The Sex Offender Registry Fails All of Us
Weekly Update #244
Dear Members and Advocates,
Something stinks in Highlands County, Florida and it’s not the exhaust fumes from the Sebring International Raceway. The stench is coming from the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office’s sex offender unit, where two detectives have been going above and beyond to terrorize people on the registry by coming up with their own set of rules, codified nowhere in Statute or Municipal Ordinance, and then arresting people for violating them.
We’ve been hearing complaints about these individuals for a while, but it was not until one of our brave members (who also was fortunate enough to be able to afford competent counsel to defend him) decided to fight his case. This individual was arrested and facing four third degree felonies for not reporting interstate travel (out of Florida) to the DHSMV (Driver’s license office). Intrastate (within Florida) gets reported to the DHSMV, while out of state gets reported to the Sheriff’s Office. Regardless of what the statute says, these detectives had their own rule that required registrants who travel outside the state to report to both, and they arrested this individual for not following that rule.
Not only did they arrest the individual for the one instance that took place since he established a temporary residence in Highlands, but being the thorough detectives they are, they went through dozens of his prior registrations (while the individual was living in a completely different County), checked every time he reported interstate travel, and charged him for those as well. The cracker jack detectives even went as far as to subpoena this guy’s cellular phone records going back years, to match the geolocation to confirm he was in all the places he voluntarily reported to the Sheriff’s office.
Facing 4 felonies, each carrying up to 5 years – a total exposure of 20 years in prison for violating a registration requirement invented by a county detective, this brave registrant chose to fight his case and eventually the charges were dropped. That was not before the individual spent months with a potential long-term prison sentence hanging over his head and also spent tens of thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees fighting his case. Most people would not have had the stomach or the finances to fight the charges, which is what Highlands County has gotten away with for a while. Hopefully not anymore.
Since we posted a bit about this situation, SEVERAL individuals have come out of the shadows to let us know about their situations or similar situations across several counties. One, facing current charges, had a search warrant issued for his phone and then was charged for not reporting Internet Identifiers he was never supposed to report (were not used for direct person-to-person communication). To find out how prevalent a problem this actually is; FAC submitted a Public Information Request to Highlands County for copies of the arrest and/or warrant affidavits prepared by these two detectives.
On November 29, FAC received a response from Teresa L. Crooks, Central Records Specialist, Highlands County Sheriff’s Office. The response begins, “Our agency was the victim of ransomware in May of 2022, resulting in the loss of public records. There are documents available. However, there was a loss of records during your specified date range which are non-recoverable.” The first thought that should be coming to your mind is the same thought that came to ours. So our next public information request was for documentation supporting this “ransomware attack” that targeted our discoverable documentation.
In addition to our approach of trying to hold authorities accountable for abusive treatment of those forced to register, we have also been devoting more attention to a series of posts called “The Registry Failed Them”. The series asks how certain new sexual offenses could have possibly happened in light of the existence of “one of the most valuable weapons” in preventing sexual abuse (those were the words of the U.S. Department of Justice in May of 2005). The series then highlights situations where, this valuable tool failed in protecting our loved ones (the registry is “a major step forward for everyone who wants to protect loved ones from sex offenders” Sen. Dorgan -ND), or where it was devoid of information that kept children safe (the registry “provides information to keep our children safe.” Gov. Ehrlich – MD), and where it did absolutely nothing to help law enforcement identify suspects (the registry would “increase [law enforcement’s] ability to track suspects… that abducted or abused a child” (Paul Anders, Andre’ Bosse Center for Child Victims).
In fact, all these claims and guarantees touted by those pushing for the Federal SORNA turned out to be lies and false promises. Studies have repeatedly shown that the registry is more snake oil than panacea. To demonstrate that fact using examples that are as illustrative as possible, we’ve been writing these “the registry failed them” posts when teachers, prosecutors, military leaders, and politicians are getting arrested for sexual offenses. We started the posts less than a month ago, but the hits just kept coming. You can’t go a week without a teacher (here’s one in Hillsborough County last week arrested for Child porn) or a politician (how about the Former Jacksonville City Attorney who had his license revoked last week after a 2021 arrest for lewd and lascivious on a minor) committing a sexual crime that the registry failed to prevent. If this is “one of the most valuable weapons” in preventing sexual abuse (again, the words of the U.S. Department of Justice, not mine), this registry is more squirt gun than AK-47.
As if a gift from God for someone who has to come up with content for a small human rights forum, came the pièce de resistance to our “The Registry Failed Them” series. Last week a former Cobb County (Georgia) Deputy Sheriff assigned to the agency’s Sex Offender Unit was sentenced to federal prison for distributing child pornography! I kid you not! A law enforcement officer who worked in none other than the sex offender unit of a Sheriff’s office, was committing sex offenses right under the nose of the very department that is charged with supervising, tracking and monitoring sex offenders! What more could anyone ask for when looking for facts to make an absolute mockery of this registry? It’s as if you give someone a magic wand that doesn’t do anything, but the person wielding it keeps poking others in the eye. At some point you need to say put down the toy.
And it should go without saying that we are, in no way, poking fun at sexual abuse. The teachers, politicians law enforcement officers, or anyone who commits a sexual crime should be punished, and we have tremendous empathy for the victims who are failed by the registry. This point is to serve them as much as it is to serve our own efforts. Sexual abuse is not a game and “the registry failed them” is not our proverbial check mate. The whole message here is that if you are serious about protecting loved ones, providing information to keep kids safe and preventing recidivism, you don’t play with magic wands. You actually look at the research, you read the studies, you learn from experience, you don’t feed the public bullshit, you don’t come up with schemes to profit off a tragedy and you spend your resources solving actual sexual crimes and not harassing someone trying to live a law-abiding life because they didn’t report a WebMD account they never used or some other benign stupidity you made up!
Sincerely,
The Florida Action Committee
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SOME HEADLINES FROM THE WEEK
FAC Letter to Volusia Sheriff and Public Records Request
It was recently brought to our attention that the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office is requiring personal information from persons required to register who intended to travel. Specifically the means of travel (including copies of flight information) for domestic travel…
“Sex offender” question to be asked on passport applications.
International Megan’s Law to Prevent Child Exploitation and Other Sexual Crimes Through Advanced Notification of Traveling Sex Offenders, known as IML, requires the State Department to include a unique identifier in the passports of registered sex offenders covered…
Tampa City Council to hear report on concentration of sex offenders
Tampa City Council Members will study the findings of a report from the Tampa Police Department on Thursday about a high concentration of sex offenders living in a one-block stretch of Nebraska Avenue in the city’s V.M. Ybor neighborhood. Tampa police officials say…
Call To Action: Help get support from other Human Rights Organizations
Our Change.org petition has broken 3,500 signatures. We would like to get to 5,000. Not only because more numbers is a greater indication of more people thinking the registry is a human rights violation, but because we want more people to read the actual petition!…
With Unity Comes Change -Get Involved and Volunteer Today!
Florida Action Committee
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info@floridaactioncommittee.org
833-2-REPEAL 833-273-7325
Send this to all the judges in the land,,
Write all the letters e-mails that you want to the wrong player’s as you have been doing for Year’s ,,,,,,,the players you should be writing to are all the judges in the land. All the judges that handle these frivolous stupid arrests. Every week just keep sending them.
Riff, we’re buried. Can you help spearhead a game plan to do that?
I do not know where to start, we need a list of mailing addresses ( not E-Mail addresses) but physical addresses at court houses to all the judge’s district/superior/ federal/ and the likes that handle these stupid court cases, i think if these judges see select posts here over and over they keep getting letters mailed to them over and over i mean how long can they act so stupid and not some day become not so stupid and if and when they become not so stupid they can do things we cant like reach the right people and these people might listen to them for we know they are not listening to us. Can anyone here find the names and court addresses of these Judges? We could send select posts anonymously or put FAC return address or something or maybe some of us would use our own names and addresses. I dont know, I think if we start some sort or letter campaign, we might get some better results in the long run, I dont know. I know i would be willing to copy and past and print some select posts and mail them to these Judges, $20/$30 in stamps a week or month would work for me and i am sure many more of us would jump in. Just a thought. Remember Andy Dufresne? Shawshank,,,,,,,,,,,,
Florida has 20 judicial circuits. Some have a couple judges in the criminal division. Some have dozens. That does not include the appellate courts. And that’s just State. Don’t forget the federal court judges.
If you start at the 1st Judicial Circuit, just google “Florida 1st Circuit Criminal Division Judges” and you’ll find: https://www.firstjudicialcircuit.org/judges
Someone would have to go 1×1 through 20 circuits and create a spreadsheet of all the addresses.
OR – someone can just get the general mailing address for the circuit criminal division and ask the letter be shared with all judges “To All Circuit Court Judges of the 1st Judicial Circuit” and do that 20 times (plus appellate, plus federal), but there’s no guarantee it won’t be tossed in the trash and then none of the 30 judges get it.
FAC does A LOT of mailing, whether it’s sending out the registration reminder cards to the registration offices and treatment providers, or letter to all county sheriffs or the Registered letter to Switzerland. It just adds up. If we’re going to spend a few hours of volunteer time putting together the database, print and pay postage on 600 mail pieces, and spend a few hundred dollars in member donations, we need to be pretty confident that it’ll have a return on investment. And that’s just one mailing. If you’re talking about mailing over and over to be effective. That’s going to need to be developed more.
Naturally, if it prevents just one person from getting convicted for a petty FTR, it’s worth thousands, but when you have a member-base that donates $5/month in dues, if it’s not in the budget, it’s gotta come from another pocket.
Another idea might be to file lawsuits with these courts, making claims that are properly argued before them, and employing expert witnesses where necessary.
On that note, we appear to have topped off our ex post facto 2022 sustainer! On to 2023…
Are these the right Judges?
https://www.firstjudicialcircuit.org/search/node/criminal%20judge
Looks right to me.
A letter with this name and address reach Judge Boles?
W. Joel Boles,
Address:
M.C. Blanchard Judicial Building
190 Governmental Center, 6th Floor
Pensacola, FL 32502
https://www.firstjudicialcircuit.org/judges/escambia-county/w-joel-boles
I think the deputies in Highlands County should be investigated by the feds for deprivation of rights under color of law, which is a federal felony. Section 242 of Title 18 makes it a crime for any person acting under color of any law to willfully deprive a person of a right or privilege protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States
Well said ,keep the heat on!
This remains a media win for HCSO, who used the arrest to make a public example out of him.
I feel that the detective has not yet been held accountable or given a reason to modify his behavior. FAC any idea whether there’s anything we can do to address that? How can we help?
There will be an announcement on this when the time is right, but unfortunately not everything can be publicized.
Since FAC, NARSOL and even individuals are starting to get some wins in the courts, the powers that be cannot stand it. They realize if registries get shut down, the officers and deputies who have cushy registry jobs, will be sent back to patrol where they actually have to do something worthwhile.
Not all, but many of the registry compliance officers are nothing more than bullies. I experienced that when I lived in Seminole county. They had my mother in tears and that was the last straw. Once I was off probation we got far away from there. Now we have more issues with neighbors than we do the Sheriff’s office.
Surely they have a record of the purported ransomware attack and the measures they to to investigate it, which would of course be public record also
To their credit, they publicized the ransomware attack. We just don’t want to let them use that as an excuse to hold back on unflattering docs in their possession.