State files Motion to Dismiss in Ex Post Facto
As anticipated, the State responded to our Ex Post Facto complaint with a Motion to Dismiss.
Their motion, a link to which can be found below, was completely expected. Naturally, this will be replied to and we will continue to keep you updated as things progress.
Does v. Swearingen – Mot to Dismiss
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I spent the afternoon at DSO for my annual registration. Because in-person is burdensome, I come prepared with everything needed to avoid additional in-person requirements.
After I paid my $25, searched and interviewed if anything has changed… I asked the officer about out of state travel and I tried to provide him info about an upcoming trip out of state. He told me that he needed the following before he would enter anything, as required by law: Dates of travel, method of travel; flight info , car; routes and hotels I would be staying at while driving, All addresses I would be staying overnight etc.
I asked if that was the statute said, or his interpretation. He said it was the law and if I could not provide all of the above, I would risk 20 years in prison if I was caught.
My question was how do you plan to drive somewhere or fly? What happens of there are detours, weather delays etc. Etc.
Because I couldnt provide him my exact itenerary, he refused to put it in the system.
I called FDLE for clarification. I was told no routes or plane info was necessary , but hotel o would be staying for mpre than 3 days would be.
How do we proceed, when no-one is on the same page and the sherrifs office or individual officer, interprets the law in a special way?
Does anyone here have better info for out-of-state travel?
Call FDLE while you are at the registration office and tell them they are refusing to register your travel.They can’t do that.
From a jailhouse lawyer’s point of view, the State has compelling arguments in its motion to dismiss (MTD). I would hope that FAC has a competent lawyer who will counter attack the points raised by the State, which rely on the precedent of government victories, by citing cases where the government’s dogma was ruled to be unconstitutional. The common sense approach will not work on those who have none. The very language of the MTD shows the arrogance of Pam Blondi and FDLE, who fully expect the case to be dismissed.
It is refreshing to know that I was right about the “three-day” bu11$hit though.
My husband requested court transcripts from NJ and were told that they would not send them unless it was to an attorney, which is BS. Then a few days later we received a copy of one page commitment order and low and behold, found that the court actually changed his commitment papers in 1996 (arrested 1990, long before Megan’s Law or Adam Walsh) so that he would be under Megan’s Law and then I suppose they would get money from the feds! My husband did not take a plea deal because he was not guilty (they offered him a flat 3 years) and took it to jury trial (just as NJ decided to retry the McMartin Daycare case). All it took was the accusation from his 1st wife (who discovered he was having an affair); a trial judge who questioned a witness from the bench and incompetence on the part of the Public Defenders office to get my husband convicted of 2nd degree Aggravated Sexual Assault and Endangering the Welfare of a child, for which he received 20 years with a 8 year mandatory minimum (he was and continues to be a first time offender). The year after he was incarcerated, his wife gave both of his children up to the state and then, after they finally maxed him out after 12 years (even after he did everything parole told him to do). His 1st wife committed suicide the month after I married him. Until my husband notified the state of Florida that he had moved here from NJ, he was able to move about freely with no constraints – NJ showed up on our door once a year to see he was still living there but now in FL he has to report 4 times a year in person. My husband was a registered voter in NJ, WA and PA, but Florida has permanently taken his right to vote away. 4 months after moving here, hubby has been banned for life from WDW (we visited every year for 10 years before moving here with no problem) and denied being able to ever take a cruise again (even though we had taken several with the same cruise line just the year before when living in NJ). If only someone had warned me the persecution we would be under by retiring and buying a house in Florida, there would have been NO WAY we would have moved to Floriduh. Please let everyone you know that is a registered sex offender NOT to move to Florida! I used to love this state, but now that I can’t get a job here because when an employer looks up my address they discover that my husband is a registered sex offender, they change their mind. I’ve taught Sunday School for years, am a Past Matron in OES, and have never been arrested, but now according to the State I live in and pay taxes in, I’m scum, not fit enough to clean someone’s toilets or give out treats at Halloween. Where’s the justice in that?
I know what your saying my wife is a professional and commutes an hour and tells her coworkers she’s single and uses a different address due to past problems like people looking her up when smart phones started coming out passing word around. Some of them become sexually aggressive toward her like they are owed male and female and some begin trying to match make her like she’s in a bad situation. When I met my wife there wasn’t all this crap we had Disney season tickets, I coached and ate lunch at my kids school people knew about me no-one cared most did the same thing now they have a life not attached to high school and they all run in the same circles none are “victim/predator” (no-one says offenders or knows there is a difference or cares to be politicly correct) its ridiculous! We are making our plans to leave Florida they make their money on the misery of other people now have their sights set on the registry.
Hey Mr. ASA and politicians!!!
FYI
The court said kool-aid is legal so, i’ll add sugar in it and you drink it, next year i’ll add antifreeze in it and you drink it, the year after i’ll add coloring to make your skin color, arsenic, etc… and you drink it and after all it is legal for us to have it in the kool-aid since the kool-aid was deemed legal
I see that FDLE already is handing FAC a few concessions, such as:
No strict liability after all. If you had no way of knowing that you were supposed to register something, then you cannot be convicted for not registering it.
Overnight stays of up to three nights, not two, do not require registration, because “the law does not recognize fractions of a day.”
Similarly for hotel-hopping, as someone has pointed out below (though this may prompt Lauren Book to claim, without evidence, that registration-free hotel hopping promotes trafficking or some such nonsense, and craft creative legislation).
In the bigger picture, I appreciate how they do not even attempt to argue that registries promote public safety, or that registrants pose a high risk to re-offend, only that higher courts already have held these to be the case in past years, so these issues must not be re-litigated [as we know what might happen!].
[Moderator, feel free not to publish my redundant older posts below. You can see that many of us have this on our minds].
I like how they do not even attempt to argue that registries promote public safety, nor that offenders pose a high risk of recidivism, only that higher courts have already said that and they cannot be reversed.