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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833-2-REPEAL 833-273-7325
I really love FAC’s recent focus on saying that the Registries should not be reformed and that the only smart option is to destroy them. I am sure that stance is 100% correct.
I also think you are doing a great job with messaging, picking targets/fights, being smart and rigorous, and all that. Having said that, I get the allure of “The Registry Failed Them” but I don’t think that is a great campaign/tactic. I do think some consistent, repeating, constant anti-Registry messaging/campaign is great. But not that one.
The problem with it is that Registries are not intended to keep non-PFRs from committing crimes. And it doesn’t matter that they don’t. If you have a tool that stops N% of sex crimes, why would you say it is failed if it doesn’t stop 100%?
If you keep pointing out that people other than PFRs are committing sex crimes and PFRs are not then people are going to say it is because of the Registries and they are working exactly as desired.
Registries make common sense. They SEEM like they would be a good idea. I mean, who wouldn’t want to know about a person who has done something dangerous in the past? The problem with the Registries is that they don’t work and they cause huge problems for everyone in Amerika. That is what the campaign should be.
The public believes that the registry prevents sex crimes. And they believe it does so by identifying, with some accuracy, who the abusers are.
Most people don’t spend much time considering how someone got on the registry. They certainly don’t think much about recidivism rates, abusers’ criminal history, etc. They don’t know, and don’t have time for, basic offending statistics and certainly not studies. They don’t think hard about, or don’t care, whether or not the abuser was a PFR. All they know is that the state is identifying for us, who the dangerous people are. The registry distracts people with a false sense of security.
That’s why, every time there is a new victim, the sex offender registry has failed them.
The SOR is redundant over-policing. It promotes weaponized hate, not public safety. It gives strangers leverage over your personal and family’s safety,security and emotional well-being.
All the arguments for the registry that “child safety” advocates use are fear-based, selfish bad-faith arguments rooted in retaliation.
Our lives have been hijacked. We’re being held hostage under siege while being made to perform under a “compliance or prison” imposition.
Sounds a whole lot like forced slavery to me if not legal thuggery.
The people involved in the whole registry scheme, don’t want to lose their cash cow. Politician’s, judge’s, lawyer’s, prosecutor’s, law enforcement, probation department, therapist’s, jail’s, prison’s, civil confinement, etc. Only the same people are finally getting the picture, but it’s not enough of them. Civil injustice has usually always led to protests, lawsuits, violence, civil unrest, for country wide change to come about. This may be the path that may have to be taken at some point.
Just so everyone knows, deputies can be fired, as they are hired and can be let go for their actions. The 67 Sheriff’s in Florida are elected officials and can only be removed by the Governor.
So while their deputies get terminated and replaced, the Sheriff’s are not held accountable in many cases for the deputies actions. When I use to work, if enough of your employees were messing up, the store manager would either be transferred, terminated or given a release package.
My point is, the person at the top of any organization needs to take responsibility for the action of their employees. This doesn’t seem to be the case with the sheriff’s departments. Unlike police departments whose chiefs are a hired position and can be fired but the city council, The sheriff is elected and again, can only be removed by the sitting Governor.
@Cherokee Jack
Clarification – Sheriff’s can only be removed by the Gov in between election cycles and can be removed by the population if voted out of office. I know that is splitting hairs and understood what you meant here as I am sure the rest of the readers did too if the know election cycles.
Thanks for all your great insight with posts here and other similar websites.
TS
Yes I meant removed by means other than not being re-elected.
I worked in a lot of departments over the years. Even though it would seem city departments are not political since the chief is hired and fired not elected. However, many of the police chiefs go onto to run for sheriff.
That was the case with Sheriff Chitwood, He worked as police chief in Daytona beach before becoming sheriff and at two other police departments in other states before coming to Florida.
The chief of Orlando also became the county sheriff of Orange county and then to county mayor. It is all political and doesn’t matter whose feet you step on, if you get in their way, you get run over and thrown out to dry.
Competent counsel belongs on our Attorney Referral Page, no?
If they are not there already.
It seems like every county has it’s own un-codified laws that they go by. I’ve been off probation for 13 years, yet I’m told that every time I leave the state I have to notify the Sheriff’s Office.
In which county are you?
I’m in Hernando County.
https://reason.com/2022/12/05/sex-offender-registry-shenandoah-dying-man/
Riff
This dying man was a real danger. He could have rolled out of bed and crawled for 7 hours down the street and attacked someone.
What the living Hell is wrong with people. This dying man probably could not punch a squirrel in the nose, no less go and commit a sex offense. Even if he was dangerous in his head, from the description, he probably cannot even use the bathroom without help.
I cannot even type on here what I would do if one of my elderly relatives were treated that way. It would not be pretty.