Free Republic

"Gulag" is the Russian acronym made famous by Alexander Solzhenitsyn to describe the vast network of Soviet slave labor camps in which millions died. It is thus one more sign of the moral degradation of Amnesty International that the pressure group is now calling the U.S. detention facility for Taliban and al Qaeda suspects at Guantanamo Bay "the gulag of our time." At a press conference Wednesday releasing its annual human rights report, William Schultz, the executive director of Amnesty's U.S. branch, called the U.S. a "leading purveyor and practitioner" of torture. He urged foreign governments to investigate and arrest...

Ban sex offenders from Georgia May 4, 2005 By William John Hagan Houston Home Journal (Warner-Robins, Perry Georgia) http://news.mywebpal.com/index.cfm?pnpid=963 Despite the recent spree of abductions and murders by registered sex offenders, this should in no way be considered a new problem. According to a U.S. Department of Justice report in 1994, within three years of release, 2.5 percent of rapists were arrested for another rape, and sex offenders were about four times more likely than non-sex offenders to be arrested for another sex crime after their discharge from prison. Many states have the common sense to warn neighbors when a...

Molester's Suicide Raises Questions By ALLEN G. BREED The Associated Press OCALA -- For nearly four years, Chuckie Claxton lived anonymously amid the gated horse pastures and moss-draped oaks of the Florida Orange Groves subdivision. Then the crimes of others drew new attention to his own. In the statewide outrage over the arrests of sex offenders in the separate killings of two young girls, somebody in the Groves went to the state police Web site to see if any sex offenders were living in the neighborhood. That person -- authorities don't know who -- found an entry about Claxton's molestation...

Most Sexual Offenders Can Be Treated Richard Brimer I am a mental health professional who has been practicing in this community for years. I have found my work of counseling children and adults with mental, emotional and relational problems to be very rewarding. I take pride in what I do and am eager to tell others about it. However, when it comes to one specialty area of my practice, evaluating and treating sex offenders, I find myself hesitant to reveal and needing to explain what I do. This is especially true in light of the recent abductions, sexual assault and...

More than an hour into a meeting about a Level 3 sex offender new to Bloomington, one person in the crowd of 180 asked about the offense that resulted in the man's classification. A Bloomington police sergeant started answering at the Wednesday night meeting, but was soon interrupted. "Wrong, wrong, that's wrong," said James Ernest Williams, the Level 3 sex offender, who had arrived at the meeting at Northwestern College of Chiropractic in Bloomington moments earlier, said Bloomington police Cmdr. Kevin Herman, the department's spokesman. Who better to answer the question than the man himself, authorities thought. But things didn't...

Police Issue Warning About Sex Offender Working As Clown Man Says He's Trying To Move On DES MOINES, Iowa -- Eastern Iowa police issued a warning about a registered sex offender who's now working as a clown at children's birthday parties. Stanley Johnston was convicted of lascivious acts with a child under the age of 13 back in 1993. Police said he's served his prison time and was released. Marion police put out a public alert Thursday that Johnston was now working as Magi the clown. Marion's police chief said he's not judging Johnston, but said the public has the...

Convicted sex offender Justin Farnsworth said he petitioned for custody of his two daughters and his girlfriend's daughter because he loved his kids and could provide the best home for them. But the Hastings man, who had been convicted of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old in 1994 and underwent sexual offender treatment, now admits he struggled to control the bad impulses and thoughts he had about his girlfriend's 9-year-old daughter. Dakota County Judge Joseph T. Carter awarded Farnsworth, 31, primary custody of his two daughters in May and his girlfriend's child in October after a court-appointed evaluator said it would be...

Five Girls Report Attacks At Three Hotels LOS ANGELES -- Anaheim police released a composite sketch Monday of a man wanted for groping five girls at three Disneyland-area hotels.

PHOENIX, Arizona (AP) -- Face-scanning technology designed to recognize registered sex offenders and missing children has been installed in a Phoenix school in a pilot project that some law enforcement and education officials hope to expand. Two cameras, which are expected to be operational next week, will scan faces of people who enter the office at Royal Palm Middle School. They are linked to state and national databases of sex offenders, missing children and alleged abductors. An officer will be dispatched to the school in the event of a possible match, said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. "If it works...

SEATTLE - At Safeco Field you expect to hear to vendors selling programs, peanuts and Cracker Jacks. You don't expect this: "Get your information! Sex offender site in the neighborhood!" "I haven't got $200 an hour to pay a lawyer," said Mike Richmond. "So this is our ammunition." His ammunition is a bright orange flier, warning baseball fans about a proposed sex offender house not far from Safeco Field. "I'm not mother Theresa. I don't want these people in my neighborhood," said Richmond. The site he's talking about is one of four proposed locations; North Bend, Peasley Canyon in Auburn,...

The City of Seattle and Concerned Citizens of Auburn and Federal Way are making legal maneuvers to get a site near North Bend back on the list of candidates for a sex-offender facility. Attorneys for North Bend, who felt they had won their battle, say they are disappointed by the legal motions filed by Seattle and Concerned Citizens. ``I can't believe the gall of the opponents of two other sites to interfere in our lawsuit,'' said Vince Lombardi, an attorney representing the North Bend community. ``It's dirty pool. I'm not going to intervene in the other groups' lawsuits -- although...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- When Gerald Bennett, a convicted sex offender, tried to surrender to police on a bench warrant, they let him go on his way. Six days later, he killed a woman and raped a 13-year-old girl. In a strongly worded opinion, a federal judge has ruled that even though Glenolden police and Delaware County Prison officials bungled in checking the warrant, that wasn't reason enough to allow the victims' relatives to sue the officials. U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell dismissed a lawsuit against then-Glenolden Police Chief Edward Cooke and other officials, although he said the victims ''endured unspeakable...

South Seattle residents expressed outrage yesterday to state social welfare officials who are weighing whether to put new sex offender housing in their neighborhood, while City Council members asked the state for more time to consider the effect. Last month, officials from the Department of Social and Health Services announced that a remodeled warehouse at 132 S. Spokane St. was the fourth King County location being considered for the site. If selected, the brick building, in an industrial neighborhood near the Spokane Street viaduct, would serve as transitional, community-based housing for up to 12 sex offenders who have completed treatment...

A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a Minnesota law that required a man to register as a sex offender even though he has not been convicted of a sex crime. Minnesota's sex offender registration law and the Minnesota Supreme Court's interpretation of it "turn reason and fairness on its head," wrote Judge C. Arlen Beam, who nonetheless concurred in the unanimous decision of a three-judge panel of the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis. Brian Gunderson was charged in 1998 in St. Louis County with first-degree criminal sexual conduct after a woman he met in a...

MCNEIL ISLAND, Pierce County — John Mathers needs to get a life, and the state of Washington is eager to help. A vocational specialist helps the sex offender look for a job, and state real-estate brokers are house hunting. His probation officer offers her golf clubs. His therapist is giving advice on dating. It's not going well. Every time he ferries over from McNeil Island's Special Commitment Center, he has to tell prospective employers that he's a sexually violent predator. He must recite his convictions for child molestation, rape and serial escape, crimes that have kept him behind bars most...

SEATTLE -- A federal judge has struck down a state law designed to protect police personal information, effectively reviving a Mill Creek man's Web site that posted names, addresses and home phone numbers of police in Western Washington.

CAPE CORAL, May 9, 2003- A Cape Coral man is trying to clear his name after bogus fliers were circulated in his neighborhood accusing him of being a child molester. For Michael Wheeler, it's a living nightmare. *** Imagine what it would feel like to find out your neighbors think you're a sex offender. Read the flier (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader - free download) "The first thought that went through my head is how could I be accused of something I think is the worst crime anybody could commit," said Wheeler. Wheeler is living in a nightmare. "None of the...

TACOMA -- A counselor at the state's Special Commitment Center for sex offenders on McNeil Island was charged yesterday with possessing child pornography. Jeffrey Anthony Thornton pleaded not guilty to the charge and had bail set at $50,000, according to state officials. The case has shocked and disappointed his co-workers at the center, according to its superintendent, Mark Seling. "I'm stunned," Seling said. "It's very difficult." Thornton, 35, coordinated and oversaw visits to the center, picking visitors up on the mainland and escorting them to the facility on the grounds of the McNeil Island state prison. The special center houses...

Suit against Wenatchee in sex cases reinstatedJudge's shock ruling says key files were withheld By MIKE BARBER SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER In a stunning and strongly worded decision, a Spokane County judge yesterday reinstated a key civil lawsuit against the city of Wenatchee in the infamous child sex ring investigations of 1994-95. Superior Court Judge Michael Donohue agreed that key files concerning Bob Perez, the former Wenatchee police lead detective in the case, were never turned over to lawyers for the plaintiffs. They include East Wenatchee pastor Roby Roberson and others acquitted in 1995 of bizarre accusations of child molestation that...

Lost: 2,900 sex offenders. We swear they were right here just a minute ago. Not all are housebroken or declawed. If located, do not try returning them yourself. Contact the Wisconsin Department of Corrections; we'll send a guy with a net. Reward? Not with a billion dollar state budget deficit there ain't. You might want to refrain from asking all your neighbors if they're the pervs the state is looking for. People hate that. Our state needs help. The Department of Corrections has mislaid nearly one-third of the registered sex offenders in Wisconsin, according to a report this week....