WY - Committee defeats banning sex offenders near child care sites

Original Article

01/15/2013

By Ben Neary

CHEYENNE - A Wyoming legislative committee on Monday defeated a bill that would have banned sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of child care facilities.

The House Judiciary Committee voted 7-2 against the bill sponsored by Rep. John Eklund, R-Cheyenne.

"The intention of this bill is to have the same protection for under school aged children that we do for school children," Eklund said. He said there have been instances were sex offenders have moved in next to established day care facilities.

Steve Corsi, director of the Wyoming Department of Family Services, said his agency didn't see any weaknesses with the bill.

However, Linda Burt, director of the ACLU in Wyoming, said that putting the bill's proposed restrictions together with existing restrictions on sex offenders living near schools would drastically restrict where offenders could live in many communities.

Burt said offenders could find themselves segregated into low-income areas, or possibly left permitted to live only in more affluent areas where they couldn't afford to stay.

Burt also said she regarded the bill as unnecessary, saying that statistically people who work at child care centers are more likely to abuse children in their care than others who happen to live in the neighborhood.

Joe Baron, prosecuting attorney in Crook County and spokesman for the state prosecutors association, said the bill didn't go far enough. "It doesn't say you can't be within 1,000 feet," he said. "It doesn't say you can't be in the building."

Rep. Stephen Watt, R-Rock Springs, spoke against the bill. A former police officer, he has a problem with the state imposing continuing punishment on sex offenders after they've served their prison time.
- I find it shocking that a former police officer would say this, but it's about time they spoke up for the draconian laws.

The predatory justice of juvenile sex-offender laws

Original Article

01/20/2013

By Michael Zoorob

When lawmakers crafted laws to combat sexual violence, they probably never expected that children as young as 10 would end up on public sex offender registries. Law enforcement probably never expected that they would have to notify neighbors that a 13-year-old sex offender lived nearby. Yet that is the reality of America’s sex offender registration laws: Though the judicial system tends to distinguish between youth and adult offenders, 35 states subject minors convicted of sex crimes to the same registration, notification and restrictions as adults. Seven states require juveniles to stay on the registry for life. These crimes aren't always violent, either: A recent Human Rights Watch report notes that teens have found their way onto sex offender registries for benign acts like sexting, public urination and consensual sex with other teens.

In fact, 36 percent of all sex offenders who victimize children are themselves juveniles — and more than half of these juvenile offenders are 14 years old or younger, according to a recent study commissioned by the Department of Justice. It is understandable that laws should be created to curb sexual violence — but imposing the stigma of longtime and sometimes lifelong sex offender registration on juvenile offenders creates unnecessary harm both to them and their families. Juvenile offenders often experience emotional problems, difficulty securing employment, social ostracization and difficulties at school. There are, incredibly, cases of teens being barred from attending school due to their presence on sex offender registries because they sexted, the act of which the law considers child pornography. As adults, these offenders can expect restrictions on their residency, employment and mobility, and a significant minority will be fired, harassed, assaulted or even murdered because of their sex offender status.

Registration may also hinder crime rehabilitation of youth offenders. Depriving juvenile offenders of access to education, employment, religious services and healthy relationships — all common consequences of sex offender registration — could actually raise the probability that these children become lifelong delinquents. Unfortunately, registration requirements may deter families from reporting sex crimes committed by their child against a sibling for fear of the legal consequences, thus denying access to rehabilitative services.

Registration of juveniles has also been shown not to reduce sex crime. Studies by Elizabeth Letourneau of the University of South Carolina have found that registering juvenile offenders neither reduced overall rates of offenses nor reduced recidivism. This makes sense. It’s hard to argue, for example, that public safety was enhanced by the eviction of a 26-year-old married woman from her home in Georgia because a daycare center opened nearby. Her crime was that she had oral sex with a 15-year-old when she was 17.
- The same applies to adults.  Sex laws do nothing to reduce recidivism.

Moreover, juvenile offenders are distinct from their adult counterparts. Children who commit sex crimes, even violent ones, usually do so as a way of “acting out,” not because they eroticize aggression. Consequently, psychologists have found that rehabilitation is very effective for juvenile sex offenders, and very few juvenile offenders re-offend as adults. Most studies find the recidivism rate of juvenile sex offenders to be less than 5 percent.
- Recidivism rates are the same for adults as well.

Sex offenders deserve special opprobrium in our society. But we shouldn't let our visceral disgust with sex crimes bar us from making sensible public policy. Children are not miniature adults, and the law should not treat them that way.

OK - Romeo and Juliet Sex Offender Program

David Slain Web Site

NV - Former police officer (John Norman) sentenced for improper touching

John Norman

Original Article

01/17/2013

By FRANCIS MCCABE

A former Las Vegas police officer accused of stopping female drivers while on duty and coercing them into exposing their breasts was slapped with a maximum two-year jail sentence Thursday.

John Norman, who resigned from the Metropolitan Police Department five months after his arrest, pleaded guilty in June to oppression under the color of office and open or gross lewdness, both gross misdemeanors.

On Thursday, Norman said he was "truly and humbly sorry" if he made the victims feel threatened, which was never his intent.

He added, "The media has painted me as a monster out there lurking in the dark and violating women's rights and other people's rights."

Judge Abbi Silver stared at the 34-year-old as he spoke.

Later, before handing down the harshest sentence she could, the judge told Norman, "You are nothing short of a sexual predator with a badge."

The father of six, who was dressed in a suit and appeared in court with his wife and about a dozen supporters, was then handcuffed, taken from the courtroom and jailed at the Clark County Detention Center.

Outside Silver's courtroom, Norman's two victims rejoiced at his sentence. The Review-Journal does not name victims of sexual crimes.

"He has to be treated like any other individual who did something wrong," one victim said.

The other victim added, "I was scared. I'm not scared anymore."

The women said they were worried Norman was going to be sentenced to probation.

Both women testified at the hearing that Norman's actions caused them to fear uniformed police officers.

"He ridiculed me. He humiliated me. He abused his authority. He knew what he was doing," one victim tearfully testified.

Both asked that Norman have to register as a sex offender, and Silver obliged.

They added later there are good police officers, including the ones who handled their case.

After the hearing, Norman's defense lawyer, David Roger, declined to comment.

Authorities said Norman in 2011 pulled over two women in separate traffic stops and compelled them to show their breasts. He also was accused of fondling one of the women.

Allegations of misconduct were made against Norman by two other women. Those allegations were investigated but did not rise to the level of crimes, police said.

He was originally charged with eight counts, but prosecutors dropped six charges as part of the guilty plea agreement.

MO - Sex offender information has been miscalculated

Original Article

01/08/2013

By BRENNAN DAVID

A computer program used by the Boone County Sheriff's Department to determine restrictions on sex offenders contains inaccurate measurements, and deputies will have to review all current offenders to determine whether they are in compliance with the law.

Last week, a registered sex offender living in a group home was asked to relocate when the sheriff's department learned the geographic information system, or GIS, used by the department contained measurements that are incorrectly calculated. The offender, [name withheld], had been living in the home and has since been relocated to a different group home.

The home was discovered to be within 1,000 feet of Lange Middle School, and [name withheld] can't live within 1,000 feet of a school. [name withheld]  21, was convicted of a deviant sexual assault against a 17-year-old Mexico, Mo., woman in 2008.

The group home, Prosperous Journey Men's Transition House, is operated by JAJ LLC. The group home allows as many as eight men to live there at a time and provides affordable, temporary housing for all offenders, not just sex offenders.

[name withheld]'s acceptance would have been reliant on approval by the Missouri Department of Corrections of his home plan, said Randy Hodill, executive director of Love In the Name of Christ, or Love INC. He said that home plan might have included information from the sheriff's department concerning the group home's proximity to neighboring schools.

Initial calculations placed Lange just feet outside the required 1,000-foot restriction, sheriff's department Detective Jessica Jameson said, but the sheriff's department has since learned the GIS was calculating distances from the center of schools to the center of homes. That measurement was sufficient for [name withheld] to reside at the Grace Ellen address, but that's not how Boone County detectives enforce restrictions.

State statute only provides distances, not guidance on how to measure, such as from property line to property line or door to door.

For the past four years, detectives have enforced distances from property line to property line, Detective Andrea Luntsford said. That measurement started when the Boone County Prosecuting Attorney's Office recommended it instead of measuring door to door.

A measurement from the group home's property line to the school's property line was within 1,000 feet, Luntsford said. [name withheld] was not arrested for violating restrictions because he was permitted to live at the Grace Ellen residence.

[name withheld] could not be reached for comment.

Luntsford and Jameson are sex offender coordinators for the sheriff's department and are now responsible for recalculating distances for all 280 sex offenders who must abide by restrictions within Boone County.

As of Friday afternoon, [name withheld] was the only sex offender found to not be in compliance, but Jameson admitted they are very early in the process.

"We've been looking," Jameson said. "We suspect others are in neighborhoods nowhere close to schools."

A second sex offender now resides at the Grace Ellen property but is not required to relocate per regulations related to his conviction.

About 15 of the 280 sex offenders in Boone County are homeless, and their whereabouts are unknown.

Because state law does not guide law enforcement agencies how to measure these distances, online resources such as the Missouri State Highway Patrol's Sex Offender Registry might contain different information than local law enforcement agencies.

A Missouri State Highway Patrol representative could not be reached for comment.

DC - Exploiting children for political agenda, this is not new, and Obama is no exception!

Since people have been on this Earth and politics has been around, people have been exploiting children during emotional issues or disasters to push their own agendas, and Obama is no different. You would think that people would see through this by now! It's nothing more than "For the children politics." We see this used when pushing sex offender laws all the time.

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AR - Proposed bill prohibits sex offenders from swimming areas, playgrounds

Original Article

01/17/2013

LITTLE ROCK (KTHV) -- Senator Missy Irvin said a newly proposed bill (Act-39 PDF) would prohibit level 3 or 4 sex offenders from a swimming area or children's playground within an Arkansas State Park.

"What we're looking at is where there are children present. We really don't want this level of sex offender there present. So, it really does give them the ability to ask them to leave," said Irvin.

Children's playgrounds include play areas designated for kids both indoors and outdoors. Beaches, swimming pools and water parks would be considered swimming areas.

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