UPDATE: Oppose Senate Bill 234
THIS BILL SAILED THROUGH THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE WITHOUT OPPOSITION AND UNANIMOUSLY.
On Monday, February 15, 2021, the Senate Judiciary committee will consider Senate Bill 234. It is item number 3 on their agenda.
Among other things, this bill introduced by Senator Lauren Book would change the definition of “day” to mean part of any calendar day. Therefore, as written, anywhere you are physically present 4 or more times a year would technically have to be registered within 48 hours.
Visit your parent’s home once a week for dinner? Play cards at a friend’s house once a month? Stop in for coffee at a neighbors’ once every few weeks? Use the same barber?… You’d be registering them all.
Senator Book could have easily clarified the confusion in the language of the bill to state, “a Day means any Calendar Day that includes a 24 hour period”, but she chose, “A day includes any part of a calendar day.” Any part of a calendar day can be one minute! If you sit at a bus stop for 5 minutes on your way to work have you spent a day there? Do you now need to change your transient address?
This Bill was intended to clarify but it only makes things more confusing! Senator Book’s proposal to redefine the meaning of day is ridiculous! It must be stopped.
We call on our members to contact the Senate Judiciary via email and telephone and ask them to OPPOSE SENATE BILL 234 when they meet this coming Monday!
The Senators on the Judiciary Committee can be found here: https://www.flsenate.gov/Committees/Show/JU/ click on their names for contact information.
For quick reference:
| [email protected] | (850) 487-5024 |
| [email protected] | (850) 487-5006 |
| [email protected] | (850) 487-5012 |
| [email protected] | (850) 487-5021 |
| [email protected] | (850) 487-5005 |
| [email protected] | (850) 487-5001 |
| [email protected] | (850) 487-5017 |
| [email protected] | (850) 487-5029 |
| [email protected] | (850) 487-5027 |
| [email protected] | (850) 487-5019 |
| [email protected] | (850) 487-5033 |
IMPORTANT NOTE: COMMUNICATION WITH A STATE SENATOR OR REPRESENTATIVE BECOMES PUBLIC RECORD. PLEASE REMEMBER TO BE RESPECTFUL TO THEM AND STICK TO THE FACTS. IF YOU WRITE SOMETHING RUDE OR OFFENSIVE, YOU WILL ONLY HARM OUR EFFORT AND WE RATHER YOU SEND NOTHING AT ALL
Discover more from Florida Action Committee (FAC)
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Cherokeejack:
Is she willing to sign an affidavit saying that the registry is a waste. Keep track of any police that view this as a huge waste because their views are what’s most compelling in court. They don’t have to testify. An affidavit is admissible in court.
Detroit
She is a sweet lady but doubt she is going to risk her job (She still works for the same agency, just in different position). She was very vocal about how she felt about how we are treated but I do not blame her for not wanting to throw herself under the bus.
Flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2021/234/BillText/Filed/PDF
40 emails sent and a request to some of my non FAC friends to do the same. Lets fill their emails with our thoughts!!
I don’t know. It just seems to me that the more ridiculous and unenforceable the laws become on the Registry, the greater the chance of a judge overturning it when challenged.
I have noticed FAC always wants to point out errors in bills, that even if fixed, would still make the registry easier to enforce and still harder for those on the registry and harder to overturn.
I don’t understand why we should help the lawmakers “fix” their bills for them, when it seems our advantage to have unenforceable, and insane laws on the books that will prove to a judge that the registry is punishment.
Because we have to live with the Bill until it’s challenged, which can be years.
I still think you are wrong to try to correct this bills obviously unenforceable rules.
Do your really think a Sherriff is going to allow an RSO to list his office as a residence?
Do you really think a judge would allow prosecution of an RSO eating dinner at his friends house, or sitting at a stop sign four time a year to be prosecuted for any of the other crazy examples you listed?
I believe you are hurting the chances of our case and also hurting future lawsuits by correcting unenforceable statutes to make them reasonable.
I respect your beliefs. You are welcome to submit as many letters as you like supporting the bill and encourage others to do so. If you like, you can post your own call to action in a comment below.
FAC
And with all the in fighting all of us do, the Books are laughing all the way to the court room. Together we stand, divided we fall.
I think this new bill should be front and center of the Ex post facto arguments. That with every win we get, the other side hits back 100 times harder with newer and more restrictive bills, laws, ordinances, rules and violation traps of quick sand that lead to a nice cozy bed in the department of corrections.
Lord give us strength to not give up and to trust that you have our best interest in your hands. Amen!
And anyone can jump right in to fund the lawsuit Jed tacitly discusses. That is, by not taking action now and if this becomes signed into law by Florida’s Governor, then according to Jed and A, the law would be unenforceable, which would need resolution in the courts. So again, they are welcome to fund that legal expense.
This law will be 100% enforceable. Hundreds already have been jailed for failing to register seemingly trivial items, or for being present somewhere that the law does not allow. This law will give sheriffs more opportunities to arrest the unpopular, hold press conferences claiming credit for having done so, maximize their budgets and win re-election.
It won’t matter whether it’s unreasonable or unconstitutional, though. Court challenge could take years.
This bill, if passed, will be 100% enforceable. If you don’t want to see registrants arrested for the activities for the activities FAC outlined, don’t support the bill.
Some of us used to think that Brevard banishment laws were unenforceable. Then someone got arrested for having breakfast at a Burger King that was opposite the freeway from a health club that had a tennis court.
Some of us also used to think that the state’s broad definition of “vehicles owned” was unenforceable. Yet now people are sitting in jail for untimely registration of their roommate’s work truck.
Give sheriffs the tools to arrest the unpopular, and states’ attorneys the tools to prosecute them, and they will use them.
Of course, some sheriffs and prosecutors will exercise their discretion more wisely. But we don’t know in advance, which ones. They will use the tools the law gives them.
*”arrested for the activities” ugh pardon the repetition where’s my edit button
Thank you Jacob. Some people just don’t get it. Maybe it’s that they don’t see the volume of calls or emails that come in from family of our members who are being held without bond because they didn’t register an email address they forgot they had or an old unregistered trailer they have not used in years, when their underlying sexual offenses were more than a decade ago and they have not had a brush with the law since.
If you look at what happened in Bay County and Brevard last month, you will see that law enforcement ACTIVELY seeks out these petty unknowing violations.
All I am saying is I wouldn’t point out the reason for opposing the bill, but certainly i have written to oppose it in general, stating there are already enough regulations on RSO’s.
If we point out the errors in the bill they will simply correct the wording and we will still be obligated to even more regulations that are harder for a judge to throw out on unreasonable grounds, and to overturn legally.
Please refrain from flippant remarks because a post has differing views from the writers or wants to express another viewpoint. We are all in this together. I was just making a point some may not have thought about.
Jed,
If you read the “bill analysis” it states the purpose of the change is to “Clarify Calculation of Days”. If all the senators see is that it “clarifies” they will think it’s harmless. If it’s pointed out that it actually redefines days to mean “part of a day” they will realize it’s absurd.
I believe the registry should be completely and utterly abolished. But until that happens, the least we can try to do is fight every istance where the noose is tightened. This is one of those times.
This issue with the word “day” is a way bigger deal than you may think. The law is vague. As others have stated, there may be times you need to be in a place multiple days in Florida. Should I have to go there to fight a case, for example, I would have to keep tabs on how long i am staying not just in a location but also the county.
Since day means any part of a day according to this definition, it is easy to see why that may be a problem. “Any part of a day” can be anything from an hour to a minute or a second because this law is subject to any interpretation.
Yes, the state can be sued, and FAC has been able to raise funds for litigation but litigation is costly and takes years. Hell, I am still fighting a SLAPP suit from 2016. And the Covid crisis has slowed courts even in Florida, which has done less than most states when it comes to Covid protocols. In the meantime, potentially hundreds, if not thousands, of registered persons could face problems related to the new law.
That is why trying to fight the definition is important. Fighting a bill is cheaper than fighting a law.
We have to fight the snallstuff and the big stuff when it arises.
Jed-
I totally agree with you!
So, if you have to register four times a year, you get to register the registration office? LOL!
In the agenda it says “redefining” the term sex offender.
Can someone elaborate for me