H1301/SB1226 Passes
Sadly, but not surprisingly, the Florida Legislature passed another stupid, punitive and unnecessary sex offender bill that will only enrich those in private prisons, the GPS vendors and the Books.
We put up a very strong and valiant effort reaching out to our legislators. We expected the wishes of their constituents would not be as compelling as the campaign contributions from Book, but all your letters and efforts will become very useful when it comes to a lawsuit.
Don’t despair… this is just more support for our lawsuit!
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My wife and I purchased a “vacation” home in another county in Florida. Since I could never get the right answer from the local Sheriff Office. I have not visited the house this year, because I am not clear on how all of this affects me as a registrant. My local sheriff office could not answer that either, specially when I questioned him on the requirements to register and update the driver license registration every time we go there and come back to my “permanent” address. I also noticed the wordage on notifying when leaving the state for more than 3 days. Can FAC provide us with an answer? When will we follow other states in presenting an ex post facto case in the courts. What will the approximate cost of this be? How about the civil rights infringement in the lives of family members immediately related to the registrant? Do FAC has enough resources to get this accomplished? Sorry for the barrage of questions!
CAB – please reference our site and listen in on our monthly member calls. We have funded and paid the initial retainer for our Ex Post Facto challenge which will be filed in Spring.
We will need additional contributions if the litigation becomes protracted and for other challenges. Your contributions to FAC are GREATLY appreciated!
Upon reviewing Florida statutes, there is absolutely NO legal requirement of any RSO to initial and sign a form that outlines all the registration requirements, including newly-added requirements. Each time upon visiting the sheriff’s office, the staff has registrants place initials by a long list of registration and notification requiements and then sign at the bottom. Even if any of the requirements are new and one has not been informed in advance and has not had a chance to consult an attorney before initialing and signing, s/he is still expected to initial and sign. This is a blatant violaton of due process. Once you initial and sign, you are in effect agreeing that you are subject to all of those requirements, even if you just found out about a new one upon visiting the sheriff’s office. If there is not statute requiring specifically requiring you to initial and sign such a form, then there can and should be no statutory penalty for refusing to do so.
I agree. There is also no legal requirement to respond to emails from FDLE that verify your newly-registered email addresses. I didn’t do it, and a registrar at my local sheriff’s office gave me a hard time about it.
According to the FDLE webpage, if FDLE contacts you, you must respond. I think you may have 2 weeks. Go to the site and study the infornation, should be there. I dont agree with any of these stupid law, nevertheless untill the law changes we are subject to it, or jeopardize being arrested. We must keep fighting!
I see that there is a legal committee. Maybe some one in the committee could talk to a lawyer and ask them if they know of a lawyer who would be willing to work pro bono. If they should win this case, their reputation should go through the roof. Look at Jose Baez(Casey Anthony).
Tired – we can use volunteers. Can you take up the task of contacting attorneys to see if anyone would want to take this up pro-bono?
We would also need experts to testify, filing fees, court reporters for depositions, transcripts and discovery costs. Since the case has to be brought in the Northern District of Florida (actions against the State have to be brought in Tally), it needs to be an attorney who lives there – otherwise, add travel costs. Whoever takes this up pro-bono would need to cover all that too.
If they proceed with a case that’s under-funded and have no expert witnesses testimony or can’t depose the State’s witnesses in advance of trial, they are sure to lose and create some bad precedent – we don’t want that.
I am new to this site, what exactly is this group, FAC, doing to help RSO? I think it is ridiculous that RSO’s who have served their time, have to be punished for the rest of their lives with discrimination with housing, employment, travel etc! It’s such bullshit, I could be living next door to a murder & would never know it because he gets to serve his time & move on with his life. It should be the same with RSO. Florida is the worst & the laws need to be changed.
Donna – please read through our historic posts (at least the headlines) and join our NEW MEMBER call the second thursday of the month. In the interim. Contact [email protected] and ask for a call-back for someone to brief you
Dee, FAC has exerted practically incalculable efforts on our behalf. As just one example, if not for FAC, who knows what we would have to do to legally use the internet right now? FAC essentially blocked a horrible State law that would have required RSOs to register every website/URL they “use” (who knows what that even means) for internet communication *before* using it. That law was permanently enjoined by a federal district court judge and the State ended up partially relenting by passing a significantly watered-down version of the law the next year. And then there’s the current lawsuit against the Miami-Dade County residency restrictions whose litigation involved a MAJOR win in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal in Atlanta, the ex-post facto challenge, etc. etc. etc.
Sure lets all move to another state and who knows what will happen there? I know some states are better than others but.. our fight is here and since the absurdity level has reached an ultimate high it seems to us that our case for change is better than ever. We sent emails and called every Senator and thought we had a good chance. This county/state has reached an all time low and we know of no other group that has more punitive/unconstitutional laws working against them. It has reached a tipping point and all of us need to be ready and willing to fight. I know it is still early, but where do we go from here? I want to know what the Sheriffs office in Pinellas county will do about their Tues-Thurs office hours. This is one of the arguments we used in our correspondence to the Reps and Senators, all to deaf ears.
Question :
Since the NRA is sueing the state of Florida, regarding the new gun laws, is it possible for us(meaning the FAC) to sue the state of Florida as well??
Thanks,
Tired
of course it is
Is it possible somewhere on the site to post how much is needed in a graphical (Bar-Graphish) manner to show how much is needed for these lawsuits. I continue to read on the site that money is needed and that is a given money is always needed but a little transparency I think would go a long way.
We can do that. We funded our Ex Post Facto lawsuit and paid the retainer, but for others, we can!
Of course it is? Then let’s sue, where is the info for the class action lawsuit?