10-11-17 Maryland:
The attorneys of a former Boonsboro man convicted of sexually abusing a preteen girl will have to reschedule his post-conviction hearing after their client suffered a vicious beating at the hands of other inmates.
Gerald Hubbard, 74, was scheduled to appear for the hearing Tuesday in Washington County Circuit Court, but Judge Viki M. Pauler signed an order Friday to postpone the matter.
Hubbard's Baltimore-based attorney, C. Justin Brown, filed a motion last week to delay the hearing after he discovered Hubbard had been beaten by other inmates at Maryland Correctional Training Center south of Hagerstown.
"He was bruised and injured to the point that he could not walk," a portion of the motion said. "Within his prison he has been classified as 'ambulatory dysfunctional.'"
The motion also said that Hubbard was unable to think clearly because of his injuries and might not be able to help his attorneys present the case.
"Counsel estimates that 30 days would be sufficient time to allow Mr. Hubbard to recover," the motion said.
In the petition for post-conviction relief, Hubbard's attorneys claimed that the convictions must be overturned because they were obtained in violation of his "constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel and due process." ..Continued..
Showing posts with label Vigilantism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vigilantism. Show all posts
October 11, 2017
Convicted sex offender can't make hearing after beating at Maryland Correctional Training Center
December 24, 2014
Harassment via Internet a crime, SJC rules
Case info including briefs12-24-2014 Massachusetts:
Decision upholds convictions of pair who targeted neighbors in Andover
The state’s highest court ruled Tuesday that people who use the Internet to harass someone can be prosecuted under existing state law, a decision that upheld the conviction of an Andover couple who were linked to false ads on Craigslist and who filed a fake claim of child abuse against a neighbor.
Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett, whose office prosecuted the case, said the ruling from the Supreme Judicial Court was the first time the panel clearly authorized law enforcement to use the state’s antiharassment statute in cybercrimes.
“Cyberharassment is becoming more prevalent in today’s society and the victims in this case were tormented by the defendants,’’ Blodgett said. “This case sends the right message that it is a crime, and a serious one.”
The 7-0 ruling left intact the harassment convictions for William P. Johnson and his wife, Gail M. Johnson, who wanted to subdivide and develop land in Andover, but were opposed by an abutting neighbor, James J. Lyons Jr., and his wife, Bernadette, along with other neighbors.
That dispute preceded the harassment campaign by the Johnsons, the high court said.
As part of the harassment, William Johnson called in a false allegation of child abuse against James Lyons with the state Department of Children and Families, according to the SJC.
“They literally tried to have our kids taken away from us,’’ James Lyons, who is now a state representative, said in a telephone interview. “These people invested time and money to torture my wife, my boys, and myself.’’
Robert S. Sinsheimer, an attorney for the Johnsons, said in a statement that they were disappointed by the SJC’s decision and were considering their legal options. The Johnsons lived on the same street as the Lyons family.
“Where the sole purpose of the defendants’ speech was to further their endeavor to intentionally harass the Lyonses, such speech is not protected by the First Amendment,” Justice Robert Cordy wrote in the ruling.
According to the SJC ruling, during a 35-day period in 2008 the Johnsons enlisted a longtime friend and handyman, Gerald Colton, who sent the Lyonses an e-mail falsely claiming that James Lyons “stole the innocence of a young man,” and posted fake ads on Craigslist.
One of those ads said that the Lyonses were giving away golf carts for free, prompting dozens of people to show up outside the couple’s home.
“The Craigslist postings were the equivalent of the defendants recruiting others to harass the victims and the victims alone,” Cordy wrote. “The defendants cannot launder their harassment of the Lyons family through the Internet to escape liability.”
Another ad said the family was selling a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and told interested parties to call after 10 p.m., generating many nighttime calls that continued for months, the ruling said.
One e-mail that Colton sent to the Lyons family from a fake account, the SJC said, read, “Remember, if you aren’t miserable, I ain’t happy! Let’s Play.”
Colton had testified for the prosecution and said that William Johnson had told him he had sent James Lyons a letter accusing him of molesting a teenager, which was false. The Johnsons were convicted in Lawrence District Court in late 2011. William Johnson was sentenced to 18 months behind bars; his wife was given a six-month sentence to serve.
Alan M. Dershowitz, a prominent attorney and retired Harvard Law professor, said it is rare for defendants to receive jail time for such conduct, adding that the Johnsons’ behavior was particularly egregious.
“Was the [SJC] opinion too broad? I think time will tell,” Dershowitz said. “I would hope it would be applied in a very narrow way.”
The ruling does not appear to encroach on the free speech rights of Internet users, according to Harvey A. Silverglate, a criminal defense lawyer and civil libertarian who has written extensively on First Amendment issues.
“I don’t think this opinion imposes a risk of squelching protected speech on the Internet,” Silverglate said. “It isn’t very hard to figure out that what these people were doing is very threatening, and it’s not the kind of speech that a civilized society wants to tolerate.”
Sameer Hinduja, a criminology professor at Florida Atlantic University and codirector of the Cyberbullying Research Center, said online harassment is not confined to young children and adolescents.
Hinduja pointed to a recent Pew Research Internet Project study that found that 40 percent of adult Internet users have experienced online harassment.
“I agree with the court’s decision, absolutely,” Hinduja said.
“You have really crazy sorts of things being done [in the case]. It’s really willful, it’s really intentional. . . . I like that [the SJC] labeled it criminal conduct.”
Hinduja said laws barring online harassment are necessary, even if they do not always deter offenders. “We do need to have laws for egregious situations to send a message in our society, with the social contract that we all agree to, that this is unacceptable,” he said.
Martin G. Weinberg, a Boston defense lawyer who has litigated cybercrime cases, said in an e-mail that the ruling helps define criminal conduct in the realm of Internet communications.
“Judges nationwide, from the Supreme Court to the state courts, have an historic challenge of taking a Bill of Rights written in the 18th century and making it meaningful in a very different world of computers and technology,” Weinberg wrote. ..Source.. by John R. Ellement and Travis Andersen
December 2, 2014
Prineville man’s assault conviction upheld
See also: Man who took video of beating -- but didn't throw punch -- rightfully convicted of assault, appeals court says (Decision)12-2-2014 Oregon:
Appeals Court says man aided and abetted in an assault
The Oregon Court of Appeals has upheld the 2012 assault conviction of a Prineville man who helped his teenage son and his son’s friends plan and execute an attack on a man they suspected was a sex offender.
Lance Wayne Ryder, 44, was found guilty of third-degree assault, a felony, in June 2012, Crook County Circuit Court records show, and appealed the conviction a month later.
His lawyers asserted Ryder was not liable for the assault because he did not directly inflict physical injury and did not take action to “produce” the physical injury, according to an opinion penned by Appeals Court Presiding Judge Darleen Ortega and filed Wednesday.
The appeals court disagreed, stating there was “sufficient evidence” for a jury to find evidence of third-degree assault beyond a reasonable doubt.
According to the opinion, the victim was staying in Ryder’s basement in December 2010. Ryder’s teenage son and his three friends searched the victim’s jacket and found paperwork revealing he was a registered sexual offender. The four teenagers told Ryder what they’d found. With Ryder, they came up with a plan that was to begin with Ryder luring the victim to the basement with beer so the teens could “jump” him.
According to the opinion, Ryder did not “directly attack” the victim, but recorded the attack on his cellphone with the intent of uploading it to YouTube. He recorded the incident until he told the teenagers to stop. The victim then left Ryder’s house. Ryder does not have the use of his right arm and right leg due to a disability, the opinion stated.
Ryder was sentenced to 90 days in jail and three years probation, Crook County Circuit Court records show. The two-day trial was presided over by Crook County Circuit Judge Gary Lee Williams. ..Source.. by Claire Withycombe
July 2, 2014
Alabama shuts down rural church's makeshift camp for convicted sex offenders
CLANTON, Alabama — Believing it was his calling to reach out to people Jesus called "the least of these," Pastor Ricky Martin built a little church and opened a camp out back for some of society's most unwanted people: Sex offenders.
With the help of some former inmates convicted of rape, sodomy, child sexual abuse and other crimes, Martin raised a gray-block chapel in a rural patch of central Alabama in 2010, and parked old campers and recreational vehicles behind it to house the men. More than 50 convicted sex offenders have lived there since.
The camp came to an end Tuesday, when a law passed by the Alabama Legislature earlier this year shut down Martin's sex offender refuge.
Martin said he will make the remaining men leave the half-dozen campers parked behind the church, although he doesn't like it.
"It's about like it's against my constitutional rights," he said Monday. "This is a state coming against a ministry."
Prosecutor C.J. Robinson, who pushed for the local law that legislators passed to close down the camp, said Monday he doesn't doubt the sincerity of Martin's religious beliefs. He said no one living at the camp has been arrested for additional sex-related crimes. And, he said, sex offenders do need a place to live.
If not behind a tiny church in an agricultural county with about five dozen people per square mile, then where?
Robinson said he doesn't know. But having so many ex-convicts with similar criminal records in one place is a public safety threat, he said, and Martin doesn't have the specialized training and credentials to deal with them.
"I think his motives are good. I just disagree with the way he's going about it," said Robinson, the chief deputy district attorney.
Like other states, Alabama restricts the areas where sex offenders are required to live, barring anyone convicted of certain crimes to reside within 2,000 feet of a school or day care. Laws are even stricter about where offenders can work or hang out, restricting them from being within 500 feet of parks, athletic fields or businesses where kids gather.
Inmates serving time for sex crimes must tell authorities where they plan to live following their release, and prisons or county jails must continue holding anyone who can't prove they have a legal place to live.
PHOTO: A gravel drives leads to a camp inhabited by convicted sex offenders behind Triumph Church near Clanton, Ala., on Monday, June 30, 2014. A law that took effect Tuesday, July 1, 2014 shut down the refuge, which Pastor Rick Martin says he founded to follow the Bible's instructions to care for the outcast. A prosecutor wrote a law passed earlier in the year to outlaw the camp by barring convicted sex offenders from living within 300 feet of each other on the same piece of property in Chilton County. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves)
A gravel drives leads to a camp inhabited by convicted sex offenders behind Triumph Church near Clanton, Ala., on Monday, June 30, 2014. A law that took effect Tuesday, July 1, 2014 shut down the refuge, which Pastor Rick Martin says he founded to follow the Bible's instructions to care for the outcast. A prosecutor wrote a law passed earlier in the year to outlaw the camp by barring convicted sex offenders from living within 300 feet of each other on the same piece of property in Chilton County. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves)
Martin, who runs a small upholstery shop beside his Triumph Church when he's not ministering, said he met men with no place to go while serving as a volunteer chaplain in a state prison. He came up with the idea of a sex offender refuge in rural Chilton County, far away from any schools or day care centers, and began screening potential prisoners to live there.
Some of the released prisoners actually helped construct the church, which stands between the road and the camp, which in turn is partially encircled by a wooden privacy fence. The residents, all men, pay when they can and abide by strict rules: No smoking or drinking, and no more sex crimes.
Martin and his wife live in a house and keep watch over the camp and church, which ranges in attendance from a handful to as many as 60 people depending on the day.
"We try to live Christian," said Kenny Dark, who served time for rape and has lived in one of the campers. "We go to the church Wednesday and two times on Sunday. We help each other."
Martin said he is simply living out his faith by offering a hand to people rejected by society.
"You know what Jesus said? He said, 'When you help the least of these you help me,'" said Martin. "No one else will help these people."
Federal law requires local authorities to keep track of sex offenders, and Robinson grew concerned as he saw notice after another about sex offenders moving to the same spot — Martin's one-acre tract just outside Clanton, a town of about 8,700. They came from 28 of Alabama's 67 counties and three states. All but 10 committed crimes against children, Robinson said, and 32 were convicted rapists, including Dark.
Convicted in Talladega County in 1980, Dark has been living in the camp since his release from prison in 2011. He doesn't know where he'll go now that the camp is closing.
"I did my time," said Dark, 56, who works odd jobs. "I'm just trying to live now."
People in the community grew increasingly worried amid an influx of sex offenders, Robinson said, so he wrote a bill to shut down the camp by prohibiting two convicted sex offenders from living within 300 feet of each other on the same property unless they are married. The Legislature passed the measure without a negative vote.
The law only affects Chilton County, where Martin's refuge is located and where people were worried, Robinson said.
People like Debra Morrison, who lives beside the small, nondenominational church. Some of her windows look out at the campers.
"I'm just glad it's over," said Morrison, her young granddaughter at her side. ..Source.. by JAY REEVES
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