Tagged: sex offender

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - More Michigan residents may soon be added to the state's online public sex offender registry.

The full House passed a bill Tuesday that would require people convicted of a single Tier I offense for some crimes involving minors to be placed on the online sex offender registry.

Offenses that would qualify would include unlawful imprisonment if the victim is a minor and knowingly possessing sexually abusive material of a child.

The bill's sponsor, Republican Sen. Rick Jones of Grand Ledge says the bill will allow the public to "protect their children and grandchildren."

The House Fiscal Agency reports that a few hundred people would be added to the state's public registry. Currently people convicted of Tier II and III offenses are already placed on the registry.

This weekend I was at a baby naming, normally a joyous Jewish ceremony where even the in-laws get along. But one woman there was close to despair, thanks to a little-known bill about to be passed in Lansing.

Several years ago, her young adult son did a very stupid thing. I don’t know all the details, but he apparently got into looking at illegal child porn on the Internet. He never saw or touched an actual child, but he got caught in a federal sting. He ended up being sentenced to several years in federal prison. He should get out soon, but our lawmakers are about to make his and his innocent parents’ lives more of a nightmare.

As you probably know, for the past few years we’ve had something called the Michigan Public Sex Offender Registry, which lists all the details about someone who has been convicted of a major sex crime, including their current address.

Mayor: Detroit police chief retires amid allegations of sex scandal involving subordinate.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing suspended Ralph Godbee following claims the city's police chief was involved in a sexual relationship with a subordinate.

Godbee was suspended last week after a lawyer for internal affairs officer Angelica Robinson revealed the two had been involved in a sexual relationship.

Godbee has not publicly commented on the claims.

A Grand Rapids suburb has adopted zoning changes (on page 31) that will limit where the state and federal government can house people on parole. The changes will limit the number of parolees who can live in 1 place to 2 people.

Most parolees go home when they’re released from jail. Those who don’t have a safe place to reintegrate into society are housed through reentry programs. People are usually on parole for two years or less. Usually state parolees are housed in the county where they were sentenced.

Police Chief James Carmody says he supports efforts to house and rehabilitate parolees from Wyoming. But he’s concerned too many are being concentrated in a couple of motels in his city. At a meeting last month Carmody said the concentration of dozens of parolees in a couple of motels was “beyond (his) department’s ability to control.” 

Facilities for housing parolees in the future would only be allowed in an industrial area. The two inns would be grandfathered in. The zoning change includes a wide-ranging exemption for family members.

 “As long as they stay out of trouble and they don’t offend, that’s great,” Carmody said. “The problem is the residual effect on my organization is we’ve got to constantly monitor these individuals and keep track of them. So that’s a huge undertaking.”

 A federal judge’s ruling is opening the doors of Michigan’s homeless shelters to registered sex offenders.  

 Two years ago, a 51 year old homeless man was found frozen to death in Grand Rapids.  He was turned away by a   local homeless shelter because the man was a registered sex offender.   The shelter was less than a thousand feet from a school, which would have been a violation of a Michigan law barring sex offenders from living that close to a school.