It must be rough being a woman named Eddie Manley. Maybe that's why she's a bitter old lady. She reminds me of a certain reptile from South Florida, actually.
The only thing worse than being a woman named Eddie Manley is being the guy dating a woman named Eddie Manley.
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2015-03-30/madison-county-woman-fires-gun-send-message-sex-offender
Madison County woman fires gun to 'send message' to sex offender
By WAYNE FORD
Updated Monday, March 30, 2015 - 9:17pm
Authorities arrested on Saturday a 61-year-old Madison County woman after she allegedly fired two gun shots as a way of sending “a message” to a convicted sex offender she didn’t want on her property.
Eddie L. Manley of Paoli Road, Carlton, was charged with aggravated assault, making a terroristic threat and pointing a pistol at another.
The shooting occurred outside Manley’s home, where the 53-year-old victim, who is a registered sex offender convicted of sexual exploitation of children, was shot in the foot with a .45-caliber handgun loaded with .410-gauge shotgun shells, according to a Madison County Sheriff’s report.
The man had cuts on his toes caused by one pellet, deputies said.
The victim said Manley’s boyfriend allowed him to come to the house to gather some belongings he left while in prison. While collecting his items, he said Manley exited her home and told him to leave, according to the report. The man said he didn’t respond to her order, then heard a gun shot. Manley began yelling and threatened the man’s life, telling him he would “never hurt another teenager again,” deputies said.
Manley told deputies that the man lied about why he was in prison and she had warned him previously to never come on her property. When she saw him, she became angry, took her revolver, with the brand name “The Judge,” and fired it twice to send “a message,” according to the report.
Blogroll of nominees for the Annual Shiitake Awards, which spotlights the dumbest "sex offender-related stories of the year." The Shiitake Awards is a project of Once Fallen. For a full description of the Shiitake Awards and its mission, or to learn how to submit a nominee, click on the "About the Shiitake Awards" tab. Articles on this site fall under Fair Use Doctrine (Copyright Act of 1976, 17 USC 107) for purposes related to news, information, and social commentary.
Monday, March 30, 2015
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Nakia Cooper's idea of lip service is talking out her other end
Nakia Cooper advertises herself as giving "news with a little attitude," but her latest article is devoid of a little common sense.
So, what do 21 Registered Citizens have to do with a story about child abandonment, anyways? Nothing, other that they live in the same shitty community.
Nakia Cooper apparently doesn't know the difference between lip service and talking out of your ass.
http://www.click2houston.com/news/hpd-mom-leaves-2-kids-alone-in-apartment-in-area-where-many-sex-offender-live/31870786
HPD: 2 kids found alone in apartment in area where many sex offenders live
Author: Nakia Cooper, Sr. Web Editor
Published On: Mar 18 2015 03:06:04 PM CDT Updated On: Mar 18 2015 03:18:46 PM CDT
HOUSTON -
A mother is accused of leaving her two small children alone in an apartment located in an area where nearly two dozen sex offenders live.
Teara Anderson, 20, is charged with abandoning a child.
According to Houston police, Anderson left her two children, ages 2 years old and 2 months old, alone in an apartment on Jan. 3.
Neighbors heard the children crying and saw the toddler standing at the front door, which was open.
The neighbors suspected the children were alone and called police to investigate. Police arrived to find the children alone in the apartment.
Anderson and the children's father returned about 20 minutes after officers arrived.
Police said Anderson told them she left the children alone while she went to the grocery store. The mom said the children were sleeping and the door was locked when she left, but thought the 2-year-old must have unlocked it.
Anderson said her car broke down as she was returning from the store and she had to call the children's father for help.
The father told police he was not with Anderson when she left the children alone and did not live with them. Charges were filed only against the mother. She was jailed and her bond was set at $2,000.
Police checked the Texas Department of Public Safety Sex Offenders Registry and found that 21 registered sex offenders reside within a mile of Anderson's apartment.
So, what do 21 Registered Citizens have to do with a story about child abandonment, anyways? Nothing, other that they live in the same shitty community.
Nakia Cooper apparently doesn't know the difference between lip service and talking out of your ass.
http://www.click2houston.com/news/hpd-mom-leaves-2-kids-alone-in-apartment-in-area-where-many-sex-offender-live/31870786
HPD: 2 kids found alone in apartment in area where many sex offenders live
Author: Nakia Cooper, Sr. Web Editor
Published On: Mar 18 2015 03:06:04 PM CDT Updated On: Mar 18 2015 03:18:46 PM CDT
HOUSTON -
A mother is accused of leaving her two small children alone in an apartment located in an area where nearly two dozen sex offenders live.
Teara Anderson, 20, is charged with abandoning a child.
According to Houston police, Anderson left her two children, ages 2 years old and 2 months old, alone in an apartment on Jan. 3.
Neighbors heard the children crying and saw the toddler standing at the front door, which was open.
The neighbors suspected the children were alone and called police to investigate. Police arrived to find the children alone in the apartment.
Anderson and the children's father returned about 20 minutes after officers arrived.
Police said Anderson told them she left the children alone while she went to the grocery store. The mom said the children were sleeping and the door was locked when she left, but thought the 2-year-old must have unlocked it.
Anderson said her car broke down as she was returning from the store and she had to call the children's father for help.
The father told police he was not with Anderson when she left the children alone and did not live with them. Charges were filed only against the mother. She was jailed and her bond was set at $2,000.
Police checked the Texas Department of Public Safety Sex Offenders Registry and found that 21 registered sex offenders reside within a mile of Anderson's apartment.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Delores Ann Harris says she is dumb for believing the system works after she's convicted for harassing Registered Citizen
Delores Ann Harris claims she was dumb for believing "the system works." In this case, the system worked, and she was convicted for harassing a Registered Citizen. I guess by working she meant she expected to get off.
I wonder, however, why a convicted criminal like Harris does not have a mugshot posted anywhere. If her victim was even suspected of a crime, his mug would be all over the internet. In fact, I am amazed the victim wasn't plastered on the media just because of his status.
If anyone has a pic of Delores Ann Harris, email it to iamthefallen1@yahoo.com
http://www.nvdaily.com/beck/2015/03/area-woman-convicted-for-harassing-sex-offender
AREA WOMAN CONVICTED FOR HARASSING SEX OFFENDER
FRIDAY, MARCH 13TH, 2015 @ 11:00 PM
FRONT ROYAL – All she wanted to do, Delores Ann Harris told a jury Friday, was to protect herself and her granddaughter from a man who had been convicted 21 years ago of aggravated sexual battery, a man who has been on the state’s sex offender registry since 1997.
But the convicted sex offender in the courtroom was the victim in the jury trial. And Harris, 61, was the defendant, charged with misusing information from the sex offender registry.
It took the jury only 23 minutes to find Harris guilty and even less time to impose a $1,500 fine on her for actions that the prosecution described as a campaign of harassment against Scott Costello, 43.
“The commonwealth realizes that Mr. Costello is not a sympathetic victim,” Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Fleming told the six-member jury during closing arguments.
But, Fleming said, the state law is clear: The state sex offender registry, including details about Costello, can be easily viewed on a website but the information displayed must not be used “for purposes of intimidating or harassing” another person. Violations are categorized as class one misdemeanors carrying penalties of up to one year in jail and a maximum penalty of $2,500.
Harris represented herself at the trial. In an interview after the jury verdict, she continued to deny she had done anything wrong.
“I was dumb for thinking the judicial system would work,” Harris said.
The jury heard testimony from Costello and Rebecca Griffin about a contentious relationship between them and Harris, who was Griffin’s neighbor in an apartment building in Front Royal at the time of the offense.
No one disputed that Harris informed the state police that Costello was staying in an apartment with Griffin, his fiancée. At the time, Costello had a different address on the sex offender registry, which would have required him to re-register if he had moved in permanently with Griffin.
In his closing argument, Fleming recounted testimony from Master State Trooper Jerry Bosserman, who could not find evidence that Costello had moved in permanently with Griffin.
Fleming said Harris persisted in her complaints, but Bosserman couldn’t determine that Costello’s visits to Griffin’s residence had violated any laws.
“Trooper Bosserman said he felt he was on the verge of harassing Mr. Costello,” Fleming said.
Harris denied earlier testimony from Griffin that she had yelled out the window at Griffin that Costello was going to prison for 20 years and asking how her sex life would be after he was gone.
“My only concern was the safety of myself and my granddaughter,” Harris told the jury.
The guilty verdict was costly for Harris. She had been convicted of the same offense in general district court and fined only $50 and sentenced to one year unsupervised probation.
Harris appealed her conviction to circuit court, where her combined fine and court costs from the jury trial will exceed $2,000.
Harris, who has moved out of the apartment building, said she plans to file an appeal with the state Court of Appeals.
I wonder, however, why a convicted criminal like Harris does not have a mugshot posted anywhere. If her victim was even suspected of a crime, his mug would be all over the internet. In fact, I am amazed the victim wasn't plastered on the media just because of his status.
If anyone has a pic of Delores Ann Harris, email it to iamthefallen1@yahoo.com
http://www.nvdaily.com/beck/2015/03/area-woman-convicted-for-harassing-sex-offender
AREA WOMAN CONVICTED FOR HARASSING SEX OFFENDER
FRIDAY, MARCH 13TH, 2015 @ 11:00 PM
FRONT ROYAL – All she wanted to do, Delores Ann Harris told a jury Friday, was to protect herself and her granddaughter from a man who had been convicted 21 years ago of aggravated sexual battery, a man who has been on the state’s sex offender registry since 1997.
But the convicted sex offender in the courtroom was the victim in the jury trial. And Harris, 61, was the defendant, charged with misusing information from the sex offender registry.
It took the jury only 23 minutes to find Harris guilty and even less time to impose a $1,500 fine on her for actions that the prosecution described as a campaign of harassment against Scott Costello, 43.
“The commonwealth realizes that Mr. Costello is not a sympathetic victim,” Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Fleming told the six-member jury during closing arguments.
But, Fleming said, the state law is clear: The state sex offender registry, including details about Costello, can be easily viewed on a website but the information displayed must not be used “for purposes of intimidating or harassing” another person. Violations are categorized as class one misdemeanors carrying penalties of up to one year in jail and a maximum penalty of $2,500.
Harris represented herself at the trial. In an interview after the jury verdict, she continued to deny she had done anything wrong.
“I was dumb for thinking the judicial system would work,” Harris said.
The jury heard testimony from Costello and Rebecca Griffin about a contentious relationship between them and Harris, who was Griffin’s neighbor in an apartment building in Front Royal at the time of the offense.
No one disputed that Harris informed the state police that Costello was staying in an apartment with Griffin, his fiancée. At the time, Costello had a different address on the sex offender registry, which would have required him to re-register if he had moved in permanently with Griffin.
In his closing argument, Fleming recounted testimony from Master State Trooper Jerry Bosserman, who could not find evidence that Costello had moved in permanently with Griffin.
Fleming said Harris persisted in her complaints, but Bosserman couldn’t determine that Costello’s visits to Griffin’s residence had violated any laws.
“Trooper Bosserman said he felt he was on the verge of harassing Mr. Costello,” Fleming said.
Harris denied earlier testimony from Griffin that she had yelled out the window at Griffin that Costello was going to prison for 20 years and asking how her sex life would be after he was gone.
“My only concern was the safety of myself and my granddaughter,” Harris told the jury.
The guilty verdict was costly for Harris. She had been convicted of the same offense in general district court and fined only $50 and sentenced to one year unsupervised probation.
Harris appealed her conviction to circuit court, where her combined fine and court costs from the jury trial will exceed $2,000.
Harris, who has moved out of the apartment building, said she plans to file an appeal with the state Court of Appeals.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou admit to committing crimes against Registered Citizens on the air, among other things
The John and Ken show is still somehow on the air, despite calls for the show's cancellation from the Hispanic community, Catholics, even Vietnam vets. Even a fellow shock jock referred to these two as "total fucking pussies" (his words not mine, though I share the sentiment.). They were suspended before (apparently calling Whitney Houston a "crack ho" is somehow more offensive than racist remarks) and they've lost lots of sponsors over the years.
Today, the John and Ken show had Janice Bellucci from California RSOL on their radio show. Now, KFI is no NPR, so I wasn't expecting much, but I wasn't expecting to hear a full-on assault.
If you want to hear the full interview without going to John and Ken's garbage pages, click the link below:
Now, during the interview, John Kobylt mentions that not only should "regular people" chase Registered Citizens out of their communities and annoy and threaten them until they leave, apparently John claims he has actually engaged in this behavior.
It is, of course, illegal to harass a Registered Citizen. From the CA Megan's Flaw website.
The law is not intended to punish the registrant and specifically prohibits using the information to harass or commit any crime against a registrant (Pen. Code § 290.46).
Hopefully we can just have them arrested sometime. I challenged them to interview my in person but I doubt they will. Maybe they are "total fucking pussies" after all.
Saturday, March 7, 2015
Michigan keystone cops arrest the wrong guy for CP
This story is just too complex to summarize but I'll try anyways. So a guy named Billy JOE Rowe was investigated for possession of CP but let go. The police officer wrote the guy's middle name as "Dean" not "Joe." The investigation was picked up years later just as the statute of limitations was about to expire, by a cop ready to retire. So he arrests one Billy DEAN Rowe, who looks nothing like Billy JOE nor is of the same age or has been to Flint, MI (and quite frankly, no one without ties to Flint ever goes there). So Billy DEAN sits in jail for a few days as Billy JOE remains free. Now, Billy JOE can't be charged because the statute of limitations ran out, and Billy DEAN had to get his good name reinstated. And the arresting officer gets to retire with immunity for his mistakes.
If Billy JOE was guilty (remember, these were merely allegations, not convictions) then he's one lucky son of a gun. aybe Billy DEAN can ask Billy JOE to buy him some lotto tickets?
http://wishtv.com/2015/02/27/wrong-man-jailed-for-child-porn-in-mich/
ALBION, Mich. (WOOD) — Billy Dean Rowe, who lives near Albion, is a meat cutter by trade and a married father of four who spent three nights in jail for child porn — a crime he didn’t commit.
“I was in the cell,” Rowe, 50, told Target 8. “I just laid in the bed all the time. I didn’t do anything. I didn’t do nothing. I just did a lot of praying.”
Billy Joe Rowe, 41, of Clio, who police say confessed to the child porn, never was charged and — because of mistakes made by Michigan State Police — never will be.
“I didn’t know nothing about it,” Billy Joe Rowe, 41, said when asked if he knew about the false arrest of the other Rowe.
So how is it that Michigan State Police confused two men with different middle names, who live 120 miles from each other and who are 9 years apart in age?
“It was crazy,” the falsely arrested Rowe said. “There was no way I would do something like that.”
Billy Dean Rowe and his wife have sued the state police. The state admitted making mistakes but claimed governmental immunity and asked the state Court of Appeals to dismiss the suit. The court denied that request earlier this month, sending the case back to Calhoun County Circuit Court.
“It was their own fault. They should pay the penalty, not me,” Rowe said.
The case started in March 2005, when state police Trooper Dennis Milburn of the Flint Post seized a computer from Billy Joe Rowe’s brother in Mount Morris, near Flint, according to reports obtained by Target 8. The brother told him that Rowe had downloaded child porn.
The trooper questioned Billy Joe Rowe, who, according to reports, admitted to it.
“Rowe stated at that time he did search for child pornography on the Internet and the images on the hard drive were his,” the police report states.
But Trooper Milburn’s original police report misidentified the suspect as Billy Dean Rowe, the innocent man.
He is 5-foot-4 and weighs 185 lbs. Billy Joe Rowe, the man who police say admitted to the crime, is 6-foot-1 and weighs 200 lbs.
For nearly six years, nothing happened. It’s not clear why, but perhaps because the original detective retired in 2007.
The computer sat at the state police Computer Crimes Unit in Lansing without being forensically examined. A note in the file in 2007 shows state police couldn’t find the search warrant or consent form to search it. By 2008, records show, state police were considering destroying the evidence after a review of the complaint showed issues over “burden of proof.”
Then in March 2011, MSP Detective Sgt. Ronald Ainslie picked up the case, pushing for charges just weeks before the six-year statute of limitations would expire, reports show.
The MSP lab finally examined the computer and found “numerous” images of child porn.
Nine days later, on March 11, 2011, the wrong Billy Rowe was at his home in Homer, getting ready for his job as a meat cutter at Meijer in Jackson.
“They just showed up to my door and they asked me if i was Billy Rowe and I said yes,” he said.
He said the trooper had an 8-by-10 photograph of him, which he believes he’d gotten from AAA, of which Rowe was a member.
“He said, ‘Well, we have a warrant for your arrest out of Flint,’ and I says, ‘Out of Flint? I’ve never been to Flint.’ … I asked him what it was for and they told me they couldn’t say. When I said, ‘Why am I going to Flint?’ he says, ‘You’ll find out when you get there.’”
The man who had never been in trouble before spent all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday locked up at the Calhoun County Jail.
“The guys in the jail asked me what I was in there for. I said I had no idea,” he said. “I was looking at going to prison. All it took was for me to walk in front of the judge and say you’re guilty and I’m done.”
At 1 a.m. Monday, March 14, 2011 — exactly six years after the alleged crime was originally discovered — a trooper drove Rowe 110 miles to the MSP Flint Post, where he was locked up in a holding cell. Rowe said his hands were cuffed behind his back.
“They put me in a jail cell with a drunk, and handcuff me to the wall and left me sit there for like five hours,” he said.
That, he said, is when he learned he was being charged with possession of child porn — a felony with a penalty of up to four years in prison. He said he tried to convince state police they had the wrong guy.
“They asked me, ‘Did you have an apartment with your mother in Flint?’ I said, ‘No, my mother’s dead, and she’d been dead a year before that even happened.”’
“Rowe stated he didn’t know why he was being held and that he had never even been in Flint,” Sgt. Ainslie wrote in his report. “I advised Rowe that he was being held for Child Pornography from the 2005 incident in Mount Morris. Rowe stated he had never heard of Mount Morris and had no idea what I was talking about.”
“I became a bit concerned,” Ainslie wrote.
Sgt. Ainslie took Billy Dean Rowe’s photograph to the mom and brother of Billy Joe Rowe in Mount Morris. They told him he had the wrong man.
A judge immediately set Billy Dean Rowe free. Rowe said he lost his job, though Meijer later re-instated him.
“They said, ‘Oops, We got the wrong guy,’ and that was it; no apology, no nothing,” Rowe said.
Prosecutors refused to sign a warrant against the real suspect because the statute of limitations had expired, records show.
It wasn’t difficult to find the real suspect. Target 8 had to knock on only one door in Clio.
Billy Joe Rowe, who has no criminal record, denied downloading child porn.
“I never admitted to nothing,” he said.
State police spokeswoman Shanon Banner acknowledged the original report misidentified the suspect, though she said it’s not clear how that happened. She wouldn’t say why state police waited six years to examine the computer, though she called it “atypical.”
She said Ainslie, the sergeant who got the warrant to arrest Billy Dean Rowe, retired in 2013.
If Billy JOE was guilty (remember, these were merely allegations, not convictions) then he's one lucky son of a gun. aybe Billy DEAN can ask Billy JOE to buy him some lotto tickets?
http://wishtv.com/2015/02/27/wrong-man-jailed-for-child-porn-in-mich/
ALBION, Mich. (WOOD) — Billy Dean Rowe, who lives near Albion, is a meat cutter by trade and a married father of four who spent three nights in jail for child porn — a crime he didn’t commit.
“I was in the cell,” Rowe, 50, told Target 8. “I just laid in the bed all the time. I didn’t do anything. I didn’t do nothing. I just did a lot of praying.”
Billy Joe Rowe, 41, of Clio, who police say confessed to the child porn, never was charged and — because of mistakes made by Michigan State Police — never will be.
“I didn’t know nothing about it,” Billy Joe Rowe, 41, said when asked if he knew about the false arrest of the other Rowe.
So how is it that Michigan State Police confused two men with different middle names, who live 120 miles from each other and who are 9 years apart in age?
“It was crazy,” the falsely arrested Rowe said. “There was no way I would do something like that.”
Billy Dean Rowe and his wife have sued the state police. The state admitted making mistakes but claimed governmental immunity and asked the state Court of Appeals to dismiss the suit. The court denied that request earlier this month, sending the case back to Calhoun County Circuit Court.
“It was their own fault. They should pay the penalty, not me,” Rowe said.
The case started in March 2005, when state police Trooper Dennis Milburn of the Flint Post seized a computer from Billy Joe Rowe’s brother in Mount Morris, near Flint, according to reports obtained by Target 8. The brother told him that Rowe had downloaded child porn.
The trooper questioned Billy Joe Rowe, who, according to reports, admitted to it.
“Rowe stated at that time he did search for child pornography on the Internet and the images on the hard drive were his,” the police report states.
But Trooper Milburn’s original police report misidentified the suspect as Billy Dean Rowe, the innocent man.
He is 5-foot-4 and weighs 185 lbs. Billy Joe Rowe, the man who police say admitted to the crime, is 6-foot-1 and weighs 200 lbs.
For nearly six years, nothing happened. It’s not clear why, but perhaps because the original detective retired in 2007.
The computer sat at the state police Computer Crimes Unit in Lansing without being forensically examined. A note in the file in 2007 shows state police couldn’t find the search warrant or consent form to search it. By 2008, records show, state police were considering destroying the evidence after a review of the complaint showed issues over “burden of proof.”
Then in March 2011, MSP Detective Sgt. Ronald Ainslie picked up the case, pushing for charges just weeks before the six-year statute of limitations would expire, reports show.
The MSP lab finally examined the computer and found “numerous” images of child porn.
Nine days later, on March 11, 2011, the wrong Billy Rowe was at his home in Homer, getting ready for his job as a meat cutter at Meijer in Jackson.
“They just showed up to my door and they asked me if i was Billy Rowe and I said yes,” he said.
He said the trooper had an 8-by-10 photograph of him, which he believes he’d gotten from AAA, of which Rowe was a member.
“He said, ‘Well, we have a warrant for your arrest out of Flint,’ and I says, ‘Out of Flint? I’ve never been to Flint.’ … I asked him what it was for and they told me they couldn’t say. When I said, ‘Why am I going to Flint?’ he says, ‘You’ll find out when you get there.’”
The man who had never been in trouble before spent all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday locked up at the Calhoun County Jail.
“The guys in the jail asked me what I was in there for. I said I had no idea,” he said. “I was looking at going to prison. All it took was for me to walk in front of the judge and say you’re guilty and I’m done.”
At 1 a.m. Monday, March 14, 2011 — exactly six years after the alleged crime was originally discovered — a trooper drove Rowe 110 miles to the MSP Flint Post, where he was locked up in a holding cell. Rowe said his hands were cuffed behind his back.
“They put me in a jail cell with a drunk, and handcuff me to the wall and left me sit there for like five hours,” he said.
That, he said, is when he learned he was being charged with possession of child porn — a felony with a penalty of up to four years in prison. He said he tried to convince state police they had the wrong guy.
“They asked me, ‘Did you have an apartment with your mother in Flint?’ I said, ‘No, my mother’s dead, and she’d been dead a year before that even happened.”’
“Rowe stated he didn’t know why he was being held and that he had never even been in Flint,” Sgt. Ainslie wrote in his report. “I advised Rowe that he was being held for Child Pornography from the 2005 incident in Mount Morris. Rowe stated he had never heard of Mount Morris and had no idea what I was talking about.”
“I became a bit concerned,” Ainslie wrote.
Sgt. Ainslie took Billy Dean Rowe’s photograph to the mom and brother of Billy Joe Rowe in Mount Morris. They told him he had the wrong man.
A judge immediately set Billy Dean Rowe free. Rowe said he lost his job, though Meijer later re-instated him.
“They said, ‘Oops, We got the wrong guy,’ and that was it; no apology, no nothing,” Rowe said.
Prosecutors refused to sign a warrant against the real suspect because the statute of limitations had expired, records show.
It wasn’t difficult to find the real suspect. Target 8 had to knock on only one door in Clio.
Billy Joe Rowe, who has no criminal record, denied downloading child porn.
“I never admitted to nothing,” he said.
State police spokeswoman Shanon Banner acknowledged the original report misidentified the suspect, though she said it’s not clear how that happened. She wouldn’t say why state police waited six years to examine the computer, though she called it “atypical.”
She said Ainslie, the sergeant who got the warrant to arrest Billy Dean Rowe, retired in 2013.
Friday, March 6, 2015
Graham Co. NC Sheriff Danny MilSAPs tells RSOs if they want to go to church, do it at his jail
This year, the Shiitake Awards needs a new category just for law enforcement agents who go above and beyond the call of duty in their quest for sex offender legal stupidity. I call it the "Keystone Cop of the Year."
Our first candidate for Keystone Cop of the Year is Sheriff Danny Milsaps of Graham County, NC. He recently sent out a letter to all Registered Citizens in his county barring them from attending church. But he took it to the next level, and told registrants if they want to attend church, go to jail to attend services.
It does pose an interesting question-- who will be giving these special services? Will this Sheriff be providing Catholic Mass, Ramadan festivals, Black Masses for Satanists, Festivus events, or even Nation of Islam meetings? I'd personally love to see Sheriff Milsaps sitting in on an NOI sermon discussing the "white devil."
Below is the actual letter the Sheriff sent out:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/03/06/sex-offenders-church/24522381/
Sheriff bans sex offenders from church
Jon Ostendorff, USA TODAY 6:35 p.m. EST March 6, 2015
ROBBINSVILLE, N.C. — A sheriff in one of North Carolina's smallest counties told registered sex offenders they can't go to church, citing a state law meant to keep them from day-care centers and schools.
Graham County Sheriff Danny Millsaps told sex offenders about his decision Feb. 17, according to a letter the Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times obtained Friday. About 9,000 people live in Graham County, which abuts Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the Tennessee line in far western North Carolina.
"This is an effort to protect the citizens and children of the community of Graham (County)," he wrote. "I cannot let one sex offender go to church and not let all registered sex offenders go to church."
He invited them to attend services at the county jail.
In an interview Friday, Millsaps said he may have made a mistake when he wrote that offenders "are not permitted to attend church services."
He said he understands the Constitution gives everyone the right to religious freedom. But he said he's standing by his take on North Carolina law blocking offenders from places where children are present.
"I understand I can't keep them from going to church," he said. "That may have been misunderstood. I'll be the first one to say I might have made mistakes in the wording of that letter."
Millsaps has no immediate plans to arrest a sex offender should one of the 20 in his county attend church Sunday, he said.
Graham County Manager Greg Cable said the county attorney is looking into the matter and any legal mistakes would be corrected.
At the Citizen-Times' request, the American Civil Liberties Union in Raleigh is reviewing Millsaps' letter. The newspaper also sent a copy to the North Carolina Department of Justice for an opinion on the law.
Neither responded immediately.
Other North Carolina counties have dealt with the same issue:
• In Chatham County, deputies in 2009 arrested a sex offender for attending church, citing the same law. A state Superior Court judge eventually ruled the law as applied to churches was unconstitutional.
• In Buncombe County, sex offenders are permitted in church as long as pastors know and are in agreement, Sheriff Van Duncan said.
That's similar to the county's policy for allowing sex offenders at school events like ball games. They are allowed as long as school administrators have warning, and the offenders are monitored to some extent, the sheriff said.
The law allows schools to do this, a factor the judge noted in 2009 in the Chatham County case.
If a sex offender threatens a child at a church or school event, Duncan said the law can be enforced and used to ban the offender.
Church leaders in Buncombe County, where Asheville is located, generally want to minister to sex offenders, he said.
The law applies to public, private and church schools that have weekday classes. Sex offenders generally are banned from school property.
Our first candidate for Keystone Cop of the Year is Sheriff Danny Milsaps of Graham County, NC. He recently sent out a letter to all Registered Citizens in his county barring them from attending church. But he took it to the next level, and told registrants if they want to attend church, go to jail to attend services.
It does pose an interesting question-- who will be giving these special services? Will this Sheriff be providing Catholic Mass, Ramadan festivals, Black Masses for Satanists, Festivus events, or even Nation of Islam meetings? I'd personally love to see Sheriff Milsaps sitting in on an NOI sermon discussing the "white devil."
Below is the actual letter the Sheriff sent out:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/03/06/sex-offenders-church/24522381/
Sheriff bans sex offenders from church
Jon Ostendorff, USA TODAY 6:35 p.m. EST March 6, 2015
ROBBINSVILLE, N.C. — A sheriff in one of North Carolina's smallest counties told registered sex offenders they can't go to church, citing a state law meant to keep them from day-care centers and schools.
Graham County Sheriff Danny Millsaps told sex offenders about his decision Feb. 17, according to a letter the Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times obtained Friday. About 9,000 people live in Graham County, which abuts Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the Tennessee line in far western North Carolina.
"This is an effort to protect the citizens and children of the community of Graham (County)," he wrote. "I cannot let one sex offender go to church and not let all registered sex offenders go to church."
He invited them to attend services at the county jail.
In an interview Friday, Millsaps said he may have made a mistake when he wrote that offenders "are not permitted to attend church services."
He said he understands the Constitution gives everyone the right to religious freedom. But he said he's standing by his take on North Carolina law blocking offenders from places where children are present.
"I understand I can't keep them from going to church," he said. "That may have been misunderstood. I'll be the first one to say I might have made mistakes in the wording of that letter."
Millsaps has no immediate plans to arrest a sex offender should one of the 20 in his county attend church Sunday, he said.
Graham County Manager Greg Cable said the county attorney is looking into the matter and any legal mistakes would be corrected.
At the Citizen-Times' request, the American Civil Liberties Union in Raleigh is reviewing Millsaps' letter. The newspaper also sent a copy to the North Carolina Department of Justice for an opinion on the law.
Neither responded immediately.
Other North Carolina counties have dealt with the same issue:
• In Chatham County, deputies in 2009 arrested a sex offender for attending church, citing the same law. A state Superior Court judge eventually ruled the law as applied to churches was unconstitutional.
• In Buncombe County, sex offenders are permitted in church as long as pastors know and are in agreement, Sheriff Van Duncan said.
That's similar to the county's policy for allowing sex offenders at school events like ball games. They are allowed as long as school administrators have warning, and the offenders are monitored to some extent, the sheriff said.
The law allows schools to do this, a factor the judge noted in 2009 in the Chatham County case.
If a sex offender threatens a child at a church or school event, Duncan said the law can be enforced and used to ban the offender.
Church leaders in Buncombe County, where Asheville is located, generally want to minister to sex offenders, he said.
The law applies to public, private and church schools that have weekday classes. Sex offenders generally are banned from school property.
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