He was 18, she was 14, man on sex offender list from technicality

2-28-2015 Michigan:

A young man is listed as a registered sex offender for life due to a high school relationship. Evans Costner was 18 at the time. His girlfriend, 14. But it comes down to a technicality because he was 23 days too old.

"My son has to spend the rest of his life on the registry," Donna Costner said. Costner had consensual sex with his high school freshman girlfriend. "We talked about and decided to do it," he said. "We took all the proper steps, wore protection."

Having sex with someone under 16 in the state of Michigan is illegal. FOX 2: "Didn't you know that was under age?" "No, well I knew it was under age," Costner said. "But I didn't think it would be such a big punishment."

Attorney Cheryl Carpenter said Costner did commit an offense - one which he pleaded guilty to. Costner said he realizes that being on the sex offender registry's implications. "Pretty much, my life is over," he said.

"Sex offender registry is different," Carpenter said. "That should not be applied in cases where teenagers in high school have consensual sex. Costner would not have been on the list, except for 23 days. "Twenty-three days does not make him a monster," Donna Costner said.

Pedophile Panic at the Salvation Army: No Teen Boys Allowed, Too Dangerous

12-2-2014 Tennessee:

When it comes to helping families in need, the Salvation Army turns a cold shoulder to one class of people: Teenage boys. A family in Johnson City, TN, found this out recently when, on a freezing cold night, they asked the organization for shelter. But because their family of five contained a 15-year-old boy, they were turned down.

As the dad, Tim Lejeune, explained to WMC Action News 5:

"They said he's too old to stay on the women's side, because of the women running around in their pajamas and they said he's too young to stay on the men's side in case some pervert wants to do whatever," Lejeune said.

Lejeune says his wife, their 15 year-old son, 16 year-old daughter and five year-old son, all down on their luck, have been living in their car for the last several weeks.

So instead the family headed to their car. The temperature: 18 degrees.

Nightmarish Catch-22: Restricting Where Sex Offenders Live Forces Them to Be Homeless and Makes Us Less Safe

10-25-2014 Florida, National:

On the outskirts of Florida's Miami-Dade County, dozens of individuals formerly convicted of sexual offenses live as exiles on an abandoned strip of land near a railroad track. The area has no shelter from the elements, no running water, and no bathrooms. The most fortunate inhabitants of this makeshift encampment sleep in cars or in tents. Others make do with a tarp or anything else that passes as cover. Each night brings new threats of violence, malnutrition, and disease.

The images are disturbingly reminiscent of scenes from nearly a decade ago, when a collection of over 100 former sexual offenders formed a similar camp under a bridge spanning the Julia Tuttle Causeway. Local officials scattered that Skid Row sometime in 2010, following a barrage of condemnation by the public.

Like the people under the bridge, the people by the tracks did not simply fall into these tragic circumstances. They were shoved.

Miami-Dade County has forced them and hundreds more into homelessness with an ordinance that prohibits those convicted of certain sexual offenses from living within 2,500 feet – nearly half a mile – of a school. The ordinance has kept many of the inhabitants from living with family or loved ones who could offer shelter, and it has made it extraordinarily difficult to find affordable housing in the mostly urban county. More importantly, the ordinance creates the very conditions that undermine its stated rationale of public safety.

Statutory rape victim forced to pay child support

9-4-2014 Arizona:

Nick Olivas became a father at 14, a fact he wouldn't learn for eight years.

While in high school, Olivas had sex with a 20-year-old woman. As he sees it now, she took advantage of a lonely kid going through a rough patch at home.

State law says a child younger than 15 cannot consent with an adult under any circumstance, making Olivas a rape victim. But Olivas didn't press charges and says he didn't realize at the time that it was even something to consider.

The two went their separate ways. Olivas, now 24 and living in Phoenix, graduated from high school, went to college and became a medical assistant.

Then two years ago, the state served him with papers demanding child support. That's how he found out he had a then-6-year-old daughter.

"It was a shock," he said. "I was living my life and enjoying being young. To find out you have a 6-year-old? It's unexplainable. It freaked me out."

I was taking pictures of my daughters. A stranger thought I was exploiting them.

8-30-2012 National:

Jeff Gates is a Web designer, writer and artist in Silver Spring. His latest project is the Chamomile Tea Party.

After my family arrives on the Cape May ferry for our annual vacation to the Jersey Shore, I take pictures of our two daughters on the ferry’s deck as we leave the harbor. I’ve been doing this since they were 3 and 4 years old. They are now 16 and 17. Each photo chronicles one year in the life of our family and our daughters’ growth into the beautiful young women they have become. Getting just the right exposure and interaction between the two has never been easy. They’ve gone from squirming toddlers to ambivalent teens who barely put up with their dad’s ongoing photography project.

But this year, everything was perfect. It has been an extraordinary summer in the Mid-Atlantic: mild heat with low humidity. On that first day of vacation, the sea was calm and the sky a brilliant blue. As I focused on the image in my camera’s viewfinder, the girls stood in their usual spot against the railing at the back of the boat. I was looking for just the right pose — often waiting for that perfect smile or pausing as they fixed their hair after a strong ocean breeze. I was trying to get just the right exposure and flash combination to bring out their faces in the harsh midday sun.

Totally engaged with the scene in front of me, I jumped when a man came up beside me and said to my daughters: “I would be remiss if I didn’t ask if you were okay.”

There’s Literally No Evidence That Restricting Where Sex Offenders Can Live Accomplishes Anything

8-25-2014 National:

On Thursday, Joseph Goldstein of the New York Times reported that "Dozens of sex offenders who have satisfied their sentences in New York State are being held in prison beyond their release dates because of a new interpretation of a state law that governs where they can live." In short, since 2005, sex offenders in the state can't live within 1,000 feet of a school, and a February ruling from the state's Department of Corrections and Community Supervision extended that restriction to homeless shelters.

Because the onus is on sex offenders to find approved housing before they’re released, Goldstein reported, they’ve been left with very few options, especially in densely-populated New York City, where there are schools everywhere. This has led to an uncomfortable legal limbo and sparked at least one lawsuit (so far) on behalf of an offender who is still in custody even though he was supposed to be out by now.

Bill targets Missouri lobbyist with sex offender conviction

4-2-2014 Missouri:

JEFFERSON CITY — A registered sex offender who works as a lobbyist said Tuesday that, to keep working, he will comply with any new reporting requirements lawmakers might choose to impose.

The House General Laws Committee yesterday held a short hearing on a bill to require lobbyists to disclose whether they are registered sex offenders on forms filed annually with the Missouri Ethics Commission. Rep. Genise Montecillo, D-St. Louis, said she filed the bill in response to a notice from House Chief Clerk Adam Crumbliss about restrictions on the activities of Parker Bena, a lobbyist since 2007.

"Most people view this building as a safe building, and sometimes folks let their guard down," Montecillo said during the hearing. "I think people should at least be aware that there is one in the building."

The committee, chaired by Rep. Caleb Jones, R-Columbia, did not vote on the bill.

In a telephone interview after the hearing, which he did not attend, Bena said he had no objections to the new reporting requirement. "I know it is a matter of procedure, and I am fine with that," he said. "I will do what the law requires of me."

Life still hard after exoneration, freedom for Louisiana man

6-15-2014 Louisiana:

LEESVILLE, Louisiana — Rickie Johnson had spent almost half his life in prison when he was exonerated in 2008. Now 58, he struggles to make ends meet.

He has no health insurance; is ineligible for Medicare and Medicaid; and — with a quarter-century of work years lost — has no Social Security or retirement savings.

Johnson runs a leather shop in Leesville. He picked up the trade during his years in Angola State Penitentiary, where he spent most his time after being wrongfully convicted of aggravated rape in Many in 1983.

In middle age, he can finally spend time with the children he left behind as toddlers, and with their children. But retirement is a pipe dream.

Louisiana law allows wrongfully convicted people to petition the state for compensation — $25,000 per year for each year of incarceration. But the law caps the overall amount at $250,000. The money he received from the state is quickly running out.

Local registering agencies harass sex offender registrants, sometimes resulting in criminal charges

5-12-2014 Oregon:

This is a story that has to be told, happening today in Oregon and maybe elsewhere too. Tom Madison has documented the problem in such detail that it is impossible for us to do better, accordingly we refer to his documented site which also contains videos of the registration process as they took place.

What we see happening here, and elsewhere, is, lawmakers writing laws in a BROAD CONCEPTUAL sense, leaving the details of how to implement it to more local jurisdictions. And without controls on how to implement laws, it allows prejudices and biases of local agencies to implement processes that almost guarantee failure on the part of the registrant and sometimes results in "Failure to Register Charges"; harassment of registrants.

See how this happens on Activist Central. This is exactly what happens in the US Congress as well.

Ex-Sex Offender Comes in Solid Third Place in Cuyahoga County Executive Race

5-9-2014 Missouri:

Tim Russo ran one hell of a race. A race worthy of a vote. I am not afraid to say that, yes, I voted for a sex offender to run Cuyahoga County.

There were many more people out there who punched a ballot with Russo's name on it. He gathered 9,171 votes in the race, well behind Armond Budish, who was pretty much anointed the new king of the Democratic Party at the county level before a ballot was even cast, and Shirley Smith who currently serves as a state rep. Russo, with all of his baggage, did manage to yield far more votes than former Sheriff Bob Reid and former North Olmsted Mayor Thomas O'Grady.

He did this while wearing a scarlet letter that was displayed loudly every time his name was mentioned (which was as infrequently as possible). He also did this by not accepting a penny in campaign contributions.

My Son, the Sex Offender: One Mother's Mission to Fight the Law

5-8-2014 Missouri:

In the run up to Halloween one year, Sharie Keil saw something that really made her jump: Missouri governor Jay Nixon, then the attorney general.

He was on television to announce that registered sex offenders were hereby banned from participating in her favorite holiday. On threat of a year in jail, they had to stay inside and display a sign saying they had no candy. The goal was “to protect our children,” as Nixon put it, but Keil heard only a peal of political hysteria.

She is not a sex offender nor, at 63, a new-age apologist for pedophiles or predators. She is a mother, however, and in 1998 her 17-year-old son had sex with a pre-teen girl at a party. He was convicted of aggravated sexual abuse, which got him six months in county jail and a lifetime of mandatory registration as a sex offender. Ten years later, after the Halloween law, Keil felt shocked into action.

”As my husband says, I decided to go on the war path,” she remembers.

Today, she’s at the forefront of a growing fight against sex offender registries, a shame-free alliance of offenders and their families, supported by researchers and some advocates who helped pass stringent anti-abuse laws in the first place. They’re organized (albeit loosely) under Reform Sex Offender Laws, a five-year-old lobby that claims 38 state affiliates and a steady patter of legal and legislative victories.

Today's Untouchables: Sex Offenders

4-15-2014 Global:

Sex offenders are the foremost pariahs of our current day. In opinion polls, even intravenous drug users place higher. A recent series of high profile cases involving child sexual abuse have revealed the maddening frequency of the problem. My hometown newspaper now exists in electronic format, and as I read the local news, it seems that every other week brings a report of a new crime against minors. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Most are the product of incest, unreported, hushed up within families. The offenses that occur in a public setting, among those who aren't blood relatives, most often make it to most peoples' attention.

One of the few places sex offenders are welcomed and made to feel included are in houses of worship. It shouldn’t be said that the red carpet is necessarily rolled out for them. Yesterday, during Meeting for Worship, an issue that has lain smoldering for over a year once again took center stage. A frequently tone-deaf member of the Meeting implied strongly in her vocal ministry that the sex offender who has been Worshiping with us has no right to participate. He has provided no problems whatsoever for anyone since he began attending, three or so years ago. In her mind, exhaustive policies made to ensure child safety were a waste of time, since there was no way to contain the potential threat.

Billerica father contests 'dangerous sex offender' label

3-31-2014 Massachusetts:

LOWELL -- When Sunday ___ (The Father) was arrested on his front lawn in front of family and his neighbors last May for failure to register as a sex offender, he claims the Billerica police incorrectly labeled him a "dangerous sex offender.''

He argues that the Billerica police "attempted to criminalize the defendant as a dangerous sex offender.'' The Father, who is black, also suggests he is the victim of racial profiling by the police.

A court hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, when he, a Level 1 sex offender (least likely to re-offend) will argue that he was improperly charged with failure to register as a sex offender and resisting arrest.

Neither he nor the Billerica Police Department could be reached for comment.

The incident that triggered the court battle began on May 21, 2013, when Billerica Officer Scott Peloquin pulled over the Father's three sons. When Peloquin learned that the boys' father was at home, he told the boys he was headed to their house.

That action put the boys "under fear and intimidation by (Peloquin) driving behind them ... through the streets and neighborhood to their home,'' the father alleges.

The father wrote that he was targeted because he is a Level 1 sex offender.

Norfolk man gets chance to be free of the label 'offender'

3-30-2014 Nebraska:

LINCOLN — Randy Weich stands before two rare opportunities that could change the course of his life.

One could restore his reputation.

The other could revive a dream.

The 25-year-old Norfolk man recently participated in a free-agent tryout for a chance to punt in the National Football League. His odds of making it, though slim, would improve if not for three words that turn up on the background check: registered sex offender.

So when Weich isn't punting, he's working toward a pardon.

He took a step closer Thursday when the Nebraska Board of Pardons granted his request for a hearing. On May 20 he'll get to make a case for clemency, which also would scrub his name from the sex offender registry.

The Pardons Board rarely considers the applications of sex offenders. But board members said they are willing to listen to this one because Weich has lived an exemplary life except for one crime committed as a 14-year-old.

He didn't rape, fondle or even touch anyone. In 2003 he and two other teenage boys made a secret video of two or three female classmates using a shower at his mother's house in Pierce, Neb. The incident involved a game of truth-or-dare and the camera also caught one of the girls using the toilet, according to documents in his Pardons Board application.

Three years later the video was discovered and turned over to police by the girls. Weich, who had turned 18, was charged as an adult and later convicted of two felony counts of child pornography.

His many supporters have argued that while Weich made a serious mistake, the charges didn't fit the crime. They pointed out that the video wasn't uploaded to the Internet, nor did Weich and the other boys use it for sexual gratification.

But the video still caused harm.

A 46-year-old Pierce man whose then-13-year-old daughter was on the tape said she underwent counseling and struggled with trust issues. He also said she endured pressure from those in Pierce who resented the charges against a star high school athlete.

San Juan County Sheriff's Office deputies ramp up sex offender registration check

3-23-2014 New Mexico:

Drawing attention: Publicized process attracts neighbors' attention during routine checks

AZTEC — San Juan County Sheriff's Office Deputy Robert Tallman slowly drove a truck — one with a sign that read "Sex Offender Registration Unit" on the tailgate and the side door — through a Crouch Mesa neighborhood on Wednesday.

Two deputies followed in cars with their police lights flashing.

The purpose of the visit was to verify sex offender registration information. The sign and the flashing lights are meant to draw attention to the convicted sex offenders and warn neighbors, Sheriff Ken Christesen said.

Christesen said he has ramped up the sex offender registration program since taking office in 2011. He said he has increased the number of registration checks, improved the program's technology and publicized the process.

"I'm not going to ever be soft on sex offenders," Christesen said. "I want to make sure everybody knows where they live. If the sex offenders don't like it, maybe they should move to a different state."

Making sex offenders' addresses readily available serves the public because sex offenders have a high rate of recidivism, Christesen said. If a child goes missing, police can quickly check people who live near the area and have committed a sex crime against a child, he said.

'Let me live my life': Registered sex offender shares his side of story

3-23-2014 New Jersey:

Victor Vega is a registered sex offender.

He’ll admit to that, no problem.

He is not, however, a pedophile. He is not a child molester, and he has no interest messing with anyone’s kids, he said.

“A lot of people don’t know the story,” said Vega, 44, from his West Main Street home. “They figure, because someone’s a sex offender, ‘Oh, he likes little kids.’ But that’s not always the case.

“Before you go judge someone, do your homework.”

Vega is one of three sex offenders who were registered as living within 1,000 feet of Par Excellence Academy, a local elementary school. By law, registered adult sex offenders in Ohio are not allowed to live within 1,000 feet of a school, preschool or day care facility, but that restriction applies only to people convicted after July 1, 2003.

Vega says his offense was in late 2002 and his conviction in early 2003. Newark Law Director Doug Sassen said officials are still working to determine Vega’s exact conviction date — it was out of state, which makes tracking down records more difficult — but if Vega’s story holds up, he can stay put.

Par Excellence officials said they want Vega and the other two offenders to move, but Vega doesn’t think he should have to. Moving is expensive, he’s happy where he is now, and he’s not causing any trouble, he said.

This past week, Vega sat down with The Advocate to share his side of the story.

Sex offender home told to disband

3-14-2014 Missouri:

City of Springfield issued order on 'Recovery Chapel'

A group home on the Springfield's southeast side is being told to close.

Four of the eight people in the house on the 1800 block of Crestview have past sexual crimes. Farris Robertson, Chaplin Emeritus of Recovery Chapel, says the men are being given a second chance to get back into society, while at the same time being watched carefully.

"We harbor no predators," said Robertson. "We in fact are the first in front line to identify abnormal and unacceptable behavior and we talk to them about it and that they are going to have to change and if they don't, they leave and we are the first ones to notify the authority."

Friday, the city denied a permit for that group home saying city ordinance forbids a group home setting for several convicted criminals in a single-family neighborhood. The city is ordering Recovery Chapel to comply with the city code within 30 days.

Living with 290: Traveling to Cabo San Lucas

1-16-2014 California:

My boyfriend and I traveled to Cabo San Lucas as we do every year. After several scans of our passports at us airport we board the plane. He’s is a RSO from 20 years ago which was a *** deal to begin with!!

We land in Baja head to Mexican customs we are pulled out of line taken into this little room where they proceed to tell him he is not allowed in the country… They fill out all forms escort us with 5 armed guards back to the same airplane we just arrived on and sent us back to USA..

What the hell is going on? When we arrive to us customs they say have a nice day and they have heard of this happening more and more?? What a way to ruin a 10 day vacation!!!

Got off plane and flew to Hawaii for the week would rather spend my money in the USA anyway!!! As far as I am concerned its over priced there anyway Americans are not safe and they can make rules up as they go!!! Take Mexico and shove it where the sun don’t shine…. ..Source.. by CA-RSOL Living with 290 Series

NOTE: This post on CA-RSOL website has over 100 comments and other stories being told about International Travel problems.

Inside the life of a registered sex offender

2-23-2014 Colorado:

According to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, there are currently more than 10,000 registered sex offenders living in Colorado. Chances are some of them live in your community.

9NEWS was given a rare look at what life is like for a registered sex offender years after they committed their crime.

"August 16th of 2006... I was arrested for chatting online with an undercover officer... I thought this person was a 13-year-old girl," said Brent (we are not using Brent's last name due to privacy), a registered sex offender.

On that warm August day, Brent found himself surrounded by officers inside his high paying job at Lockheed Martin. From that moment forward he would be labeled a sex offender and lose every ounce of freedom.

"I was charged with criminal intent of sexual assault on a child," said Brent.

"I was just shocked. I don't know what else to say. I cried," Brent's wife Amanda replied.

In the months that followed, Amanda would learn more about her husband's problem. It turns out Brent had been battling his demons for years. In 2003, Brent says, he tried chatting with an underage girl online but got cold feet and backed away. Stressed by this information, Amanda nearly walked away from Brent... But ultimately, she stayed.

Oregon sex offender registry to see changes

2-11-2014 Oregon:

When a convicted sex offender is ready for parole, the state makes a risk assessment to determine if he’s likely to once again commit a sexual crime.

Tyler Lupoli, who served his sentence for sexually abusing four children at a 24-Hour Fitness in Hillsboro, was released from parole and is unsupervised because officials determined he was not a predatory risk.

The father of one of his victim’s — who became an advocate for sexual abuse victims in 2005 — is not happy.

“He’s not going to be watched, he’s not going to be supervised,” the father said. “The community does not need to be notified because he’s not rated as a predator, which I believe is false.”

“Certain sex offenders are rated as predatory or non-predatory,” he said. “I’d love to see and have that become a much stricter ratings assessment.”

Changes are coming to the way Oregon classifies sex offenders.

Last summer, Oregon lawmakers passed a bill that mandates all sex offenders be classified by their risk level in society. It also establishes rules for community notification. Now, only the predatory offenders are on the state’s public sex offender website.

Starting on December 1, 2016 the state will be on a three-tier sex offender registry, similar to Washington.

All sex offenders will be given a risk assessment, which will rate whether they are level 1, 2 or 3. Currently, the state only publishes public information for offenders that are considered predatory — only about 2.5% of them.

The new law will put the more at-risk offenders on the public site, but not the low level ones. It will even give people on level 1 and 2 a chance to be reclassified and possibly off the list completely. ..Source.. by Chris Holmstrom