By KRISTIN M. HALL
Associated Press
Tracking devices used to monitor sexual offenders in Tennessee are not intended as additional punishment, a federal appeals court has ruled.
A three-judge panel voted 2-1 in Friday's ruling that the constitutional rights of a Knox County sex offender, identified in the case as "John Doe," were not violated.
But in a dissent, 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove said the global positioning system device that must be worn at the waist outside of clothing [Ed:?!] amounts to a symbol of his crime — a modern-day "scarlet letter."
Doe was convicted and sentenced for aggravated kidnapping and sexual battery before the new laws took effect. He claimed the state couldn't retroactively reclassify him as a violent sex offender.
Full Story
http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071117/NEWS03/711170360/1017/NEWS
Fed Appeals Court Upholds GPS Device/Scarlet Letter Combo
Sex Offender Limits "to Enter Buildings" Considered by Brookfield, WI To Somehow Make Sense
Brookfield aldermen back housing curbs
By BRANDON LORENZ
Special to the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Nov. 15, 2007
Brookfield - The Common Council's Legislative and Licensing Committee on Thursday night revised, and unanimously recommended approval of, an ordinance preventing sex offenders from moving within 1,500 feet of places where children gather.
If the council approves the measure, sex offenders would be prevented from moving into about 90% of the city's residential units, according to city data.
At issue Thursday was language that would require sex offenders to obtain permission from building owners to enter temporarily into restricted areas where children could gather, such as churches or schools.
But with similar restrictions enacted in most of the city's neighboring communities, some aldermen expressed fears that Brookfield could become an island where sex offenders would relocate.
Full Story
Nun Pleads No Contest in Sex Abuse
CATRIN EINHORN, New York Times
A Roman Catholic nun pleaded no contest yesterday to two counts of indecent behavior with a child in connection with accusations from the 1960s when she was a principal and teacher at a Catholic school in Milwaukee.
The nun, Norma Giannini, 79, faces up to 20 years in prison for what prosecutors say was sexual abuse of two male students.
Although dozens of nuns have been accused of sexual abuse, often in civil lawsuits, Sister Giannini is one of the first to face criminal charges, said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a group that compiles reports about abuse in the Roman Catholic Church.
Mary Pat Fox, president of Voice of the Faithful, a lay group formed in response to the Catholic sexual abuse scandal, said she hoped the case would encourage more victims of nuns to come forward. “I think this is the tip of the iceberg,” Ms. Fox said.
According to a criminal complaint filed by the Milwaukee County district attorney’s office, Sister Giannini repeatedly assaulted the two boys while they were in middle school at St. Patrick School. The complaint said the assaults included intercourse and occurred in numerous locations, including a convent and a classroom. Full Story Ed: Apparently, they're running out of priests. Seriously, though, does it trouble anyone else that we are seeing yet another big scare that is said to be "the tip of the iceberg"?
Head Found, Teens Arrested in 'Thrill Kill' Death of Decapitated Sex Offender
Monday , November 12, 2007
Fox News, Detroit
Two teens have been charged in the brutal decapitation death of a registered sex offender in Michigan whose headless body was left to burn in a subdivision in what prosecutors are calling a "thrill kill."
Not guilty pleas were entered Monday in Romulus District Court for Jean-Pierre Orlewicz, 17, and Alexander James Letkemann, 18, on one count each of first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder and mutilation of a corpse in the death of 26-year-old Daniel Gene-Vincent Sorensen.
"A crime like this surprises us all," Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said at a press conference. "Any time anyone kills just because they want to — and that's what the evidence seems to suggest here — is bone-chilling. Why anybody would want to do that, especially being 17 years old, it makes us think and ask a lot of questions about our society." [Ed: This crime is not at all surprising and the state is complicit in this violence through its inflammatory use of sex offender websites, flyers and community notification]
Prosecutors allege the men lured Sorensen to the Canton Township home of Orlewicz's grandfather.
"They lured him in the garage where they prepared a space to kill him," Worthy said.
A tarp had been spread on the garage floor, and Sorenson was stabbed multiple times in the back. His head was sawed off and his body wrapped in the tarp, authorities said.
There, on a tarp they allegedly spread out for the attack, they slit Sorensen's throat with a knife and repeatedly stabbed him before cutting off his head with a hacksaw, prosecutors said.
They allegedly used a blowtorch on his hands and feet in an attempt to remove his fingerprints, officials said.
His torso was driven in a pickup truck and dumped in a Northville Township cul-de-sac where it was set on fire with gasoline. A utility crew found it the next morning, police said.
His head was dumped in the Rouge River near the border between Dearborn Heights and Detroit. It was found Saturday.
"They made plans on how they were to clean up the blood," Worthy said. "They made plans on how they were going to dispose of the body. No matter how malicious we all think it may be, it was very thought out and very methodical."
"I want to put a face to these people," Sorensen's father, Jim, told MyFOXDetroit on Sunday. "And if it’s a friend I want to know who would call themselves friend and do this to my son."
Sorenson was convicted in Tazewell County, Ill., when he was 17 of having sex with a 14-year-old girl, said Northville Township police Lt. Greg Rhodes. His troubled past had nothing to do with the murder, Worthy said. Full Story
As Frank Valado Lay Dying...
Mike St. Martin reports on the death of Frank Valado at Coalinga State Hospital. His report recounts Valado's final moments and the seeming indifference with which his life was regarded by California Department of Mental Health staff. Listen To Report
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