| News & Noteworthy © ---
Featured Issue 6-8-06 |
| Florida's failure to provide sex offender therapy for those in prison is again a significant factor behind another murder! |
| 6-8-2006 South Carolina:
Man arrested in slaying suspected in sex assaults |
.A registered sex offender suspected of strangling a Clemson University student with her bikini is also suspected of committing at least two other sexual assaults within the same week in other states, said a Tennessee sheriff. Jerry Buck Inman, 35, was arrested late Tuesday night in Dandridge, Tenn., where he said he lived with his mother. DNA from the victim's apartment led authorities to him. "He's made admissions" of an attempted rape in Rainsville, Ala., and a rape in Sevierville, Tenn., both a few days before the Clemson killing, said David Davenport, sheriff of Jefferson County, Tenn. "He said he was out and driving around." [snip]
Inman told a judge in Tennessee Wednesday that he wouldn't fight extradition to South Carolina to face charges in Souers' death. Davenport said South Carolina police called him Tuesday because Inman had registered as a sex offender in Dandridge after his September 2005 release from a Florida prison where he served 18 years for sex offenses. Inman is also a registered offender in Florida and North Carolina. [snip] In Souers' case, the registries did not prevent her murder but helped law enforcement catch a suspect quickly and possibly avoid further killings, said David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.
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: by Wendy Koch, USA TODAY
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.A registered sex offender suspected of strangling a Clemson University student: Jerry Buck Inman. This man's criminal history tells a story the newspapers have not printed.
In 1988 in North Carolina Inman was convicted of a sex offense and went to prison then released in January of 1999. When NC released him, they entered that information into the National registry.
In NC he would not have participated in sex offender therapy because of his age (under 21 a NC requirement), and a few attempted escapes would have kept his security level high again prohibiting therapy. See Colorado 2000 study of Sex Offender Prison Therapy Programs in 50 states (caution 495 page PDF file). If he attended later on their program is only 5 months long, unlikely he would learn anything.
Apparently when NC released him Florida picked him up for 1987 Florida offenses, "According to Florida records and corrections department spokesman Robby Cunningham, Inman apparently was incarcerated from 1989 [sic] 1999 until last September for sexual battery, kidnapping, aggravated assault, grand theft of a motor vehicle, burglary and robbery."
Florida has no sex offender therapy program for those in its prisons. See Colorado study above. When Inman's sentence ended in September 2005 he was considered for civil commitment, which Florida has, and did not meet the criteria, so he was released. Inman actually moved to Tennessee (9-2005) to live near his mother and family according to other news reports. Florida entered that information in the National Registry.
Then came his alleged recent crime spree: On May 22 he is alleged to have attempted to rape a woman in Sevierville, Tennessee; he is also charged with a case in DeKalb County, Alabama; and, then the alleged murder of the Clemson girl on May 26 in South Carolina.
Other Florida sex offenders who also murdered after being released from Florida prison without therapy: John Couey, Willie Crain Jr., David Onstott. They murdered Jessica Lundsford (9), Amanda Brown (7), and Sarah M Lunde (13) respectively.
Inman's case shows a National Registry still does not prevent murders. Given Inman was not under any state supervision and it cannot be programmed for every bedroom in the US, GPS could not have prevented this crime either! Congress and state legislators keep ignoring therapy in favor of tracking.
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News & Noteworthy © --- Featured Issue 6-3-05
| Is Florida serving "Wacky Water" to its public servants? |
| 6-3-2005 Florida:
This sheriff wants separate hurricane shelter for sex offenders |
.Sex offenders and predators are the scourge of nearly every community. Homeowners are taking to the streets protesting them as neighbors. Entire cities, outraged by the high-profile killings of two Florida girls, are trying to ban them. Now, Seminole County wants to make sure they also cannot get into public shelters if another hurricane threatens the region.
Sheriff Don Eslinger says he wants to pack offenders into a hurricane shelter strictly for sex criminals. He is ready to provide the facility -- a spot next to Seminole County Jail -- and help staff it. It would be the first shelter of its kind in Central Florida, according to Robby Cunningham, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections, which is responsible for registering and supervising sex offenders.
Until now, DOC has handled evacuations on a case-by-case basis. "Each case varies," Cunningham said. "There are certain places they have to go," such as to a correctional facility or to stay with relatives. "They are not allowed to go to [public] shelters," he said.[snip]
Last year, at least two sex offenders who evacuated their homes went to Lyman High School, one of several schools in the county designated as public shelters. One was there for all three hurricanes that hit Central Florida; the other sought shelter for Hurricane Frances. The two were sent to Lyman by their probation officers.
Most of Seminole's 211 registered sex offenders and predators have a detailed plan for where they should go in an evacuation. However, 41, including the two who were housed at Lyman, do not have a specified plan. Those are the offenders Eslinger said he is targeting. "It posed a logistical nightmare," said Longwood police investigator Herb Stewartson, one of the officers assigned to keep the men away from children and families at the shelter.
Although both sex offenders used the shelter for Hurricane Frances, they could not be housed together because one brought his wife and children, Stewartson said. The offenders were confined in separate rooms, apart from each other and other people at the shelter, he said. Officers had to escort them to get their meals or arrange to have the food taken to them. The men were allowed to take showers only after everyone else in the shelter was done.
: by Gary Taylor, Orlando Sentinel ..more..
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.This is one of those stories that is hard to believe, follow the underling. What part of the word "CONFINMENT" do these public servants not understand? No trial, no hearing, no nothing, guilty and confined on a mental perception!
It is fine for RSOs to live in society, day to day, next to the very same people, but not in an emergency where everyone's thoughts are on the natural disaster. Is there a lawyer in the house?
Those hurricanes last season must have blown in some "Wacky Water" and it is being drunk by public servants. The resulting disease is often described as Offenderitis. see below.
eAdvocate
OFFENDERITIS (definition):
Offender-itis is a coined term used to describe a mental abnormality often occurring in public servants, politically aspiring persons, and others who can pass this psychological disorder on.
People so afflicted perceive that, others who may or may not have a previous criminal conviction are all highly dangerous to the general public. The disease is characterized by abnormal delusional visions of perceived horrific events creating an aura of public fear; these doomsayers get their rewards by painting a picture of "the sky is falling" and alienating the public.
Significant harm is caused by people so afflicted because the objects of their obsession are persons which society already looks down on (including their family members), and the collateral harm caused society is truly a tragedy.
Offenderitis is an incurable social disease because these people refuse to face reality, or facts and statistics which prove them wrong, they discount these facts and statistics because in their minds they only see horrific events in everyday life circumstances.
Those afflicted with Offenderitis, which is fear based, focus on denial of civil rights of other persons under the pretext of public safety.
eAdvocate (Copyright 2005 - All Rights Reserved)
News & Noteworthy: Articles Concerning Sex Offender Issues © |
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Featured Issue: 5-20-05
| Florida's Registry Tracking System Was Incorrect -OR- Offenders Moved Without Telling Police? |
| 5-20-2005 Florida:
Roundup nets 537 sex offenders who moved without telling state |
.TALLAHASSEE -- A four-week police operation coordinated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement located 537 sex offenders who had moved from registered addresses without notifying authorities. Authorities arrested 203 of the offenders; the 334 others were either reregistered, deported, already in jail or dead, Gov. Jeb Bush said Thursday.
``Over the course of the last four weeks, Florida's deputy sheriff's, police officers, FDLE agents and U.S. marshals have knocked on literally hundreds of doors searching for sexual predators and offenders who are dodging registration requirements,'' said FDLE Commissioner Guy Tunnell.
They are still trying to locate more than 1,000 others. ``This sweep is really just the start of an effort to protect Florida citizens,'' said Bush.
: by Associated Press ..more..
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.One must read this article very carefully and then you find out that, Florida's Tracking System is seriously flawed!
It appears that Florida does not want the public to know its system has caused some of the reported missing offenders, especially in the wake of recent events.
The system reported that "537 offenders moved without telling authorities," but look close at what Gov. Bush said, "Authorities arrested 203 of the offenders, 334 others were either reregistered, deported, already in jail or dead."
Florida's system somehow failed to recognize these conditions, instead reporting them as missing. Apparently the state's registry is not properly updated when folks die, go to jail, or are deported.
As to those who were already reregistered it sounds like the place they moved from was not notified of their new address, which the offenders did notify the new police agency by reregistering.
That means the registry was wrong 62% of the time due to state errors. Maybe Parents for Megan's Laws recent rating of this system, as "A" needs to be reviewed again?
eAdvocate (Copyright 2005 - All Rights Reserved)
News & Noteworthy: Articles Concerning Sex Offender Issues © |
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Featured Issue: 5-5-05
| A Question of Taking Responsibility: Who should take responsibility, only REGISTERED sex offenders? |
| 5-5-2005 Florida:
Fla. Official Wants Public Warned About Sex Offenders in Their Midst |
.A county official in Florida has proposed posting signs in neighborhoods and communities where a sexual offender or predator resides. The idea proposed by Marion County Commissioner Randy Harris came in the wake of recent brutal killings of children by sex offenders in Florida. Harris believes residents can do a better job of policing their own neighborhoods than law enforcement can. The reason, he says, is because the sheriff's office does not have enough personnel to watch out for the more than 600 sex offenders in Marion County.
The commissioner believes most law-abiding residents will appreciate being warned that there are sex offenders and predators in their midst. "These are people who labeled or branded themselves when they committed a crime against an innocent person," he notes, "in many cases with force, and in many cases grown adults forcing themselves on very young children. It's a horrible tragedy, and it isn't one the public takes very well in most cases."
Still, Harris says he has received some opposition to his proposal from the political Left. "I think there's a small percentage of people out there that are supporting these sex offenders that simply want us to back away from this and be quiet," he explains. "I haven't run into as much red tape as I have the flaming liberals who disagree and are worried about hurting the feelings of the convicted felons."
The Marion County official says these liberals are apparently worried about hurting the feelings of convicted sexual offenders and about continuing to punish them after they've served their time. "But this isn't an issue of punishing," the commissioner insists. "That's not the intent. The intent is public information -- warning parents and single women who need to know the proximity in which they live to these people, these convicted felons." [snip]
Criticism of the plan intensified recently after a man in Ocala, Florida, apparently committed suicide in despair over signs posted in his neighborhood that identified him as a child rapist. The father of Clovis Claxton, 38, found his son dead with one of the signs beside his body less than a day after his release from a psychiatric hospital.[snip]
Harris, on the other hand, does not blame Claxton's death on the signs and contends that sex offenders need to take responsibility for their own actions.
Also, the Marion County commissioner says citizens across the U.S. have the right to produce their own warning flyers and to circulate them in their neighborhoods, instead of sitting on their hands and waiting for a sheriff or county commission to post the signs.
: by AgapePress
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County Commissioner, Randy Harris, refuses to take any responsibility for suggesting that, local police circulate flyers about sex offenders, and a citizen hearing that did circulate a illegal flyer and it resulted in the suicide of a local law-abiding registered sex offender.
The flyer, created by a vigilante citizen, misrepresented the facts about the registered sex offender who complained to police and told them he was afraid of being harmed prior to taking his own life out of fear.
Throughout the nation there have been complaints about incorrect information contained in registries which has resulted in citizens who were not sex offenders suffering harm or harassment. Further, it is thought that incorrect information affects public safety.
Following all this the Commissioner suggests "citizens across the U.S. have the right to produce their own warning flyers and to circulate them in their neighborhoods, instead of sitting on their hands and waiting for a sheriff or county commission to post the signs."
Should the police find who made the flyer and prosecute him/her, which side will the Commissioner be on? The law or the lawbreaker?
The Commissioner further states that, "sex offenders need to take responsibility for their own actions." It appears to this writer that, to become a "registered sex offender" that person must have taken responsibility for his actions and was released by the court to return to society, and was living a law-abiding life.
Maybe someone should ask the Commissioner what his definition is for "taking responsibility" for one's actions.
I doubt there are any folks asking the Commissioners to back-off, instead to act responsibly as a public servant should. It would also be logical for public servants to promote peace in the community, not incite people to illegal actions.
I do understand the Commissioners concerns over the recent murders of children, but I wonder what the Commissioner is doing about the 924 children (Table 4-6 Fatalities by Type of Maltreatment, 2003), that have died from non-sex offenders's hands, and the 87% recidivism rate of non-sex offenders released from prison and their victims?
eAdvocate |
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Featured Issue: 5-1-05
| A case of "Gender" discrimination? |
| 5-1-2005 Florida:
Teen faces trial after having sex with girlfriend Noe Perez, now 16, has been in jail for nearly a year and could face 45 years behind bars. |
.They started "going together" the same day they met at the laundromat near her house. He was 15, an illegal immigrant who came from Mexico to pick oranges. She was 14 and lived with her mom and grandma. Before long, he moved into their run-down, gray house in Avon Park, sharing the girl's bed. That's where police and child-welfare workers found Noe Perez when he was arrested and charged a year ago this coming Friday with having sex with a person younger than 16. [snip]
To Highlands prosecutors, Perez deserves to be tried as an adult because, when arrested, he carried a fake ID in his wallet that said he was 18. But to critics, his case underscores the inequities of a law that criminalizes consensual sex with anyone younger than 16, even when the accused -- who is almost always the boy -- is underage himself. It is a crime for which there is no defense. [snip]
Now, he said, prosecutors "are moving cautiously" because they question the validity of a birth certificate showing Perez to have been 15 at the time. Perez's lawyers insist the document is genuine, saying the Mexican Consulate tracked it down. And court records show that prosecutors moved quickly to keep Perez in adult court.
On. Feb. 24, Perez's lawyer, former Assistant Public Defender Jose Concepcion, gave the prosecutor a copy of Perez's birth certificate and a letter asking that his charges be dropped because he was not subject to the jurisdiction of the adult court. Prosecutors dropped the original charges the very same day but immediately filed new ones, this time charging Perez as a juvenile -- but still in adult court. Under Florida law, prosecutors have broad discretion in transferring juveniles to adult court. [snip]
Inside Perez's wallet, the officer found a fake resident-alien card and a fake Social Security Card, which Perez said his citrus-crew chief gave him. Next to his fake IDs, he carried a recent snapshot of the girl. "The bottom line here is that Noe Perez and this girl are just two teenagers who were doing what a lot of teenagers do," Concepcion said. "He shouldn't be treated as an adult." : by Maya Bell | Miami Bureau
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.Normally we hear about cases where the girl lied about her age and the boy being 16-17 is prosecuted for a sex crime. The prosecutor saying, the girl being under 16 cannot give her consent, and that where it ends. The girl is not prosecuted for anything.
Here we have the exact opposite, assuming the facts to be true, the boy lied about his age by having documents which said he is 18, even though he was actually 15 at the time of the crime. So what does the prosecutor do, prosecute the boy in adult court as a juvenile for a sex crime.
Again assuming facts show the boy is (or was at time of crime) 15, then why is it that he is not treated like a girl of the same age and circumstances.
And, to throw coal on the fire, the boy has been held in jail (punishment) for one-year awaiting disposition of his case. Clearly "gender" discrimination, and this point has not even been raised by anyone in the case.
Now, if neither party can give their consent, and a sex act has occurred, then logic tells me both parties should be prosecuted equally. To do otherwise is a violation of the equal protection clause?
Does anyone see where the girl is in court for anything?
eAdvocate (Copyright 2005 - All Rights Reserved)
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Featured Issue: Posted 2-3-2005
| What did the news article "Florida High Court Upholds Sexual Predator List" fail to tell its readers?.. |
2-3-2005 Florida:
Florida High Court Upholds Sexual Predator List (Different from non-predator registry)
.The state Supreme Court upheld Thursday a law that creates a public list of sexual predators, rejecting arguments it violates their rights. Justices voted 4-3 to uphold the Florida Sexual Predator Act, rejecting arguments that it denied due process to those on the list by automatically labeling them as predators based on their convictions and not on individual assessments of the risk they pose. The 3rd District Court of Appeal in Miami had ruled the law unconstitutional two years ago, but a few months later the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland upheld it.
The majority also rejected an argument that the law violated the separation of powers because it left judges no discretion. "The Act is an exercise of the public-policy-making function of the Legislature to declare that persons who have been convicted of certain offenses should be designated as 'sexual predators' and should be subjected to the registration, public-notification and other requirements of the Act," Bell wrote. In dissent, Anstead wrote that there was a key difference between the Connecticut's law and the Florida law: Connecticut lists sexual "offenders" rather than "predators." The two terms are significantly different, Anstead wrote.
"Because Florida's Act automatically designates them as 'sexual predators,' they must be provided with a fair opportunity to contest that fact, if we are to honor the principles of procedural due process guaranteed by the United State Constitution," Anstead wrote. However, he added, the problem could be easily fixed by striking the word 'predator' from the law and using the word "offender."
: by WFTV.com
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What the news article failed to report is what the Florida Supreme court said on pg-2 of their decision.
"We decline at this time to consider the substantive-due-process and equal-protection challenges briefed by the parties but not addressed by the district courts below."
Further, that Justice J.Anstead wrote quite a good "affirming in part, and dissenting in part" opinion. All-in-all the door is not yet closed.
Another very significant point is, that (in dissent) Anstead mentioned there is a very significant difference between a "sex offender" and a "sexual predator," each having rights that the other may not have. This is something we have stressed for some time.
Maybe it is time for the media, public servants and legislatures to recognize that distinction.
This court like so many others still bypasses this fact, while the legislature permits listing a person based only on the fact that the person has a prior criminal conviction, and therefore a determination of "dangerousness" is not relevant to the statutory scheme, citing as authority the 2003 US Supreme court case in Connecticut.
One would think that is where the argument should end, but there is something that is being missed, the US Supreme court held that because it knew that ultimately, Connecticut would be holding a hearing on all because they are a state of a tiered registry. The US Supreme court felt there is no reason to overturn the case when the hearing would ultimately be held no matter what they held.
However, in most all states, tiered registries do not exist, and there is never any hearing held. In Florida, their "Predator Laws" hold hearings, hence this would not be an issue for those predators, but would be for all other sex offenders.
Unfortunately, no one has yet raised this argument for any court to decide. The door is still open in multiple ways.
eAdvocate (Copyright 2005 - All Rights Reserved)
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