UK - Dad falsely accused of being paedophile on Facebook found hanged

Original Article

This is what happens when you have self proclaimed "saviors of children" who harass many people claiming they are "pedophiles" but who are not. Innocent people lose their lives. There are many groups online who claim to "out" pedophiles, but they do nothing except break the law, harass people, and make libelous claims.  The person or persons responsible should be sent to prison for murder.

05/24/2013

By Steve White

A dad found hanged in a cemetery was driven to suicide after he was falsely accused on Facebook of being a paedophile, his family claim.

Steven Rudderham, 48, was traumatised when his name, address and photograph were published online, with a message calling him a “dirty perv”.

Within 15 minutes, the message had been shared hundreds of times and he received death threats via the social network.

An inquest heard he was found hanged in the graveyard three days later.

His daughter Bethany Beaumont told the hearing: “They’ve destroyed an innocent life for no reason. It was disgusting.”

His mother Carol Matthews said: “I want to know why someone did something like that. I hope they rot in hell. It took a person’s life. We will never get over it.”

Mr Rudderham was a bricklayer and was working towards examinations as a building site manager before the internet accusations, an inquest in Hull heard.

The family explained that Steven spotted a 14-year-old girl giving out contact details to a 60-year-old man on Facebook and added a comment warning her not to give out her details to people she didn’t know.

Steven’s father, David Matthews, 66, said that another user then made a copy of his son’s profile picture and posted it with a banner labelling him a paedophile.

David, who lives with his wife Carol, 69, in Hull, said: “Within 15 minutes over 100 people had shared the picture of my son and it went viral.”

"Steven was getting death threats and threats that if he was spotted on the streets that he’d be castrated or hung.”

"He hated paedophiles so to be called one himself was devastating to him.”

Bethany, 19, told the inquest: “There were people who had known him for years commenting on it, he was so upset.”

"He stayed at my house that night because of what the comments were saying, about people coming to his house and smashing it up.”

The darts fan, who proudly posed with top pro Phil “the Power” Taylor, saw Bethany every day and she realised the profound effect the accusations were having on him.

She said: “He couldn’t believe it. He just looked at the wall and wouldn’t eat. It was like someone had ripped his life apart.”

Mr Rudderham discussed giving police a memory stick with evidence but it was recovered from Mr Rudderham's body. Police have also seized a computer hard drive.

Mr Rudderham's family say he served time in prison in 2010 for fighting but had no convictions for sex offences.

The inquest heard there had been no evidence of medical depression in the months before his death. No drugs and no significant amounts of alcohol were found.

Recording a verdict of suicide, Coroner Paul Marks said: “The medical cause of death was hanging.”

"He was actively pursuing a qualification to improve his status and job prospects. In the last few days of his life, he received a pejorative message on a social networking site which greatly troubled him.”

Police confirmed they are considering an investigation into the Facebook posts.

Mr Rudderham is said to have reported comments to Facebook who removed them.

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NY - Sex offenders challenge Suffolk law

Original Article

See the video at the link above. The videos below are from older articles.

05/20/2013

WOODBURY - Two registered sex offenders are challenging a Suffolk law that calls for closely watching the online activity of convicted offenders.

The Community Protection Act (PDF) allows Parents for Megan's Law to act for police by monitoring offenders' online activity.

According to Newsday, offenders say the law violates their civil rights.

See Also:

• 2 sex offenders challenging Suffolk law (Subscription required)
• New sex offender monitoring law approved by county legislature
• Letter: Don't hire victims group to police
• USA FAIR Demands Laura Ahearn of Parents for Megan's Law Retract NAMBLA Smear

Video Link


Video Link

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OK - Federal Ruling Could Change Restrictions for Oklahoma Sex Offenders

Original Article (Video Available)

05/12/2013

By Mark Taylor

A recent ruling in Federal Court could change the way sex offenders are punished. The May 8th ruling decided in favor of the defendant, [name withheld], who was convicted back in 1994 of lewd acts in Illinois. [name withheld] challenged his probationary restrictions that barred him from internet use and won, "He was saying, I shouldn't have to do all of these things," Fox 25 Legal analyst David Slane said. "I think it's the first step in what may be a trend," added Slane. Right now sex offenders are often given blanket restrictions and rules on where they can live, work and spend time. Slane believes this may soon change, so that the punishment will fit the crime, "If a sex offender did not do something related to the internet for example, you're probably not going to be able to restrict his access to the internet," Slane added, "The courts seem to be saying, in the future, there needs to be a connection between the two, or they are not going to be able to restrict his (or her) access." Slane said this is only applies in federal cases, but unless the Supreme court overturns it, it may soon spread to lower courts.

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MA - Norfolk County DA Morrissey Testifies on Sexual Predator Bill

Original Article

05/09/2013

By Nate Homan

The following was sent to Patch from David Traub, Press Officer/Director of Communications from the Office of Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey

Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey was at the State House this week, standing with Rep. Tackey Chan to push their bill to force convicted predators to provide their email addresses and other online information when they register as sex offenders.

“As we investigate crimes, we see cases where defendants started with electronic contact, under false names or false identities, with their eventual victims,” Morrissey said. “This is an effort to curtail that kind of activity from those previously convicted of sexual assaults.”

Morrissey said the legislation should improve public safety in two ways.

First, it will be useful for law enforcement. When a sex offender does comply with the new requirement, it will create a meaningful resource to cross-check online identities without having to subpoena user information, Morrissey said. When a sex offender does not comply, and an online identity traces back to them while police are investigating another crime, there would be an immediate right of arrest on the failure to register charge – even if police did not yet have probable cause to arrest on the central crime under investigation.

Second, part of the premise of community supervision of sex offenders is that recidivism can be reduced by keeping the post-conviction offender away from behaviors and patterns of thought that precede re-offense. “Creating false identities in order to communicate on-line under false premises should resonate as obvious bellwether behavior,” District Attorney Morrissey told the Joint Committee on the Judiciary at its May 7 hearing on House Bill No. 1252 (PDF).

“There has been a revolution in the way we communicate in the years since the Sex Offender Registry was designed and implemented in Massachusetts, but the registry has not evolved in kind,” District Attorney Morrissey said. “When the national enabling legislation known as Meghan’s Law passed in 1994, the public wasn’t communicating through email or social media.”

Representative Chan said “The legislation expands the way we protect our families from potential danger by sex offenders. So much of our lives are connected through the Internet and identities we created. We must update our laws to reflect the high technology world we live in."

Morrissey has been pushing for the change since 2007, when he was serving as Quincy’s State Senator. He said New Hampshire enacted an analogous measure in 2009.

Morrissey and Chan received bi-partisan support of 19 other legislators who co-sponsored the bill, including Sen. John F. Keenan, Sen. Brian Joyce, Rep Paul McMurtry, Rep. Louis L. Kafka, Rep. William Galvin, Rep. Bruce Ayers, Rep. James Murphy and Rep. John H. Rogers.

See Also:

• Foxborough Selectman Implores Judiciary Committee to Approve Sex Offender Registry and Notification Act
• Local Lawmakers, Police Chief, Testify on Sex Offender Legislation

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VA - Former Southwest Virginia police officer (Edward Shane Kiser) sentenced for sending sexual messages to teen

Edward Shane Kiser

Original Article

05/03/2013

By Wes Bunch

GATE CITY - A former police officer for the town of Coeburn will spend the next year in prison after he was sentenced Friday in Scott County Circuit Court for using Facebook to solicit sex from a minor.

Edward Shane Kiser, 28, Retford Road, Coeburn, was given a five-year prison sentence by 30th Circuit Court Judge John Kilgore with all but one year suspended. Kiser was also ordered to submit to six months of home electronic monitoring following his release.
- Of course!  The general public gets years in prison while police officers continue to catch breaks!

Kiser was also required by the court to register as a sex offender.

Scott County Commonwealth’s Attorney Marcus McClung said Kiser’s sentence exceeded state guidelines, which called for no jail time to be given.

“The judge ignored the state guidelines and went ahead and sentenced him,” McClung said.

McClung said he felt Kiser’s actions betrayed the trust members of the public place in law enforcement officers.

“We were really disgusted with this case because it was a law enforcement officer,” McClung said. “I work with law enforcement officers everyday who put their lives on the line, and for this officer to have sworn to protect us and then to try and solicit sex from this little girl, it disgusts me.”

During Friday’s hearing, Kiser was called to the stand by prosecutors. During his testimony, Kiser reportedly tried to attribute his actions to an undercover operation that was working to take down a prostitution ring.

Scott County prosecutors countered those claims by calling a Virginia State Police special agent to the stand and having him read several of Kiser’s Facebook messages to his victim, one of which asked the girl if she would “let him hit it.”

“At no time was there anything that you would do during an undercover operation, such as asking how much money or any of those things,” McClung said. “He also failed to mention that in his interview with police and none of his superiors showed up to verify this was an undercover investigation. His statement this morning was the first time we had heard of that.”

Virginia State Police arrested Kiser in August 2012 following a week-long investigation that began when the girl’s parents contacted Scott County authorities.

Kiser was a member of the Coeburn Police Department when he began sending the sexually explicit messages, but he resigned from the force roughly a week before being taken into custody.

McClung said his office prosecuted the case because the girl who received the messages lived in Scott County at the time.

Authorities said Kiser met the girl last year when he was investigating a noise complaint involving juveniles at a gas station in Coeburn.

Kiser reportedly learned the girl’s identity as a result of the incident, which allowed him to identify her profile on the social networking website Facebook.

After finding her profile, Kiser used Facebook to carry on what the prosecution described as a “long conversation” in which he asked the girl to perform sexual acts with him.

A large portion of that conversation was actually carried out between Kiser and an undercover VSP special agent who had been given permission by the girl’s parents to assume control of her Facebook profile.

Kiser reportedly communicated unknowingly with the special agent for nearly a week before being arrested.

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CA - National Push For Chelsea’s Law Gets Backing From Ex-Facebook Counsel

Original Article

05/02/2013

The effort to spread Chelsea's Law (Video) — named after slain Poway High School senior Chelsea King — to all 50 states gained momentum today with the financial backing of ex-Facebook general counsel Chris Kelly.
- It's all about politics!

Chelsea's Law mandates life prison terms for those convicted of violent sex crimes against children and increases law enforcement oversight of paroled sex offenders.

Chelsea was 17 when John Albert Gardner III, who was convicted in 2000 of sexually molesting a 13-old neighbor, raped and killed her in 2010.

He also was convicted of murdering 14-year-old Amber Dubois of Escondido in February 2009.

Brent and Kelly King, Chelsea's parents, announced their intention to spread the law to other states two months ago.

"Brent and Kelly's unimaginable pain in losing their daughter Chelsea led them to demand better public policy for the state of California,'' Chris Kelly said. "I am proud to join with them and the Chelsea's Shield organization in taking Chelsea's Law and common sense public policy around attacks on children to all 50 states.''

Kelly authored and financed Proposition 35 (Video), which increases fines and prison sentences for human trafficking and requires convicted traffickers to register as sex offenders, as well as to disclose their identities and activities online.

California voters passed the initiative last November with 81 percent support.

He pledged financial support for lobbying and outreach for Chelsea's Law.

The Texas House of Representatives is expected to take up its version of the legislation next week. Similar bills have introduced in Illinois and Ohio.

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IN - Federal Court Rules Sex Offenders Cannot Be Denied Access to Facebook

Original Article

04/26/2013

By Donald Scarinci (WebSite)

Unfortunately, what people think should happen and what the law requires are not always the same. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently made headlines when it ruled that an Indiana statute that bans most registered sex offenders from using social networking websites, like Facebook, was unconstitutional.

The controversial law specifically prohibits certain sex offenders from “knowingly or intentionally using: a social networking web site” or “an instant messaging or chat room program” that “the offender knows allows a person who is less than eighteen (18) years of age to access or use the web site or program.” The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana challenged the statute on behalf of a class of unidentified sex offenders.

Ultimately, the Seventh Circuit overturned the law on First Amendment grounds, after concluding that the Indiana law was not narrowly tailored to serve the state’s interest. “It broadly prohibits substantial protected speech rather than specifically targeting the evil of improper communications to minors,” the opinion in John Doe v. Prosecutor (PDF), Marion County, Indiana states.

The appeals court also noted that “the Supreme Court has invalidated bans on expressive activity that are not the substantive evil if the state had alternative means of combating the evil.” In this case, the court found that there were other ways for the state to curb inappropriate communication between minors and sex offenders. It specifically noted that Indiana has other existing laws that punish “inappropriate communication with a child” and communication “with the intent to gratify the sexual desires of the person or the individual,”

The court further highlighted that laws infringing on First Amendment rights must be narrowly tailored. “Subsequent Indiana statutes may well meet this requirement, but the blanket ban on social media in this case regrettably does not.”

According to Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller, the state is reviewing the opinion and considering its legal options, including appeal. From a legislative perspective, Sen. John Waterman, who authored the overturned law, has pledged to come up with a new way to protect children from sex offenders online that will pass constitutional scrutiny.

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UK - Anger after wrongly-accused man named on Cumbria Facebook site run by Keilly Devlin

Original Article

Yet another of the growing number of vigilante web sites that post bogus and out-dated information, and another reason the online registry needs to be taken offline and used by police only.

04/25/2013

A man accused of being a child sex abuser was identified on a Facebook name-and-shame group despite being cleared by the courts.

His brother says the information was put on Communities Against Paedophiles (Facebook) Southlakes at the weekend. They only found out about the posting when someone approached his son and told him.

The Barrow man, who wishes to remain anonymous to protect his sibling, said his brother was in poor health and something like this could make him worse. The family have taken the decision not to tell him.

He said something like this had a massive knock-on effect on his family who still live in Barrow.

Detectives in charge of monitoring paedophiles in the Barrow area have already warned the website could pose a risk to innocent people who may be incorrectly named as abusers.

Earlier this month DI Nick Coughlan claimed CAPS was putting out-of-date information on the site and it could lead to vigilante attacks.

CAPS has offered its deepest apologies to the family of the man wrongly named on the site.

But the man’s 54-year-old brother said the incident had left his family deeply shocked.

He said someone approached his son and told him his uncle was named as a suspected paedophile on the site. The man in question no longer lives in Barrow and moved away after being cleared.

His brother said: “The people who run CAPS say they do their homework before putting things on the page," but they obviously don’t.

“I’m not against this group – I think its a good idea and I’m sympathetic to what they are trying to do."
- We are against it, it's vigilantism, and the police should be doing this, not citizens.

“My brother was accused of child abuse about six or seven years ago but subsequently found not guilty. His accuser had seemingly done something similar before. Obviously a report was published at the time of the case and it was this that was put up by CAPS but what they didn’t say was that he was found not guilty."

“My son was out at the weekend and someone told him his uncle was online."

“Publishing images of innocent people is really off. If he had seen it it would have really worried and upset him. He is a pensioner and not in good heath."

“I’m just worried that this may happen to more people because CAPS hasn’t done its homework.’’
- We're sure it has, and they will continue until the police arrest them for vigilantism, defamation, etc.

CAPS administrator, 37-year-old Keilly Devlin (Facebook) said: “We as a group wanted to show people that we look at all sides, not just the guilty but the wrongfully accused too."

“As a small town it’s not hard for whispering to start and we felt that we could put a stop to any of that. We were actually trying to help clear this man’s name. It was written above the link that the man was found not guilty. Maybe it wasn’t the wisest thing to do but we were just trying to draw a balance. The same way we name paedophiles we named this innocent man ."

“We would like to offer the man and his family our deepest apologises for any upset that we may have caused. We didn't do it deliberately and it won't happen again.”
- Yeah right, I'm sure someone else will be wrongly accused as well.  You should stop what you are doing and let the police do their job!

Barrow police had not responded to a request for a comment.

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Trial by Facebook - Dangerous Trends

Original Article

This kind of stuff happens all the time, and not just on Facebook. Facebook pretty much condones vigilantism. We've seen many photos, comments, etc, and flagged them, and we get a note back from Facebook that it wasn't removed because it doesn't violate their Terms of Service, which is a crock!

04/10/2013

We’ve seen it a lot lately. Posts identifying “guilty” individuals imploring others to identify, condemn, even exact revenge, on the people identified.

It’s called Trial by Facebook, or Trial by Social Media and it involves the posting of content on Facebook or other social media that identifies and condemns individuals allegedly guilty of a crime and implores others to share the content, thus exposing the accused to an angry public.

Such content goes further than to simply lay out the facts of an incident. Trial by Social Media/Facebook content condemns and judges, often unfairly or without proof. And it is for that reason it is potentially dangerous and unjust. Such posts play judge, jury and executioner.

Trial by Facebook content will often explicitly condone vigilante justice, but even if it does not then it will always – to some extent – encourage it implicitly.

Resisting this type of behaviour can often be difficult. Often the people identified in the photos could arguably deserve being shamed in public arena, and users may feel the victims of crimes deserve to see it happen.

Often Trial by Facebook/Social Media posts result from knee-jerk and impassioned reactions where we become the unwitting victims of our own emotions, only seeing what makes up feel better in the short term rather than looking at the big picture.

However we live in a world with legal justice systems, and whether you agree or disagree with your legal system or with a specific sentence handed out, there is still never a place in any civilised world for vigilante justice. And vigilante justice is exactly what Trial by Facebook promotes and encourages.

And if that isn’t reason enough to stop you posting Trial by Social Media content, then here is a whole bunch of other reasons.

Inaccurate Content? Trial by Social media posts can often accumulate thousands, even hundreds of thousands of shares. And sadly the vast majority of people who share this type of content will do so without any verification or proof that it is accurate.

Read the rest of the article

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Film Explores Childhood, Parenting in Sex - Porn Before Puberty?

Video Description:
Forget birds and bees -- today's kids learn about sex from porn, pop lyrics and Facebook.

"Is this slutty?" Danielle, having just put on a skirt, asked her friend Winnifred. Lady Gaga's "Monster" played in the background. "Just dance but he took me home instead, Oh oh there was a monster in my bed," the girls sang along.

"That's a good length," Winnifred answered. "It's short, but in a cool way, not, like, a slutty way."

Winnifred and Danielle are modern-day 12-year-olds. But they're not playing dress-up -- they're getting ready for a Lady Gaga concert.

Winnifred carefully curates her online profile, pushing her budding sexuality to jack up her Facebook "likes."

The documentary "Sexy Baby," which was featured at the Tribeca Film Festival, follows Winnifred's adolescence from age 12 to age 15, and delves into the world of porn before puberty. Winnifred's journey in the documentary reflects that of many pre-teens today, and through her eyes parents worldwide get a glimpse into the hyper-sexualized culture their children are facing today.

"I know I look like I'm down to f---," Winnifred says in the film.

The film explores how much social media adds fuel to the hormonal fire. Winnifred posted a revealing picture of herself with her bra showing. Why?

"It's awkward, and we're getting messages from everywhere that are saying, 'If you dress this way, you are going to be either treated well or you're gonna feel powerful,'" Winnifred told

Sex is power, and that's how a lot of girls and boys seem to feel these days.

Winnifred's mother, Jenny Bonjean, is a feminist who says she's trying to raise an uninhibited, empowered girl.

"My message to my daughter is, sexuality is a wonderful, beautiful thing. You should embrace it. ... It's not the only type of power you're gonna have. Unfortunately, it is in the culture the first power that they feel ... where 13-year-old girls can have influences on grown men," Bonjean-Alpart said.

"You don't think they realize that?" she continued. "It feels good to have power. ... You don't want to abuse it. Don't take it for granted. You need to find a balance."

Winnifred's father, Ken Alpart, described the two reactions he and his wife have to balance.

"We don't necessarily want her to dress certain ways," he said. "At the same time, we are raising our child to be an independent thinker."

Jenny Bonjean argued that early freedom could help prevent extreme acting out later on.

"We all know those women that went to college that had really, really strict parents who didn't let them experiment with anything, and they went wild in college. ... Girls gone wild, you know, is a phenomenon, and so many of those girls come from households, in my opinion, where they were tamped down on."

The risk is that allowing a child too much freedom to express her sexuality can lead her to act on it.

"I can put a very sexualized photo of me on Facebook and make it so my parents don't know, but every guy at my school does," Winnifred said. "So that does become a self-fulfilling prophecy, because when you make yourself look a certain way, people are going to expect you to be that way."

"I can make your bed rock," Winnifred, then 12, sings in the film. The song is rapper Li'l Wayne's "Bedrock."

Did she and her friends know what the song was about?

"We did realize how obscene it was [when we sang it in the film]," Winnifred told Chang. "I think because it was so mainstream, it wasn't shocking to us. ... If you hear that song f---ing three times a day for two weeks, they're easy to understand -- even when you are 12 or 13."

Video Link

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TX - Laws to track sex offenders go social

Original Article

04/04/2013

By Erin Mulvaney

Texas lawmakers working to toughen laws that police the daily lives of sex offenders are taking their fight online with bills aimed at social media and the Internet.

"With the evolving technology and increasing number of cyber crimes and crimes committed against the vulnerable, the goal is to extend the same policy we have for sex offenders now to the Internet," said Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio. "It's a good, old-fashioned case of being pro-active on crime."
- If that was the case, then he'd also make murderers, gang members, identity thieves, and other ex-felons announce their criminal past on their social profiles as well.  Our opinion is this is just another politicians trying to make a name for himself by exploiting fear, children and ex-offenders.

To that end, Martinez Fischer filed House Bill 23 (PDF), which would require registered sex offenders who use social media to include their registration information, including offenses and home addresses in the profile information accessible to other users.
- And since Facebook has in their terms of service that ex-sex offenders cannot use their site, this is basically denying them the right to use social networks.

The bill is one of nearly a dozen filed in Austin this session, aimed at the roughly 72,000 registered sex offenders across Texas.

Among them are proposals to eliminate parole for repeat sex offenders and reinforce the authority of cities to restrict where registered sex offenders can live.

Since about 2005, Texas and other states have sought to tighten laws governing sex offenders' daily lives, mostly targeting mandatory minimum sentences and restricting where they can live and work. Such laws were passed before that year.

Opponents of such measures argue that registrants are unfairly being stigmatized and their rights restricted too broadly. Efforts should be focused on those likely to re-offend and to decrease the number of people on sex offender registries, said Mary Sue Molnar, executive director of Texas Voices for Reason and Justice.

"I think there are always a few who believe toughening up sex offender laws will make a difference," Molnar said. "They are not looking at the real solution or the real problem."

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NM - Governor signs sex offender registration bill

Original Article

04/03/2013

SANTA FE (AP) - Gov. Susana Martinez has signed legislation that will require convicted sex offenders who move to New Mexico to register with authorities for the crimes they committed in other states.

The governor said Wednesday the new law closes a loophole that had allowed some out-of-state sex offenders to avoid registration in New Mexico. The measure also will require offenders to supply authorities with more information, including their email addresses and monikers used on social networking site.

The new law takes effect in July.

Currently offenders must register with law enforcement if they've been convicted of certain sex crimes in New Mexico or the equivalents of those crimes in other states. However, a state Supreme Court ruling last year highlighted problems in determining whether out-of-state crimes fall under New Mexico registration requirements.

Video Link

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TX - Conservative Think Tank Supports Less Sex Offender Disclosure

Original Article

04/03/2013

By Emily DePrang

Texas lawmakers have filed more than a dozen bills this session that augment or add restrictions to the behavior of registered sex offenders, of whom Texas now has over 72,000. That’s normal—sex offenders don’t have a lot of constituent clout and making them list their status on a driver’s license or social media profile is a low-cost, low-risk way to look tough on crime.

What’s unusual is that the Texas Senate recently passed a bill that would remove employer information from the public registry. Senate Bill 369 (PDF) is by Houston’s Democratic state senator John Whitmire. Right now, you can look up an offender’s name, race, height, weight, hair color, eye color, shoe size, home address, birth date, and employer name and address. Dropping the last two wouldn’t be for the good of offenders, but of the businesses they work for.

“The employer didn’t commit an offense,” says Marc Levin, director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for Effective Justice. “There’s a lot of concern about employers being harassed, vigilantism. Certainly there are a lot of studies showing that families of sex offenders have been subject to harassment and even criminal activity.”

Levin says the House version of the bill, HB 879 (PDF), also met enthusiastic support in committee.

“The risk that a sex offender may reoffend is actually lower if they’re employed,” Levin says, so along with protecting employers, the reform may increase public safety.

But that kind of pragmatism is a slippery slope toward reality-based policy. No research has ever suggested, let alone proved, that public sex offender registries prevent crime or reduce recidivism. (Check out “Life On the List,” our cover story from last June, for extensive documentation of what the list doesn’t do.) And research does show that the perennially popular laws restricting offenders’ movement, employment, schooling and home hinder successful reintegration.

The registry continues to swell, and all that monitoring takes public money and law enforcement time and attention. So will the TPPF, a free-market think tank that has supported a variety of right-on-crime reforms, ever oppose the registry itself?

“We haven’t gotten into the question of whether we should have one,” Levin says. “But there is a concern that the registry encompasses too many people that aren’t predators to be effective.”

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TX - Texas sex offenders in sight of rare policy win

Original Article

03/29/2013

By Paul J. Weber

AUSTIN (AP) - Four convicted sex offenders huddled in a busy hallway at the Texas Capitol, congratulating each other for going public and testifying against a bill that would plaster their criminal past on their Facebook profiles.

As expected, not everyone was moved by their objections.

"I don't feel bad for the guys that came in here whining," Republican state Rep. Steve Toth said after the men had left the room at a recent House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee meeting. A Democrat switched on her microphone to voice on the record that she, too, had no sympathy.
- Just wait until one of their own get slapped with the label, then they will see it differently.

In the Texas Legislature and statehouses nationwide, bills aimed at curbing how and where sex offenders can live and work are routine. But for the 72,000 registered sex offenders in Texas this year, there is optimism. A legislative victory is in sight, and it's not for sinking a fresh round of get-tougher proposals — but scaling back one already in place.

Pushing forward what advocates say would mark a minor but extraordinary softening of the state's sex offender laws, the GOP-controlled Senate has passed a bill to remove employer information from Texas' online sex offender registry.

"I've been on that registry for 15 years and going on for a lifetime," said [name withheld], 34, who works in information technology and said he was arrested at 18 for copying illegal images. "I've never re-offended. I have no intention to re-offend."

It's not a change of swaying lawmakers but the wringing hands of frustrated business leaders — they complain their bottom line suffers when the public discovers who's on the payroll.

The odd result: Sex offenders and Gov. Rick Perry's favorite conservative think tank is among those left seeing eye-to-eye. The Texas Public Policy Foundation, which backs business-friendly bills, argues the current registry comes between the private relationship between employer and employee.

"We've seen if it bleeds, it leads in news coverage for years," said Marc Levine, director of the foundation's Center for Effective Justice. "Obviously, people may be able to make money by doing a news report, 'We went to a McDonald's and there was a sex offender serving as a cashier' or something. It may be salacious, but what's the public interest?"

Mary Sue Molnar, executive director of Texas Voices for Reason and Justice and the mother of a registered sex offender, said the bill is only the second her group has endorsed since forming in 2007.

Hers and a small band of similar organizations typically play defense in statehouses, arguing that decades of stacking one restriction atop another has pushed sex offenders to society's fringes. They say the result is growing ranks of unemployable and homeless outcasts, who then become more likely to commit new crimes.

"(Texas) would have every right to crow, jump up and down, dance jigs — whatever," said Brenda Jones, executive director of the Massachusetts-based Reform Sex Offender Laws Inc. "It would be a huge win. It's very difficult to do."

Pressure on lawmakers to step up restrictions began intensified in 2005 when 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford of Florida was sexually assaulted and killed by a sex offender, according to a 2006 report by Texas House researchers. States began enacting sweeping "Jessica's Laws" that generally included mandatory minimum sentences and prohibiting sex offenders from living with 2,000 feet of schools and playgrounds.

Rules were being put in place prior to that. In 2001, for example, a Texas judge ordered sex offenders to place conspicuous signs in their front yards announcing their convictions to neighbors. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld that sex offender registries are not punitive, though an Indiana federal appeals court this month did uphold the rights of sex offenders to have social media accounts.
- Live with the laws for about 10 years, then tell us it's not punitive!

And states — Texas included— continue to roll out new legislation to more closely track sex offenders and restrict what they can and cannot do. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder this month signed a new law expanding the state's public sex offender registry to include a wider range of crimes involving minors. In Arkansas, a proposal would keep sex offenders whose victim was under 18 on the registry for life, whereas now they can petition for removal after 15 years.

About a dozen bills in the Texas Legislature this session would create new restrictions, including one reinforcing the authority of cities to keep sex offenders away from playgrounds and swimming pools.

In all, it's a reality check that keeps groups stopping short of predicting that wiping employer information off the registry will lead to a wave of other rollbacks.

Tough-on-crime conservatives aren't the only ones piling on the restrictions, either: The Texas proposal that would require sex offenders to list their convictions on social media profiles was filed by Democrats' go-to political attack dog, state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer.

"The state made a public policy decision in 1991 to get into this business. Every year we've expanded it," Martinez Fischer said. "It's all been done under the rubric that we need to protect the public. And most important, we need to protect those who probably can't protect themselves."
- And adding onto someones sentence, after the fact, is an unconstitutional ex post facto law!

Phil Taylor, a licensed sex offender treatment provider in Dallas, told lawmakers the social media bill would only further stigmatize sex offenders and hamper their efforts to rejoin society. He said 80 percent of sex offenders don't relapse after prison, and pointed out that the group has lower recidivism rates than burglars and other criminals.

Sex offenders, meanwhile, sought to make a pragmatic case to lawmakers: money and resources. State law requires released sex offenders to register within seven days of leaving prison. [name withheld], 43, said he fell out of compliance that first week of freedom because the state was so backlogged. Three months passed before [name withheld] said he was finally registered.

"I think if more people knew the person behind the mug shot, they would be more in favor of turning away from sex offender registry," [name withheld] said.

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TX - Bills promote digital scarlet letters for drunks, sex offenders

And since Facebook has it in their Terms Of Service that ex-sex offenders cannot use their site, this would basically brand them for Facebook to see and kick them off.

Excerpt:
Ostracism inhibits the reintegration of offenders into law abiding society, which to my mind argues against a pair of ill-conceived bills proposed by Democrats which are on the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee agenda today.

A bill by Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer, HB 23 (PDF), would require sex offenders on social networking sites to "ensure" the following information is viewable by everyone who comes to their page: An "indication" that the person is sex offender, the type of offense that required their registration and the city of their conviction, "the person's full name, date of birth, sex, race, height, weight, eye color, and hair color," and their home address. The definition of a social networking site is broad (see Art. 62.0061(f) of the Code of Criminal Procedure). It wouldn't just apply to sites like Facebook or LinkedIn, but also to blogs and any other site through which one can post information and receive communication from the public. The law already requires registrants to report online pseudonyms; this bill would effectively prohibit them.

Read the rest of the article here

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TX - Sex offenders oppose social network disclosures

Original Article

03/19/2013

By Eva Ruth Moravec

Six registered sex offenders testified before a state House committee Tuesday, claiming a proposed bill requiring them to reveal their history on social networks would be ineffective and overly restrictive.

“This bill would cost me my job,” [name withheld], 49, told the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence. “Who is protecting my children? My children got kicked out of karate class because someone saw me on the registry, because their daddy wears what is in effect a gold star.”

[name withheld], a database administrator, was convicted of sexual crimes against two girls, ages 8 and 9, in the 1990s. The crimes placed him and five others who testified before the committee on the state's sex offender registry. The list is available to the public on the Texas Department of Public Safety's website.

House Bill 23 (PDF), authored by Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, would require registrants to disclose information like details of the offense, employment information and personal identification information, on their online social networking profiles.

“It's on the DPS site now, where as few people as possible can see it,” Martinez Fischer said to the committee. “I have a concern that it's OK to have a registry, but heaven forbid if it works, we have a problem. I don't know if that's the right public policy.”

The bill intends to give the registration law a technology upgrade — when the registry was mandated in 1991, social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter didn't exist.

Computer usage is prohibited for offenders on parole or probation, said Bexar County First Assistant District Attorney Cliff Herberg during the committee meeting.
- I find this very unlikely.  Maybe for some on probation / parole, but I'm sure it's not all like this article leads you to believe, but I could be wrong.

Computer identification information that includes any social network profiles is required by registrants, but that information isn't necessarily tracked, Herberg said.

“Our probation officers have a massive caseload and don't have time to monitor Facebook. Often times, these things only rear their heads when we find out about them through an offense,” he said.

The item was left pending in committee.

A Facebook spokesman declined to comment on the bill, but said the company's policy bars convicted sex offenders from joining.

If Facebook gets a complaint about a convicted sex offender using the site, staff will verify their sex offender status, “and then immediately disable their account and remove their all information associated with it from Facebook,” the policy states.
- Yeah, they discriminate against people, but what if a person is found to be a gang member, drug dealer, murderer or identity thief?  Just because someone wears the label doesn't mean they are using Facebook for criminal means.

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How to Commit Internet Suicide and Disappear from the Web Forever

Sick of horribly embarrassing things showing up when potential employers Google your name? Tired of everyone knowing you live in a garden level dungeon apartment? Perhaps you just don't like the fact the internet makes you easy to find. Thankfully, it's not that hard to delete yourself entirely. Here's how to do it.

For mildly famous (or infamous) individuals, disappearing is essentially impossible, but for the average person it's surprisingly easy. It just depends on much info is already out there.

Click the image to read the article

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Visit our new Google+ community

We have once again created a brand new Google+ community that is open to the public, well, those who have a Google+ account.

So when you get the time, click the link above and visit us.

See you there!

Sincerely,

Sex Offender Issues

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IN - Indiana won't challenge sex offender Facebook ruling

Original Article

02/28/2013

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana has decided not to ask a federal appeals court to reconsider a ruling that overturned a state law that banned convicted sex offenders from social networking websites.

American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana legal director Ken Falk said Thursday that the attorney general's office would not ask the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago to rehear the case.

The court said in January that the 2008 law was too broad and violated freedom of speech.

State lawmakers are currently rewriting the law to try to make it conform to constitutional limits. A Senate committee has approved an amended version that applies only to offenders convicted of child-related sex crimes who knowingly use social networks, instant messaging or chat rooms to communicate with children under age 16.

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MA - Quincy lawmaker files bill to require sex offenders to register social media names

Original Article

02/28/2013

By Mike Trinh

BOSTON - Is that new Facebook friend or Twitter follower a sex offender? How would you know?

For the third time since 2007, a Quincy lawmaker is leading an effort to change the state’s Sex Offender Registry law to require sex offenders to register their online social media handles and email addresses with the state.

It’s an effort first championed by former state Sen. Michael Morrissey, D-Quincy, back in 2007, three years after Facebook was launched and quickly became the social media choice among college students, then high school kids and adults.

That year, the bill never made it out of the Judiciary Committee. In 2011, state Rep. Tackey Chan, D-Quincy, a former aide to Morrissey, refiled the bill with the same results.

This year, Chan has filed the bill again, along with 19 co-sponsors, and said he hopes it will have a better chance this time.

“So much of our world is not about physical presences anymore. There are many online presences now,” Chan said.

The bill would update the 2004 Sex Offender Registry Statute to adapt to changing technology and social media, Chan said, adding that sex offender registry laws have to evolve along with society.

Morrissey, now the Norfolk County district attorney, said his office has seen cases of sex offenders meeting young victims on the Internet. The current registry is not designed to stop or bring attention to online predators.

“At the time the sex offender registry went into effect, no one was paying attention to the computer and what it would mean in the future,” he said.

The bill would require all levels of sex offenders to register social media names and email addresses, but the registry’s website would only display the Internet identities of Level 3 offenders – the ones considered most likely to re-offend. People would have to contact their local police department for information on others.

Quincy Detective Lt. Patrick Glynn said having more in-depth information on sex offenders would give the police more avenues to check on them.

“It would be extremely helpful with the way social media has taken off,” he said.

The penalty for not registering online identities would be 6 months to 2 1/2 years in jail or a fine of not more than $1,000 – the same penalty sex offenders face for failing to register addresses and phone numbers.

John Reinstein, senior legal counsel at the ACLU of Massachusetts, said in a written statement that forcing sex offenders to list their online identities is an invasion of personal privacy that would not likely improve public safety. Instead, he said, it would just make the people in the registry more vulnerable to harassment and isolation.

“If the goal of the statute is to reintegrate sex offenders into the community and to prevent re-offense, this is not the way to do it,” he said.

However, Reinstein also said that it may be appropriate for offenders caught conducting their crimes on the Internet to register online identities as part of their probation.

“To the extent that an individual sex offender’s offense involves the use of the Internet for unlawful purposes, such regulation may be appropriate as a condition of probation,” he wrote.

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