Maine Public Broadcasting Network : Battle Brewing Over State’s Sex Offender Registry Law.

A major battle is brewing in Maine over implementation of the nation’s so-called Adam Walsh Act. In 2010, Maine is supposed to comply with the federal law, which is aimed at creating similar sex offender policies — and public Websites — in all 50 states. One key lawmaker says legislators are likely to balk at some requirements of the federal Adam Walsh Act, which the state is supposed to comply with in 2010.

The co-chair of the Legislature’s Criminal Justice Committee says the issue of how to handle convicted sex offenders has been debated by the panel for years. Sen. Stan Gerzofsky, a Brunswick Democrat, says Maine lawmakers have already revised the state’s sex offender registry law, but he says he doubts that the changes will meet federal requirements.

Gerzofsky says the federal law requires states to have a publicly-accessible registry that includes teenage offenders, and he doubts that Maine lawmakers will go that far. He says there is broad support to make sure true pedophiles are on a publicly-accessible registry, but he says concerns remain about including everyone who has ever committed a sex crime.

washingtonpost.com : ‘Intentionally naked’ Fairfax County man appealing his conviction.

The Fairfax County man who was arrested for being naked — in his home — was found guilty Friday of indecent exposure.
E.W. 29, continued to believe that he had done nothing wrong and that he did not purposely expose himself to two women and a 7-year-old boy who walked past his house the morning of Oct. 19. He immediately appealed his conviction.
A seven-person jury in misdemeanor appeals court will rule on the propriety of Williamson’s domestic nudity in February.

Because his roommates were gone and E.W. had the place to himself, he said, he walked down to the kitchen sans garments.
In his closing argument, Defense attorney Dickson J. Young said that “nudity in one’s home is not a crime. Under the circumstances of this case, a person who is careless, who should have drawn the blinds and didn’t, that is not criminal behavior. If you’re in a private place and take your clothes off, you have not committed a crime.”

After making his comment that John Dillinger also thought he was doing no wrong, for which Young had no rejoinder, the judge issued his ruling. “I believe from the evidence here,” O’Flaherty said, “that the gentleman obviously was intentionally naked in the house. I find that the windows were completely uncovered. The fact that it went on for so long indicates an obscene display, and I find the gentleman guilty.”

Omaha.com : Sex offender law faces ruling

(See previous post: Nebraska Sex Offender Law Federal Court Challenges.)

A federal judge probably will block parts of Nebraska’s new sex offender law from taking effect Jan. 1, 2010. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Kopf said he won’t issue a ruling until next week. But he indicated at a hearing Wednesday that he was inclined to bar enforcement of two provisions in the law.

One would require registered sex offenders to consent to searches of their computers or other electronic devices. Refusal to consent would be a felony under the law. The other provision would bar people who have committed offenses against children from using social networking Web sites such as Facebook or MySpace. The provision applies to sites open to children under age 18.

Kopf said he was inclined to let stand other portions of the law, including a requirement to make public the names of all sex offenders.
The state currently makes public only the names of offenders judged to be at high risk to reoffend. Names of those at moderate risk are disclosed to schools, day care centers and religious and youth organizations.

Kopf will consider whether to block a requirement that offenders let authorities install software on their computers and other electronic devices to monitor their Internet use.

A group of 20 convicted sex offenders, along with 11 family members or employers, filed a lawsuit last week asking for an injuction against the new law. The plaintiffs in the suit were identified only as John or Jane Does.

The suit was filed by Omaha lawyer Stu Dornan, a former Douglas County attorney. At the hearing, Dornan argued that the new law is punitive and would unconstitutionally interfere with his clients’ right to work, travel and raise families.
“This bill is designed to pile on penalties of a criminal nature,” he said.

Dornan pointed to the provisions making public all sex offender names and requiring offenders to register in person with authorities before spending more than three days in any one place.

In his argument, David Cookson, Nebraska’s chief deputy attorney general, said it probably would be unconstitutional to require that offenders consent to searches.

courier-journal.com : Sex-offender case appealed to U.S. Supreme Court.

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether the state’s restrictions for sex offenders can be applied retroactively to as many as 5,800 people convicted before the limits went into effect in 2006. The 2006 statute made it illegal for registered sex offenders to live within 1,000 feet of a high school, middle school, elementary school, preschool, public playground or licensed day care.

The Kentucky Supreme Court in October ruled 5-2 that the statute was improperly imposed on people convicted before the law went into effect because both the U.S. and Kentucky constitutions prohibit laws that impose or increase punishment on criminal acts committed before the law’s enactment.

In a prepared statement, Conway is seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate (In other words, he is doing this political pandering to appear tough on sex offenders).

Conway’s office on Wednesday filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. The court receives about 10,000 requests a year to review cases and decides only about 80. But the question of the retroactive application of sex offender laws has arisen in several states, making it more likely that the high court will accept the case.

Conway’s office has previously indicated it would appeal. It had asked the state Supreme Court to stay its ruling, but that request was denied. The 2006 statute subjected all convicted sex offenders to the residency requirements, while the old law applied only to about 1,200 offenders who were on probation or parole.

Experts said research has shown that sex-offender registries and residency restrictions don’t deter future crimes. And some criminal justice officials said makes it so difficult for some offenders to find a place to live that they stop reporting their addresses to authorities.

In an unsigned opinion, the Kentucky Supreme Court’s majority questioned the rationale of the restrictions, noting that they bar sex offenders from sleeping near a school at night, “when children are not present,” but allow them there during the day, when children are there.

The petition filed by Conway’s office said that the U.S. Supreme Court has never considered whether the retroactive application of a statute imposing a residency restriction on registered sex offenders constitutes punishment prohibited by the ex post facto clause.
The attorney general’s office contends that the new requirements are not a punishment and are thus not covered under that clause.
It notes that a federal appeals court agreed with that view in affirming the retroactive application of Iowa’s sex offender law.

We urge readers to contact this idiot to make their voices heard, especially those in Kentucky:
Tel: 502-696-5300; Fax 502-564-2894
Office of the Attorney General
Capitol Suite 118
700 Capitol Avenue
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601-3449

cbs13.com (NV): Year In Jail For NV Judge’s Son In Teen Sex Case.

Again, we see that public officials are not held to the same standard as other citizens when it comes to sex offender registration and convictions.

Fallon, Nev. (AP) ― The son of a Fallon judge has been sentenced to a year in jail for having sex with an intoxicated girl at a party hosted by a former girls softball coach.

Jeffrey Michael Lister, 19, pleaded no contest in October to a gross misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to commit an obscene, indecent or immoral act. He was sentenced Monday by Churchill County District Judge William Rogers.

Lister, the son of Fallon Municipal Court Judge Michael Lister, originally was charged with statutory sexual seduction, a crime that would have required him to register as a sex offender. (In other words, he will not be required to register as a sex offender because he is the son of a judge).

The girl told authorities she got drunk at the January 2008 party and was raped by as many as four boys. Others who allegedly assaulted the girl were under age 18.

nashuatelegraph.com : Maine court rules on retroactive sex offender law.

Portland, Maine (AP) — Maine’s highest court on Tuesday upheld a lower court ruling that a 1999 law requiring certain sex offenders to be placed on a sex offender registry for life cannot be applied retroactively.

In its ruling, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court gave the Legislature until March 31 to revise the law.

The case was brought by Eric Letalien, a Dixfield man who was 19 when he was convicted of rape in 1996 for having sex with a 13-year-old girl. At the time, he was required to register as a sex offender for 15 years, but was also allowed to seek a waiver from the registry after five years.

Under changes to the law in 1999, he was required to register as a sex offender every 90 days for the rest of his life. The updated law also took away his right to ask for a waiver. In its ruling, the court said it was unconstitutional to apply those changes retroactively.

David Sanders, Letalien’s attorney, said the ruling was a victory for his client. He contends his client and others among the 3,000 people on the registry are not at risk of repeating their sex offenses.

“If this was truly administrative (civil or remedial), wanting to protect society from individuals, then you have to find that the individual in question who’s going to be ostracized, who’s going to be humiliated, who’s going to be shamed, is in fact a risk to society. A mere conviction doesn’t prove that,” he said.

Attorney General Janet Mills said the justices did away with the more punitive aspects of law as they are applied retroactively while affirming the state’s interest in having an Internet sex offender registry. It’s now up to the Legislature to make the changes the court is seeking, she said.

Last year, lawmakers allowed some registered sex offenders to be removed from the registry, upon their request, provided they complete their sentences, commit no additional crimes and meet other standards. In November, the state announced that 100 names of people convicted of offenses that happened between 1982 and 1992 had been removed from the list.

View court ruling here (SOIssues).

journalstar.com : Second lawsuit challenges Nebraska sex offender law.

Omaha – A second lawsuit has been filed seeking to keep a new Nebraska law from adding to the restrictions on sex offenders in January.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court on Friday by an unnamed Lincoln man, comes on the heels of another lawsuit challenging the law. A two-day hearing on the first lawsuit, filed by a group of sex offenders and their family members and employers, is scheduled to begin Wednesday in Omaha.

The new law will lengthen the amount of time someone would have to register as a sex offender.

The unnamed man who filed the lawsuit on Friday claims, among other things, that extending the registry is unconstitutional because he has already been punished for his crime.

Download complaint here.

theday.com (CT): Former NL cop apologizes at sex assault sentencing.

Apparently, if you are a police officer (or other public official) who sexually assaults a child, you do not have to register as a sex offender.

Former New London police officer William R. Edwards Sr. apologized to his family this morning as he was sentenced to two years in prison and 10 years’ probation for inappropriate sexual contact with a young boy.

The 22-year police veteran had pleaded guilty to risk of injury to a minor, tampering with a witness and violating a protective order.

Because he was so well-known by law enforcement authorities in New London, his case was heard in the Windham County judicial district. State’s Attorney Patricia M. Froehlich said Edwards forced the victim, who was 5 to 7 years old at the time, to submit to sexual contact during a self-described “dark period” of his life when he was abusing drugs and alcohol. She said Edwards seemed to have very little insight into his problems based on statements he made during a pre-sentence interview with the Department of Adult Probation.

Edwards, who had served as New London’s community police officer, was suspended and then fired following his arrest in January 2009. He had been well-respected in the community, and several people sent letters of support to the court.

The judge said the sentence was in the best interest of the community. He ordered Edwards to undergo sex offender evaluation and treatment, if necessary while on probation. He is to have no contact with the victim and no unsupervised contact with children under 16. He will not be required to register as a sex offender.

Contact State’s Attorney Patricia M. Froehlich
Suite 208 120 School Street Danielson, CT 06239
860-779-8510

kfab.com : A number of “John Does” have filed a lawsuit against the State of Nebraska to have the state’s new sex offender law ruled unconstitutional. Tom interviews one of the “John Does” as “John” tells his story.

See previous story here: Neb. Sex Offender Registry to Change Drastically

Podcast here.
Download MP3 audio here.
Archived audio MP3 here.

Download Memorandum and Order document here.
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEBRASKA
JOHN DOE and JANE DOE 1 through 20, JOHN DOE and JANE DOE A through K, DOE 12 on behalf of DOES H and K, minors,
and DOE G on behalf of DOE 1, minor, Plaintiffs,
V.
STATE OF NEBRASKA, et al., Defendants.
8:09CV456

A hearing on a preliminary injunction in this case will commence at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, December 23, 2009, recess at noon, start again at 1:00 p.m., and adjourn at 5:00 p.m. that day. Without a lunch break, the hearing will commence again at 8:00 a.m. on December 24, 2009, and conclude at 1:00 p.m. During these two days, each side will be given approximately four hours to present their evidence. Evidence may be presented by affidavit or otherwise. Following the presentation of evidence, each side will be given a total of one hour to make their oral argument, with oral argument commencing at approximately 11:00 a.m. Defendants shall confer among
themselves and come to an agreement regarding the allocation of evidence and argument time. The defendants may submit one or more responsive briefs at any time between now and the commencement of the hearing on the preliminary injunction.

ktla.com : MTV Judge, Shane Sparks, Arrested for Child Molestation.

Los Angeles – Shane Sparks, a judge on the MTV show “America’s Best Dance Crew”, has been arrested for alleged child molestation. Officials with the Los Angeles Police Department say they arrested 40 year old Melvin Shane Sparks in North Hollywood around 8 a.m. Friday on a felony warrant charging him with sexual assault on a child. The alleged assault took place in 1994, according to a criminal complaint.

Sparks, who was also a choreographer on “So You Think You Can Dance”, has been charged with two counts of sexual intercourse with a minor, two counts of oral copulation with a minor, and lewd conduct with a child under 14, which is a felony. Sparks is said to have been at least 10 years older than the victim. He He is being held on $590,000 bail.

Sparks shot to fame as a choreographer on the 2004 movie You Got Served before joining SYTYCD.
His work on the Fox reality hit garnered him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Choreography, after which he was tapped to be a judge on MTV’s dance-themed competition, America’s Best Dance Crew, which just wrapped its fourth season. Earlier this year another choreographer from “So You Think You Can Dance” was arrested. Alex Da Silva was charged with rape.

Perhaps these cases will shed a brighter light of scrutiny on the increasingly onerous sex offender registration laws in this country.