I hate to say it but this is typical of government bureaucracy. Why make a law simple so it can be complied with when it can be made difficult and confusing so that even those in law enforcement have no clue as to what is going on? Most of these laws solve nothing except pointing out the lunacy of those in ‘charge’!

Great write up. I would love the OK to present this article to the Orlando Sentinel. This would make some great eye-opening reading.

time to get real
Submitted by trevor sisk on November 20, 2018 – 9:14am
The problem with the registry and sex offender laws is that they have been fueled by panic and rage over a few truly horrific front page crimes. So we panicked and said, “ok, from now on anyone regardless of age or circumstances, who is convicted of ANY crime of a sexual nature will be treated as a potential “Phillip Garrido.” So we’ll monitor and track these people to make sure they don’t become the next “Jesse Timmendequas.” So here we have a list of almost a MILLION names who we believe are people who have the potential to pull a Garrido-type crime, but just haven’t gotten caught yet – so be sure to watch out for these people. It’s a hybrid form of our justice system that says, because you did this crime we think you’re going to do something way worse, so in order to protect the public from that possibility we’re going to Brand you. As a result you will not be able to work any decent job, you cannot go to church, you will not be able to date, you will not able to live within 500 feet of a school, church, or anywhere where children gather, you will not be able to adopt pets, you will not be able to travel, you will not be able to vote, you will not be allowed to keep earnings should you win the lottery and you not be able to rent an apartment or house, you will not be allowed to go to college and you will not be allowed to hold any state license of any kind. Because you peed on a bush outside of a bar one night, we truly believe you have the potential of being a serial, child, rapist, pedophile and so before you become one we’re going to ruin your life and punish you for the rest of your life as if you did. In essence we are going to treat you, all of you like we SHOULD have treated Garrido and Timmendequas. Because we sure as hell aren’t going to let that happen again and this is what the public expects us to do. Does it work? of course not – the whole basis and ethos behind the registry is preventing Stranger Danger and that’s not how kids gets raped and killed. Do we have a pretty good idea who the really dangerous people are on the registry? No, because we cannot predict the future, we cannot know exactly who will commit such a crime in the future and the really dangerous people who have and who we know about aren’t on the registry, they are in a maximum detention facility either waiting for their execution date or serving a lifetime without parole sentence. So why all the billions, time, resources and drama with the sex offender registry? Because the public demanded we do something. Law enforcement totally failed with Garrido and friends so what were they supposed to do – say “oops, sorry?” The sex offender registry solved that problem and eased the PR nightmare law enforcement agencies all across the country were experiencing, but yes the sex offender registry does absolutely nothing to protect us and because it grows every year actually has created a very large, angry and hopeless class of people whose lives and the lives of their entire family have been irreparably, unjustly damaged. It truly is the civil rights, scarlet letter, banishment issue of our time and continues to be a dark stain on the US Justice System. Just pray that no one ever even SUGGESTS that you did ANYTHING even resembling sexual deviancy or your life is over. How can we fix this, what should we do? First of all we must completely revamp the entire way we deal with sex crimes. Registries have historically never worked and have usually been perpetuated by rouge, evil governments. But if we must have one it should be reserved for a tiny percentage of people, a number no more than 5,000 nation wide at any even given time, who have committed very serious child sex crimes and who for a number of reasons, become eligible to be released into the community after a very long prison sentence. That does happen and often. It’s very expensive to house people, so it’s in the best interest for everyone if we can let a few out every now and then. The sex offender registry then becomes a part of their parole and everyone is clear who they are, where they are, what they did, etc. As for the rest, for whatever crime they committed they are to be arrested, convicted, punished and to serve out their sentence. When all that is complete, as we do with every other crime on the books, they are free to go and continue their lives, never to commit the crime again and once again experience the freedom of our great country. Because all of this makes absolutely perfect sense and has well documented research which supports it, it will be only a matter of time before this becomes the law of the land. We have to. We can’t possibly keep pretending that we’re successfully keeping people safe according to a list of over ONE MILLION people.

oh and…
Submitted by trevor sisk on November 20, 2018 – 9:51am
Not to mention that this “hybrid” form of justice in which we continue punishing people long after their sentence has been served for something we think they MIGHT do is completely, totally and obvious to any first year law student, that at the very least, is unconstitutional as it breaks one of the pillars upon which our Justice System was founded; that being the ex post facto clause (a cornerstone law that says once you served your sentence the government can’t come back and say, “oh we want you to now do this too,” or “hey we know you already served your sentence, but we still aren’t satisfied, you gotta do this now too or else you’re going to prison.”) and at the very most could easily be considered “cruel and unusual punishment.” I mean think about it: we are using the legal system to attach the title of “Serial Child Rapist Pedophile” to over a million innocent people. That’s what the registry has so effectively done. When you hear about someone on the registry what is your immediate next thought? Right, he’s a pedophile who rapes and molests children. So how in the world have we been getting away with this for so long? Well, state legislators, many whom are lawyers, were very clever. In every state, sex offender laws that involve post sentence controls are classified as “Civil” rather than “Punitive.” That distinction has allowed these laws to pass through the ex post facto clause, a clause which protects all of us from further “punishment” but it does not protect from future regulatory laws required of citizens. A perfect example of this is a driver’s license. By law we are always required to have one, must abide by any future changes in license laws and can be fined or punished for failing to comply. Those are regulatory, civil laws and the same category in which sex offender laws are found. Branding someone erroneously as a Pedophile for life is considered a “civil” regulation and is not a punishment on a person. Amazing huh? So to unwind and untangle this panoply of laws and schemes in all 50 states is taking some time. Florida, especially is being unusually stubborn and thus far has been unwilling to even consider such a change. This unwillingness to budge is completely political and politicians, elected judges, city council members, etc are not motivated in any way to be lawmaker that gets quoted on the front page saying something like, “We’re removing most of the names of sex offenders off this registry. We were wrong. These people are not dangerous.” To which the average 6th grade educated, ADHD public says, “HUH?!” It’s just too big a risk for those in power to take and that’s why this is taking much longer than it should. There has been some success however. In jurisdictions where judges or lawmakers who were bold and who were free of any political repercussions have come out strongly against these saying, “My God of course this is unconstitutional, what in the hell were you thinking. ” The most damning case to date has involved a Federal Appeals Court who unanimously agreed and whose opinion writer used their decision brief to completely annihilate the illegalities of these laws and demanded law enforcement over which she had jurisdiction to immediately cease and desist, remove the defendants names from the registry and ordered never to bother them again. Unfortunately it was a decision that applied only those mentioned in the case, but still it was a monumental decision. The State of course appealed it to the US Supreme Court and they refused to hear it, automatically making the Federal Appeals decision permanent and binding. It’s a great case if anyone is interested in looking it up: Does v. Snyder, __ F.3d __, 2016 WL 4473231 (6th Cir. 2016),

Sounds to me like this guy needs to see an actual psychiatrist. Not the LPCs or people who grease the palms of the judges and POs to provide “treatment” – someone actually competent to practice.

And yes, he will have to register at one point or another even if current law doesn’t require it. This will be the case driving a future law that no registrant can possess or have access to pets or livestock.

http://wesh.com/article/marion-county-man-accused-of-having-sex-with-miniature-horse/25228693?src=app

Old address on a marriage certificate? Seriously? Picketing neighbors and dedicated police detail and that’s all they could come up with? Doesn’t even sound like an actual charge; more like they charged fraud or forgery or something and trumped it up. When is the last time that charge was pressed on anyone? Betting it’s been a while, if ever.

RI AG: “Particularly in view of Richard Gardner’s criminal record, the Office believed it was important to go forward with the violation…” Exactly what the judge said – revisiting the previous offense, and something many registrants have to go through frequently; trumped up charges for the sole purpose of parole/probation violation.