgmental masses who have been unknowingly force fed stereo typed and skewed thinking by the sensationalizing media. Not all sex offenders re-offend. In fact, most don't. Not all men and women that have a sexual encounter with a minor are full blown pedophiles. There are in fact degrees.

I tried to contact someone from my past recently. Her response was that it made her "feel uncomfortable". What an uninformed, judgmental moron! Here in Houston we have the king of judgemental idiots-Andy Kahn. Kahn was so sure that he was right...about everything, that he thought it would be O.K. to lie at an offenders parole hearing. He is now under investigation by the Houston Police Department. We all know that nothing will happen to that vigilante.

Chin up and chest out, we do everything in our power to move forward despite people like the ones listed above. In fact, we have two long term mantras. 1- Never create another victim. 2- Try to do something in our lives that shows we can contribute in a positive way to society.

My guest this week is Dr. Michael Barta. Dr. Barta is the founder of the Sex Offender Treatment Program in the State of Colorado. Listen in as we discuss sexual addictions on this week's show.

Remember, if God is for you, who can be against you?

Kat's Story: The Beginning

See Also: Kat's Story: Becoming Outcast

Good or Evil vs. Sick or Well - Gonzales' SORNA rule will overflow US prisons

View the article here | Other articles from this author

04/24/2007

Of course I know why none of the politicians are questioning US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on the “Interim Rule” called SORNA which he has been bragging about as his great crime fighting contribution.

But the timing of it with the comment period ending next week on April 30, 2007 compels me to do the right thing by bringing this sneaky, under-handed move by Gonzales to everyone’s attention. And to go one step further and urge that we make an outcry to put an end to all his initiatives in progress.

Somebody must be the watchdog of our Constitution and stand up against all the ridiculous fear and hatemongering that the Republican party thinks is going to work to build their party and create more law enforcement jobs across the country.

So I guess that once again it falls to me to sound the alarm on something that will have devastating effects on millions of lives, most of whom had nothing to do with molesting a child. SORNA is an end run cooked up Gonzales and cohorts, no better than criminals in office for political purposes only and it needs to be halted immediately.

Yesterday’s news in Oklahoma and Florida where newspapers carried articles that this sex offender hysteria isn’t working out in their states.

In Kentucky today, sex offenders won a lawsuit after a judge ruled that residency restrictions are nothing more than a "political placebo." link.

It's good that the impracticality of monitoring people who had nothing to do with a violent crime against a child is becoming more apparent. But the destruction of families such as those in the Duke Rape Case is shattering to a young person, even when justice is finally served which is extremely rare.

Most people who read my column don’t know any actual child molesters. The snatch-and-run type is just a big bogeyman scare tactic that Republican politicians have dreamed up for the most part. About 50 children per year are actually killed by a severely mentally ill child molester according to statistics from the Bureau of Justice. About one child per state, yet such laws are merely vengeance on the mentally ill and do nothing to prevent the mental illness, costing billions and taking away from other programs which really do benefit ALL children.

More than 93% of child molestation cases that are actually real and not the result of a nasty divorce or child custody dispute occur within the circle of family and friends. About half the “child molesters” are under the age of 18 years old which means that kids are being destroyed for life, a counter-productive practice that is more mean-spirited as mistakes than the mistakes they may have or may not have made.

In California, we don’t have tiers, so the minor violations such as urinating in public, mooning, and indecent exposure are lumped into the same category and child murder. It’s ridiculous and it’s a huge lie told by people who were elected to office to serve the interests of law enforcement labor unions and that who ugly-machine bureaucracy.

Unlike another other junior prison reformer who has taken dirty money to promote and lobby for the pornography industry, as a mother and grandmother I would never take one dime to that kind of sleazy work. I believe that exposure to pornography at a young age worsens the problems. Next year, 2008 marks my 40th year as a California journalist and while I do truly love the First Amendment, I would never take tainted money to promote pornography.

What I am standing up for here is the Constitutional rights of mostly young men (some women) who are being destroyed for life by a political party that pretends to want to limit government and build families. What hypocrites! There are more than one million women and children connected to a “sex offender” in California alone who are on the verge of having to live under a bridge. We have little or no justice in our state with the prison guard’s union buying all the legislative votes and putting them into office. I am here for those women and children who are at risk of being forced to live under a bridge or having their family members attacked over false and/or ridiculous allegations.

Until injustice knocks on your own door, it probably isn't real that a minor act can destroy your son or daughter for life. But the goal of the Republican politicians is to keep these prisons stocked with fresh humans by any means possible. All it takes to be swept off for life and marked with the Scarlet Letter is an accusation. There need not be any evidence, DNA, witness or anything solid.

We even have sentences being extended in prison because the mentally ill masturbate in their cells. No kidding, the district attorneys in California are prosecuting mentally ill prisoners and there is a CDC rules change hearing coming up on May 7 to impose even harsher rules that mentally ill people who should be in hospitals, not prisons, won’t be able to follow.

I don’t want to get too far off topic in this particular column, what I am asking everyone to do to help prompt an investigation into SORNA, a harsh, ridiculous, deceitful “interim rule” is write to National Level Journalists at the Washington Post, New York Times, so they can see that what Gonzales is bragging about is nothing that any American should be proud of doing.

Expanding government and destroying more families for life when retributive justice does nothing to protect children. These are certainly not the Republicans of my father's day. Who are these people in power over us anyway and why the heck are we allowing them to be there?

Below is a sample letter that I’ve drafted for you. Please word it in your own language and send it today in a large red, white and blue envelope. Of course nobody is going to vote on this because Gonzales has the total power to pass something this horrible all on his own, even though he is thoroughly disgraced.

But we need to mark the record that some patriots cared about justice and objected to SORNA and the hatemongering that it promotes.

Besides the letter to Washington D.C., please reach out to the journalists who have courage to call out wrongs. My educated guess is that we certainly aren’t going to find courage for this first demand for an investigation into SORNA in a politician. It is very good news that politicians of both parties have scorned Gonzales, now he can know what that feels like although his crimes in perverting justice are much worse than some of the other "perversions" he’s persecuting to please the President and members of his own party.

It is very good news that CNN reports that the Vermont Senate has called for the Impeachment of Bush and Cheney. It would be a good idea to stop all critical legislation since we do not have trustworthy leaders running the country, and we can start with SORNA which appears to be an end run around the regular process of deciding something so important.

Here’s the letter which I drafted on the run, there are so many stupid bills coming at us that we don’t which hole in the dam to plug first and so many people not helping out there who should be as their liberty goes up in smoke. Our UNION people are posting and writing but when we are protesting an issue on the national level, it takes tens of thousands of people participating to be noticed. On the State level it takes a few thousand. There is a big difference. So pitch in, all women and children should matter and nobody should be banished from society because they’re mentally ill. This destruction of families must stop now.

We could all use a lot more healing and restorative justice and bigger emphasis on prevention to put an end to this witch hunt mentality meant to scare voters into building the bureaucracy. Don’t fall for it and fight back with your pen and your vote. If you subscribe to my daily newsletter and live in California, you are already learning to become a real activist for change instead of just a complainer. An eighth grader can stand up for their liberty if they can write seven sentences, and so can you!

The entire call to action is posted here.

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Begin Call to Action

You are objecting to an interim rule created by the now disgraced US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The rule if passed into permanent law will affect every sex offender in the United States and the one million women and children in California connected to them.

Please send your letter via priority mail today or tomorrow in a red, white, blue envelope so we feel like a force on the receiving end. The cut off date is April 30, 2007. Please also post comments to national level journalists who are currently missing this important change in the law done by a criminal trying to save himself - Gonzales. A sample letter for you to post online to journalists follows the sample letter that goes to David Karp, Senior Counsel. Power of numbers is the only prayer we have of being heard. Just do YOUR share.

David J. Karp, Senior Counsel,
Office of Legal Policy,
Room 4509,
Main Justice Building, 950 Pennsylvania Avenue,
NW., Washington, DC 20530.

To ensure proper handling, please reference OAG Docket No. 117 on your correspondence.

You may view an electronic version of this interim rule at Regulations.gov. You may also comment via the Internet to the Justice Department's Office of Legal Policy (OLP) by e-mail to: olpregs@usdoj.gov or by using the Regulations.gov comment form for this regulation. When submitting comments electronically you must include OAG Docket No. 117 in the subject box.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Laura L. Rogers, Director, Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking; Office of Justice Programs, United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC, 202 514-4689.

David J. Karp, Senior Counsel
Office of Legal Policy, Room 4509
Main Justice Building
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.,
Washington, DC 20530.

Re: OAG Docket No. 117

Dear Senior Counsel Karp:

Please allow me to voice my grave concern and opposition for the Interim Rule issued as a result of the Adam Walsh Act (AWA) and SORNA by Attorney General Gonzales. This law will allow double jeopardy which is legal only because federal jurisdiction and state jurisdiction are separate. A person can now be punished by both the federal; and state government for the same violation of registration. Every state has a registry in place and this is certainly a duplicate effort and an excessively expensive and unnecessary law.

A great many people who have moved on with their lives and living law abiding and productive lives will now be re-exposed with the retroactive clause of SORNA. This is tantamount to the Salem witch hunts only now it is the families of sex offenders who will brought down with this draconian and vindictive law. This is cruel and unusual punishment, not public safety as SORNA will show places of employment in the Federal Registry which will be an open invitation to the fear and hate mongers to protest their places of work and/or physically attack them.

Posting places of employment in a federal database will stand in the way of any sex offender in California (and the nation) from being able to earn a living, no matter how minor their crime. This is completely counterproductive to the goal of reintegrating ex-felons back into society as self supporting, productive citizens. The Attorney General has said that SORNA's applicability will be to "virtually the entire existing sex offender population". Clearly the intent is cover "virtually" everyone, but there is no mention about whether Congress specifically limits what he can do. Why was this left out?

Please consider the effect this will have on the one million women and children attached to a sex offender when they cannot earn a living. Current laws have forced a group of people to live under a bridge in Florida. This is an excellent example of how this law will further affect the offenders and their families. They are unable to work and support their families or themselves The one time sex offender is lumped together with the violent sexual predator. In California, there are already laws in effect to handle the truly high risk offender and considering all sex offenders one and the same is simply not right or just.

The tiny fraction of a percentage of sex offenders who are guilty of raping and/or murdering a child are mentally ill and they belong in places of healing. They are the people who need to be removed from society for the purpose of public safety, but even this should be done in a much more healing manner, as they are most often severely mentally ill.

More than 90% of sex crimes involving a child occur within families. No registration, residency restriction or monitoring system will stop these crimes. This law is targeting an entire group of people and only a fraction of the group would possibly be stopped from a crime. We are so scared that those people who have been convicted of sex offense will re-offend, but look at the statistics.

The Department of Justice states that the average rate of recidivism is 5%, one the lowest rates among all felonies. It is an invented lie that has been perpetrated to the public that sex offenders cannot be rehabilitated and that they have a high rate of recidivism. This is simply not true. Our conservative leaders are constantly preaching about building the family and knocking the liberals for not having stricter morals, but laws such as this are destroying families over mental illness. It's barbaric, opportunistic and political grandstanding at its worst.

SORNA can be passed as Federal Interim Rule because Congress empowered Attorney General Gonzales, whose character is now being assassinated to do so. All of his initiatives should simply be cancelled. He has proven not to be trustworthy and everything he has touched is now tainted, including SORNA. He most likely wrote this rule anticipating he would need the support of fellow Republicans over the firings of the Attorneys. How can it be a good rule when Conservatives are so hell bent to over punish the severely mentally ill in order to build political careers and Gonzales so desperately needs their support. The fact that SORNA touches so many millions of lives in a destructive manner makes it as much, if not more important than the other probes.

In addition, the Attorney General fails to point out anything relative to Sec. 117 (Duty to Notify Sex Offenders of Registration Requirements and to Register) which places a requirement on him (and his office). Notification is a basic tenet of due process, is it not? Why was this left out of the Interim Rule? This is an ill conceived, poorly thought out Rule and I ask that it be struck down before we allow the invented hysteria that has pervaded our country continue to destroy families. A child is 40 times more likely to be killed by a drunk driver than a sex offender. Why are these people being ostracized, forced to live in exile and banishment, on the streets of our FREE country? This is all too reminiscent of the nightmare of Nazi Germany. That is a frightening state of affairs for our country. SORNA should be discarded immediately

Rev. B. Cayenne Bird

UNION

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Make your letter express your view and the impact on your own life or that of people whom you love, do not simply copy my letter word for word. Where's the focus on prevention and healing of the mentally ill? There are many issues not mentioned here. Please copy me on what you wrote

Please mail in a red, white and blue priority mail envelope by Tuesday night so we feel like an army because we all mailed within 48 hours of one another. Get your family members to write. Thank you for fighting for your liberty by standing up for yourself and others.

Here’s some photos of but a few of our past campaigns over the last decade. The page is being updated but you can see the thousands of hours our UNION members have invested fighting for everyone’s rights. Imagine if the 3 million people connected to a prisoner in California all voted. Better yet, imagine if they brought 20 other people to vote. We’d have none of our current problems.

If you’d like to subscribe to my daily newsletter and learn how, when, where to fight back focused on a few California campaigns at a time, please sign up here. Most of the news you see out there was written by someone who reads the UNION Daily interactive newsletter.

1union1.com

Rev. B. Cayenne Bird
UNION
P.O. Box 340371
Sacramento, Ca. 95834
http://www.1union1.com

Where Victims' Rights Go Wrong

View the article here

04/23/2007

Since 1981, the Justice Department's Office for Victims of Crime has dedicated a week in April to recognizing crime victims' rights. The week -- this year's observance began yesterday -- is usually marked by rallies, candlelight vigils and other activities intended to promote victims' rights and to honor crime victims and those who work on their behalf.

Victims deserve the recognition that this week provides, and they deserve sympathy and compensation for their losses. But I am increasingly concerned about what I believe they do not deserve, which is the right to serve as de facto prosecutors, a practice that is quietly insinuating itself into the legal system.

Our desire to increase victims' rights is closely related to our national obsession with being "tough on crime." While this mantra makes for good political rhetoric, it often leads to illogical and irrational criminal justice policies. Being "tough on crime" has led to harsh mandatory minimum sentences in federal drug cases that have disproportionately punished minorities. It has resulted in first-time offenders serving life sentences even though their crimes involved no weapon and resulted in no physical injuries; in 6-year-olds being arrested for tantrums at school; and, worst of all, in innocent people on death row.

Courts have increasingly become more cognizant of the rights of victims. In 1996, restitution became mandatory for a variety of federal crimes. In 2002, Congress provided the victims of violent crimes and sexual abuse the right to speak at a defendant's sentencing, even though courts already had latitude in any kind of case to permit victims to speak at sentencing or to receive information from victims before sentences were imposed. And last year, the issue reached the Supreme Court in a murder case in which the victim's supporters had attended the trial wearing buttons that displayed a picture of the victim (the court avoided addressing whether such conduct is prejudicial).

The latest manifestation of our "tough on crime" policy comes in the proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which will implement the 2004 Crime Victims' Rights Act. One U.S. district judge ruled that the statute renders victims "independent participant[s] in the proceedings" and "commands that victims should be treated equally with the defendant, defense counsel, and the prosecutor."

Under the act, victims have the right to be heard in court on questions of bond, plea agreements and sentencing, and they have the right to confer with prosecutors about a case. If victims are unhappy with how a prosecutor or trial court has treated them, they are permitted to seek relief in the U.S. Court of Appeals, and the appellate court must rule on their application within 72 hours (an unprecedented remedy).

Thus, under the act, victims at a minimum become a member of the prosecution team and, indeed, have significant leverage over the professional prosecutors. The president and many in Congress support an amendment for crime victims' rights that would incorporate several of these points into the Constitution.

While we may support the notion that victims' rights should be at least as strong as those of defendants, within the context of the criminal justice system these rights are mutually exclusive. Any rights provided to the victim must come at the expense of the rights provided to a defendant. Indeed, providing the victim with a role in the prosecution assumes a crime has been committed, despite the bedrock constitutional proposition that the accused is presumed innocent.

When we turn victims into members of the prosecution team, we distort a process, so carefully constructed more than 200 years ago, that eschewed vigilante justice or prosecution for personal ends in favor of prosecution by the sovereign with significant rights afforded to the accused. We expect prosecutors to make decisions about whom to prosecute and what types of sentences to seek based on myriad considerations, including, but far from limited to, the interests of victims. Where victims play a controlling role in the prosecution, the consideration of those factors no longer focuses on what is best for society but rather on what victims need or want as "justice."

I sympathize with individuals victimized by criminals. I understand their anger, outrage and desire for vengeance, particularly when faced with the kind of malevolence displayed last week at Virginia Tech. Securing assistance and compensation for victims is an unquestionable priority, and we need to promote healing to the greatest extent possible.

But the criminal justice system cannot focus on the victim; rather, it must follow its rich tradition of protecting society as a whole, ensuring that justice is achieved in accordance with the Constitution. As we appropriately focus on improving the plight of crime victims this week, let's not forget about the plight of the falsely accused or of the criminal justice system itself.

Attorney nabbed in sting

View the article here

Seems like an attorney would be smart enough to not do this. Guess not!

04/24/2007 Man arrested on online solicitation of minor charge

An attorney for the U.S. Department of Agriculture was arrested in Quanah last week on charges of online solicitation of a minor.

The Texas Department of Public Safety revealed that David Kurt Warner was arrested April 17 by the Texas Rangers, Hardeman County Sheriff's Office and the DPS Motor Vehicle Theft Service. Investigators allege that Warner had traveled to Quanah from the Dallas area expecting to meet a 15-year-old female.

Trooper Daniel Hawthorne, DPS spokesman in Childress, said the operation was spurred by members of a volunteer group called "Perverted Justice." The group helps law enforcement agencies catch online predators and is featured on NBC's "Dateline: To Catch a Predator" show.

"This is not one of the big ones where 'Dateline' was involved," Hawthorne said.

Warner is a resident of Carrollton, Texas, according to a news release. Hawthorne said the group had begun having online conversations with Warner a few weeks ago, and contacted the Texas Rangers. Warner was arrested April 17 in a "residential setting" in Quanah, according to the release.

Warner was booked into the Hardeman County Jail and bond was set at $100,000. Conviction of online solicitation of a minor is a third degree felony.

Ky. sex offenders win case

View the article here

Finally a judge who sees the BS for what it is, BS!! AMEN!!!

04/21/2007

Judge says new rules don't apply retroactively

COVINGTON - Eleven Kenton County residents have beaten charges that they violated Kentucky's new sex-offender law intended to prevent them from living within 1,000 feet of a playground, school or day care.

Kenton District Judge Martin Sheehan ruled Friday that the new restrictions do not apply to people convicted of their crimes before the amended law took effect last year.

"If what we seek is to protect children from sex offenders, how do we accomplish that aim by imposing a 1,000-foot residency restriction ...?" Sheehan wrote. "If the offender is still permitted to visit and linger in such areas for protracted periods, so long as he does not sleep there, what actual protection have we provided our children?

"In truth, residency restrictions appear to be little more than a political placebo, offering false comfort to pacify the public's fear of sex offenders."

Court observers said prosecutors would likely appeal. Kenton County Attorney Garry Edmondson did not return phone messages seeking comment.

"This is a ruling in the right direction," said Beth Wilson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky. "We have long argued that the new law ... does nothing to enhance community safety. It effectively banishes people from their communities."

Registered sex offenders frustrated in finding an eligible place to live have found themselves fighting it in court across the state.

A Fleming County jury recently found a registered sex offender guilty but ordered no jail time or fine, said Tom Griffiths, regional manager for Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy. In another incident, a charge was dropped against a Mason County sex offender when he agreed to move.

In reference to Sheehan's ruling, defense lawyer Don Nageleisen called the order "the most courageous judicial decision in the last 10 years." He said Sheehan followed the law even if it meant making a politically unpopular ruling.

Nageleisen, who represented one of the 11 men, challenged the misdemeanor charges against his client on several constitutional grounds.

Sheehan didn't strike down the statute. He ruled that legislators passed a punitive law after the fact - a violation of the state and federal constitutions. Prosecutors had argued that the restrictions were not further punishment, but a civil plan designed to protect children.

"The public both fears and hates sexual offenders, the political pariahs of our day," Sheehan wrote. "This prevailing public animus has resulted in the enactment of increasingly harsh measures. Our courts, the public's last line of defense for civil liberties, have been quick to join the mob, twisting and controlling prevailing case law with an eye on the ultimate goal of approving harsher and harsher laws, while simultaneously glossing over significant concerns and constitutional challenges."

Pointing out that someone could be placed on a sex offender registry for just possessing child porn, Sheehan even suggested an alternative system. He cited a plan used in Nebraska that evaluates each offender's risk of re-offending before deciding where he can live.

The judge also questioned a common belief that sex offenders are likely to exploit the children of the neighbors. The 36-page order cited numerous studies or recidivism rates of inmates.

Sheehan wrote that problems in Kentucky's law were exacerbated by the lack of a legal definition of a playground. He said Kenton County's patchwork of small cities could each strategically position a few swing sets throughout their borders to ban sex offenders from residing anywhere within their cities.

"An area within which sex offender residency is permitted today could be converted to an off-limits area tomorrow simply by the opening of a playground, school or day-care facility," Sheehan wrote, adding that the law has no grandfather clause.

"In fact, the harsh reality of a lack of legal housing available to sex offenders subject to residency restrictions is already striking home in at least one jurisdiction," Sheehan wrote.

He said less than two years after Miami enacted a 2,500-foot residency restriction, sex offenders are living under expressway overpasses because there is no other legal housing available.

DNA exonerates man who served 25 years

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04/23/2007

CHICAGO - A man who spent 25 years in prison for rape was exonerated Monday as a judge threw out his convictions because DNA evidence showed he couldn't have committed the attack. An advocacy group said it was the 200th such case.
- When did DNA come into being? If it was older than 25 years, why didn't they do this back before the man lost 25 years of his life? I hate to say it, but, is it because he's black? Well, from this page, it says DNA forensics came into being in 1984. Still, this man has lost 25 years of his life, and should be compensated for his LOST time.

Jerry Miller smiled and the courtroom erupted into cheers after Cook County Circuit Court Judge Diane G. Cannon read the ruling that cleared him of all charges.

Miller, 48, had been found guilty of rape, robbery, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated battery even though he testified he was at home watching television at the time of the 1981 attack. He was paroled in March 2006 and now works two jobs and lives with a family member in a Chicago suburb.

"I will get on with my life, start a life, have a life," Miller said at a news conference after the hearing. "I'm just thankful for this day."

The Innocence Project, a New York-based group, had persuaded prosecutors last year to conduct DNA tests on a semen sample taken from the rape victim's clothes. Those results excluded Miller as the attacker.

The case is the 200th in the United States in which a person was convicted and later exonerated based on DNA evidence, the group says. The first exonerations based on DNA testing were in 1989, and in all, the 200 defendants served about 2,475 years in prison for crimes they didn't commit, according to the group's Web site.

"We look at this as a learning moment," said Peter Neufeld, a co-founder of the Innocence Project and one of Miller's lawyers. "What went wrong? We have to get the answer for the future or there'll be too many Jerry Millers."

Miller was arrested in the attack on a 44-year-old woman at a Chicago parking garage in September 1981. The attacker raped her and put her in the trunk of her car, but he ran away when two attendants approached him as he tried to leave the garage.

The attendants helped authorities make a sketch and later picked Miller out of a lineup.

Now that he is exonerated, Miller no longer has to register as a sex offender.

Mark Ertler, deputy supervisor of the Cook County state's attorney's office DNA review unit, told the Chicago Tribune that the case was "a good example of what the DNA unit was intended to do."

On the Net:

http://www.innocenceproject.org/

Colorado City polygamist sentenced to probation for marrying teen

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04/22/2007

KINGMAN - A member of a polygamist sect who pleaded no contest to a child abuse charge for taking an underage wife was sentenced to one day in jail and 3 years probation.

Colorado City resident Vergel Jessop will also have to register as a sex offender during his probation. The judge in Mohave County spared him additional jail time Friday because his wife has significant medical problems, county prosecutors said.

Jessop, 47, had been charged in August 2005 with sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. He pleaded no contest to the lesser charge in December.

Jessop's sentencing was the sixth of eight cases involving members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to be concluded. All eight were charged with crimes related to their underaged plural wives.

Dale Barlow is set to be sentenced in June for his no contest plea to conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. The last defendant, Rodney Holm, is set for trial in May.

Of the remaining members of the polygamous sect originally charged, one was acquitted, charges were dropped against two men, and two others were convicted at trial or pleaded guilty.

The leader of the FLDS, Warren Jeffs, is being held in Utah on two counts of rape by accomplice and faces life terms in prison if convicted. In Arizona, he faces sexual misconduct charges which carry lesser penalties.

Both states brought the charges in connection with marriages Jeffs allegedly arranged between older men and teenage girls.

The FLDS is based in Colorado City and nearby Hildale, Utah.

Sex offender e-mail rule would waste police time

View the article here

I truly believe we have a bunch of idiots running this country. It's so easy to create new email addresses, so how will this protect anyone? If a person is intent on committing another crime, they can create a new email address in minutes and do what they have set out to do. This is more feel good, knee-jerk reactions from politicians who do not know what the hell they are doing.

04/23/2007

FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY WOULD BE PRIMARY RESULT

Requiring all sex offenders to register their e-mail addresses with the government is fad legislation that is sweeping the nation. Two states - Virginia and Kentucky - have passed it, and a dozen more, plus Congress, are considering it. California's legislators should resist the instinct to join them.

The scope of California's bill is too broad. Even if it's constitutional, it wouldn't accomplish what proponents want.

Most convicted sex offenders have to tell the police where they live and whenever they move. The proposed legislation would extend this to the virtual world. The government would not publish e-mail addresses, as it does street addresses of some Megan's Law registrants. Instead, it would provide or sell them to online social networks like MySpace, which could then deny them access to their sites. Ex-offenders who failed to give the government their e-mail addresses and online screen names could be returned to prison.

Assembly members Anthony Portantino, D-Pasadena, and Shirley Horton, R-Lemon Grove, are sponsoring AB841. Its intent is worthy: to protect children from predators contacting them through chat rooms and e-mail.

But the bill would apply to nearly 90,000 sex offenders, including those who have been off parole for decades and whose crimes involved adults, not children. The definition of a commercial social network is so vague that it could include not only MySpace and dating networks like Match.com but also sites like Amazon and eBay, in which customers can publicly comment on products.

It is already against the law for adults to try to entice children to commit sexual acts. Last year, California voters passed Proposition 83, which makes it a crime for adults to lie about their age in an effort to entrap children. These rules make sense, but there is no justification for denying access to the Internet to individuals who have shown no predisposition to endanger children.
- But it's ok for law enforcement to lie about their age in order to entrap adults? So I guess they are above the law!

People change e-mail addresses more frequently than they move. Those who want to contact children will ignore the law, but others will be inadvertently ensnared by strict reporting deadlines. They could be re-imprisoned for technical violations at a time that legislators should be looking for ways to reduce the number of inmates at overcrowded jails and prisons. Just keeping track of the changes in screen names and addresses will take substantial time and resources for law enforcement.

MySpace, to its credit, has raised safety issues. It has created a software program that tells parents if their children are faking their ages on their Internet pages. More education and oversight are needed.

But trying to deny sex offenders access to Internet sites would create a false sense of security while creating one more pointless burden for the criminal justice system.

DNA clears man of rape after 25 years in prison

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04/22/2007

It came as no surprise to Jerry Miller last week when the test results came back showing he could not have committed the 1981 rape he served 25 years in prison for. He knew he was innocent.

On Monday, his attorneys will appear in Cook County Criminal Court to ask that his conviction be vacated, and Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine's office, which agreed to the DNA testing last year, will join the motion.

"It feels great," said Miller, who's living with a cousin in the south suburbs since his parole last year. For years, he wrote to lawyers, journalists and others looking for help with his case. "It took a long time."

The New York-based Innocence Project took up his case and asked Devine's office last year to agree to the DNA testing, which was not available when Miller was convicted in the early '80s.

"He will be the 200th post-conviction exoneration in the country," said Colin Starger, the staff attorney with the nonprofit group that handled Miller's case.

If Judge Diane Gordon Cannon approves the motion, it will end Miller's supervised home release, take his picture off the state's sex-offender registry, and allow him to try to get on with his life, 25 years later, his attorneys say.

William Wolf, the assistant public defender representing Miller here, said when prosecutors confirmed the DNA of semen found on the rape victim's clothes did not match Miller, they ran it against a national criminal database and got a "hit."

That could mean that the rapist, who went free while police targeted Miller, went out and committed another crime for which he was arrested, but prosecutors are not giving any more details on the DNA "hit" and whether that offender is in custody or was convicted of another rape or some other crime.

"We don't know what he was convicted for that put him in the database, other than it was a felony," Wolf said.

Miller had the misfortune to resemble a sketch of the rapist, drawn using information from parking garage attendants who saw the man flee. The victim had been warned by the rapist not to look at him or he would kill her. She was raped in her car, then put in her trunk and later rescued by the parking attendants.

Human Dignity & the Sanctity of Life

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John McCain is a total hypocrite. He talks about, in his video, his Judeo-Christian faith, yet he wants to create a National Online Registry (Shaming) for sex offenders. He is lumping all sex offenders into one group, as usual, and not taking into account that not all sex offender have even touched or had anything to do with a child, yet they are loosing their freedom on the Internet because of a few cases. His law, if it should be in effect, should be only for those who used the Internet to commit their crime, period. Why should everyone else suffer for the few idiots who commit their crimes on the Internet? His law is a typical knee-jerk reaction to something he doesn't understand or even care to understand. Human Dignity my a$$. More BS from a hypocrite politicians. Deceiving the masses for his benefit! He does not worship and practice what the one true God & Jesus taught. He is using everything for his own self worship! He even criticized the blogging community, he hates bloggers, from what he said before, yet on his site, he allows people to create blogs, another hypocritical issue.

Protecting Children from Online Predators

America's most precious asset is its children. The innocence of childhood provides hope for the future and refreshes and restores the ideals of this great country. However, there are those who prey upon this innocence and the Internet offers these predators unprecedented, often anonymous, access to children. John McCain has taken a hard line against pedophiles that would use the Internet to prey upon children by proposing the first-of-its-kind national online registry for persons who have been convicted of sex crimes against children. Senator McCain's legislation requires that sex offenders register all online accounts in a national database that can be used by law enforcement to investigate crimes against children. If these predators fail to register they would be sent to prison for ten years. The legislation also makes use of the Internet an "aggravating factor" in sex crimes against children, adding an additional ten years to any conviction. It is the responsibility of government to do all that can be done to protect children from predators who lurk on the Internet.
- Above it says "hard line against pedophiles" and "persons who have been convicted of sex crimes against children", yet the law punishes ALL sex offenders. Not all "sex offender" are pedophiles, child molesters or predators, yet he thinks all are one and the same. I would think that someone in his position would know the difference between these words. Just so people know, here is what they mean.

- A sex offender is a person who has been criminally charged and convicted of, or has pled guilty to, a sex crime. This includes things like urinating in public, mooning, streaking, prostitution, rape, incest, sodomy and many others.

- Pedophilia, paedophilia or pædophilia (see spelling differences) is the paraphilia of being sexually attracted primarily or exclusively to prepubescent or peripubescent children. A person with this attraction is called a pedophile or paedophile.

- Child sexual abuse (CSA) is the sexual assault of a minor or, according to the American Psychological Association, sexual activity between a minor and an older person in which the dominant position of the older person is used to coerce or exploit the younger.
- So what about the cases where there is a 8 and 10 year old (playing doctor), and the 8 year old is the one who initiated everything? This is considered child molestation as well, but not by definition.

- The term sexual predator is used pejoratively to describe a person seen as obtaining or trying to obtain sexual contact with another person in a metaphorically predatory manner.
- This is like the cases involving Mark Foley (who will walk free), the Internet predators seeking out children for sex and any other person who seeks out children (hunting) them for sexual purposes.

Are the Columbus online predator stings progressive policing or entrapment?

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Big Brother can stay the hell out of my life. I'd rather die with myself trying to protect myself, then by some law enforcement gestapo who cannot even protect this country. If they could, 9/11, Virginia Masacre, Columbine, and all the other stuff would not have occurred. STAY OUT OF MY LIFE!

04/20/2007

Editor's note: The Columbus Police Department arrested two men within the span of a few weeks earlier this year in an online sting operation designed to catch online predators targeting children. This is the first installment of a three-part series examining the use of undercover police to arrest suspected pedophiles who travel to meet the underage children they believe they have met online.

The methods employed by part-time Columbus Police Officer Dennis Weiner to snare alleged online predators have drawn the attention of several criminal defense attorneys who say his investigations could amount to entrapment and outrageous government conduct.

The sting operations have been heralded as progressive policing by Columbus Police Chief Gerald Sallman, who approved the practice, and by Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Eric Szatkowski, who has conducted numerous online sting operations targeting those he considers to be online predators.

Szatkowski also has toured the state giving the presentation "The Dark Side of the Internet," a series of parent-oriented speeches about the dangers of child predators that he began after investigating online predator cases beginning about eight years ago.

Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said he supports these types of investigations, particularly at the state level.

"This is such a vital issue for us in the (Wisconsin) State Department of Justice," he told the Daily Register. "These (investigations) are time-consuming, they require a degree of expertise, and it's very difficult for local law enforcement officers and agencies to have the resources to deal with these cases. It makes it that much more imperative that we in the State Department of Justice help them with these. We do that through training and by providing technical assistance."

Wisconsin is working toward an increased involvement in Internet crimes against children, Van Hollen said.

"It's an area where there is a huge amount of criminality," he said. "The people we're protecting are the people who are least capable of protecting themselves."
- I can protect myself thank you very much, I do not need the gestapo thinking they can do it for me.

As part of the Wisconsin Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, Szatkowski has told audiences during his speeches that he has played a major role in the apprehension of more than 70 adults who have preyed on children.

The DCI agent also has provided training to numerous officers from community law enforcement agencies about how to catch and prosecute those he believes target children through the Internet. Weiner said he participated in one of Szatkowski's three-day law enforcement training sessions about how to investigate sex offender cases.

The arrests

While more and more members of the law enforcement community are being trained to conduct these types of investigations, some criminal defense attorneys are taking notice — and questioning the methods employed.

Madison attorney Christopher Van Wagner is representing Christopher Hurst, a Janesville man arrested in one of Weiner's online stings after the man allegedly traveled to Columbus on March 12 to have sex with a 15-year-old girl he had met online. According to the criminal complaint, Hurst, 29, was arrested after he arrived for the meeting and discovered the girl was the middle-aged Columbus police officer.

According to the criminal complaint, Hurst and the "girl" corresponded for several days in numerous chats, many sexually graphic in nature. The logs consist of 58 pages of text and span hours of time chatting back and forth.

Within half an hour of the initial contact, Hurst asks the "girl" if she is a good kisser, according to the chat logs.

A few weeks prior to Hurst's arrest, a 20-year-old Fort Atkinson man was snared in a similar investigation conducted by Weiner.

Jared Banker also is accused of traveling to Columbus to meet what he thought was a 15-year-old girl and was similarly disappointed.

According to police reports obtained by the Daily Register, Banker told officers arresting him that "I knew I was going to get arrested."

Banker and the "girl" started corresponding Feb. 11 and by Feb. 12 had decided to meet. He was arrested Feb. 13 in the Columbus High School parking lot.

The chat log in this case also shows graphic sexual discussions. Within 15 minutes of meeting online a girl he believed to be 15 years old, he asks her if she is "horny," according to the criminal complaint.

At the time Banker was arrested, police said they discovered he had two knives in his pockets, two more in his car, a poster of sexual positions and other items of a sexual nature.

Banker is scheduled to appear in court again Thursday. He was released on a $10,000 signature bond.

Investigation questioned

Hurst had been employed as an instructional aide who worked with autistic children at Janesville Craig High School.

He was placed on administrative leave without pay following his arrest, according to Janesville School District Public Information Specialist Sheryl Miller. He resigned March 18.

The case caused an uproar in the community, but also had severe effects on Hurst's life, Van Wagner said.

"In my 25 years as a defense attorney, I've never seen methods quite like this used ever before," he said. "We're fully exploring all potential defenses to the charges, including entrapment and outrageous government conduct."

Hurst is next due in court May 23. He remains free on a $5,000 signature bond.

The lack of public discussion about how these crimes should be investigated has led Madison defense attorney Stephen Hurley to express concern that law enforcement may be creating its own rules as it goes.

"There is no public sentiment for child molesters," he said. "Not that I'm saying there should be, but the question needs to be asked: What does the public want to see accomplished?"

Hurley, who also has been an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Law since 1989, said sex crimes traditionally have been measured by a criminal's ability to commit crimes.

Offenses were understood to occur when molesters were presented with an opportunity, he said.

"The Internet is a whole different venue, and some see it as a gigantic playground in which access is not geographically limited," Hurley said. "The Internet has provided a new outlet for contact with children by child predators."

The public perceives the Internet as an unregulated technology that provides a new venue for pedophiles, who take advantage of it at every opportunity, Hurley said.
- It needs to remain unregulated, or we ALL loose more freedom. They are already working on Internet 2, which will replace the existing network and embed spying and all kinds of other technology to further monitor everyone.

"If you assume the correctness of that assertion, then that naturally alarms people," he said. "Yet this is a new line of police work — a shift in the way crimes are uncovered."

Law enforcement officials should be passive when investigating crime, Van Wagner said, adding that he believes a more active role causes concern about an overreaching police force.

An old strategy for a new crime

Van Hollen said these kinds of investigations have been used for decades to arrest criminals, and the use of undercover police to catch predators is not a new practice.

"I don't think there's anything new about this law enforcement strategy at all," he said. "I've been in the law enforcement business now for about 15 years and it seems to me that — maybe to a lesser degree — these sorts of investigations have been going on since that time."

Another issue facing law enforcement agencies considering similar investigations is manpower.

Sallman said he supports Weiner's investigations because there is a need in the community.

"It's not something that commands a full officer," he said. "It is a significant problem in the community and we've decided to act on it."

Weiner also is a full-time police officer in Waunakee.

Sallman admitted there were tradeoffs for a community police force.

"We're barely keeping up with activity levels in the community," he said. "It's a reallocation of resources and we try to quickly adapt to change where perceived problems exist."

Van Hollen said the state is working to do more to help local agencies handle these kinds of issues.

"It's the most important thing for the state government to do in law enforcement or public safety is help local law enforcement in areas that they can't necessarily help themselves."

Van Hollen said he was glad to see local departments engaging in these kinds of investigations, but recognized few have the resources to delve into these kinds of matters.

Weiner's two arrests required 110 pages of police reports, hours of investigation time and the presence of several officers to make the arrests.

Even with the questions raised about the investigation methods, Van Hollen said drug investigations have been conducted in a similar manner for decades.

"You provide an undercover officer or a confidential informant who goes and sells or buys drugs with a known dealer for purposes of making sure you that have good evidence against them," he said. "This is the same concept. It's just been used with regards to child enticement."

Defining a crime

Hurley said the use of undercover agents has always been questioned, adding that problems arise when police pose as people whom they are not, lie about what they are doing and then work toward an arrest. He also questioned the parallels between drug arrests and online predator investigations.

"Do we have to redefine the act?" he asked. "There no longer is an act. It's not illegal to chat with children — so now we're arresting people who show an interest in meeting children, which is not illegal either."

Hurley said the most common charge applied following these investigations — use of a computer to facilitate a child sex crime — makes his point. No sex crime ever occurred, he said. The men arrested are charged for what police believed their intentions to be.

"We tend to lump all people with an interest in children into one group," he said. "We've widened the net to include people who may not have done anything wrong."

Intentions are what Weiner says his investigations are all about.

"These guys show up with all the stuff they say they will (during the online conversations) to commit these acts," he said. "The weapon of choice for them today is not the park or the school but the computer."

Local parole input wanted

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04/20/2007

RED BLUFF - Local input. That was the most important message brought to and from the recent California Summit for Safe Communities summit attended by Tehama County Supervisor Ron Warner, Sheriff Clay Parker and county counsel Will Murphy.

The topic of the summit was investigating collaborative solutions for housing high-risk sex offenders and sexually violent predators.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the guest speaker at the forum, which also included James Tilton, secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Recommendations from the group made during the workshops will be forwarded on the governor's office to help in policy making.

The issue was recently brought home to Warner when a parolee was placed in his district in close proximity to a minor.

Warner protested the placement, noting that local officials were not contacted prior to the decision.

"The jails and prisons are overcrowded," said Warner. "With Megan's Law, new restrictions are limiting where these people can live and so this seems to be forcing them into rural areas. When it gets to the point where they are too restrictive, someone will take this to court and have it ruled unconstitutional, and we don't want that to happen."
- Yes we do. It's unconstitutional and wrong and you know it.

Warner said that no one wants these people to be homeless, then they aren't trackable.

"The general feeling is that we will accept those who came from Tehama County back to Tehama County, but we don't want other counties' problems," said Warner.

Currently, there are about 160-170 such parolees in the county. For local governments, the problem is in their backyard. They often see state officials as thinking they know better then local officials and feel that they are dumping grounds. They are often forced to be reactive rather than proactive.

The state is saddled with parolees that have served their time, and while they are a high risk, they have paid their debt to society. The problem is weighing the rights of the parolee over the risk of them offending again.
- Sounds like "Minority Report" and pre-crime. Stop trying to predict the future and let them live their lives.

"We want the state parole board to start listening to the local parole board," said Warner. "There is a problem here, and the answer will affect us, and we need to be at the table when we reach it."

Warner said several suggestions were made, including group homes and zoning. He added that funding is also a key factor.

"Other issues like who gets notified and the effect on things like housing and apartment complexes are also issues," said Warner.

Parker said that Tehama County has been on the forefront of notifying the community of potential dangers on the sheriff's Web site before it became a statewide practice.

"With offender watch, you can put your address, school, church or whatever into the computer and get notifications when someone moves in the area," said Parker. "This is very proactive, and Tehama County was the first in the state."

Other changes in the works is the time of notification of law enforcement. Currently, it's 60 days; soon it will be 180 days.

The sheriff's Web site also offers tips for parents and children for keeping safe.
- Why should they have to provide this? It's common sense, which a lot of people do not apparently have.

The mission of the task force was to develop recommendations for a statewide system to improve departmental polices related to the placement, supervision and monitoring of high-risk offenders in local communities, thereby enhancing public safety.

County counsel Will Murphy said that the most important message is the importance for local government to keep its place at the table.

"Counties are subdivisions of the state, and the state can change our lives with the stoke of a pen," said Murphy. "It's important that we be in on the process."
- And ruin millions of lives with the stroke of the same pen!

Prepared Remarks of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales at the National Crime Victims' Rights Week Award Ceremony

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04/20/2007

WASHINGTON - Prepared remarks of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales at the National Crime Victims' Rights Week award ceremony:

Thank you. I know many of you were present last night at the candlelight ceremony we had a few blocks from here; I'm glad to be back with you again today.

Last night was about remembering the victims and the survivors of crime and violence. It was about shining a light on the faces of those whom we have lost and those whose lives have been shattered by criminals and predators. We heard the moving words of Mark Lunsford, whose beautiful daughter Jessica was taken from him in a stunning moment of cruelty. And we remembered the victims at Virginia Tech, whose lives were taken from us so violently.

Today is also about remembering victims, but in a different way. Today we give thanks for, and to, the people who work every day to heal those who hurt, and to punish those who prey on the vulnerable. The individuals we honor today have themselves honored the victims of crime.

The issue of victims' rights is, and should be, a top priority for the Department of Justice. Everyone in the Department, including me and the line prosecutors across the Nation, is committed to including victims as full participants in the criminal justice system.

After all, the stories and experiences of victims, and their families, and their advocates, is a big part of what motivates those of us in law enforcement. The courage and fortitude they show, in the face of overwhelming grief and loss, pushes us to work harder to make sure that those touched by crime are protected and comforted as much as possible, and that those who caused their suffering are brought to justice.

Listening to Mark Lunsford last night, I realized that had his story been about one of my sons, I doubt I could stand up and tell that story. And of course telling the story is nothing, compared to actually living through the loss of a child at the hands of evil. I have similar thoughts when I hear the stories of so many of the people here and across the Nation.

So I am humbled when I see people who have suffered so much able to stand up and take action. It makes me even more determined to do whatever I can, too. When people like Mark dedicate themselves to preventing other families from experiencing the pain his family has experienced, it would be shameful for the Department of Justice not to be truly dedicated to the same goal.

We are dedicated to this cause, and I want to tell you about a few of the things we have been doing -- often by working closely with the kind of leaders whose achievements we celebrate today.

We have worked hard to implement the landmark Crime Victims Rights Act through extensive training sessions for victim witness coordinators across the government. All new Assistant U.S. Attorneys across America now receive this training.

We enhanced the Federal Victim Notification System so that victims can be informed about their cases, including court dates and scheduled offender release information. The number of victim notifications sent out has tripled in the past two years, to a total of eight million in 2006.

And we created the Victim Ombudsman Office to ensure that we are doing our job properly for every victim, every time.

Congress has also given us the authority to pursue civil commitment of certain sex offenders who would pose a serious danger to others if released. And we're going to use that authority.

And we've made great strides on many important functions relating to the sex offender registry. Improving that registry, and giving the requirement to register some teeth, was a creative step that is going to help all of us protect America's children.

One of the initiatives I am most proud of as Attorney General has been Project Safe Childhood -- our coordinated effort to combat sexual exploitation crimes against children. My wife, Becky, has joined me in this through her volunteer work with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Together we have met with countless families and advocates. We have seen too many photos of children who will never return home, and never grow up. When we talk with these families, their anguish and their pain become part of our hearts, and Becky and I feel a need to hold our sons just a little tighter and watch them for just a little longer before they fall asleep at night. And when I return to work the next day, I am renewed in my fight.

Today's award recipients are amazing people. Some have devoted themselves to aiding victims of human trafficking-victims who were smuggled into this country and held in slavery. Others protect victims of domestic violence. Still others have counseled victims, and guided them to the help they need. And others have worked closely with Congress and other elected officials to work for new laws and new rights.

Some of them have been victims themselves, or have felt the pain of losing a child, a sibling, or a spouse to a senseless crime. And others are just filled with compassion and a devotion to seeing that crimes like these not claim any more of our families.

I am proud to work alongside each of these award recipients. I admire you, and I depend on the good work of all of you, and the many thousands of other people around the country working on behalf of victims of crime.

The plaques we hand out today are not thanks enough, and my own words are not sufficient to express my gratitude. But please know that as you continue your work, I am by your side.

May God bless you all and guide you in your efforts, and may he continue to bless the United States of America.