ME - Former Howland police chief (Carl Smith) charged with sexual assault

Carl Smith

Original Article (Video available)

05/14/2014

By Kaitlyn Chana

BANGOR (NEWS CENTER) - A former Howland police chief made his first court appearance today, on charges that he sexually assaulted two 5-year-old girls. 72-year-old, Carl Smith of Eddington made his first appearance via video conference in court this afternoon. Smith didn't want the courtroom to hear his complaints and charges, so his court-appointed attorney asked the judge to not talk about the sex charges.

The judge explained that this is an open courtroom. He didn't go into specifics but did read the four sex charges. Two are for gross sexual assault and the other two are for unlawful sexual contact.

On Saturday, the Wells Police Department arrested Smith and authorities say he molested twin 5-year-old girls. The alleged assaults happened in Eddington at the end of April. Prosecutors think Smith was babysitting the children. They say he used to work at Ironwood, a residential facility for troubled teens, but then after reports of the alleged assaults he quit his job and left the state. He recently came back to Maine and was arrested. In terms of the alleged victims, law enforcement said the girls told administration at their school about what they say happened. Penobscot County District Attorney, Christopher Almy said he's admitted to some of these sexual actions.

"I don't know if he is going to take responsibility or if he is going to fight it. At this point, we do know he did make some admissions about his role and that's significant."

The judge said the severity of this crime makes him a flight risk.The bail is set at $100,000 dollars cash and he can't have contact with the alleged victims, or with any children under the ages of 18. Smith served as Howland police chief up until he retired in 1988. He has no prior charges.

Virtual Sex Offender

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

By Ron:
I am a "virtual sex offender". What is that?

That's when you are treated as a sex offender even though I've never been tried, convicted or even spoken to by the police.

Examples. When I move anywhere, the residents are warned about me. I moved in with a friend and a park was nearby and the police spoke to him about me. Try to keep friends and family when any event with children causes the police to speak with the participants.

I am followed and harassed almost wherever I go by, I presume, the nonprofits and community groups that the police keep commending for keeping down crime.

I repeat: I have never been convicted of anything. I'm what I call a virtual sex offender. Welcome to the new reality.

The only thing I can conclude is that they ran out of real sex offenders for their quota.

MI - Buying Sex Could Land You 25 Years on the Sex Offender Registry

Original Article

Maybe we can then put all the politicians, celebrities and police officers on the online registry so they can see first hand what it's like?

05/12/2014

A move is underway in the Michigan Legislature to crack down harder on those who hire prostitutes.

Supporters of the effort say too often, prostitutes are arrested and those who hire them are not.

The effort is part of a move to fight the growing problem of human trafficking in Michigan.

A key bill in the package defines soliciting for prostitution as a tier II registrable offense, which would put the offender's name on a registry for 25 years.

Other parts of the package include creation of a registration system for sex industry workers, to help prevent the movement of workers from strip clubs to prostitution.

Hearings began last week in Lansing in the Senate Families, Seniors and Human Services Committee. More will be scheduled in the future.

OK - Thousands come off sex offender list months after new law

Original Article

05/13/2014

By La'Tasha Givens

A new law took thousands off the sex offender registry.

Exposing yourself near a playground, urinating in public or peeping in a bathroom stall are just some of the actions that have landed thousands of people on the sex offender registry.

Now many of those names are disappearing from the list.

“If you were to slap a woman on the behind, that would be sexual battery and you would have to register for 15 years and that has nothing to do with children on the playground,” said attorney David Slane. “People who urinated in public or fall under what we call the Romeo and Juliet situation, where the young man may have been just a little bit older than the girl or vice versa. They’re the ones typically being removed.”

Slane said he’s taken on over 400 sex offender cases, more than anyone else in the state.

In many situations the offenders were on the list way past their punishment because the laws kept changing.

“They’ve had a number of changes or revisions of sex offender registration act over the last ten or 15 years and the court said those later laws could not apply retroactively,” said Jerry Massey spokesperson for the Department of Corrections (DOC).

Out of the 2,400 now off the list, Slane said most are level one or level two offenders which does not include those who committed violent and heinous sex crimes.

He also said under the new law a judge is able to decide a punishment on a case by case basis and not paint all offenders with a wide brush.

Slane said, “The more serious cases are the one we should spend our resources on, not someone who urinated in public.”

DOC officials say they still have another 2,700 cases to review to see if there are more offenders who are eligible to come off the list based on the new law.

Labeling sex offender misleading

Original Article

05/12/2014

DEAR ABBY: As a licensed psychotherapist who has worked with both victims and perpetrators of sexual abuse over the past 25 years, I would like to respond to "Stunned in the City," who found her co-worker's name on a website for registered sex offenders.

Registered sex offenders have been convicted and incarcerated for their crimes as well as serving a probationary period upon release. However, unlike other criminal offenses, they never finish "serving their time" — both in the areas of where they can live and how they can live (employment). They continue to serve a sentence that can never be completed and are stigmatized for the rest of their lives.

The reason for this is because of a "one-size-fits-all" approach to punishment, be it a onetime offender or a serial rapist. Most sexual abusers are either members of the family or a close family friend, and most are never reported. Only a small percentage of registered offenders pose a danger and should be under surveillance.

If "Stunned" reports her co-worker to her employer, she will jeopardize his livelihood, which he needs to redeem his life.

— Already Paid His Debt

DEAR A.P.H.D.: I received mail from mental health professionals, employers, parents and people who are on the sex offenders' list regarding "Stunned's" letter. All of them stated that the range of crimes that can add someone to the list is very broad. The list is no more than a starting point for people to begin their own research into public records before telling an employer or another person. Read on:

DEAR ABBY: For more than 20 years I have employed a man who is a convicted sex offender. He paid his debt to society for having sex with a minor when he was in his 20s. It will haunt him for the rest of his life.

The pictures you see online are recent because the authorities require updated photos yearly.

There is no demarcation between being dumb and being truly criminal, so everyone is labeled the same. Stay aware of those labeled sexual predators, but approach the sexual offenders case-by-case.

— Justice For All

DEAR ABBY: Inclusion on the registry can be the result of something that would not pose a danger to anyone — urinating in public, or having sex with a younger girlfriend when you yourself are a minor.

If you see a neighbor or co-worker on such a list, no one should jump to conclusions before doing more research about the actual offense. It may be nothing to worry about at all, or it might be something to react to. But you won't know until you find out more than a simple listing.

— Rebecca in San Diego

DEAR ABBY: After breakfast on Saturdays, my husband and I settle in, listen to music and read the newspaper. It's our Saturday morning ritual.

As part of it, when I get to your column, I read it out loud to my husband. We enjoy the letters and your advice.

When I finish, my husband almost invariably says, "You know, those letters are made up."

Abby, I think they are real, albeit edited, but genuine. He thinks they're fake. Who's right?

— True Believer in Michigan

DEAR TRUE BELIEVER: You are. I could never make up anything as interesting as the mail that arrives from my readers day after day.

TX - Mart May Pass First-Ever Sex Offender Ordinance

Original Article (Video available)

05/11/2014

By Matt Howerton

City Council members in Mart will be voting on a new sex offender ordinance Monday night. The town has never adopted a sex offender ordinance before and if passed, this would be the city’s first ever.

The proposed law comes on the heels of a sex offender registration in town. In April residents’ living near the city’s elementary and high schools were notified via postcard that a registered sex offender was residing in the area.

Since Mart currently has no sex offender ordinance whatsoever, the offender only has to comply with state law, which states that a sex offender can’t live within 500 feet of places where children commonly gather only if he or she is on parole or probation.

Offenders can live wherever they want if they aren’t on parole or probation and there is no city ordinance in place.

Since April, council members have been under the gun to adopt a sex offender ordinance.

“I was bombarded with emails and phone calls and that's what made me realize we needed to do something about this pretty quickly," Mart Mayor Pro-tem Henry Witt said.

“I was just as appalled as some of the other members of the city council.”

Witt and other city council members have since drafted a sex offender ordinance for Mart that states registered sex offenders with violations against children 16 and under cannot live within 1000 feet of where children commonly gather.

If passed however, current sex offenders living near child safety zones like schools or parks would be grandfathered into the ordinance and wouldn’t be forced to relocate.

But new offenders coming into the city could be fined each day they live in a prohibited child safety zone.

Mart’s city council meeting starts at 6:30 pm Monday night.

PA - Should young sex offenders be identified that way for life?

Original Article

05/12/2014

By LAURA BENSHOFF

Pennsylvania's Supreme Court is hearing arguments on whether teens found guilty of certain types of sexual offenses must be registered on public sex offender lists.

In some cases, that label can last for a lifetime. Pennsylvania adopted the federal Adam Walsh Act in 2012, which means that juveniles between 14 and 17 convicted of certain categories of sex crimes must register as sex offenders.

The challenge to the current registratrion requirements has brought more attention to the issue of juvenlie sex offenders — some of them are as young as 10 — and it raises tough questions: Where do kids learn to act that way? And how do judges and therapists currently treat sex offenders who are also children?

Natalie Dallard is a therapist at the Joseph J. Peters Institute in Philadelphia, an organization that provides treatment for survivors and perpetrators of sexual abuse. A variety of factors influence kids' behavior, she said.

"Probably nine out of 10 of the girls that I've worked with have been victims," said Dallard. "With boys, not as much as people think. Generally with boys there's a lot of other anger issues, and a lot of exposure to pornography, poor boundaries, and association with older peers, negative peers."

If kids are charged with a sexual assault, disclosing their own sexual trauma or family environment may actually backfire, said Megan Perez, a supervisor with the Public Defenders Association of Philadelphia. She said that if her clients have themselves been abused, she would not share that information in the courtroom.

"A lot of people assume that people who have been perpetrated against are more likely to be a perpetrator themselves," said Perez. "I think our Family Court judges in Philadelphia would look at a factor like that as more indicative of guilt than of innocence."

Consequences to fit the crime

There is a lot of evidence that kids' brains work differently than those of adults, especially when it comes to understanding consequences and controlling behavior.

"Impulse control develops as you get older," said Dallard. "You have a greater ability to manage some of these feelings. And young kids are also a lot more susceptible to outside influences, and they don't have that critical thinking to think out outcomes."

Dallard believes that sexual offenses elicit such an emotional response in people that it clouds their understanding of who the offender is.

"People are always asking me how I do what I do, but, at the end of the day, I'm helping children. Sex crimes are so stigmatized that people fail to see that these are children," said Dallard.

She recommends teaching boundaries and reducing access to pornography as keys to reducing assaults by young people.

In Pennsylvania, juvenile sex offenders who are found guilty are typically ordered to receive treatment — the minimum is six months of individual and group therapy. Depending on their own history of trauma, treatment could continue for two years.

Juveniles commit around 30 percent of sexual assaults against victims 18 and younger. Statistically, sex offenders – particularly young ones – are not likely to reoffend.