Citizens for Legislative Change
Judge Blocks Law to Report Sex Under 16 PDF Print E-mail
Written by Ricky Blackman   
Wednesday, 19 November 2008 16:46

A federal judge ruled yesterday that Kansas law did not require health care workers to report to the authorities sexual activity by people under age 16, invalidating a 2003 opinion by the state's attorney general.

The judge, J. Thomas Marten of Federal District Court in Wichita, said the reporting of consensual sex among similarly aged teenagers would deter young people from seeking medical care and overwhelm the state authorities.

The ruling blocks the attorney general's advisory opinion from guiding the enforcement of Kansas' law requiring the reporting of abuse that causes injury. The opinion suggested that any pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease or request for contraception fell under the law.

The decision by Judge Marten came in a class-action lawsuit on behalf of doctors, nurses, therapists and sex educators. It was the second legal setback in as many months for the attorney general, Phill Kline, and his efforts to restrict abortions in the state.

The Kansas Supreme Court on Feb. 3 limited Mr. Kline's investigation into two abortion clinics by stripping the medical records he had requested of patients' identifying information.
Read more...
 
COURT UPHOLDS IOWA SEX OFFENDER COHABITANT LAW PDF Print E-mail
Written by Ricky Blackman   
Tuesday, 18 November 2008 13:56

The case involves a Coralville woman who was found guilty of child endangerment and sentenced to one year probation. The woman, Holly Mitchell, lived with a convicted sex offender and let her children stay with the man while she was at work.

Mitchell's mother and sister also stayed with her two children, so they were not alone with her boyfriend, records show.

Mitchell appealed her conviction, claiming the state's law is unconstitutional because it treats people who are not married and living with a sex offender differently than people who are married and living with a sex offender.

 

The Iowa law was amended in 2005 to include living with a sex offender.

Mitchell claimed the law violates the equal protection clauses of the U.S. and Iowa constitutions. She claimed there is no rational reason to treat people who aren't married and living with a sex offender differently than those who are married.
Read more...
 
Teen Sex Goes On Trial PDF Print E-mail
Written by Ricky Blackman   
Tuesday, 28 October 2008 16:05

AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) -- A unique and troubling legal case is unfolding in Williamson County. A young man named Jean Karlo Ponzanelli is in the county jail in Georgetown, facing a long prison term. That sentence would be followed by 10 years on the Texas Sex Offender Registry, except that, in this case, Ponzanelli stands to be deported to Mexico following his prison term.

So, what sort of crime could command such punishment?

Well, it turns out that when Ponzanelli was 17 years old, he was arrested for doing what thousands of other young people do every single day, but in his case, there was a catch.  Our story begins with a telephone call from inside the Williamson County jail.

 

The call

When the phone rings, I'm startled. That ring has been a long time coming. Originally, I'd planned to connect with Ponzanelli in the jail, despite officials telling me that I would not be allowed to bring a camera or recording equipment inside.
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 28 October 2008 16:12 )
Read more...
 
Another Life Ruined By The Government PDF Print E-mail
Written by Ricky Blackman   
Tuesday, 28 October 2008 16:00
Facing possible lifetime registration as a SEXUAL PREDATOR, Alexander A. Khaleel, a 12th grader at Niceville High School in Niceville, faces felony charges for having sex with his girlfriend, who was less than 16 years old.

Alexander A. Khaleel of Whitewood Way is charged with lewd or lascivious battery.
Lawmen in March responded to a suspicious vehicle complaint and found Khaleel's car parked in a residential area in Niceville. A deputy learned Khaleel was parking there, then cutting across a private lot to get to his girlfriend's back yard.

The girl said they had had sex on five occasions and performed other acts several times.

Khaleel, said they first had sex when he was 17 and she was 14. He was arrested April 17
 
16 Year Old Girl Arraigned on Pornography Charges PDF Print E-mail
Written by Ricky Blackman   
Tuesday, 28 October 2008 15:54
The pornographic pictures of Elizabeth Muller, 19, of North Smithfield, and an unidentified 16-year-old Lincoln girl were discovered on MySpace.com, a social networking Web site, said a spokesman for the attorney general's office.
The photos of the two teenagers together were posted on each of their respective Web site accounts, spokesman Michael Healey said.

The 16-year-old was arraigned before a Family Court judge Monday on a charge of child pornography and violating a court-ordered curfew, Healey said. The girl is being held at the Rhode Island Training School pending a probable cause hearing Friday, he said.

Muller was also charged with child pornography and was arraigned in District Court in Providence.
A police officer assigned to Lincoln High School, where the girl was a student, discovered the photographs while monitoring the Web site.
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 28 October 2008 15:56 )