Free Republic

The murder of Kate Steinle in San Francisco by a seven-time felon and five-time deportee has sparked a nationwide debate about sanctuary cities and immigration policy.We recently learned that in one eight-month period in 2014, more than 8,100 deportable aliens were released by sanctuary jurisdictions. Of those, three thousand were felons and 62 percent had a prior criminal record. Nineteen hundred were later rearrested a total of 4,300 times on 7,500 different offenses.But this debate over sanctuary policies has brought attention to another horrifying result of the federal government’s refusal to enforce our immigration law: the failure to deport convicted...

CNN) -- Joshua Gravens can't do a lot of the normal things parents do, like drop his son off at school, attend parent-teacher conferences, or take his daughter to the park, a library or anywhere else children gather. For the offense of inappropriately touching his 8-year-old sister when he was 12, Gravens, 26, has spent almost half his life as a registered sex offender. The designation subjects him to residency and zoning restrictions that dictate where he can live and spend time. It has also made him the target of harassment, death threats and hampered his ability to find a...

PENSACOLA, Fla. -- Ashley Elenea Burkett, a 32-year-old who taught reading and special-education students in Santa Rosa County, Fla., and was the assistant coach for the volleyball team, and April Burford Watson, a 33-year-old who taught math and was a junior varsity cheerleader adviser, each were sentenced to 15 months in state prison today in a sex-with-students case.

Many people are not aware a registered sex offender maybe living in their neighborhood. Recently a local radio station in my area referred its listners to FamilyWatchdog. Many were shocked to find the number of sex offenders living nearby. I couldn't help but think this is also true for people nationwide. Consequently I am providing the link to Freepers. Just enter your street address, city, state and zipcode in the windows provided at the homepage then click search. A map will appear showing where registered sex offenders live and work near you. There is a map legend to help you...

VINTON, Iowa (AP) -- A trial date has been set for a former high school teacher and coach who faces charges related to an alleged sexual relationship with a high school girl. Trial for Dan Duello, 35, of Mount Auburn, was set for Oct. 2. The former Vinton-Shellsburg Community School District teacher and coach was charged in March with sexual exploitation by a school employee after a two-year investigation. He was accused of having a sexual relationship in 2004 with an 18-year-old student at Washington High School in Vinton. Duello faces up to five years in prison and a $7,500...

NEW HAMPTON — A high school teacher guilty of making advances on a student via the Internet received a five-year suspended sentence today and must register as a sex offender. Lee Ayers, 50, initially was charged in October with sexual exploitation by a school employee, a Class D felony. The former social studies teacher pleaded guilty in January. He will be on probation for two to five years. A judge today in Chickasaw County District Court also sentenced Ayers, a former basketball and volleyball coach, to pay a $1,000 fine, seek mental health counseling and to receive a substance abuse...

Megan Kanka, Jessica Lunsford, Shasta Groene.These girls, all believed to be sexually molested by men and two of them killed, have generated headlines, prompted states to stiffen penalties against offenders and caused many parents to fear their child could be next.Yet gut-wrenching as these high-profile cases are, they don't tell the whole story of sex offenders in America. They don't reflect the surprisingly good news: Sex crimes against children have dropped dramatically in the last decade. An online national sex-offender registry was launched in July. And recent research shows doctors can better predict which offenders may strike again. "There's a...

The Des Moines Register is a Gannett newspaper; therefore, only title and link are allowed: Click here to read the story in a new window.

TALLAHASSEE — State law enforcement officials said Thursday they alerted the Citrus County Sheriff's Office six months ago of potentially missing sexual offenders, including the man charged this month with abducting and murdering Jessica Lunsford. But officials at the sheriff's office said Friday they could not verify whether they ever received the letter. It required them to verify the addresses of 58 sexual predators or offenders in the county who had possibly violated their sexual offender registration requirements. If the system had worked correctly, John Couey might have been arrested in November and could have been behind bars at the...

Shirley Iverson was home on break from her freshman year in college when a man approached her as she sat in her parked car and asked for a ride. Iverson, just 18 and raised in the small town of Crookston, Minn., said sure.Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. got in and Iverson drove away. What happened next on that October 1974 day in Crookston was Rodriguez's first of several known attacks on women, according to court documents that lay out his history of abuse, sexual assaults and rapes committed between stays in prison. < -snip- > Iverson, who now lives in Oregon and...