DC- Congressional leaders fight against posting bills online

Watch which lawmakers vote to keep the public BLINDED on new bills that affect them, THEN decide who you will vote for next time you vote!

10-7-2009 Washington DC:

As Congress lurches closer to a decision on an enormous overhaul of the American health care system, pressure is mounting on legislative leaders .to make the final bill available online for citizens to read before a vote.

Lawmakers were given just hours to examine the $789 billion stimulus plan, sweeping climate-change legislation and a $700 billion bailout package before final votes.

While most Americans normally ignore parliamentary detail, with health care looming, .voters are suddenly paying attention. The Senate is expected to vote on a health bill in the weeks to come, representing months of work and stretching to hundreds of pages. And as of now, .there is no assurance that members of the public, or even the senators themselves, will be given the chance to read the legislation before a vote.

."The American people are now suspicious of not only the lawmakers, but the process they hide behind to do their work," said Michael Franc, president of government relations for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

At town hall meetings across the country this past summer, the main topic was health care, but there was a strong undercurrent of anger over the way Congress rushed through passage of the stimulus, global warming and bank bailout bills without seeming to understand the consequences. The stimulus bill, for example, was 1,100 pages long and made available to Congress and the public just 13 hours before lawmakers voted on it. The bill has failed to provide the promised help to the job market, and there was outrage when it was discovered that the legislation included an amendment allowing American International Group, a bailout recipient, to give out millions in employee bonuses.

"If someone had a chance to look at the bill, they would have found that out," said Lisa Rosenberg, who lobbies Congress on behalf of the Sunlight Foundation to bring more transparency to government.

The foundation has begun an effort to get Congress to post bills online, for all to see, 72 hours before lawmakers vote on them.

"It would give the public a chance to really digest and understand what is in the bill," Rosenberg said, "and communicate whether that is a good or a bad thing while there is still time to fix it."

What you don't know can hurt you:

» House energy and global warming bill, passed June 26, 2009. 1,200 pages. Available online 15 hours before vote.

» $789 billion stimulus bill, passed Feb. 14, 2009. 1,100 pages. Available online 13 hours before debate.

» $700 billion financial sector rescue package, passed Oct. 3, 2008. 169 pages. Available online 29 hours before vote.

» USA Patriot domestic surveillance bill, passed Oct. 23, 2001. Unavailable to the public before debate.

A similar effort is under way in Congress. Reps. Brian Baird, D-Wash., and Greg Walden, R-Ore., are circulating a petition among House lawmakers that would force a vote on the 72-hour rule.

Nearly every Republican has signed on, but the Democratic leadership is unwilling to cede control over when bills are brought to the floor for votes and are discouraging their rank and file from signing the petition. Senate Democrats voted down a similar measure last week for the health care bill.

The reluctance to implement a three-day rule is not unique to the Democrats.

The Republican majority rushed through the controversial Patriot Act in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as well as a massive Medicare prescription drug bill in 2003 that added hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit.

For the majority party, legislative timing plays a big role in whether a bill will pass because support can be fleeting.

"The leaders use it as a tool to get votes or to keep amendments off a bill," said one top Senate Democratic aide.

But Baird warned of public backlash.

"Democrats know politically it's difficult to defend not doing this," he said. "The public gets this. They say we entrust you with the profound responsibility of making decisions that affect our lives, and we expect you to exercise due diligence in carrying out that responsibility." ..Source.. by Susan Ferrechio, Chief Congressional Correspondent

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VT- Easier exemptions from offender registry approved

10-7-2009 Vermont:

MONTPELIER (AP) -- A legislative committee on Tuesday approved rules opening the door a bit for people with sex crime convictions who want to be left off Vermont's newly expanded Internet sex offender registry.

The rules mean a sex offender who successfully completed a jail term and treatment years ago and who has committed no new sex crimes since then can ask a Corrections Department panel to have his or her name left off the Internet registry.

Lisa Menard, deputy corrections commissioner, told the Legislative Committee on Administrative rules "there was a desire to treat each case on a case-by-case basis," that was not adequately reflected in an earlier version of an emergency rule released by her department.

Adoption of the rule came just days after the Oct. 1 expansion of the sex offender registry to include a broader range of sex crimes. The number of offenders listed on the Internet grew from 461 to 1,149 last week.

A still broader registry available to law enforcement contains 2,460 names, including those listed on the Internet, said Sheri Englert, sex offender registry program coordinator at the Department of Public Safety.

Lawmakers this past spring voted to expand the Internet sex offender registry to include a wider range of offenders. It was part of two multitiered bills on sex offenders passed following the June 2008 rape and killing of a 12-year-old Braintree girl, Brooke Bennett.

During legislative debate, there was some concern that the newly broadened registry would include people whose crimes dated back as much as 20 years, but who had successfully re-entered society and maintained a clean record in recent years.

The rule approved Tuesday sets up a class of offenders eligible to petition the Corrections Department to be left off the Internet registry, but it gave those offenders a limited time period in which to file their petitions. It began in June, shortly after the law was passed, and ended last week, Englert said.

Offenders got letters in July telling them they needed to fill out paperwork before Oct. 1 if they wanted to begin the petition process. About 230 did so, Englert said.

Menard said the Sex Offender Review Committee would begin reviewing those applications soon; the rule approved Tuesday will govern that process.

Menard said some offenders would be ineligible to petition for exclusion from the Internet registry: those deemed "high-risk" by corrections staff, those who had not completed sex offender treatment programs while incarcerated, those convicted of aggravated sexual assault and repeat offenders.

Under the rule, the committee will make recommendations, with the commissioner of corrections making the final decision.

A call Tuesday to the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, which was active in the sex offender legislation, was not immediately returned.

Keith Flynn, the Orleans County state's attorney and chairman of the executive committee of the Vermnont State's Attorneys Association, said he had not read the rule and could not comment on it. ..Source..

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PA- Chambersburg Area School District's student sexters may wear 'sex offender' label through adulthood

10-7-2009 Pennsylvania:

CHAMBERSBURG -- Law enforcement and Chambersburg Area School District officials are still trying to determine how many students were involved a recent rash of "sexting" images that were forwarded to students in the first weeks of school in what by law can be defined as child pornography.

And they're also trying to determine if the students should be charged with a crime.

Officials from the Chambersburg Police Department, the Franklin County district attorney's office and the school district conducted a news conference Tuesday morning to discuss the incidents. Sexting is the act of sending sexually explicit photos and content in text messages and through e-mail.

Bret Beynon, Franklin County assistant district attorney who specializes in juvenile prosecution, said the only charges that would be applicable could be felony possession of child pornography, which could come with the classification of sex offender if found guilty. She said if the students involved were juveniles, the sentences would not have a minimum or maximum sentence if charges were filed and the students were found guilty.

However, they would remain on their public record for life and they would have to submit DNA to the Pennsylvania State Police database. "It would affect them for the rest of their lives," Beynon said.

Anyone older than 18 who was charged with the felony would have to register with the state's Megan's Law Web site for 10 years under current laws. Megan's Law alerts the public to the living and working arrangements of registered sex offenders.

Since the possible charge would be possession of child pornography, everyone involved could face the same charge whether they took the photograph, received it, or forwarded it. Beynon said a student who received a picture, immediately deleted it and notified authorities would not face charges. However, someone who received a photo and either saved or forwarded it to others could.

"Everybody could be on the hook for a felony," Beynon said.

Beynon said they are dealing with each photo on a case by case basis. Beynon also asked parents to be more proactive and monitor the cellular phone and Internet usage of their children.

"We are being very deliberate and everything has to be very well thought out," Beynon said.

Chambersburg Police Chief David Arnold said officers were called on Sept. 23 by CASD director of security T. Brett Hill about photos involving nudity circulated via digital technology. Since then, the police department, district attorney's office and school district are cooperating in an investigation.

"As we all know, cell phone use among teens has increased greatly in the last decade. While this technology can be useful in everyday life, it has the ability to be used for this purpose," Arnold said.

Arnold said he has asked the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Legislative Committee to look at the current laws and propose new legislation if it's warranted. Beynon said the Pennsylvania District Attorney's Association is in favor of legislation that would diminish penalties for minors sending sexually explicit images. Sen. Wayne Fontana, D-Allegheny County, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review last month that he plans to introduce a bill this fall that would grade the crimes as misdemeanors or summary offenses so that anyone charged would be kept out of Megan's Law requirements.

Assistant Superintendent Eric Michael said that currently there are 28 students believed to be involved in the incident. However, the number could change as the investigation continues.

Beynon and Arnold also would not specify how many images have been distributed to this point or when the investigation would conclude.

According to a 2008 survey by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 20 percent of more than 1,200 teens surveyed had posted online or electronically transmitted sexually explicit photos of themselves.

Michael said school district officials are certain that none of the photographs were taken on school property, and school equipment was not used. Some of the photos could have been sent from student's phones while they were in school buildings, although the district prohibits students from using phones in school buildings during the class day.

Michael said that although cell phone use is banned, it's a difficult policy to police. "It used to be that students were going to the bathroom to smoke. Now they're going to the bathroom to text," he said. ..Source.. by KEITH PARADISE Staff writer

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New study finds high rates of childhood exposure to violence and abuse in US

10-7-2009 National:

DURHAM, N.H -- A new study from the University of New Hampshire finds that U.S. children are routinely exposed to even more violence and abuse than has been previously recognized, with nearly half experiencing a physical assault in the study year.

"Children experience far more violence, abuse and crime than do adults," said David Finkelhor, director of the UNH Crimes against Children Research Center and the study director. "If life were this dangerous for ordinary grown-ups, we'd never tolerate it."

The research was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The research results are presented in the journal Pediatrics and an Office of Justice Programs/OJJDP bulletin titled "Children's Exposure to Violence: A Comprehensive National Survey (Summary)." The full report can be found here.

UNH researchers asked a national sample of U.S. children and their caregivers about a far broader range of exposures than has been done in the past.

According to the research, three out of five children were exposed to violence, abuse or a criminal victimization in the last year, including 46 percent who had been physically assaulted, 10 percent who had been maltreated by a caregiver, 6 percent who had been sexually victimized, and 10 percent who had witnessed an assault within their family.

The authors contend that earlier studies of violence exposure only inquired about individual crimes – looking only at bullying or child maltreatment or sexual abuse. In contrast, this study asked about all such exposures as well as additional ones that are rarely, if ever, covered such as dating violence and witnessing domestic violence.

The study found that more than a third of the children had had two or more different kinds of exposures in the past year and 11 percent had five or more.

"Studies have missed the fact that there are a surprisingly large group of very repeatedly and variously victimized kids whom we should be doing a better job to help and protect," Finkelhor said.

The researchers urge teachers, police, doctors, counselors, and parents to ask children about a broader range of possible victimization experiences, especially children who had been identified as victims already. They also call for new efforts to create safer schools, homes and other youth environments.

The study was conducted in 2008 and involved interviews with caregivers and youth about the experiences of a nationally representative sample of 4,549 children ages 0-17. In addition to Finkelhor, the authors include Heather Turner, professor of sociology at UNH, Richard Ormrod, research professor of geography at UNH, and Sherry Hamby, research associate professor of psychology at Sewanee, the University of the South.

###

The UNH Crimes against Children Research Center (CCRC) works to combat crimes against children by providing high-quality research and statistics to the public, policy makers, law enforcement personnel, and other child welfare practitioners. CCRC is concerned with research about the nature of crimes including child abduction, homicide, rape, assault, and physical and sexual abuse as well as their impact.

The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling 11,800 undergraduate and 2,400 graduate students. ..Source.. by Lori Wright, University of New Hampshire

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GA- Ga. man ordered to die in boy's molestation, death

10-7-2009 Georgia:

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) -- A Georgia man was sentenced to death Tuesday for molesting and strangling a 6-year-old boy (son of a former sex offender) inside a mobile home before the child's body was wrapped in trash bags and dumped near a road.

Jurors deliberated two hours before unanimously agreeing on a death sentence for 61-year-old David Edenfield. He was convicted Monday of aggravated child molestation and murder in the March 2007 slaying of Christopher Michael Barrios.

Edenfield stood passively as the judge read his sentence, and the victim's family silently dabbed at tears.

Edenfield was the first of three family members to stand trial in the case. His wife and their 34-year-son have also been charged with abducting, molesting and killing the boy.

"He got his justice _ Christopher got it today," said Sue Rodriguez, the boy's grandmother, smiling through tears. "Now we've got two more to go."

Christopher went missing March 8, 2007, from the Brunswick mobile home park where his father and grandmother both had homes. His body was found a week later by a roadside, wrapped in trash bags.

Edenfield's family had moved into a home across the street from Christopher's grandmother four months earlier. Police found one of Christopher's toys, a Star Wars lightsaber, in Edenfield's front yard. Edenfield's grown son, George Edenfield, was a convicted child molester.

The elder Edenfield confessed to the crime in a videotaped interview with a police detective the day after the boy's body was found.

On the tape, Edenfield said he and his son molested the boy inside their home while his wife, Peggy Edenfield, watched. He said Christopher pleaded with them to stop and threatened to tell his father and grandmother, prompting Edenfield's son to begin choking the boy.

Edenfield told police he placed his own hands on top of his son's as Christopher choked to death.

"Fortunately for us, they had that confession," said Mike Barrios, the boy's father, who had listened stoically to a week of grisly trial testimony. "Christopher's up in heaven. He's smiling down now."

Before jurors began deliberating Edenfield's sentence, his defense lawyers urged them to consider mercy. The attorneys accused George Edenfield of instigating the boy's abduction and killing.

"David Homer Edenfield is going to die in prison, that's a fact," defense attorney John Beall told the jury. "Here's another fact. This beautiful little boy was murdered and will never come back."

Beall and James Yancey Jr., Edenfield's other lawyer, did not speak to reporters after sentencing.

In a fiery argument, District Attorney Stephen Kelley asked the jury to sentence Edenfield to die, saying "maybe he's just rotten from the inside out. ... And his words on that tape were, 'It felt good.'"

The judge halted the prosecutor's heated presentation when Kelley pointed at Edenfield and called him an "animal." Edenfield's attorneys asked for a mistrial based on the outburst, but Superior Court Judge Stephen Scarlett denied the motion.

Because of pretrial publicity, the jury was drawn from a community 90 miles away, and the jurors were sequestered during the weeklong trial in Brunswick, 60 miles south of Savannah.

George Edenfield, who is mentally retarded according to his father, is still being evaluated to determine if he's competent to stand trial. Peggy Edenfield would be tried last, according to deal in which prosecutors agreed to spare her from the death penalty if she testified against her husband and son.

Kelley declined to say much about those pending cases Tuesday.

"We've still got a lot of work to do," he said. ..Source.. by RUSS BYNUM

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MO- Sex offender challenges state law

Has anyone ever found that, a RSO who lived within xx feet of a proscribed place, has ever committed a sex crime at that proscribed place? I'd find it hard to believe this has ever happened (except possibly by employees of the proscribed place who may live within the proscribed area), these types of proximity laws are plain nonsense and protect no one, they are a pretext for banishment, because the RSO is not liked, not because of any safety issue!

10-7-2009 Missouri:

Retroactive laws, measuring guidelines at center of state Supreme Court case.

Jefferson City -- A Missouri sex offender contended Tuesday that a state law requiring him to live more than 1,000 feet from schools and child care centers is unconstitutional.

An attorney for the sex offender told the Missouri Supreme Court the law should be struck down for two reasons: Its 1,000-foot buffer is too vague, and it imposes restrictions on offenders that were not in place when they were convicted.

It is the latest case in which the Supreme Court is faced with deciding how to implement new sex offender policies for people convicted of prior sex offenses. Previously, the high court has held the buffer zone could not be enforced against people who already were living near schools because Missouri's constitution bars "retroactive" laws.

Missouri in 2004 first enacted a law barring many sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of public and private schools or any child-care facilities. The ban applies to any location where the sex offender sleeps.

Violators face up to four years in prison the first time and 15 years for repeat offenses.

The issue Tuesday involved a sex offender whose offenses came before the residency restrictions but who did not attempt to move near a child-care facility until several years after the buffer zone was created. The case also focused on how the 1,000-foot limitation should be measured.

The sex offender -- identified in court only by his initials "F.R." -- was convicted of five felony sex crimes in 1999 and notified the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department of his plans to move into his fiancee's home in the St. Louis suburb of O'Fallon. Police initially approved the move, but several days later when neighbors complained, "F.R." was told he had two days to move out or that he would be arrested.

That was because the property line for the O'Fallon home is 913 feet from the property line of the Kid's Academy child-care facility. But the corners of the home and child-care center are 1,078 feet apart, and the front doors for the two buildings are 1,097 feet apart.

Attorney Michael Gross, who represented the sex offender during oral arguments, said living restrictions for "F.R." are unconstitutional because they were not in place when he was convicted. Gross also argued that the law is unclear about whether the 1,000-foot buffer should be measured from building to building or from lot line to lot line.

Gross said there is a fundamental right for residents to travel freely and live where they wish with some limits.

"F.R.'s ability to enjoy that right was diminished by this law for no reason except for the fact that in 1999 he was convicted of a sex offense," Gross said.

After the hearing, Gross declined to say where his client currently lives.

During oral arguments, judges pointed out that the 1,000-foot buffer zone didn't affect where "F.R." was living when it was enacted and only became an issue when in 2008 he tried to move.

Judge Laura Denvir Stith questioned whether the sex offender living restrictions had any more effect upon "F.R." than other new laws. She said barring a law that creates new restrictions or requires new actions would make it impossible for the legislature to ever pass legislation.

Robert Hoeynck, the assistant counselor for St. Charles County, said the circumstances with "F.R." were different from other cases because the living restrictions did not force him to move.

"There's no legal right to live in the property at the time," Hoeynck said.

Hoeynck said that the 1,000-foot buffer zone should be measured from lot line to lot line because children attending a school or child-care center likely have access to most of that facility's property.

Likewise, homeowners have access to their entire parcel and are not restricted to the building.

The Missouri attorney general's office, in a written argument submitted to support St. Charles County, likened the buffer zone to a new local zoning ordinance that can bar previously permitted behavior. ..Source.. by Chris Blank

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Just-us Department Announces Grants Under Second Chance Act Prisoner Reentry Initiative

There is no doubt that a proper spelling of "Justice" is "Just-us" because the Second Chance Act EXCLUDES any second chance for anyone listed in a sex offender registry. One day a court will have the guts to declare this topic in the Second Chance Act as discriminatory and unconstitutional!

10-7-2009 National:

National Adult and Juvenile Reentry Resource Center Created

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Department of Justice today announced more than $28 million in grant funding to states, local governments and non-profit organizations under the Second Chance Act Prisoner Reentry Initiative. Funding, awarded through five separate grant programs, will be used to support reentry programs that assist individuals' transition from prison back into the community through a variety of services such as mentoring, literacy classes, job training, education programs, substance abuse, rehabilitation and mental health programs for adult and juvenile offenders.

"This is another step toward the goal of reducing the nationwide recidivism rate and decreasing the billions of dollars spent annually on incarceration," said Mary Lou Leary, Acting Assistant Attorney General for OJP. "The Second Chance Act grants are designed to help strengthen communities characterized by large numbers of returning offenders, providing an evidence-based process that begins with initial incarceration and ends with successful community reintegration."

According to OJP's Bureau of Justice Statistics, there are currently over 1.5 million individuals serving time in federal and state prisons and another 786,000 incarcerated in local jails. About 725,000 are released from prison and millions of people cycle through local jails every year. Ninety-five percent of all prisoners incarcerated today will eventually be released and will return to communities. Second Chance Act grantees will provide transitional services such as creating pre-release mentoring relationships, housing, education, substance abuse treatment, mental health treatment, services to enhance family reunification, job training and readiness, and post-release case management.

OJP also announced the creation of a National Adult and Juvenile Offender Reentry Resource Center with a national partner, the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center Through the Reentry Resource Center, OJP, the CSG Justice Center and many other national organizations will provide valuable training and technical assistance to states, localities and tribes to develop evidenced-based reentry programs, which will help reduce the recidivism rate, while still protecting the communities being served.

In Fiscal Year (FY) 2009, the OJP's Bureau of Justice Assistance and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention solicited applications under five grant programs: Second Chance Act Mentoring Grants to Nonprofit Organizations; Second Chance Act Prisoner Reentry Initiative Demonstration Grants; Second Chance Act National Adult and Juvenile Offender Reentry Resource Center; Second Chance Act Youth Offender Reentry Initiative; and Second Chance Juvenile Mentoring Initiative. In FY 2010, the Administration requested $100 million for the new Second Chance Act Prisoner Reentry Initiative, an increase of $75 million over the FY 2009 Omnibus funding level. For a list of grant recipients, visit http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/funding/09grantawards.htm.

The Office of Justice Programs, headed by Acting Assistant Attorney General Mary Lou Leary, provides federal leadership in developing the nation's capacity to prevent and control crime, administer justice, and assist victims. OJP has five component bureaus: the Bureau of Justice Assistance; the Bureau of Justice Statistics; the National Institute of Justice; the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; and the Office for Victims of Crime. Additionally, OJP has two program offices: the Community Capacity Development Office, which incorporates the Weed and Seed strategy, and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART). ..Source.. by DOJ

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WHISTLE - BUT DON'T TWEET - WHILE YOU WORK

10-6-2009 National:

A Majority of Companies Prohibit Social Networking on the Job, CIO Survey Reveals

MENLO PARK, CA -- Workers who want to share the latest news with Facebook friends and Twitter followers will need to wait until after hours or risk violating company policy, a new survey suggests. More than half (54 percent) of chief information officers (CIOs) interviewed recently said their firms do not allow employees to visit social networking sites for any reason while at work.

The survey was developed by Robert Half Technology, a leading provider of information technology (IT) professionals on a project and full-time basis, and conducted by an independent research firm. It was based on telephone interviews with more than 1,400 CIOs from companies across the United States with 100 or more employees.

CIOs were asked, “Which of the following most closely describes your company’s policy on visiting social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, while at work?” Their responses: ..For remainder of study.. by Robert Half Technology

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CA- Jaycee Dugard case: Tipster in 1992 reported seeing abducted girl eyeing missing-child flier of herself

10-6-2009 California:

An anonymous caller in 1992 reported seeing a girl he thought was Jaycee Dugard staring at herself on a missing-child flier at an Oakley gas station, then returning to a yellow van, but the tipster disappeared and an area search came up empty, a Contra Costa County sheriff's official said.

The van, which the caller described as possibly a Dodge, could be a match to an old yellow Dodge junker that authorities removed last month from the property of Phillip Garrido and his wife, Nancy, near Antioch.

The tip, which came less than a year after Dugard's 1991 abduction from her South Lake Tahoe street, is among myriad details that El Dorado County prosecutors are gathering as they aim to build a leakproof case against the Garridos, who remain held without bail in a Placerville jail. They face 29 felony counts in Dugard's kidnapping and what authorities call a childhood of sexual bondage while confined to a hidden backyard warren of tents and shacks.

It seems to add little, however, to what authorities already know, said William Clark, chief assistant district attorney for El Dorado County.

"It's not something we've really said is dynamite. We pretty much know where she was in 1992," Clark said. "We've got clairvoyant tips, we got a whole tip line on (the case). To be honest, we're overwhelmed with just trying to get the mass, the core of the case together."

Authorities believe the Garridos spirited Jaycee directly from her South Lake Tahoe street to the house on Walnut Avenue, at first keeping her locked way in a shed. The next year, a deputy who arrived at the gas station found no sign of them, and no witnesses, said Contra Costa sheriff's Capt. Daniel Terry. Sheriff's officials forwarded their report to investigators in El Dorado County, who continued to pursue the case for years.

"We made all the necessary efforts. We did an area check. We looked for witnesses, canvassed the area. We were never able to prove there was any validity to it, or whether it was a hoax," Terry said. "The problem we have here is, you don't have a person to call or talk to, saying 'Can you be more specific?' We acted on it like it was legit. We were never able to confirm who the reporting party was or find any independent witnesses."

A tip from UC Berkeley officers led Phillip Garrido's parole officer to call him into the Concord parole office Aug. 26. Garrido brought his wife, Dugard and the two girls he fathered with her, police say. Once separated, Dugard, now 29, revealed herself under police questioning.

Today, better technology would allow investigators to check local registered sex offenders against ownership records on vehicles matching the description, Terry noted.

Still, there is no evidence that Phillip Garrido registered as a sex offender until 1999, when he transferred from federal to state parole supervision. He was first on federal parole from a 1976 conviction for kidnapping a South Lake Tahoe casino worker and taking her to Nevada to rape her in a storage shed. He transferred in 1999 to state supervision, under a lifetime parole term on his Nevada conviction for the rape.

If true, the report that Jaycee was seen by herself, at least briefly, supports what authorities have said: It appears she never tried to escape her captors.

"If it was a proper sighting, it would indicate he had at least taken her out of the house in a car," Clark said. "I'm sure psychologically she couldn't leave."

Later, Dugard gave birth to the two girls and became the creative force in his home printing business, former customers say. She is cooperating with authorities, said Clark, who declined to elaborate.

"She's talked to us. She hasn't said, 'I don't want to be around these people,'" he said. "She's happy to have her daughters. It's kind of, I guess, a blessing in disguise, in a way. It's not the normal way anybody wants to have children." ..Source.. by John Simerman, Contra Costa Times

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WI- Gregory Friederich case in Outagamie County reveals flaw in Wisconsin sex offender registry Web site

Important fact, 2,000 of the 19,000 were juveniles when they committed whatever, thats 10.5% of the total state registry. If -nationally- there are some 686,515 RSOs (accepting numbers from NCMEC), that means it is very likely that -nationally- there are roughly 72,100 juveniles that the Adam Walsh Act will be destroying by forcing states to list them publicly. Who is AWA protecting? Sounds more like lawmakers are using juveniles to protect their jobs, which should be a crime.

10-6-2009 Wisconsin:

Three times Gregory Friederich was accused of molesting young children, yet still the 24-year-old man’s name was not listed on the state’s public sex offender registry.

Friederich, whose last name is alternately spelled in police reports as Friedrich, also is not subject to the state’s “two strikes” law for sex offenders because he was a juvenile when the first two offenses occurred.

The Friederich case reveals an anomaly in the state’s sex offender registry — an anomaly that will be fixed in July when a federal law goes into effect.

There are about 19,000 names on the state’s registry. Offenders are listed from 15 years to life depending on the severity of the offense.

About 2,000 of those names, including Friederich’s, are on the list, but not listed on the state’s Web site for the public to view because state law exempts offenders who were juveniles when their crimes were committed.

That same law exempted juveniles from the state’s two-strikes law, which requires a life sentence for those twice-convicted of child sex abuse.

Their names, however, are available to law enforcement agencies.

“This allows us to put into place a notification process if they meet certain criteria and to do community notifications in the worst of the worst cases,” said Mike Nofzinger, a sensitive crimes investigator for the Appleton Police Department.

Nofzinger said the intent of the juvenile exemption provision was to prevent young teens engaging in consensual sex from being branded for life.

“Otherwise. you would have a ton of boys listed for having sex with someone under the age of 16 because the statute is age-driven,” he said.

Friederich’s offenses do not fall into the teen sex category.

He is charged with first-degree sexual assault of a child in Outagamie County. The criminal complaint states he molested a 3-year-old boy in Seymour in March.

The criminal complaint also mentions Friederich has a prior history as a juvenile that resulted in his placement on the nonpublic sex offender registry for 15 years.

An examination of his juvenile records revealed his prior offenses were similar. He molested a 7-year-old boy when he was 14 and a 4-year-old girl in May 2002.

There is no evidence that the last offense would have been prevented had Friederich been listed on the Web site.

The most-recent victim’s mother was aware of his history, according to the criminal complaint.

Waupaca County Judge Philip Kirk said judges aren’t given any discretion on who should or should not be placed on the list because of the mandatory language in the statutes.

“The sex offender registry is substantially worthless,” said Kirk, a longtime critic of the list.

“There are about 20,000 people on that list now and there is no delineation of who are the real sex offenders and who are the Romeo and Juliet types,” he said.

“And another flaw is there is no statutory provision that says prior to sentencing we should have a medical-psychological evaluation to see if this person constitutes a danger to the public and are likely of repeating their behavior — to determine if they really have a predatory personality,” he said.

“Then the list would be more effective and you wouldn’t have 20,000 names on there.”

The Adam Walsh Act — officially known as the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act — passed in 2006 and named after the 6-year-old boy abducted and murdered in Florida in 1981, requires states to include juvenile offenders on their public registries.

States have until July 2010 to comply with the federal law. ..Source.. by Dan Wilson

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IN- Sex offenders vacating LaSalle Hotel

Has anyone ever found that, a RSO who lived within xx feet of a proscribed place, has ever committed a sex crime at that proscribed place? I'd find it hard to believe this has ever happened (except possibly by employees of the proscribed place who may live within the proscribed area), these types of proximity laws are plain nonsense and protect no one, they are a pretext for banishment because the RSO is not liked not because of any safety issue!

10-6-2009 Indiana:

Hammond Hotel too close to park bike path, officials now say

HAMMOND | Law enforcement officers have notified 12 registered sex offenders they no longer can reside at the LaSalle Hotel on Hohman Avenue in downtown Hammond.

LaSalle owner Louis Karubas on Monday confirmed last Wednesday's visit to the hotel by Lake County Sheriff's Department Police Lt. Brian Marsh; Yvette Salinas, parole district supervisor with the Indiana Department of Correction; and parole officer John Larson.

But it was a nearby bike trail maintained by the Hammond Parks & Recreation Department -- not the close proximity of the city's proposed new charter school -- that law enforcement officers gave as their reason for ordering the sex offenders to vacate the hotel.

A re-measurement of the distance between the bike trail and the hotel had found the distance to be 780 feet. State law prohibits certain sex offenders from living or working within 1,000 feet of public parks and schools.

The city's proposed new charter school will be located less than 500 feet from the hotel. As The Times reported Monday, the hotel appeared on a housing referral list the Indiana Department of Correction distributed to sex offenders being released from prison.

Douglas Garrison, spokesman for the Department of Correction, said county police notified the state last Wednesday the hotel's distance from the bike path fell short of the 1,000-foot limit.

Garrison said county police had been alerted to the error through an anonymous telephone call, but sheriff's spokesman Michael Higgins said the discovery came about through an investigation Marsh conducted. The investigation was unrelated to last week's raid on unregistered sex offenders, Higgins said.

Hammond police had re-measured the distance between the park bike path and the hotel Sept. 23 at the request of county police, which led to the 12 men being told to move, Higgins said.

Though the DOC's Garrison said he had been told the men would be gone by this Saturday, Karubas said he asked everyone to prepare to leave sooner.

"I'm getting everyone out by Wednesday," Karubas said. "That's all I can say."

Karubas said he had never been contacted by city or school officials about there being any concerns about the hotel.

Since word spread recently of his accepting DOC parolees who had been charged with sex offenses, Karubas said he has received four offers to buy the hotel. He declined to identify the potential buyers. "I don't want to sell now," he said of the hotel he has operated for 40 years.

He questioned why the organizers of the charter school had never contacted him.

"I was never told anything about the charter school project ever or anything else for downtown," Karubas said.

Neither was Rick Sloan, owner of the Good Stuff Store, a gift and novelty shop next door to the hotel. Sloan confirmed his shop specializes in adult items commonly seen at bachelor and bachelorette parties.

The store, which also sells standard giftware such as music boxes and picture frames, has been operating at the site since 1935, Sloan said.

City consultant Tom Dabertin, the spokesman for the charter school project and a board member, said he had no personal knowledge of the hotel being found too close to park property, nor did he have knowledge of the adult material sold by Good Stuff.

He referred the matter to City Attorney Kristina Kantar, who did not respond to a telephone call from The Times. ..Source.. by Susan Brown

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GA- Edenfield found guilty in boy's murder

10-6-2009 Georgia:

Jury now considers whether he should be executed

BRUNSWICK — A jury found David Edenfield guilty of murder, cruelty to children, three counts of child molestation and other charges Monday in the death of 6-year-old Christopher Michael Barrios Jr. (Son of a former sex offender)

Less than an hour after announcing their verdict, the six men and six women were back in the jury box for the separate sentencing phase in which they would decide whether Edenfield, 61, should get the death penalty.

Prosecutors were expected to present a half dozen witnesses and the defense had subpoenaed others.

Before he allowed the verdict to be read in a case that captivated the nation, Superior Court Judge Stephen Scarlett said there had been no outbursts during the trial and he would not tolerate any during the verdict.

“You need to prepare yourselves,’’ he said.

Anyone not prepared to handle the verdict emotionally, “you should excuse yourself at this time,’’ the judge said.

Flanked by his two lawyers, Edenfield stood straight as each of the eight guilty verdicts were read and sat impassively as Scarlett then polled each of the jurors.

In addition to the murder, cruelty to children and molestation charges, Edenfield was found guilty of false imprisonment, concealing a death and tampering with evidence.

The boy’s grandmother, Sue Rodriguez, appeared calm until the judge called a 15-minute break. She walked outside and began to tremble and cry. A victim’s advocate and others from the District Attorney’s Office took her and other family members away.

The verdict had been a long time coming for the family. Christopher had been playing outside at Canal Mobile Home Park on March 8, 2007, when he disappeared. Police recovered the child’s naked, decomposed body one week later wrapped in five black plastic bags and dumped in woods about two miles from his family’s home a short walk from his grandmother’s house.

In his closing argument to the jury, District Attorney Stephen Kelley played portions of a DVD recording of Edenfield confessing to Glynn County police that he molested and murdered the kindergartener as the scared child begged him to stop.

Kelley meticulously detailed all the evidence corroborating the confession ranging from the forensic findings of a Georgia Bureau of Investigation medical examiner to Peggy Edenfield’s testimony. Although convoluted and contradictory, Peggy Edenfield’s testimony substantiated her husband’s details of the slaying, Kelley said.

“I tell you the evidence in the case, as confusing as it may be, all boils down to this: David Edenfield has convicted himself with his own words,” Kelley said.

A portrait of Christopher in life, smiling at the camera, faced the jury box. Using a courtroom projector, Kelley then showed one of the last photos of the boy: his body concealed by the garbage bags where it was dumped.

“A child suffered a horrendous, torturous death,” Kelley said. “This precious blessing was thrown away in a trash bag.”

David Edenfield, his wife, Peggy, and their son, George Edenfield, a convicted child molester, all lived in a mobile home between those of Christopher’s father, Mike Barrios, and Rodriguez.

All three Edenfields are charged with the sexual abuse slaying. David Edenfield was the first to be tried. The selection of a jury, about 90 miles away in Hazlehurst, took more than a week.

The jurors began hearing the grisly and sexually explicit evidence Sept. 30. Some jurors winced at evidence that exposed the horrific two final hours of Christopher’s life.

David Edenfield did not testify, and his attorneys, James Yancey Jr. and John Beall IV, called no witnesses before resting the defense Sunday afternoon.

Yancey, in his closing statement, told jurors that Edenfield was “a common, everyday man” beaten down by his vindictive wife and the burden of a son who was mentally retarded and a registered sex offender.

Police manipulated Edenfield into confessing during a series of interviews, and he became the scapegoat for the sexual assault and slaying that his son actually committed, Yancey said.

“There is no DNA evidence of anybody other than Christopher. No fingerprints. No physical evidence connects David Edenfield to this case,” Yancey said. “The only evidence is what is said by David Edenfield and Peggy Edenfield in their statements ... [and] those are bad statements.”

Kelley later reminded the jury that that Peggy and David Edenfield “agreed on the major facts:” that the boy was sodomized, that David and George choked him to death, that he was hidden inside trash bags and dumped.

Yancey also played portions of police interviewing Edenfield. In those excerpts, police detective Ray Sarro, who has since retired, urged Edenfield to tell the truth about what happened to Christopher.

“We’re here for your benefit . . . Tell the truth and go home. Lie and go to jail,” Sarro told Edenfield on the recording in which he gradually confessed.

The jurors, sequestered since their arrival in Brunswick, had worked through the weekend.

After Scarlett provided the jurors with the applicable laws, they began deliberating at 2:10 p.m. and sent word at 4 p.m. they had a verdict. ..Source.. by Terry Dickson

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CA- Judge upholds charges in 'Dateline Doc' case

10-6-2009 California:

A Sonoma County judge has denied a defense motion to dismiss the case of an East bay doctor caught in a televised sex-predator sting in Petaluma three years ago.

Judge Arthur Wick found that the failure of a computer hard-drive containing online chats between Dr. Maurice Wolin and a decoy posing as a 13-year-old girl did not harm the defense case because the material was recorded on a proxy server.

Further, Wick said in the four-page ruling the prosecution’s failure to disclose at a preliminary hearing that the computer did not violate Wolin’s rights.” At most, such information would have been only “potentially” exculpatory, Wick said.

Wolin was one of 28 men arrested in August 2006 during a three-day sting law enforcement conducted in partnership with a group called Perverted Justice and the NBC-TV show "To Catch a Predator.” Prosecutors contend the Piedmont doctor drove to Petaluma to have sex with the girl.

Wolin has challenged the authenticity of the online chats police say he engaged in with the decoy, Xavier Von Erck, a founder of the online group.

Wolin’s trial is expected to begin in January. ..Source.. by PAUL PAYNE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

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IA- Cascade repealing sex offender ordinance

It is amazing how many people think they are ABOVE the law, and get away with it....

10-5-2009 Iowa:

Despite a new state law that prohibits such local authority, Dyersville intends to keep its strict measure on the books.

CASCADE, Iowa -- The Cascade City Council is close to repealing the city's sex offender ordinance, responding to a new state law passed in May that prohibits such local authority.

The mayor of Dyersville, meanwhile, said his city has no intention of rescinding its stringent ordinance.

The Cascade City Council approved a second reading to repeal the ordinance at its Monday meeting, and it will vote Oct. 12 to take the ordinance immediately out of Cascade's city code.

"At the advice of our city attorney, we are repealing that chapter of the code," Cascade City Administrator Randy Lansing said. "We don't have the legal authority to impose it anymore. Our ordinance has been replaced by state statute."

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver signed a new sex offender law in May that loosens residency restrictions and adds a 300-foot "no-loiter" zone around places where children gather.

The law retains the 2,000-foot residency ban around schools, libraries and day care centers, but only for the most serious offenders against children.

The effect on the authority of Iowa's municipalities isn't revealed until Section 27 of the law.

In the section, the law states that "any motion, resolution or ordinance adopted by a political subdivision of the state in violation of this section is void and unenforceable."

Bob Brammer, spokesman with the Iowa Attorney General's Office, said the law, as written, does not require city ordinances to be repealed.

"It's silent (on repealing)," Brammer said. "It does not say they need to be repealed at the risk of penalties."

If cities have ordinances that are tougher than the state law, the ordinances could be legally challenged.

Cascade's motion to repeal its sex ordinance hasn't had an effect on the city of Dyersville.

Dyersville Mayor Jim Heavens said the city doesn't plan to revisit its ordinance passed in 2005 that banned all sex offenders from residing within city limits.

"(The ban) should remain unchanged until we're forced to do something about it," Heavens said. "It's served us well the last four years.

"If you willingly let (sex offenders) live anywhere in a small town like this, I don't know if you are doing a good job protecting the citizens."

When asked if the new law should spur a change in the ordinance's language, Heavens didn't back off his stance.

"The language is appropriate, and it won't be changed until somebody forces us to change it," Heavens said.

Dyersville Council member Molly Evers believes the 4-year-old ordinance needs to be reviewed.

Evers spoke out against the ban before the council approved the ordinance, two weeks before she joined the council in January 2006.

"I think we need to start over," Evers said. "It's pretty strict. I don't think it's fair for the outside community if we kick them out. I'm not for that. It does not make us look good."

She said her dissenting voice is not the only one in the Dyersville City Council chamber.

"He does not have 100 percent support at (the council) table, and (Heavens) knows that," Evers said.

Heavens, however, believes he has the full support of the community on the issue, even if the ordinance isn't a frequent topic of public discussion.

"If you ask (Dyersville citizens) privately, they are 100 percent for it," Heavens said. ..Source.. by MICHAEL SCHMIDT TH STAFF WRITER

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SVP industry sneak peek: Problems in Actuaryland (Static-99)

10-5-2009 National:

From In the News:

You psychologists and attorneys working in the trenches of Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) litigation will be interested in the controversy over the Static-99 and its progeny, the Static-2002, that erupted at the annual conference of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA) in Dallas.

By way of background, the Static-99 is -- as its website advertises -- "the most widely used sex offender risk assessment instrument in the world, and is extensively used in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and many European nations." Government evaluators rely on it in certifying individuals as dangerous enough to merit civil commitment on the basis of possible future offending. Some states, including California, New York, and Texas, mandate its use in certain forensic evaluations of sex offenders. ..Click on link above.. by Karen Franklin, Ph,D

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Places to play, but 'stranger danger' fears keep inner-city kids home: Study

10-5-2009 Canada:

Fear of dangerous strangers in inner-city neighbourhoods is keeping kids and teens from using playgrounds and parks to be physically active.

Researchers in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Alberta, led by Nick Holt, looked at perceived opportunities and barriers to physical activity in an inner-city neighbourhood in Edmonton. They interviewed 59 children and youth, eight school staff and 13 youth workers in adult-supervised physical activity programs about their experiences.

Study data revealed three themes that influenced youngsters' opportunities for physical activity, with positive and negative factors for each.

The first theme identified was "neighbourhood characteristics." On the plus side researchers found neighbourhoods "walkable," with plenty of parks and playgrounds and nearby amenities. However, "stranger danger" fears related to drug users, bullies, prostitutes, gang members and fear of abduction deterred children and youth from visiting these places.

The second theme was "family involvement." Researchers found that while children and youth were rarely allowed out alone, involvement by a family member, for example, accompanying them to a park to play, increased their engagement in physical activity.

The third theme was the "availability of adult-supervised programs." On the positive side, researchers noted the large variety of programs offered by dedicated, hard-working staff and volunteers. Negative factors included minimal resources; staff and volunteer recruitment and retention challenges, and little knowledge of program availability by inner-city children and youth; low adherence to the programs was also a negative factor.

Inner-city neighbourhoods in other metropolitan areas in Canada bear similar characteristics to the one studied and findings can be broadly used to tackle physical activity barriers for inner-city children and youth. ..Source.. by Quinn Phillips

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GA- Jury to begin deliberations in Edenfield case

10-5-2009 Georgia:

Deliberation starts after closing arguments today

BRUNSWICK - An imported jury will begin deliberating today the guilt or innocence of David Edenfield in the sexual abuse slaying of 6-year-old Christopher Michael Barrios Jr. (son of a former sex offender) two years ago.

Edenfield, 61, faces the death penalty if convicted of murdering the kindergartner who was abducted, sexually assaulted then choked to death on March 8, 2007.

The nine-man, seven-woman jury selected from Jeff Davis County about 90 miles away will hear closing arguments beginning at 9 a.m. The four alternate jurors will be separated from the panel, which then will begin deliberating.

"I do not wish to testify," Edenfield replied in an unwavering voice after Superior Court Judge Stephen Scarlett informed him of his right to take the witness stand in his own defense.

After Edenfield declined to testify, his attorneys, James Yancey Jr. and John Beall IV, rested the defense at 5:20 p.m. They did not call any witnesses.

District Attorney Stephen Kelley had rested the state's case at 5:16 p.m. after the jury heard a half-day of testimony from Edenfield's wife, Peggy, who for the second time in as many days gave convoluted, contradictory details about Christopher's sexual assault and killing.

David, Peggy, 58, and George, 34, a convicted child molester, all are charged with abducting, molesting and murdering Christopher.

The boy's naked body was found March 15, 2007, exactly one week after he disappeared, wrapped in five black plastic garbage bags and dumped in woods about 2 miles away from his home on Horseshoe Lane north of downtown Brunswick.

David Edenfield is the first to stand trial. Kelley and Special Assistant District Attorney John B. Johnson are seeking the death penalty against David and George.

In a plea bargain, Peggy Edenfield agreed to testify against her husband and son in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty or life without parole against her.

She testified for nearly six hours Saturday and returned to the witness stand at 1 p.m. Sunday when the trial resumed. As with her prior testimony, Peggy Edenfield continued to contradict or recant one statement after another under cross-examination as her husband's attorneys attacked her credibility.

Peggy Edenfield, however, maintained that her husband and their son sodomized then strangled Christopher. Although she denied helping to kill him, she admitted doing nothing to save him.

On Sunday, the jury watched a police DVD recording of Peggy and George talking to each other about the slaying and what they had told investigators. That conversation was on March 13, 2007, two days before police recovered Christopher's body. Both mother and son were under arrest at that time. They had been questioned separately, but then were left alone in the same interrogation room to visit with each other. Neither knew their conversation was being recorded by investigators.

Each repeatedly told the other that they did not kill Christopher, although George had told police that he killed the boy. Mother and son then talked about what they should tell investigators.

"I told them one thing, and I'll tell the judge that they twisted my words," Peggy Edenfield said.

George Edenfield spent most of the conversation complaining about how he wanted to go back to his jail cell, which he called "his room." But he did tell her that he did not want to go to prison, and did not want her to go to prison either.

Christopher and his extended family were neighbors of the Edenfields at Canal Mobile Home Park. The boy walked a well-worn path every day between his home and that of his grandmother, Sue Rodriguez. The Edenfield home was right in the middle of that shortcut in a small U-shaped mobile home park.

The Edenfields knew Christopher's daily routine because they often watched him from their front porch, evidence has shown.

Glynn County police searching for Christopher the night he disappeared found his toy light saber lying in the yard of the Edenfield home.

Police suspicions grew when unlike the rest of the neighbors who came out to help search, the Edenfields stayed inside their home and peeked out their windows at the activity, retired Glynn police detective Ray Sarro, who was lead investigator, has testified.

That night, George Edenfield, a registered sex offender, blurted that he killed Christopher because the devil told him to do it, Sarro also said.

Although he put most of the blame on his son, David Edenfield admitted to police that he molested and helped murder the boy, and that he "should be punished" for it.

David Edenfield told police he did it because he wanted to see what it was like to choke somebody, and that it excited him, according to his recorded confession, which has been played for the jury.

Donald Dale, 36, a friend of the Edenfields, pleaded guilty but mentally retarded to lying to police investigating the slaying. Dale was sentenced to a group home with round-the-clock supervision in Douglas, as part of a plea bargain in the case. ..Source.. by

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IL- Child murderer worried about his image

10-5-2009 Illinois:

Tony Dameron wants to make one thing clear: He's a murderer, not a sex offender.

Dameron, who is serving a life sentence for beating his 3-month-old daughter to death, filed a petition in Kane County Circuit Court this week asking a judge to take his name off the sex offender registry.

He says it's causing "irreparable damage" to his reputation.

Dameron was convicted in 1998 of murdering his daughter three years earlier in Aurora. Initially, he was sentenced to die but later agreed to life without parole in exchange for dropping appeals in the case.

In his latest filing, Dameron claims he was "unjustly" added to Illinois' sex offender registry and goes on to point out that he would be better suited for the state's list of child murderers and violent offenders against youths.

His name could not be found in either database Friday. Dameron says he has pointed out the error to the state's attorney's office, but no one would help him sort it out.

Court records suggest authorities at one time believed there was a sexual element to Dameron's case; he was charged with but not convicted of aggravated criminal sexual assault of a child younger than 13.

State's Attorney John Barsanti could not immediately be reached Friday afternoon, but his office is unlikely to comment because it's technically a defendant in Dameron's complaint.

Dameron was convicted of first-degree murder after his infant daughter Rachel suffered 37 facial injuries, a fractured skull and severe brain damage in what he claimed was a tumble down the stairs. Her body was found Aug. 30, 1995, in a duffel bag hidden under dirty laundry in his apartment.

Dameron, now 38, is serving his sentence at Pontiac Correctional Center. The sex offender matter goes to Judge Michael J. Colwell on Jan. 19, 2010. ..Source.. by Josh Stockinger

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MI- Sex offender avoids registry

Its about time a Judge has stood up and said, enough there are folks who just do not belong on the public registry!

10-5-2009 Michigan:

Prosecutors to appeal judge's ruling that keeps teen off books

Ann Arbor -- Prosecutors are appealing a Washtenaw County judge's decision that kept a convicted juvenile sex offender off the state's public sex offender registry.

Debra Keehn, an Ann Arbor lawyer who represents the juvenile identified in court records as T.D., said Friday the implications of a ruling by Family Division Judge Darlene O'Brien could be profound if the state Court of Appeals takes the case. "The decision is so well reasoned it's likely the Court of Appeals will affirm the decision and then the law changes for everyone in Michigan," said Keehn, who declined to identify her client by name or allow The Detroit News to interview him.

Steve Miller, chief deputy prosecutor for Washtenaw County, said his office has decided to appeal the Sept. 30 ruling. He had no further comment.

In the case, T.D. was 15 when he was accused of second-degree criminal sexual conduct. The case involved a 15-year-old female classmate who accused T.D. of grabbing her and touching her breast in school. A jury convicted him of the charge when he was 16.

T.D. remained in detention while his case was prosecuted and was placed on 18 months of probation for his sentence. He completed a juvenile sexual offender treatment program, had no contact with the victim and provided his fingerprints as ordered, Keehn said. He also placed himself on a nonpublic juvenile sex offender registry as required by law.

Once he turned 18 in March, T.D. was required under Michigan law to place himself on the public sex offender registry, where his name would remain for 25 years.

His lawyer filed an appeal to keep his name off, claiming the registry marginalizes rehabilitated offenders and puts up tremendous barriers that force many to resort back to crime.

In her decision, the judge said she considered T.D. to be rehabilitated and the severity of the teen's offense to be "low," saying the incident was "more akin to a juvenile prank than predatory, perverted, criminally deviant sexual conducted likely to be repeated."

O'Brien said: "It would be cruel or unusual punishment to require T.D. to publicly register for the remainder of the 25-year period."

Asked how T.D. reacted to the ruling, Keehn said "he is very happy."

Larry Dubin, a criminal law professor at the University of Detroit-Mercy, said O'Brien has ruled part of the sex offender registry law is unconstitutional.

"Judge O'Brien's opinion warrants serious consideration by an appellate court to determine whether the current law is unconstitutional in depriving a judge of exercising discretion when the facts do not warrant registration as a sex offender," Dubin said. ..Source.. by Jennifer Chambers / The Detroit News

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IN- Indiana wants to trim cost of educating inmates

10-4-2009 Indiana:

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — Indiana wants to cut the cost of educating prison inmates, and that's leading to increased competition among state colleges jockeying for contracts.

The State Student Assistance Commission is considering capping the amount of money it spends on state prison inmates at $120 per credit hour. Six colleges provided postsecondary education to inmates last year at rates ranging from $76 per credit hour at Ivy Tech to $162 at Indiana State University.

Ivy Tech says paying its rates for associate degree programs could have saved the commission nearly $2.9 million. Other universities say they can be competitive.

Gov. Mitch Daniels says he encourages the competition as Indiana tries to educate prisoners and give them job skills to reduce recidivism rates. ..Source.. by AP

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GA- Grandmother of Christopher Barrios faints as Peggy Edenfield recounts boy's strangling

10-4-2009 Georgia:

Testimony in murder case is rambling, often contradictory.

BRUNSWICK — Christopher Barrios Jr.’s grandmother suffered chest pains in the courtroom Saturday afternoon, forcing her to leave briefly as their family’s former neighbor Peggy Edenfield testified that her husband and son choked the 6-year-old boy (son of a former sex offender) to death after sexually assaulting him two years ago.

Sue Rodriguez was helped outside by relatives and bailiffs shortly after 3 p.m., but returned about 20 minutes later.

She told The Times-Union that she had a “sick pain” in her chest from stress as Edenfield entered her fourth hour of convoluted testimony about Christopher’s killing, in which she downplayed her involvement, in her husband’s death penalty murder trial.

“Listening to all the lies coming out of her mouth, it got to me,” said Rodriguez, who was Christopher’s paternal grandmother.

Superior Court Judge Stephen Scarlett recessed the trial at 6 p.m. Saturday as Peggy Edenfield was nearing her sixth hour of testimony.

The nine-man, seven-woman jury will return at 1 p.m. today to continue hearing evidence. By law, Georgia juries cannot deliberate on Sundays but are allowed to hear evidence.

Rodriguez went pale , then left the courtroom clutching her hand to her chest shortly after Edenfield testified that after discovering Christopher in their home, she “grabbed him by his hand, led him to the door and walked him home.”

She then recanted, telling jurors that she did not try to get Christopher out of their house, although she was aware that because son George Edenfield was a registered sex offender, he was not allowed to be around children.

Peggy Edenfield repeatedly contradicted herself — at times changing her testimony from one sentence to the next — as she described her husband, David, and their son, George, a convicted child molester, strangling Christopher together.

Although initially denying the boy was ever in their home, she told jurors that without her knowledge or permission, Christopher came in with George, to play video games in George’s bedroom. She testified that while leaving the bathroom, she discovered her husband and son sodomizing Christopher, who had been stripped of his clothes by David Edenfield.

Father and son then began choking him, Peggy said as she continually sighed and hesitated, as if struggling for words during her testimony.

“My son had his hands around the boy’s neck and my husband had his hands on top of his [George’s] hands,” she testified. “I tried to get my husband’s hands off my son’s and my son’s off the boy’s neck, but I couldn’t.”

Although a telephone was nearby, Peggy Edenfield did not call 911, nor did she run outside to seek help.

“I didn’t do nothing … I didn’t know my neighbors that good,” she replied when defense attorney James Yancey Jr. pressed her about why, as a mother herself, she didn’t try to save Christopher.

David, 61, Peggy, 58, and George, 34, all are charged with abducting, molesting and murdering Christopher on March 8, 2007.

The kindergartner and his extended family, including Rodriguez, were neighbors of the Edenfields. Rodriguez had lived directly across the Edenfield home, where evidence has shown Christopher was sodomized then slain before his naked body was wrapped in five plastic garbage bags and dumped about 2 miles away in woods.

David Edenfield is the first to stand trial. District Attorney Stephen Kelley is seeking the death penalty against David and George.

In a plea bargain, Peggy Edenfield agreed to testify against her husband and son in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty or life without parole against her.

She took the witness stand about mid-morning in the fourth day of the testimony. Peggy Edenfield was expected to be the prosecution’s last witness before Kelley rested the state’s case against her husband today.

It was unknown if David Edenfield would testify in his own behalf when Yancey and co-counsel John Beall IV begin the defense case.

Peggy Edenfield testified that Christopher was killed before she called family friend Donald Dale to come over and hook up cable converter boxes to their televisions. After Dale arrived, her husband recruited him to help dispose of the boy’s body. He asked Dale but ordered her to help, she testified.

“My husband took the little boy, who was in a trash bag, out of the home and put him in the trunk of his car,” she said.

The four of them drove to a site that she said she didn’t recognize. She said she stayed inside the car as the men took Christopher’s body out of the trunk to bury it. She said she didn’t know if they actually buried his body then or not.

Dale, who later pleaded guilty but mentally retarded to lying to police investigating the slaying, is on the defense witness list. ..Source.. by Teresa Stepzinski

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CA- Ex-prosecutor admits he lied about Polanski case

10-4-2009 California:

A retired prosecutor whose comments in a 2008 HBO documentary threatened to derail a 31-year-old sex case against film director Roman Polanski now says he lied.

David Wells told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Thursday that he "buttered up" his role in the Polanski case for the documentary crew. He said he lied about trying to goad a judge to sentence Polanski to prison in 1978 for having sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Wells' comments in "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired" raised questions of judicial misconduct and spawned Polanski's most recent effort to get the case dismissed. But the legal challenge stalled when Polanski refused to return to the United States, where he faced certain arrest.

"I made these imprudent comments, just to liven it up a little," Wells said. "In retrospect, it was a bad thing to do, and I never knew this thing was going to be shown in the United States."

Wells now says he never spoke with the judge about the Polanski case, as he had claimed in the documentary. "I never discussed this case with [the judge] at any time," Wells told Blitzer.

Asked why he should be believed now, Wells said, "I'm destroying my character in public and everybody in the world knows about it. ... I don't like admitting this."

He agreed to take a polygraph test to set the record straight.

Polanski was arrested last weekend in Switzerland on a 1978 fugitive warrant and will fight extradition, his lawyers said. They had no immediate comment on Wells' recantation.

"I am astonished that he has now changed his story," Marina Zenovich, the documentary's director, said in an e-mailed statement. "It is a sad day for documentary filmmakers when something like this happens."

She said Wells signed a release form, never raised any doubts or concerns, and vouched for the documentary when he spoke to The New York Times in July 2008.

Wells also acknowledged that he lied to The New York Times. "I figured Polanski never was going to come back," he said. "I didn't want to put myself out as a liar."

Polanski's arrest in Switzerland made Wells' public exposure inevitable, he said. "I'm going to tell it the way it is and if I take a beating over it, I deserve it," he said.

Blitzer challenged Wells to a polygraph test, and he agreed to take one if his former employers at the Los Angeles County, California, District Attorney's office allow it. "I'm not going to do anything more to hamper the District Attorney's case," he said.

District Attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said the office had no position on the polygraph challenge. "Mr. Wells is retired," she said. "We have no control over him."

Wells was a bit player in a high profile case that has haunted the courts of Los Angeles for three decades. He was a calendar prosecutor, handling routine matters in the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Laurence Rittenband, who oversaw the Polanski case.

Rittenband, who died in 1993, had a fascination with celebrity cases, and was so publicity conscious that he directed his courtroom staff to keep a scrapbook of news clippings, according to court records.

Polanski was charged with six felonies, including sodomy and rape, but pleaded guilty to a single count of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor under a plea bargain. The director, his lawyer and the prosecutor handling the case believed they'd reached a deal that would spare the young victim a public trial and Polanski jail time, according to court records.

Polanski fled the United States before sentencing. He was spooked when Rittenband indicated he would not honor the deal and instead intended to send the famed director to prison. Video Watch how the plea bargain went south »

The charges stemmed from Polanski's March 1977 encounter with the 13-year-old girl during a photo shoot at actor Jack Nicholson's house on Mulholland Drive. Polanski told the girl's mother he was on assignment for French Vogue, according to court records.

Wells said he was critical about the manner in which the case was handled. He believed Polanski should go to prison. He told the documentary makers that he suggested to Rittenband that Polanski be sent for 90 days of "diagnostic testing" at a state prison facility in Chino, California, to determine whether he was a sex offender.

He admitted to CNN that he was lying about suggesting the 90-day evaluation, adding that Rittenband routinely sent defendants for evaluation.The evaluation was completed in 42 days, and Polanski was freed early after it determined he was not a sex offender. Video Watch CNN's Jeff Toobin call it a sideshow »

Polanski was given permission to travel to Europe to complete a film before he was formally sentenced. It was understood by everyone that Polanski would receive credit for time served and probation, according to filings in his legal challenge.

While Polanski was in Europe, Wells said in the documentary, a photograph appeared of the director smoking a cigar, sipping a beer and accompanied by two young women.

A script from the documentary in the court file lays out what Wells said happened next:

"And so I took the picture into Judge Rittenband. I said, 'Judge,' I said, 'look here, he's flipping you off,' " he said. "I took it to Rittenband because I figured it was something he ought to see. And what I told him was, I said, 'You know, judge, you've made so many mistakes, I think, in this case. Look. He's giving you the finger. He's flipping you off. And here's the way he's doing it.' And I said, 'Haven't you had enough of this?' And then, of course, he exploded and what happened, happened."

Wells now says he lied about that, too. He said a newspaper reporter handed him the photo, which he passed on to the judge's court staff.

"I could call it building a bigger story, putting my part in the case bigger than it actually was," he said. "But when you peel away all the feathers, it's just a lie. I shouldn't have done it. I wish I didn't." ..Source.. by Ann O'Neill, CNN

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MT- Man acquitted on felony sex charge

10-4-2009 Montana:

A Great Falls man was found not guilty Thursday of the most serious charge related to accusations that he sexually assaulted and photographed a woman as she slept during a Christmas party last year.

effrey Boné, 34, was acquitted on a felony charge of attempted sexual intercourse without consent. He was found guilty on nine misdemeanor counts of surreptitious recording, along with one misdemeanor count of theft.

Closing arguments were made Thursday afternoon in Cascade County District Court and the jury returned a verdict that night.

Boné was a party guest at a house on Malmstrom Air Force Base on Christmas night.

At the end of the night, an intoxicated woman at the party passed out in her bedroom. Boné was found guilty of entering the room and stealing several pairs of her underwear, which he put in his pocket.

During the trial prosecutors said Boné then climbed into bed with the woman, undressed her and fondled her, and took photos of her as she was unconscious. The woman's husband caught Boné in the bedroom and then beat him up, according to the charges.

Cascade County Attorney John Parker argued that it was clear Boné committed the misdemeanors and was only stopped from raping the woman by her husband.

Boné's attorney, Vince Van der Hagen, said the sexual contact was consensual, adding that Boné and the victim were both drunk.

"Obviously, I'm very disappointed," Parker said Thursday night. "I hope that the misdemeanors will provide a basis for the court to hold him accountable."

Parker added that Boné's act of stripping the victim and photographing her, along with stealing her panties, indicates the need to hold him accountable.

Boné's sentencing is set for Nov 12. ..Source.. by Tribune Staff

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IN- Girl facing criminal charges for lying about abduction attempt

10-4-2009 Indiana:

A 12-year-old girl told police, family and friends a man tried to abduct her, but investigators say she made it all up. Now she's in big trouble.

LaPorte Police Capt. Clyde Crass said the girl's story about how the abduction took place didn't add up for her mother. The mother talked to her daughter after school Friday and the girl confessed she made it all up so she wouldn't get in trouble for being in a neighborhood where she wasn't supposed to be.

WSBT talked to the girl's grandmother Friday afternoon before the lie was uncovered. The grandmother explained she reluctantly gave her granddaughter permission to ride her bike to a friend's house Thursday afternoon.

According to the police report, the girl got lost and a man stopped and asked her if she was cold. When she said yes, he asked if she wanted to go back to his house and warm up in his bed.

The girl then told investigators the man grabbed her off her bike. He then took off when she started screaming.

She ran to a friend's house to call 911.

“I was devastated, it was frightening,” said the girl's grandmother, Christina McPherson, before she found out about the lie. “I've read about it before but I guess I never dreamed it would happen to my granddaughter, never at all. And I do hope they catch him.”

As a result of the girl's police report, a second mother called detectives and told them her daughter and a friend had a similar encounter Wednesday afternoon.

The LaPorte Police Department was taking the attempted abduction allegations so seriously it put two detectives on the case.

Crass said the department is taking the 12-year-old's lie just as seriously because it tied up valuable resources at a time when budgets are tight and they are very busy investigating legitimate cases.

The girl will likely be charged with a class B misdemeanor for “false reporting,” or lying to police.

Detectives are still looking into a separate allegation of an attempted abduction. That mother came forward to police when the 12-year-old's story first came out. Police think two little girls may have been approached by a man Wednesday afternoon. ..Source.. by WSBT-TV Report

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Woman jailed for false rape claim

10-4-2009 United Kingdom:

A woman who made a false rape claim after having sex with two teenagers has been jailed for a year.

Victoria Salter, of Lostock Hall, told police in September last year she was raped by three men while one looked on.

This led to the arrest of three 17-year-olds but one of them had filmed the incident which proved the sex was consensual, the court heard.

Salter, 26, who earlier admitted perverting the course of justice was jailed at Preston Crown Court.

Salter, of Broad Meadow, dialled 999 to make the false report in September 2008.

She said she had been followed home by four men and was raped by three of them while the fourth watched.

But the court heard that Salter had been filmed on a mobile phone during the sexual encounter and had been partaking "enthusiastically". ..Source.. by BBC

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