State police report shows 5,231 on sex offenders list

Would love to know what the "investigations" were about, and if any resulted in further charges?

1-7-2011 Connecticut:

State police released a quarterly sex offender report Thursday, showing a total of 5,231 registered sex offenders in the state at the end of 2010.

There were 339 new registered sex offenders during 2010, while 188 registrants completed their 10-year registration term and were removed from the list.

The reports also shows 652 registrants who are non-compliant with registry requirements. The Sex Offender Registry conducted 3,224 superintendent of schools notifications of address changes by registered sex offenders last year.

In 2010, there were 1,263 investigations by the Sex Offender Registry Unit and the website logged 509,898 hits on registered sex offenders living, working or attending schools in the state. Since October, 2009, 6,881 households have signed up for e-mail alerts and 37,179 alerts were sent. ..Source.. by Staff reports
Norwich Bulletin

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Teen girl charged with posting nude photos on Internet

Wonderful, a new sex offender with THREE charges, as such on a public registry will look like a recidivist. Is this prosecutor out of his mind? Charging her with "Possession of CP" for having in her possession, a self portrait? I would love to know WHERE the self portrait was kept? If in her own bedroom, or on her computer, where no one else goes, are such portraits illegal? Are minors viewing child porn when seeing themselves naked in the bathroom? Prosecutors need limits, and this one needs to have those limits reigned in!

1-7-2011 Colorado:

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A 15-year-old girl has been arrested for taking nude photographs of her self and posting them on the Internet, police said.

The girl, whose identity was withheld, was accused of sending out photographs of herself in various states of undress and performing a variety of sexual acts. She sent them to people she met in chat rooms on the Internet, police said.

Police seized her computer and found dozens of photographs stored on the hard drive. Authorities did not say how police learned about the girl.

She has been charged with sexual abuse of children (PLURAL), possession of child pornography and dissemination of child pornography. ..Source.. by 9News.com

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Police: Mother knew child performed sex act on sibling

Why would a mother allow this? Is this report the whole story?

1-7-2011 Iowa:

An Iowa City woman has been arrested for child endangerment.

Police said the woman knew one of her children had performed sex acts on another one of her children in a bedroom while others watched on a webcam. Despite this, police said the woman continued to allow her children to be unsupervised in a closed room with a computer and webcam.

The woman’s actions were discovered when police were investigating the alleged victim’s 15-year-old sister for sexual abuse. As a result of that investigation, the older sister has been charged with second-degree sexual abuse.

Because the Press-Citizen does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault, it is not identifying the woman or her two children. The mother has been charged with endangerment, an aggravated misdemeanor. She was released from the Johnson County Jail on her own recognizance.

The alleged victim’s father is currently incarcerated. ..Source.. by the Press-Citizen

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Pawned computer leads to child porn charges

As best I can figure this person was probably sitting in the parking lot with a laptop looking for no good things, using a wireless connection. That makes me wonder if this is going on more than folks realize. i.e., many of the Tablets or iPod Touch units, when connected to a wireless such as the Library here, do these units have any kind of IP Addresses which can be traced? However, if they store pics, then there is a record which police would have if they had that unit. Either way, these pics are bad news, and a sure trip to you know where, if caught.

See earlier story on Mr. Perfetto

1-6-2011 New Hampshire:

MANCHESTER, N.H. — A 36-year-old convicted New Hampshire sex offender is being held on $100,000 cash bail after he was arrested for having graphic images of child sex abuse on a computer he had pawned.

Jonathan Perfetto appeared in court Wednesday, a day after he arrested. A pawn shop owner alerted police to the images.

Court documents say Perfetto told police that the computer belonged to him and that he was the only user. He said he used public places, such as the libraries in Manchester, because he didn’t have internet access on his own.

Officer Steve Mangone tells WMUR-TV the authorities were hoping to send a message with the high bail.

Perfetto had previously served seven years in prison on a child pornography conviction. ..Source.. by Boston Herald.com

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Delmont father accuses son of defaming him with sex abuse claims

1-6-2011 Pennsylvania:

In a court case that pits father against son, Anthony Cesare of Delmont is asking a Westmoreland County jury to make his 28-year-old son pay for making up a lie that Cesare claims ruined his reputation and cost him business.

In court documents filed more than two years ago, Dominic Cesare accused his 53-year-old father of sexual and emotional abuse, according to Anthony Cesare.

"It's unbelievable. It's totally ridiculous," Anthony Cesare testified Wednesday about his son's allegations.

Dominic Cesare accused his father of sexually abusing him as a teenager in a court document he filed in a custody case in 2008 and in later depositions for the lawsuit.

Attorney Steve Morrison told jurors that the defense to the defamation suit is that the abuse allegations are true.

"The conduct itself is really reprehensible," Morrison said.

Dominic Cesare never reported his allegations to police. Morrison said the disclosure came too late to have a case prosecuted.

According to Anthony Cesare's lawsuit, the sexual abuse allegation surfaced as a manufactured attempt to prevent him from seeing his grandson. Then his son spread those allegations to customers, according to the father.

Both Cesares run competing Delmont-area businesses that install custom-built water treatment systems.

Anthony Cesare said his son's allegations cost him customers.

His lawyer, Amy Cunningham, said there is no proof of any sexual abuse, and her client has since been certified by the Westmoreland County Children's Bureau to act as a foster parent.

"The evidence will show Dominic never, never told anybody about this allegation of sexual abuse before he filled out that custody form," Cunningham told the jury.

The trial before Judge Anthony Marsili will continue this morning. ..Source.. Rich Cholodofsky

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Registering the Wrong People

1-5-2011 New York:

Sex offender registries aren’t necessarily a bad idea.

For whatever reason, there are certain people who get off on molesting little kids or raping people, and who are not likely to be rehabilitated by a stint behind bars. It’s how their sex drive is wired. If they get caught and go to prison, they’re not any less likely to stop doing it when they get out. That’s not how sex drives work. So they often reoffend. To minimize this, we put their names on a list, make them register with the local police department, impose restrictions on where they can live and what they can do. They’re basically on extremely limited parole for the rest of their lives.

Their lives are basically over. The stigma is the worst our society can dish out. There’s a fat chance of pursuing any meaningful employment or making something useful of one’s life. The best that can be said for such an existence is that it’s not prison.

Of course, with people who have demonstrated a clear and present danger, for whom there is a real and realistic concern that they will victimize another child if given half a chance… well, their interests don’t weigh so much any more.

But are these people really the ones who get registered?

Here in New York, a 17-year-old kid can wind up on the registry for having sex with his 16-year-old girlfriend. A jerk can be registered for grabbing someone’s ass. Stuff that has nothing to do with sex, like even the mildest forms of unlawful imprisonment, gets you marked a sex offender. A harmless loser will find himself on the registry for calling up a call girl. There really isn’t any rhyme or reason to it any more.

These are not things that have anything to do with the policy underlying sex offender registries. There is zero concern that the people who commit such offenses pose a present threat of molesting kids or committing rape. It’s an unthinking response. It’s a panicked “oh my God think of the children” shouted by people who aren’t actually thinking of the children.

It’s a huge expansion of governmental power, for no good reason. It’s one of the worst penalties the state can impose, and it’s mandated for some of the most minor offenses we’ve got. Clearly, something is wrong.

Fortunately, when the criminal law is stupid, or would have an unjust result, prosecutors have the discretion to do the right thing. We give prosecutors enormous powers to decide whether to charge a crime, what to charge, and what plea and sentence most cases will get. With that power comes the discretion to use it wisely.

So prosecutors have the discretion not to charge registry crimes. Or to take pleas to non-registry crimes, when no policy is served by putting a particular defendant on the registry. But oftentimes, that’s not what happens. An overblown crusader might insist on a registry offense, because by God they’re offended at what happened and want as much punishment as the law will allow. Some prosecutors have a big-government, big-brother attitude — the arrogant belief that they know what’s best, and the best thing is to have long-term intense supervision of someone whose conduct, though not dangerous, offended their sensibilities. But more prosecutors simply don’t think it through at all. They don’t know what the underlying principles are, they don’t understand the purposes and the real-life effects, and they don’t care. Right or wrong, it’s a registry offense, so on the registry you go. They fail to exercise their discretion at all (and by so doing, they abuse that same discretion, hardly ethical conduct).

So, unfortunately, when the criminal law is stupid, or would have an unjust result, you can’t count on the prosecutor to do the right thing.

New York isn’t alone in this. It has become a routine injustice across the United States. People who have no business being on a sex offender registry wind up there, and their lives are destroyed.

And it’s really a civil bit of bureaucracy, not a criminal punishment, so the same protections don’t apply. Ex post facto nonsense is perfectly fine. And there’s no need for due process to determine actual risk, before taking away one’s liberty.

A few years back, in Michigan, there was that case of Justin Fawcett. A teenager, one of many seduced by a teenage girl who described herself as a sexual predator. He was over-charged to begin with by a prosecutor who thought that “consensual” sex among promiscuous teenagers was a felony worthy of putting the kid on the registry till well into middle age. Only after public uproar did the prosecutor back down and agree to a non-registry deal. The deal was struck, the kid got probation, and he went about getting his life back. It was tough, but he was doing it. Time passed. Then the news came out that the state was going to put him on the registry anyway. He’d be a registered sex offender for the next 25 years. He’d only been alive for 20. His life was over. So he killed himself.

Was there any reason for his life to be over like that? Was he a predator, a child molester, a rapist? Nope. Was he someone we needed to worry about, someone who posed a threat to the safety of others? Nope. Was there any reason for him to be on a registry? Nope. No reason other than the fact that an unthinking government said this particular act gets you on the registry.

That was back in 2004. Michigan may have changed its rules somewhat since then, but New York and others are still just as bad or worse.

We’re registering a lot of the wrong people. For the wrong reasons. ..Source.. The Criminal Lawyer

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Judge denies Montville's bid to block complex for sex offenders

1-5-2011 Connecticut:

New London, Conn. — Montville’s quest to keep a residential sex offender treatment facility from being built in town could be over.

On Tuesday, New London Judge Joseph Q. Koletsky dismissed an appeal by town leaders who hoped to halt or block construction of the $2 million complex because of potential economic and safety impacts on residents and businesses.

The 34-page suit, filed Oct. 22 in New London Superior Court, also called into a question a formula the state used to rank potential host communities. Officials said the formula improperly weighted the town’s assets and contradicted findings by the Montville planning department.

20 days to appeal

Montville has 20 days to appeal the decision. Town Council President Donna Jacobson said the matter will be discussed at the Jan. 10 meeting.

“It is up to the council to decide if there will be further action or not,” said Jacobson, who attended Tuesday’s hearing in New London with Mayor Joseph Jaskiewicz. “I think that we as a town have done everything we possibly can to avert this from becoming part of the community.”

The suit identified as defendants the state Department of Correction, the state Court Support Services Division and The Connection Inc., a Middletown-based nonprofit social services agency the state chose to build the complex.

Connection spokeswoman Heide Erb said Tuesday the company had no comment regarding the ruling.

Department of Correction spokesman Brian Garnett said Koletsky’s decision “speaks for itself” and declined further comment.

Jeffrey and Sabrina Rogers, who live near the site and have children in Montville’s schools, backed the town’s efforts.

“There is a safety risk, because where you have a higher concentration of a certain type of behavior, the chances of it getting into other parts of the community are higher,” she said. “As a parent, I’m not thrilled.”

Jeffrey Rogers said he worries those who get released from the program will stay in town, but state prison officials have said those released from the Montville facility will be returned to their home communities.

Jacobson said she was “disappointed” by the ruling.

“This is a very sad state of affairs, when a municipality is dismissed and residents’ concerns are dismissed,” she said. “We have reacted as expediently as possible and taken the residents’ concerns to heart, and that’s how we will continue to proceed.”

Jaskiewicz said he was confident in the town’s arguments.

“I thought the town had done a great job on showing the numbers,” he said. “I’m not going to get into the legal aspects of it. We’ve got 20 days, and the council will talk about it.”

Construction on the facility has not begun.

Plans call for a 24-bed center to be built on the grounds of the Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center on Route 32. In 2008, Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the General Assembly mandated the program for individuals who needed rehabilitation before their release from prison. ..Source.. ADAM BENSON, Norwich Bulletin

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Texan declared innocent after 30 years in prison

1-5-2011 Texas:

DALLAS — A Texas man declared innocent Tuesday after 30 years in prison had at least two chances to make parole and be set free — if only he would admit he was a sex offender. But Cornelius Dupree Jr. refused to do so, doggedly maintaining his innocence in a 1979 rape and robbery, in the process serving more time for a crime he didn't commit than any other Texas inmate exonerated by DNA evidence.

"Whatever your truth is, you have to stick with it," Dupree, 51, said Tuesday, minutes after a Dallas judge overturned his conviction.

Nationally, only two others exonerated by DNA evidence spent more time in prison, according to the Innocence Project, a New York legal center that specializes in wrongful conviction cases and represented Dupree. James Bain was wrongly imprisoned for 35 years in Florida, and Lawrence McKinney spent more than 31 years in a Tennessee prison.

Dupree was sentenced to 75 years in prison in 1980 for the rape and robbery of a 26-year-old Dallas woman a year earlier. He was released in July on mandatory supervision, and lived under house arrest until October. About a week after his release, DNA test results came back proving his innocence in the sexual assault.

A day after his release, Dupree married his fiancee, Selma. The couple met two decades ago while he was in prison.

His exoneration hearing was delayed until Tuesday while authorities retested the DNA and made sure it was a match to the victim. Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins supported Dupree's innocence claim.

Looking fit and trim in a dark suit, Dupree stood through most of the short hearing, until state district Judge Don Adams told him, "You're free to go." One of Dupree's lawyers, Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck, called it "a glorious day."

"It's a joy to be free again," Dupree said.

This latest wait was nothing for Dupree, who was up for parole as recently as 2004. He was set to be released and thought he was going home, until he learned he first would have to attend a sex offender treatment program.

Those in the program had to go through what is known as the "four R's." They are recognition, remorse, restitution and resolution, said Jim Shoemaker, who served two years with Dupree in the Boyd Unit south of Dallas.

"He couldn't get past the first part," said Shoemaker, who drove up from Houston to attend Dupree's hearing.

Shoemaker said he spent years talking to Dupree in the prison recreation yard, and always believed his innocence.

"I got a lot of flak from the guys on the block," Shoemaker said. "But I always believed him. He has a quiet, peaceful demeanor."

Under Texas compensation laws for the wrongly imprisoned, Dupree is eligible for $80,000 for each year he was behind bars, plus a lifetime annuity. He could receive $2.4 million in a lump sum that is not subject to federal income tax.

The compensation law, the nation's most generous, was passed in 2009 by the Texas Legislature after dozens of wrongly convicted men were released from prison. Texas has freed 41 wrongly convicted inmates through DNA since 2001 — more than any other state.

Dallas County's record of DNA exonerations — Dupree is No. 21 — is unmatched nationally because the county crime lab maintains biological evidence even decades after a conviction, leaving samples available to test. In addition, Watkins, the DA, has cooperated with innocence groups in reviewing hundreds of requests by inmates for DNA testing.

Watkins, the first black district attorney in Texas history, has also pointed to what he calls "a convict-at-all-costs mentality" that he says permeated his office before he arrived in 2007.

At least a dozen other exonerated former inmates from the Dallas area who collectively served more than 100 years in prison upheld a local tradition by attending the hearing and welcoming the newest member of their unfortunate fraternity. One of them, James Giles, presented Dupree with a $100 bill as a way to get his life restarted.

At one point, Scheck pointed out that eyewitness misidentification — the most common cause of wrongful convictions — was the key factor that sent Dupree to prison. The attorney then asked how many of the others were wrongly imprisoned because an eyewitness mistakenly identified them. A dozen hands went in the air.

Not in attendance Tuesday was Dupree's accused accomplice, Anthony Massingill, who was convicted in the same case and sentenced to life in prison on another sexual assault. The same DNA testing that cleared Dupree also cleared Massingill. He says he is innocent, but remains behind bars while authorities test DNA in the second case.

Dupree was 20 when he was arrested in December 1979 while walking to a party with Massingill. Authorities said they matched the description of a different rape and robbery that had occurred the previous day.

Police presented their pictures in a photo array to the victim. She picked out Massingill and Dupree. Her male companion, who also was robbed, did not pick out either man when showed the same photo lineup.

Dupree was convicted of aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. According to court documents, the woman and her male companion stopped at a Dallas liquor store in November 1979 to buy cigarettes and use a payphone. As they returned to their car, two men, at least one of whom was armed, forced their way into the vehicle and ordered them to drive. They also demanded money from the two victims.

The men eventually ordered the car to the side of the road and forced the male driver out of the car. The woman attempted to flee but was pulled back inside.

The perpetrators drove the woman to a nearby park, where they raped her at gunpoint. They debated killing her but eventually let her live, keeping her rabbit-fur coat and her driver's license and warning her they would kill her if she reported the assault to police. The victim ran to the nearest highway and collapsed unconscious by the side of the road, where she was discovered.

Dupree was convicted and spent the next three decades appealing. The Court of Criminal Appeals turned him down three times. ..Source.. JEFF CARLTON, AP

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NH commits only 2 sex offenders

1-2-2011 New Hampshire:

CONCORD, N.H. -- Four years ago, amid great fanfare, New Hampshire passed a law allowing the state to indefinitely lock up the worst sexual predators. The governor called it necessary to prevent the "immeasurable" cost to children. Defense attorneys decried it as an infringement on civil rights. Prison officials prepared for dozens to be targeted.

Yet since 2007, only two men - both convicted of sexually assaulting boys - have been civilly committed.

An Associated Press review found that of the 667 cases referred to county attorneys by the state in 2007, the year the law went into effect, and of the hundreds since, only 22 cases were selected for further review. Just eight passed muster for prosecution.

Supporters say the law was never intended to target a large group of offenders. ..Source.. by NORMA LOVE

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Granholm should put power to grant justice to full use

12-23-2010 Michigan:

BY JEFF GERRITT, FREE PRESS EDITORIAL WRITER

Hundreds of inmates who could safely go home -- some almost certainly innocent -- will either die in prison or languish there indefinitely if Gov. Jennifer Granholm won't fully exercise her rightful power of commutation.

In her final days in office, Granholm should grant a commutation for every applicant worthy of one. No doubt, using this special power recklessly could disrespect crime victims and endanger the community. But not using it where warranted would also create an egregious injustice -- a kind of sin of omission -- that the governor would have to live with.

The almost godlike power to commute and pardon comes once in a lifetime -- and to very few people. Gov. James Blanchard pardoned one inmate and commuted the sentences of six during his eight years in office. In 12 years, Gov. John Engler pardoned nine and commuted 34 sentences.

I can't fathom what it feels like to have that kind of juice, but earlier this month I talked to another former governor who can -- William Milliken, Michigan's CEO from 1969-82. Milliken, who commuted 95 sentences in his three terms as governor, told me something I hope Granholm will hear: His one great regret was not commuting more sentences.

Will Granholm fully exercise her power to commute and pardon? The signs aren't encouraging. In her eight-year tenure, the former prosecutor has commuted 179 sentences. That's more than her predecessors did, but nearly half -- 72 -- have been for dying inmates, and she has denied commutations that even a tough Parole Board recommended.

More important, she has rejected many applications that should have been granted -- hands down. Henry Hill Jr., 47, of Saginaw, for example, is a poster child for repealing the state's notorious juvenile lifer law. He was running from a fight when his cousin shot and killed an 18-year-old. Still, at 16, Hill was sentenced to mandatory life. He has already served 30 years, with an excellent record. Now Granholm has virtually thrown away the keys on this mature, educated and spiritual man.

Incredibly, she also this week rejected the application of Frederick Freeman, 47, whose case is gaining national attention. A former Michigan State Supreme Court justice told me there wasn't enough evidence against Freeman to even bring his case to trial, with multiple eyewitnesses placing him 400 miles from the crime. Freeman said he learned of his denial on the yard, when a corrections officer told him, "Hey, heard the governor just (expletive deleted) you -- Merry Christmas."

Freeman has spent more than 20 years in prison for a murder that all available evidence says he didn't commit. He recently won a federal appeal, but that could take years to execute. I hope Gov.-elect Rick Snyder shows a greater sense of justice.

Darrell A. Siggers, 46, and Darryl Jamual Woods, 38, were both turned down as well, despite strong evidence of wrongful convictions and excellent prison records. Many other cases demand the governor's attention, including those advocated by the Michigan Women's Justice and Clemency Project.

With appellate courts practically rubber-stamping criminal convictions, commutations can safeguard a sometimes unjust criminal justice system -- but only if a governor has the courage and compassion to act. In her final days, Granholm can do everything she can or, decades later, look back and -- like a great governor before her -- regret that she didn't do enough. ..Source.. by Jeff Gerritt is a Detroit Free Press editorial writer. Contact him at 313-222-6585 or jgerritt@freepress.com.

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Sex offenders: Some may be taken off registration list

1-2-2011 Texas:

Some of the vast work involved in tracking sex offenders in Texas might be alleviated through an option to remove some on the list.

Chapter 62, Subchapter I of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure allows development of mechanisms for the early termination of registry requirements for certain offenders.

The whole, though, is still a work in progress, said Allison Taylor, executive director of Texas’ Council on Sex Offender Treatment.

“The problem is that we have been tied to federal law, and federal law requires the offense to determine the length of registration,” Taylor said. “What we’ve been working toward is basing length of registration on risk levels.”

Just reading the existing database, there are situations, especially when younger people are involved, in which one cannot easily tell if a “Romeo and Juliet” situation is at the heart of the requirement to register, or something darker, Taylor said.

“A lot of these juveniles get charged with indecency with a child, and that’s a lifetime registration,” she said.

Mary Sue Molnar, director of Texas Voices, a group that wants to see reforms to Texas’ registry system, said violent and dangerous offenders need to be closely monitored and punished appropriately.

But with roughly 63,000 people on Texas’ registry, “we’re less safe because law enforcement is wasting time and resources on people who pose no threat to anyone,” she argues.

Molnar started the organization because of her son, who at age 22 became intimately involved with a 16-year-old girl.

“It was so unbelievable that something like this would give him that label (sex offender) for life,” she said. “I feel like they did the wrong thing because it was against the law, but I think the punishment should fit the crime. At some point, someone should be able to serve their time and redeem themselves.”

A relative flood of incoming members in the organization, many with similar family stories, seems to indicate that others agree, she said.

“We just didn’t realize how quickly it would grow,” Molnar said of the organization’s rapid expansion.

The group wants to see changes like those described in Subchapter I, allowing people to petition to have their names removed from the registry, get away from residency restrictions and, most important, the “sex offender label.”

“A de-registration system needs to be put in place — and I think that can be done,” Molnar said. “It’s costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep up with everyone on that registry.”

And those costs could rise because all states must, by this year, implement SORNA, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, Title I of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006.

SORNA provides a comprehensive set of minimum standards for sex offender registration and notification in the United States, according to the initiative’s website, and aims to close gaps and loopholes that existed under prior law while generally strengthening the nationwide network of sex offender registration and notification programs.

Among its additions are requiring recognized American Indian tribes to register offenders, incorporating a more comprehensive group of offenders and offenses for which registration is required, and also requiring offenders to provide more extensive registration information.

A 2008 report by Washington think-tank Justice Policy Institute estimated that it would cost Texas $38 million to implement the program if done that year.

So far, only four states — Florida, Ohio, Delaware and South Dakota — and two American Indian tribes have complied.

A recent study by Austin’s police department said implementing SORNA would increase the department’s workload by 175 percent because of the increase in verifications it would require, Taylor said.

“There’s no money for that,” she said. “States are in agreement that there need to be some minimums; however, you take away the state’s jurisdiction, and it’s not listening to what the research shows.”

The typical profile of a sex offender is somewhat different from what public perception — a predator likely to strike as many victims as possible — might be, Taylor said.

“The media’s portrayal of sex offenders doesn’t accurately reflect what 30 years of research shows us,” she said.

Adult sex offenders typically have low recidivism rates — 12 to 17 percent, she said. Juvenile offenders’ rates are even lower, ranging from 5 to 7 percent.

“The media uses ‘predator’ when they’re speaking regarding all sex offenders, and the fact of the matter is that all sex offenders, just like other criminals, don’t fit into one standard profile,” she said. “You’ve got varying levels of risk.”

Truly high-risk offenders make up about 8 to 10 percent of all those tagged as sex offenders, she said, with anywhere from a 55 percent to 82 percent recidivism rate within two years.

“I think we have taken steps within the state to identify truly high risk offenders, and with the civil commitment process, we’re monitoring those predatory populations,” Taylor said.

But removing low-risk or “Romeo and Juliet” cases from the registry — at least faster — could go a long way toward helping pare down the state’s lengthy list to a more manageable level, she said.

“Not every sex offender is the same,” Taylor said. ..Source..

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Agenda: For The Legislature

1-2-2011 Connecticut:

Job No. 1 for the Connecticut General Assembly this year is balancing the budget — a herculean task that The Courant addressed in last Sunday's editorial. But many non-budget tasks demand attention as well. Here is our list for the legislature for 2011.

Some of the items on this to-do list are leftovers from years past. Some needed fixes became obvious during the 2010 elections, such as this first:

...Skipping forward we find:

Open the courts even more. There have been both progress and setbacks over the past year in opening up the state courts to public scrutiny. The Judicial Branch's pilot program allowing cameras in Hartford Superior Court — for former Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez's corruption trial, among others — has been a success. A recommendation that it be expanded statewide is being considered by the courts' Rules Committee. It should be approved.

However, the state Supreme Court recently barred release of the names of any judges, court clerks or attorneys involved in keeping secret the identity of sex offenders, reversing a Freedom of Information Commission decision. The court should rethink this ruling, which is against the public interest. The names of judges who rule in favor of secrecy will themselves be secret.

The legislature should repeal the law that keeps confidential the names and addresses of people who have gun permits. Such information was once part of the public record and should be again.

..Source.. by Courant.com

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YMCAs begin to screen for sex offenders

1-2-2011 Massachusetts:

The YMCA of Greater Boston has begun screening all current and prospective members and guests against the state’s registered sex offender list, banning access to those classified as Level 2 or Level 3 offenders — those at moderate or high risk of reoffending.

The measure, which took effect yesterday, follows the recommendation of a statewide YMCA task force created to improve safety at the community centers after a former girls basketball coach at the Melrose YMCA, which is run independently of the Greater Boston organization, was arrested in early 2009 and pleaded guilty last summer to sexually assaulting girls at the club.

The incident “raised our own level of expectations to see what we can do to further minimize the risk for our members,’’ said Kelley Rice, spokeswoman for YMCA of Greater Boston, the largest Y organization in Massachusetts. It has 13 branches — nine in Boston and one each in Needham, Waltham, Reading, and Woburn.

Guests and members will be screened through the Y’s standard application process. Software will check applicant names for matches in the state sex offender registry. Rice said the system may at times be a “minor inconvenience’’ for patrons but should not cause significant delays.

Brad McDermott, a spokesman for YMCA of USA, the national resource organization that councils the independently run Ys, said such policies are a growing trend at Ys nationally, especially as technology has allowed screening to be done more efficiently.

“The safety and well-being of kids in our care has been and always will be our priority,’’ he said.

Massachusetts and Rhode Island Ys that don’t already screen for sex offenders are expected to implement similar policies in the coming months, Y officials said. That will allow for consistency as most, if not all, Ys in the two states participate in a program allowing members to use other Y facilities for free.

In Massachusetts, the Melrose Y; the Greater Lynn Ys in Peabody, Saugus, and Lynn; and the Hockomock Area Ys in North Attleborough, Franklin, Mansfield, and Foxborough already screen for sex offenders. YMCA Southcoast, with branches in New Bedford, Fall River, Mattapoisett, Wareham, Rochester, and Dartmouth, is pursuing a policy.

The Melrose Y began banning potential members and guests who are registered sex offenders even before the former coach was arrested, said executive director Diana Brennan.

“At Ys, there’s a unique mix of both adults and children . . . so doing this screening is so important for our members,’’ she said by phone. “It’s all the more important given what had happened.’’

Neither Brennan nor Bruce Macdonald, chief executive of the Greater Lynn Y, which began overseeing the Melrose branch earlier this year, knew when the policy took effect. Within the past year, around two or three new members in Melrose have been found to be registered sex offenders and subsequently banned, Macdonald said.

Some are concerned that the screenings add an unfair burden for those who have completed their sentences and already face barriers as they try to reintegrate into society. The Boston-based Reform Sex Offender Laws campaign says that such steps can further ostracize sex offenders, making them more susceptible to poverty, homelessness, depression, and substance abuse.

In Massachusetts, information on Level 1 sex offenders, considered at low risk of reoffending, is not public. According to the state database, there are 253 Level 2 and 245 Level 3 offenders in Boston. ..Source..

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Police Believe Child Was Killed With Welding Torch

Horrific, beyond anything recorded before!

POSTED in RELATED DEATHS!

12-31-2010 Texas:

HOUSTON -- Homicide investigators said a welding torch is the likely weapon used in 12-year-old Jonathan Foster's death, Local 2 Investigates reported Friday.

"We're talking crematorium-type of hot," said one Houston Police Department Homicide Squad officer assigned to the investigation.

Police said they confiscated a badly burned section of carpet from the home of Mona Yvette Nelson, 44, who stands charged with capital murder.

She had a welding background and police found welding equipment in her home on Allwood Street in the Fifth Ward area of Northeast Houston. Police said a section of carpet was badly burned and the smell of a human body filled the area around that carpet.

DNA tests are being ordered to analyze any bodily fluids.

One investigator assigned to the case said it now appears Foster was killed at that spot in Nelson's home within hours of being kidnapped from his family's home near Shepherd Drive and 43rd Street in Northwest Houston.

Police say she was acquainted with some members of the boy's family.

One officer said on Friday that the autopsy has ruled out any trauma on the child's body. There were no broken bones or any signs of strangulation or head wounds, so officers said it now appears the child was killed with a welding torch that could be capable of 6,000-degree flames.

"I've never seen burns like this," said one officer who viewed the boy's body after it was found in a ditch off the Hardy Toll Road on Tuesday.

He said that killers often try to cover their tracks by burning the victim's corpse, but in this boy's case, the burning was so intense and thorough that many veteran homicide investigators are struggling with the notion of such a grisly and painful way to die.

Nelson told a community activist from behind bars that she had nothing to do with killing the boy, and she mentioned her own grandchildren as proof that she would never harm a child in such a manner.

As for a motive, one HPD investigator said officers believe sexual abuse was behind the crime.

The officer said there is no evidence to confirm the theory at this point, but police say there was no ransom demand after the boy was kidnapped, so one officer said, "That's the only other motive (that makes any sense)."

Neighbors near the home where police believe the child was killed with a torch are struggling with the new details of the crime.

"That's sick. That's really sick, and I think the person who did it needs to pay for it. Pay dearly," said one business owner on the same block.

Connie Morris also works nearby, saying, "That's just cruel and mean if anybody would do that to a 12-year-old innocent boy."

Nelson is jailed without bond with a court appearance set for Monday.

Police spent Friday interviewing the child's family once again, shoring up the timeline of events and filling in routine gaps in the statements that were given immediately after the crime.

They also spent several hours organizing the carpet and other evidence confiscated from Nelson's home. One officer said, "We got all we need (from there)." ..Source.. by Stephen Dean

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