Source: Derek W. Logue of OnceFallen.com Many of you will be familiar with the name Derek Logue and Once Fallen. Derek has asked that we share this survey with our supporters. Here is Derek’s message: The fight to reform or abolish the public sex offense registry began when Megan’s Law was signed in 1996, and over the years, efforts to challenge the public registry have grown larger and more organized. Those who identify as registry reformists or abolitionists are not a homogeneous group– some of us are on the registry,…
Read MoreYear: 2022
Meta cracks down on teen “sextortion” on Facebook, Instagram
Source: arstechnica.com 11/21/22 Teens will finally have a way to proactively stop the spread of intimate images. Last year, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) released data showing that it received overwhelmingly more reports of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) from Facebook than any other web service it tracked. Where other popular social platforms like Twitter and TikTok had tens of thousands of reports, Facebook had 22 million. Today, Facebook announced new efforts to limit the spread of some of that CSAM on its platforms. Partnering with…
Read MoreAction Alert: International Megan’s Law (IML) failed victims of sexual abuse overseas as federal agent sexually abuses children in the Philippines
Source: floridaactioncommittee.org 12/21/22 International Megan’s Law to Prevent Child Exploitation and Other Sexual Crimes Through Advanced Notification of Traveling Sex Offenders (IML) was supposed to be a tool for the federal government to notify other countries regarding the international travel of sex offenders. In theory, it was supposed to authorize federal agents to provide warnings in the form of a “green notice” to the receiving country. By providing this notice, the receiving country could protect their children from sexual abuse. The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Smith said, “With its…
Read MoreFBI finds sharp rise in online extortion of teens tricked into sending sexually explicit photos
Source: pbs.org 12/19/22 WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI sounded the alarm Monday about an explosive increase in teenage boys being targeted online and extorted for money after being tricked into sending sexually explicit pictures. At least 3,000 children, mostly teenage boys, have been victims of the schemes that are connected to more than a dozen suicides this year, a scale that U.S. authorities have not seen before, Justice Department officials said. Many think they are chatting online with kids around their own age but are quickly manipulated into sending explicit…
Read MoreCanada: Despite no public sex offender registry, recidivism rate has dropped by nearly 70%
Source: myscience.org 12/20/22 Study led by Professor Patrick Lussier shows significant decline in recidivism of sex crimes in Canada over 80 years Encouraging news: between 1940 and 2019, the recidivism rate of sex offenders in this country has dropped by nearly 70%, according to a study published in the journal Criminology and Public Policy. Improved knowledge of sexual offending and training of criminal justice officials could explain these results, argues Patrick Lussier, a professor at the School of Social Work and Criminology and leader of the meta-analysis. Over a two-year…
Read MoreNE: Dodge County sex offenders face challenges in registering
Source: fremonttribune.com 12/20/22 Convicted sex offenders in Fremont and Dodge County are required to register with law enforcement when they move, attend a new school or take a new job, however a recent incident at the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office highlighted the difficulties offenders face in complying with the law. A local convicted sex offender — Ronald Eugene ____ Jr., 38, of Fremont — contacted the Fremont Tribune after his repeated efforts to comply with Nebraska’s sex offender registration requirements under his sentencing were unsuccessful. ____ Jr. said he twice…
Read MoreFederally funded police task forces carry out thousands of online stings each year, despite little evidence that they prevent abuse
Source: theappeal.org 12/19/22 On July 8, 2018, Norman Achin, then a 50 year-old public school teacher living in Northern Virginia, signed up for the adults-only dating app Grindr. Two days later, he was contacted by someone calling himself AlexVA. Soon after they started talking, AlexVA told Achin that he was 14 years old. “I was looking for adult fun. Did not expect to run into your age,” Achin responded through the app on July 12. “Not interested in that kind of relationship with a boy.” The next day, he reported…
Read MoreOH: Sex offender, homicide suspect killing in Columbus sees no charges for SWAT deputies
Source: nbc4i.com 12/16/22 COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – The officers involved in the fatal shooting of a double homicide suspect in northeast Columbus will not be indicted, the county prosecutor said Thursday. A grand jury voted against prosecuting two Franklin County Sheriff’s Office SWAT deputies, according to the office of Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney Gary Tyack. The pair were attempting on June 7 to serve an arrest warrant on 20-year-old Pozz Striblin. At around 7 p.m. that evening, the two SWAT deputies went to a Sunoco gas station at Stelzer and…
Read MoreUK: Prison officer jailed after starting relationship with inmate and sending ‘explicit’ images
Source: dailyrecord.co.uk 12/18/22 A prison officer has been jailed after entering a relationship with a prisoner and sending him ‘explicit’ images. Jennifer Gavan, 27, wept as she was jailed for eight months after pleading guilty to misconduct in public office after starting an inappropriate relationship with a male prisoner. Gavan was accused of entering into an inappropriate relationship with prisoner Alex Coxon, now 25, accepting £150 to bring a mobile phone into the jail, and communicating with him via a phone held illegally while working at HMP Berwyn, which houses…
Read MorePA: Scranton ordinance on where registered sex offenders can live remains contrary to court decision
Source: wfmz.com 12/17/22 SCRANTON — At 17, Zachary Pluko saw his future in the military or law enforcement. At 29, the vision is a memory. Pluko works at a Turkey Hill store to cover the monthly $600 rent he pays for a room on Moir Court. He and six other residents of 839-841 Moir Court mostly keep to themselves but they all share something in common: they’re registered sex offenders. Their residence, about 940 feet from a school, is contrary to an unenforced Scranton ordinance that remains part of the…
Read MoreACSOL January 21, 2023 Meeting
[NOTE: We have a NEW Zoom link shown below!] Please join ACSOL Executive Director and civil rights attorney Janice Bellucci as well as ACSOL board member and criminal defense attorney Chance Oberstein for our next meeting. The meeting will be held on Saturday, January 21, online on Zoom beginning at 10 a.m. Pacific time, 1:00 PM Eastern, and will last at least two hours. You can use the Zoom app or call in using a Zoom phone number. There is no registration needed for this meeting. You can use the…
Read MoreCA: L.A. County sheriff’s deputy under investigation after sex act is caught on hot mic
Source: latimes.com 12/15/22 The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is investigating a deputy for allegedly engaging in a sex act during a break and broadcasting the tryst over her radio, officials said Thursday A short audio recording first made public by TMZ captured part of the alleged encounter. In it, a woman laughs and says, “You’re going to rip my underwear!” A man replies and a beep common on police radios sounds. A source familiar with the investigation, who requested anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation, said the woman’s voice…
Read MoreCA: California sex offender gets life for killing 4 women
Source: apnews.com 12/16/22 SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A California sex offender who with his best friend kidnapped, raped and killed four women, some of them while wearing a GPS tracker, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without parole. Franc Cano, 36, entered murder pleas in Orange County and was immediately sentenced. Cano, who has been in custody since 2014, entered the pleas after county District Attorney Todd Spitzer took a potential death penalty off the table, the DA’s office said in a statement. “Pursuing the death penalty was…
Read MoreOR: Thousands of Oregon sex offenders still waiting for risk evaluation
Source: koin.com 12/15/22 There are 32,472 convicted sex offenders in Oregon. About 100 more sex offenders are added every month. Now, even after 7 years of work, the Oregon Parole Board has more than 20,000 sex offenders that remain unclassified at risk levels. The parole board simply can’t keep up with the thousands of sex offenders who need to be classified as low, moderate or high risk. … “At our current staffing levels you would see we would finish in approximatley 43-and-a-half years,” Oregon Parole Board Executive Director Dylan Arthur…
Read MoreOpinion: Sexual assault allegations should always be taken seriously, but don’t rush to judgment
Source: sandiegouniontribune.com 12/15/22 In former SDSU football player Matt Araiza’s case, too many people seemed to automatically believe his accuser from the very beginning. The harsh reality of being a suspect in a criminal case, especially in a case where the potential penalties include spending multiple years in prison and having to register as a sex offender for life, weighs differently on different types of people. For Matt Araiza, it weighed especially heavy. In a very short span of time, he went from winning college football’s highest award for a…
Read MoreVA: ‘Enough is enough’: Rock Church pastor previously accused in prostitution case speaks out
Source: wric.com 12/6/22 A Virginia Beach pastor previously accused of soliciting sex from a minor says “enough is enough.” During a recent service, Rev. John Blanchard returned to the pulpit to address his congregation. Blanchard was among 17 men accused of solicitation of prostitution after an online sting operation by law enforcement. Blanchard was the senior pastor at Rock Church International in Virginia Beach at the time of his arrest. The Chesterfield County Police Special Victims Unit said the suspects believed they were soliciting sex from minors through online and…
Read MoreUT: Utah woman says justice system failed to protect her from an accused serial predator
Source: ksltv.com 12/13/22 Vanessa Clark is in disbelief. “I can’t believe that he was able to do what he did,” she told the KSL Investigators. On Nov. 7, Clark reported to law enforcement that she was raped by Joshua Homer, 26, after he invited her over to his home in Vineyard. Clark said the two initially connected through an online dating app and were meeting up for the first time. “It’s something that lives with you every single day now,” she said. “It’s just kind of hard to go forward.”…
Read More‘A living hell’: Former federal inmates describe years of sexual abuse by prison officers
Source: usatoday.com 12/13/22 Three survivors of sexual assault in federal prison described years of horrific abuse by prison staffers who used their unfettered access to vulnerable inmates and threatened them with retaliation if they reported the attacks. All three former inmates, their voices cracking with emotion, told a Senate investigative panel Tuesday that the federal Bureau of Prisons had failed them and often shielded their attackers from accountability. One of the victims, Linda De La Rosa, told the committee, which has been investigating the sexual abuse of federal inmates for the…
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