Police: Man Reported Near School Was Not a Registered Sex Offender

The registry is behind everyone's suspicions and thoughts!

5-15-2013 Massachusetts:

Framingham Police said the man reported by Hemenway PTO parents and mentioned in an alert by the school principal has been confirmed as not a registered sex offender.

Framingham Police said the man reported by parents and mentioned in an alert by a school principal has been confirmed as not a registered sex offender, said Framingham Police Lt. Ron Brandolini.

The Framingham Police school resource officer McGrath and the Police Safety Division, through an investigation, have confirmed that the individual seen yesterday on the bench by the PTO member was mistakenly identified and is not the registered sex offender from Framingham’s register sex offender list, said Brandolini.

Police have confirmed that the individual has no criminal history, said Brandolini.

Police investigated and determined that the property in question, where the benches are located are on Heritage House, which is private property and that the individual who was mistakenly identified is a resident of that complex and is lawfully present using the benches located there, said Brandolini.

On Monday, Hemenway Elementary School Principal Lucia Laguarda sent out an alert to parents that there was a report of an "individual that was suspected of being a registered sex offender waiting at the bench located between the Heritage House and Hemenway School."

The principal told parents that the "location is a public bus stop and it is within the legal distance of the school, if in fact it is this individual."

The K-5 elementary school principal told parents in her alert she has asked the Framingham Police safety officers to follow up with school administration on the report.

On Monday Framingham Police said there was a report of a "level 3 sex offender on that bench in the morning," from a citizen. Police also said they were investigating and monitoring the situation. ..Source.. by Susan Petroni

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SD sex offender accused of illegal petitioning

5-15-2013 South Dakota:

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — A South Dakota law prohibiting convicted sex offenders from circulating petitions is being used to prosecute a Rapid City man banned from petitioning on county property more than a year ago.

Dallas Krausch, 75, is on the state's Sex Offender Registry because of a conviction for having sexual contact with a 12-year-old girl in Pennington County in 1986. He was hired to circulate petitions for several years, and at one point he said it was his only source of income. But his allegedly aggressive approach drew complaints at the Pennington County Courthouse in 2011, and that November, county commissioners barred him from circulating petitions on county property.

Krausch is now being prosecuted for allegedly collecting petition signatures on April 11 at the Rapid City Public Library, the Rapid City Journal reported (http://bit.ly/16zmFZd ). His arrest came four days after he was asked to leave the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center, where he also was circulating a petition, according to police reports.

Defense attorney Dennis Groff said in court Tuesday that he is working with prosecutors to resolve the charges against his client, who faces two misdemeanor counts. Krausch could face up to two years in jail and $4,000 in fines if convicted.

The Legislature passed a law last year prohibiting convicted sex offenders from circulating petitions. It was proposed by legislators from Pennington County, and some said the law specifically targeted Krausch. Supporters stressed the importance of keeping personal information, such as addresses, out of the hands of potential predators. ..Source.. by Chron.com

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Jacksonville man mistakenly labeled sex offender on Florida ID

Yes, the situation is upsetting, but when did it become a crime for a "sex offender" to TRY to access a military base? Are sex offenders now barred from watching air shows and the like if on a military base?

5-13-2013 Florida:

Man says mistake was devastating, humiliating

Andrew Flaherty recently moved to Jacksonville last year from out of state. He’s legally blind and can’t drive, but did as the law requires and got a Florida Identification Card.

But as he visited banks, doctors’ offices and pharmacies, he noticed things didn't seem right and Floridians weren’t showing the southern hospitality he had heard so much about.

"Even when my brother from Hawaii came to visit me, he said, 'You got a dark cloud over you for some reason,'" said Flaherty.

This past March, it became clear, when Flaherty and his brother tried to get onto the base at NAS Jacksonville.

“When we gave the ID they told us to pull over and about 30 minutes later, an officer approached our vehicle and said there’s a Florida statute on my ID that said I’m a sexual offender,” explained Flaherty.

It’s a crime for sex offender to try and get on military bases.

“Wow, I was completely floored,” explained Flaherty. “I’ve never been accused, much less convicted of something that horrible.”

We checked and Flaherty’s background is clean. The problem was his Florida ID card. In the bottom right corner it says 943.0435 FS. It’s a statute that means the person on the ID is a convicted sexual offender.

“Who has formed this opinion of me, that I am a sexual offender?” asked Flaherty.

Flaherty believes it was a simple mistake, with terrible damage. He has hired Jacksonville attorney John Phillips to look over what happened.

“Here’s a man that did nothing wrong, lives on the absolute right side of life and all of a sudden has been called the worst of the worst,” said Phillips.

Channel 4 did its own investigating and looked for answers, taking Flaherty’s situation to the people who gave him the ID in the first place: the Duval County Tax Collector’s Office.

“It was not an intentional thing. It was a mistake, absolutely. Human error,” explained Sherry Hall, Duval County deputy tax collector.

Hall says one of the clerks accidentally clicked the wrong box when creating Flaherty’s ID. They use a state computer program to make the cards and there are a series of boxes to click, which classify people as organ donors, insulin dependent and sex offenders.

Once we brought Flaherty's problem to their attention, the Tax Collector's Office took action. Hall says they let their employees know what happened and will train them on ways to avoid it. They also are working with the state to possibly make the program a little more fail-safe, so this doesn’t happen again. And now Flaherty's new ID is clean, just like his record.

“We absolutely apologize that this error caused him any issues at all. We have corrected this issue since it occurred. We are certainly very sorry he was the recipient of this mistake,” said Hall.

Hall adds that this is the first time a mistake like this has ever happened in her office, but she says the markings on the IDs and licenses are important.

Channel 4 crime and safety analyst Ken Jefferson says police need to know who they’re dealing with and having the statute clearly labeled certainly helps.

Flaherty says he couldn't agree more, but thinks clerks need to be more careful so no one else is wrongly accused.

“I hope that this lets everyone know that this is possible. And if it happened to you, you need to go and get this changed,” said Flaherty. ..Source.. by Vic Micolucci, Mobile journalist

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