Deltona loosens residency restriction

Deltona takes steps to relax residency rule for sex offenders

By BOB KOSLOW Staff Writer

DELTONA -- Sex offenders and predators may find more legal places to live in Volusia County's largest city of more than 86,000 residents.

Elected leaders here Monday tentatively amended a city code by removing school bus stops as a measuring point from where certain convicted sexual offenders and designated predators cannot live.

"(Bus stops) change all the time, and enforcement is difficult," City Attorney George Trovato said Monday. "You have to research when an offender moved in and when a bus stop was created. (Offenders and predators) could be illegal one year and legal the next. It's just not enforceable."

State law prohibits convicted and registered sexual offenders and predators, whose victims were younger than 16 years old, from living within 1,000 feet of a school, day care center, park or playground. Deltona officials in May 2006, copying many other Florida cities and counties, extended the distance to 2,500 feet and added school bus stops to the list.

The commission unanimously approved eliminating the bus stops and scheduled a second hearing July 7.

About 99 registered sexual offenders and predators live in Deltona, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Web site.
The move was not enough for George Griffin, head of the Volusia/Flagler American Civil Liberties Union.

"The ordinance, when it was passed, created a wall around the city to the point that it might be unconstitutional," he told officials. "While the opening of more places to live is a step in the right direction, there is no proof that the residency restrictions make a city safer. It's time to relook at the entire ordinance."

Griffin suggested looking at anti-loitering laws to better control where offenders and predators hang out during the day.

"I am all for making the city livable for everyone, but we need to be very very careful," Commissioner Mike Carmolingo said. "There are too many young families out there."

Resident and registered sex offender Richardo Maldonado pleaded with the commission to eliminate its law.

"Even taking out bus stops, who is Deltona to decide to add on what the state says?" he said. "When is the harassment going to stop? I made a mistake and paid for it. Enough! Enough!"

Other changes to the city's sex offender ordinance take into account the ages of some victims and defendants -- known as Romeo and Juliet cases -- and the intent not to jail violators.

Under the changes, which must pass the second public hearing, residency restrictions would not apply to offenders and predators if the case involved consensual sexual conduct when the defendant was not more than four years older than the "victim" and the "victim" was older than 14 and younger than 17.

Registered sex offenders and predators with a clean record for at least 10 years since the initial conviction also are exempt from the city code. All state distance laws still apply.

The possibility of jail time for those found in violation of the city law was also removed. Penalties shall be a fine not to exceed $500 a day.

"It was never the intent to send them to jail, only to get them to move," Trovato said. "So, why have it if you are not going to enforce it?"
The changes to provide more places to live could make the city's law less likely to be challenged and overturned as unconstitutional, supporters said.
What they will not do is impact the city's current Circuit Court case involving three defendants charged with violating the city's distance law and refusing to move. A Circuit Court judge ordered the city to pay for the defendants' legal costs and a three-judge panel is reviewing a city appeal.

There are more than 10 additional known cases, Trovato said.

New York is not keeping predators out of shelters

Department of Homeless Services still not screening for sex offenders

BY Bill Egbert DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, June 15th 2008, 11:06 PM

Sex offenders are still being housed at shelters for homeless families a year after the problem was first exposed, a new report revealed Sunday.
State Sen. Jeff Klein (D-Bronx) charged that the Department of Homeless Services is still failing to screen applicants to make sure they are not on the Megan's Law registry, allowing serious sex offenders to be assigned to shelters that house children.
"It will take them five minutes to avoid a lifetime of trauma for a child who may be hurt by one of these individuals," said Klein outside the agency's Manhattan office.
Last year, Klein found six level 2 or 3 sex offenders who had registered family shelters as their addresses.
The latest report found five sexual predators giving family shelters as their address, though only two could be verified as still living at the facilities.
DHS officials cited the agency's legal obligation to shelter anyone who applies and policies that make it difficult to separate families who apply together.

17 years for 50,000 child porn images? Sicko needs a year for every image!

Slidell man gets 17 years for child porn
10:46 AM CDT on Thursday, June 12, 2008
wwltv.com

(NEW ORLEANS)---A Slidell man has been sentenced to more than 17 years in federal prison in connection with a child pornography case where more than 50,000 images of child pornography were found on his computer, according to U. S. Attorney Jim Letten.

Letten said that 60-year-old Danny M. Daugherty was sentenced to 210 months in federal prison, placed on a life term of supervised release, ordered to pay $20,000 in victim restitution, required to give a DNA sample and register as a sex offender, prohibited from owning a computer or television with internet access, and ordered to have no unsupervised contact with minors under the age of 18.

Letten reported that Daugherty pled guilty on January 23, stemming from a search warrant being served on his home back on May 8, 2007. Deputies with the St. Tammany Sheriff's Office and officers with the Slidell Police Department recovered a photo album and a computer loaded with child pornography images, reportedly including three young boys, age 12-14, from Daugherty's neighborhood.

Letten concluded that Daugherty was taken into custody, but not before he allegedly pulled a 9mm pistol on officers.

ISP's to block child pon sites

ISP child-porn deal sparks censorship fears

Posted Thu Jun 12, 2008 12:02pm AEST Updated Thu Jun 12, 2008 2:14pm AEST

Some advocacy groups fear the ISPs' move to block child porn sets a dangerous precedent for censorship.

In a first for the United States, three internet service providers (ISPs) have agreed to block access to web sites that show child pornography, however not everyone is welcoming the move, with some groups claiming it raises censorship issues.
It may seem like an altruistic move, but ISPs Time Warner, Verizon and Sprint, were forced into the landmark agreement by New York Attorney-General Andrew Cuomo.
It took an eight-month undercover investigation in which his officers posed as subscribers to the ISPs.
When the officers' complaints to the ISPs that they were allowing child pornography online were ignored, the Attorney-General threatened to charge the companies with fraud.
Now they have come on board and offered the non-government organisation, the Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, more than $US1 million to set up the scheme.
Parry Aftab is an internet privacy and security lawyer and the founder of internet safety advocacy group, wiredsafety.org and he says the agreement means child pornography could potentially be wiped from the networks.
"What they've done is they've agreed to stop allowing anyone to access the channels that are frequently used for child pornography, and to use technology and people to help ferret it out wherever it is on their network," he said.
"Children are exploited and killed often in the making of child pornography."
However, the move has raised concerns over censorship, with some advocacy groups fearing it sets a dangerous precedent.
Mr Aftab agrees that issues have been raised as to whether or not it is appropriate that a non-government organisation potentially decides what is and what is not child pornography.
"The US National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children is non-governmental and governmental," he said.
"It was created by a special act of congress, so although it is a non-profit it is also government controlled.
"It's our official tip line in the United States on child pornography and it acts as a quasi-governmental unit in many cases.
"Everything's regulated, if you're a charity then you're regulated, but yes it is regulated and overseen by the Government here."
However the website for the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children claims it is a private, non-profit organisation with a congressional mandate.
Australian censorship fears
The fact that a private organisation can essentially act as an official censor is why anti-censorship lobby group Electronic Frontiers does not want to see a similar scheme set up in Australia.
The organisation's chairman, Dale Clapperton, says ultimately the agreement is a bad move.
"First and foremost placing the decision over what type of material is or is not child pornography in the hands of a non-governmental, non-transparent, non-accountable private organisation is fundamentally a bad move," he said.
Mr Clapperton refers to the recent uproar over photographer Bill Henson's artwork which raises issues of defining child pornography.
"We've just recently seen in Australia the consequences of what can happen when an organisation such as this gets a bee in its bonnet about something they believe is child pornography," he said.
"If this type of scheme was replicated in Australia, potentially access to all of his [Bill Henson's] artworks would be blocked."
The head of the School of Information Systems at Deakin University, Professor Matthew Warren, is another critic of the US system, but for technical reasons.
"The reason why it's flawed is that it will only stop the access of these types of images via user groups," he said.
"The flaw with the American approach is that it doesn't focus on blocking inappropriate internet websites."
Professor Warren argues that the Federal Government is coming up with a better system to stop the spread of child porn on the internet.
"The new Rudd Government is now in the process of implementing the strategy that will filter into their content at the internet service provider levels," he said.
"So it means that people will have a clean feed of internet content to their site.
"The problem that's been raised with that is that you'd actually slow down the internet."
Dale Clapperton argues the Australian approach is also flawed and says it will be difficult to ever fully prevent people from accessing child pornography on the internet.
"I don't think that anybody is pretending for a moment that implementing this scheme here, such as they are going to do in New York, or what Labor has proposed, that Australia is actually going to be effective at preventing people from accessing child pornography on the internet," he said.

Adam Walsh Law, in Ohio

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO
SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT
MIAMI COUNTY

{¶11} Having reviewed S.B. 10, we do not find a legislative intent to impose
punishment through the reclassification and registration process. As with prior versions of R.C. Chapter 2950, we believe the legislature intended to enact a civil, regulatory scheme rather than to impose criminal punishment. The new law includes a declaration about the risk of recidivism posed by sex offenders. R.C. 2950.02(A). It also contains a declaration that its various requirements are intended to protect the safety and welfare of the population. R.C. 2950.02(B). The General Assembly further declared that the release or exchange of information about sex offenders is not punitive. Id. We note too that S.B. 10 grants King a right to a hearing to contest her reclassification, but the legislation fails to
provide her with a right to appointed counsel. It also states that the hearing shall be governed by the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure. These facts bolster our belief that the legislature intended a civil, non-punitive proceeding. Smith v. Doe (2003), 538 U.S. 84, 96.


1On its face, the present proceeding is a civil action commenced by King to
challenge the Attorney General’s administrative reclassification of her as a Tier II offender. Although S.B. 10 provides King with a right to a hearing, the legislation does not authorize the appointment of counsel. Therefore, King has no statutory right to counsel under S.B. 10.


{¶6} In State v. Cook, 83 Ohio St.3d 404, 1998-Ohio-291, the Ohio Supreme
Court held that the registration and notification requirements in R.C. Chapter 2950 are nonpunitive in purpose and effect. Id. at 414-423. Thereafter, in State v. Williams, 88 Ohio St.3d 513, 2000-Ohio-428, the court reaffirmed its view that R.C. Chapter 2950 is “neither ‘criminal,’ nor a statute that inflicts punishment[.]” Id. at 528. More recently, in State v.
Wilson, 113 Ohio St.3d 382, 2007-Ohio-2202, the court again concluded that “sexoffender-classification proceedings under R.C. Chapter 2950 are civil in nature[.]” Id. at 389. Wilson produced a three-member dissent opining that the restrictions imposed under R.C. Chapter 2950 have become more onerous since Cook and should be viewed as “part of the punishment that is imposed as a result of the offender’s actions.” Id. at 392.

Basically this says that SB 10 does not inflict punishment on a sex offender, and they cannot get the state to pay for thier attorney

~Cry Me A River A Sex Offender!~

Weekend jail time?? WTF!

Weekend jail time for child porn collector

Mike Chouinard
The Times
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
A Chilliwack physiotherapist caught with a large collection of child pornography on his computer will spend two months' worth of weekends in jail for his offence.
Judge Russell MacKay gave Laurence Wong a 60-day jail sentence in provincial court Friday morning. The sentence is to be served intermittently.
"I sincerely hope this chapter is put behind you," the judge told him.
Wong was arrested May 3, 2007 after police found approximately 26,000 images on his home computer that depicted various degrees of pornographic images involving children. It also contained several hundred explicit videos.
"Needless to say, this material is shocking, repulsive and abhorrent," MacKay said.
The arrest was part of an international investigation based in the Netherlands.
Wong pleaded guilty in December. Prior to sentencing, both a pre-sentence report and psychiatric evaluation were ordered.
The physiotherapist has faced restrictions about working around children in his practice. Currently, he is working in the Vancouver area at a grocery store. He also lost a chance to serve as a physiotherapist for the British kayak team at the upcoming Olympics in China.
Wong's professional association is expected to review his status now that the court case has concluded. Judge MacKay said he expected the association will impose further sanctions against the physiotherapist.
In addition to the 60-day sentence, Wong faces two years of probation when his term ends. Judge MacKay also included an order that Wong be placed on a sexual offenders' registry for a 10-year term, but declined to make an order for a sample for an offenders' DNA registry.
Wong faces restrictions against being around young people under 16 years of age and can only use a computer for work purposes. He must also pay a victim surcharge fine of $1,000.
He faced a minimum of 14 days in jail and a maximum of 18 months. When passing sentence the judge took into account the accused's lack of criminal history, his willingness to admit his mistake, and that he had not produced or distributed the material.
"He acknowledges that his behaviour was extremely inappropriate," MacKay said.
The judge took note of Wong's family and a letter from his mother.
"It is a credit to the family that they continue to stand behind their son," MacKay said.
However, he also cited the extreme nature of some of the material Wong possessed and did not grant defence counsel's request for a minimum jail sentence.

Arizona tracking child molestors

GPS 'eye' now tracking sex offenders
By Kim Smith
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 05.27.2008



Anthony Garcia got busted, not by a cop on the street, but by an eye in the sky.
The 18-year-old registered sex offender got too close to a couple of schools, and he didn't stick to his probation-officer-approved schedule.
His probation officer wasn't anywhere around, but he knew where Garcia had been because of a satellite-based GPS tracking system quietly put into use 18 months ago.
Since late 2006, some child molesters who are placed on probation have been required to wear Global Positioning System ankle bracelets that track where they are 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Probation officers can download data whenever they want to check where a defendant has been and whether they're keeping to their pre-approved schedules. Or, the officers can sit at a computer screen to watch a probationer move from place to place in real-time, said David Sanders, Pima County's chief probation officer.
Pima County probation officers are monitoring nine local residents, plus 16 people who live in other Southern Arizona counties that don't have the necessary equipment, said Barbara Johnson, who supervises the sex offender unit of Pima County Adult Probation.
In each case, the child molesters are told there are certain areas where they can't go, Sanders said. If they go into an "exclusionary zone," the ankle bracelet sounds an alarm and immediately notifies his probation officer.
If the probation officer thinks it's necessary, he or she can immediately call the police, Sanders said.
Exclusionary zones could include playgrounds, school yards and victims' neighborhoods.
The tracking system also can be used as an investigative tool, Sanders said. Detectives investigating a sex crime can compare a sex offender's GPS data with the location and time of that crime to see if they match, he said.
Johnson stressed that probation officers are still doing all the same checks they did before GPS — making unannounced visits to homes and jobs, testing for drugs and alcohol and meeting with probationers on a regular basis.
"Just because they are on GPS doesn't mean we sit back," Johnson said. "It's just another tool for us to use."
Garcia, the 18-year-old, was placed on lifetime probation in February 2007 after admitting to sexual conduct with an 8-year-old relative.
A probation officer filed a motion to revoke Garcia's probation on May 6.
According to court documents, Garcia wasn't where he was supposed to be on 11 days, failed to live up to GPS requirements on six days, went near schools twice and failed to participate in his counseling program on a certain day. He also failed to report to his probation officer on another day.
Garcia said he didn't adhere to his schedule, and he didn't live up to his GPS requirements on those dates. Pima County Superior Court Judge John Leonardo could place him back on probation June 6, or he could sentence him to up to 15 years in prison.
Garcia is the first person placed on GPS monitoring who could have his probation revoked because of it, Johnson said. However, a warrant has been issued for a second sex offender who cut off his GPS monitor and disappeared.
Right now, the only sex offenders who are fitted with the GPS monitors are those convicted of "dangerous" crimes against children, who have been placed on probation, Sanders said.
The number who fall into that category is relatively small because most people convicted of such crimes are sent to prison, Sanders said.
In addition, there are some sex crimes that are not considered "dangerous" under Arizona law, Sanders said.
But the number is expected to increase, Sanders said, because there are a few dozen people in prison now who will have to spend time on probation after they're released.
The state is paying for the bracelets, which cost $6 a day, Sanders said.
He said he expects legislators will eventually expand the circumstances under which GPS can be required, possibly to include people awaiting trial, domestic-violence suspects and those convicted of adult sex crimes.
Although no studies have been done to see if the monitors have a deterrent effect on sex offenders, there is speculation they could make them think twice about committing bad acts, Sanders said.
"GPS makes the most sense in cases where there are exclusionary zones that have been set up for justifiable reasons, such as when you have a stalking-type situation when the victim is at a higher risk of being attacked," Sanders said.
Pima County Public Defender Bob Hirsh said he has problems with GPS monitoring, especially considering the cost.
"They've got to know where these people are every second of every day? What's the point of that?" Hirsh said. "I think it's all pretty circumstantial. I'm found near schools every day going to and from the grocery store."
There is no correlation between someone being successful on probation and GPS, Hirsh said. Some people succeed on probation because they've decided to change their behavior, and others simply because they are in a more structured environment.
"I don't see any benefit," Hirsh said. "This is just another example of encroachment by the government."