Heitkamp Announces More Than $300,000 for Sex Offender Registration, Monitoring in North Dakota

Wonderful, now they can buy donuts as they bamboozle the public into thinking the registry does any more than show where registrants sleep for a few hours of the day/night. What a waste! How about working on other crimes HERE and HERE and HERE

8-30-15 North Dakota:

Heitkamp Announces More Than $300,000 for Sex Offender Registration, Monitoring in North Dakota In the Senate and as N.D. Attorney General, Heitkamp Has Fought to Keep North Dakota Strong and Safe from Crime

BISMARCK, N.D. – U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp announced $333,000 in federal funding to assist the North Dakota Attorney General’s office in registering sex offenders and keeping North Dakotans safe.

“Our state will be able to use these funds to more quickly register and monitor those who pose a threat to our safety – and that’s good news for North Dakota,” said Heitkamp. “As North Dakota’s Attorney General and now as a U.S. Senator, I’ve fought to keep North Dakota strong and safe, especially as our state grows and changes. I’ll keep fighting to make sure North Dakota remains a great place to live, work, and raise a family.”

The U.S. Department of Justice awarded the grant to the North Dakota Attorney General’s office for sentencing, monitoring, apprehending, registering, and tracking sex offenders. The federal funds will be used to guarantee timely registration of sex offenders by the use of electronic submission, reducing local law enforcement staff time spent on registration. The grant will also improve the verification process, the timeliness of additional sex offender information sent in by mail, and the capabilities of record retrieval for all sex offender registration information.

Heitkamp today also announced $19,000 in funds through the Justice Department for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to prevent and control crime.

Heitkamp has made public safety and human trafficking top priorities in her Strong & Safe Communities Initiative, and focused on crime reduction and public safety during her time as North Dakota’s Attorney General as well.

To witness North Dakota’s crime challenges firsthand, Heitkamp rode along with the U.S. Marshal on the Fort Berthold Reservation in April, as law enforcement checked in on sex offenders. Heitkamp has also met with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and others to discuss human trafficking, and successfully pushed a bipartisan bill fighting human trafficking through the Senate in April.

Throughout the year, as part of her Strong & Safe Communities Initiative, Heitkamp has been meeting with North Dakotans to hear their feedback about new challenges from the state’s rapid growth, including the increases in digital challenges, movement of crude oil on the rails, human trafficking, drug-related crimes, as well as other issues. Through her discussions across the state, as well as with her Strong & Safe Communities Task Force, Heitkamp is working to make sure the safety of North Dakota families and communities is a top priority. ..Source.. by Attorney General, Heitkamp

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Sex Offender Misconceptions Could Be Making You More Vulnerable

5-18-15 North Dakota:

Tens of thousands of men and women are arrested for sexual assault each year. But, experts tell us there are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to the people committing those sex crimes. But, what you don't know about them could be making you more vulnerable.

Valley News Team's Crime and Safety Reporter Nicole Johnson shows us some common myths.

"We all get a little squeamish about talking about anything that has to do with sex, in our children especially," says Bonny Roberts, a mom to two kids.

You've heard it before, watch out for strangers.

"Do you tell your kids not to talk to strangers?" asks Reporter, Nicole Johnson. "We have talked about it some," Roberts responds.

Strangers are the biggest threat to your kids. Is it a fact or a myth?

"Your child is probably statistically more at risk of being abused at a family reunion than they are from a stranger at the park,” says Stacey Benson, a phycologist.

Research shows it's a myth. Only 7% percent of kids were sexually assaulted by strangers, according to the Bureau of Justice.

The majority of attackers are family members or friends.

"Does that concern you?" asks Johnson. "It definitely does, you always want to leave your child with someone you trust," says Kari Faul, a mother to one child.

Fact, or myth, a "typical rapist" is a white 23-year-old man?

"Maybe it's a stereotype, but probably males that are old enough to make them feel like they have to do whatever they say,” says Roberts.

It's a fact, the Bureau of Justice statistics show most rapists are men in their 20's mostly white.

But, Benson tells us, don't rely on that fact. "Sex offenders come in all race, they come in all ages, they come in all faiths, and they come in both genders. And, parents need to not have that false sense of security. It's really one of the ways that sex offenders can try and trick parents."

Fact, or myth: someone who committed a sex crime, will likely do it again?

"I think it's always going to be a temptation for them," says Roberts.

Experts say it's actually a myth.

"Sexual offenses have one of the lowest of any kind of offense other than murder," says Benson. Less than 5% of people in prison for sex crimes were ever arrested again for it. Although, some parents tell us, they don't care about the numbers, it's about feeling safe.

"I like to be aware of where sex offenders are, I always think about it like on Halloween and stuff."

Benson says the community needs to take some responsibility. She says, providing jobs to sex offenders, allowing them to have stable housing, and good treatment makes them less likely to commit a crime again. ..Source.. by Nicole Johnson

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Defense moves to dismiss sex charges against former Bismarck teacher

3-13-2014 North Dakota:

Attorneys for a former Bismarck teacher accused of having sexual contact with a teenage boy have moved to have her case dismissed.

Susan Duursma, 35, was a physical education teacher at Wachter. She was charged in September with three counts of Class C felony corruption or solicitation of a minor. She resigned from the district on Feb. 25, after having been suspended without pay in November. A three-day trial is scheduled for early May.

Felony corruption or solicitation of a minor refers to incidents in which a person who is at least 22 years old engages in a sexual act with a person who is at least 15 years old but younger than 18. Duursma is accused of having sexual contact with a boy, who was 15 at the time, in March 2013 to July 2013.

Duursma’s attorneys, Tom Dickson and Justin Vinje, filed a motion to dismiss the charges on Tuesday, “on grounds of selective prosecution and abuse of process.”

Burleigh County Assistant State’s Attorney Pam Nesvig said she is working on a response to the motion to dismiss.

Dickson and Vinje wrote in the brief filed with the motion that the alleged victim and two witnesses in the case made an unauthorized audio recording of an encounter with Duursma for which they should have faced criminal charges.

“The three high school athletes in this case violated state and federal laws. They have not been charged. North Dakota has outlawed such surreptitious and illegal recordings,” the defense brief said. “Federal law also criminalizes their surreptitious recording and subsequent degradation of a vulnerable woman.”

The document describes the contents of the recording and describes it as “chilling.”

“During the first two minutes of the recording, three distinct, male voices are audible,” the brief said. It goes on to say one of the male voices directs the other two, who are laughing, to hide in a far back seat. The voices discuss whether “she” is coming, then a door opens, and the voice of the male who remained in the front of the vehicle directs the female to get in the back seat and close the door.

The brief said the female voice was barely audible. Minutes after entering the vehicle, the female exits and the door closes again. The document said the boys laughed and celebrated following her exit.

“They have bagged a teacher. A broken, vulnerable, battered recovering alcoholic woman has been lured into their web of deceit, deception and degradation,” the brief said.

It said the boys later shared the contents of the audiotape with friends and teammates. ..Source.. by Jenny Michael

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Wayne Stenehjem, North Dakota attorney general, letter: N.D.’s sex-offender registry outperforms federal version

10-17-2012 North Dakota:

We could abandon our system for one that is less effective in protecting the public, in the name of achieving compliance with the federal provisions, but I do not believe the trade-off is worth the price.

BISMARCK — A recent Associated Press story out of Oklahoma City, Okla., listed North Dakota as one of 34 states that has failed to comply with the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act or SORNA provisions of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006.

From reading the story, a reader might assume that North Dakota has not been diligent in passing laws, developing computer systems and creating effective programs for registration and community notification of convicted sex offenders.

In fact, the opposite is true. North Dakota began registering sex offenders in 1991, three years before Congress passed the Jacob Wetterling Act mandating states to begin registering offenders.

North Dakota’s registration requirements were applied retroactively in 1995, 11 years before Congress put that requirement in SORNA.

North Dakota has had online access to sex offenders’ information (www.sexoffender.nd.gov) since 2001, years before the national sex offender public website was created. We began transmitting sex offender information to the national site as soon as it was able to receive the data.

Information is updated in real time every work day, as changes and updates are reported by the courts, parole and probation offices, jails, states, offenders, employers and others.

But when Congress passed the legislation in 2006, it created a one-size-fits-all package that offers little connection to the stated goal of making our communities safer.

Let me provide one example (there are several) of how North Dakota has been deemed “noncompliant.” In 2001, North Dakota implemented a three-tier system based on a sex offender’s current risk to the public. Everything the offender does, negative or positive, is taken into consideration in deciding what tier the offender is placed in. Factors such as treatment completion, abstinence from drugs and alcohol, probation revocation, prison discipline history, work history and other factors continually are monitored and used to re-assess which tier the offender approximately belongs in.

These facts are important. But instead of a risk-based system, SORNA requires that we adopt a conviction-based tier system. In short, whatever conviction offense a defense attorney and prosecutor arrive at in plea negotiations would forever control the offender’s tier from that point forward.

Nothing that the offender did, good or bad — except conviction for another sexual offense — would have any effect on the offender’s tier level. That is not good for North Dakota.

From a practical standpoint, our registry and registration procedures already are compatible with SORNA’s goal. This brings us to our main contention: SORNA doesn’t have to be “one-size-fits-all” for the goals of SORNA to be accomplished.

I am not willing to throw away the valuable work that a committee of law enforcement officials, mental health professionals, probation officers and others have been doing for the past decade.

Other states have balked at compliance with SORNA because of the cost. That is not the case in North Dakota. We have spent considerable resources to provide what I think is the best sex offender registration system in the nation.

We could abandon our system for one that is less effective in protecting the public, in the name of achieving SORNA compliance, but I do not believe the trade-off is worth the price. ..Source.. by Wayne Stenehjem, attorney general of North Dakota.

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Feds file lawsuit to recover costs from ND manhunt

6-12-2012 North Dakota:

FARGO, N.D. — Federal authorities are taking a prisoner transport company to court to recover costs incurred from a rural North Dakota manhunt that ended when farmers used combines to help flush the suspect from a cornfield.

The suit against Extradition Transport of America asks a judge to order restitution for several law enforcement agencies and the farmers who formed a posse for the October 2011 search. Authorities say about $95,000 was spent recapturing Joseph Megna, and that not everybody involved has been reimbursed.

"We want to make sure we are supporting local law enforcement and that the local North Dakota taxpayers aren't out this money," U.S. Attorney Timothy Purdon told The Associated Press on Monday.

The action to help state agencies and residents is possible under a 2000 federal law passed following the escape in New Mexico of an inmate convicted of murdering an 11-year-old Fargo girl, Jeanna North. The inmate was a fugitive for three months.

Purdon said he believes it's the first time the law, Jeanna's Act, has been utilized. ..For the rest of this story: by DAVE KOLPACK

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ND awarded grant to improve sex offender programs

It is important to note that, the grant received is specifically for the Prosecutors Office, and is being used to track those on the registry. That is a misuse of the grant money. Maybe at some point the US Dep't of Justice will audit these grants and see how states are using the money.

9-14-2011 North Dakota & National:

Fargo, N.D. — The Department of Justice has awarded North Dakota a $500,000 grant to improve programs designed to capture and prosecute sex offenders who target children in the state.

The North Dakota Attorney General's Office will use the money to fund a team of officers to investigate sex offenders who are in violation of state and federal sex offender registration laws.

U.S. Attorney Timothy Purdon said in a statement that he is pleased the initiative will include tribal communities in North Dakota.

The Child Sexual Predator Program awarded $9.3 million in grant money to law enforcement agencies in 13 states this year to improve policing crimes against children. ..Source.. by Crookston Daily Times

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North Dakota gets 2nd extension on compliance with national sex offender website (Adam Walsh Act)

CLassifying sex offenders, who will win! The legal fiction if the Adam Walsh Act -OR- reality which many states prefer. SOmething must be said for the states, if they have proved -via studies- that recidivism has been checked -even if just a status quo- then they must win the argument. Do not mess with it, unless it is broken, and there is no proof it is broken!

8-6-2010 Washington DC:

WDAY TV) - The law created the Dru Sjodin national sex offender website named after the UND student who was kidnapped and killed nearly 7 years ago. So why isn't North Dakota following it?

The state got it's 2nd of two allowed extensions earlier this month, putting off for another year compliance with the law setting national standards for sex offender registration. North Dakota’s Attorney General says it's about a difference of opinion, mainly in how sex offenders are assessed for risk.

Stenehjem says there's not a one size fits all federal approach. The penalty for not complying will cost North Dakota $78,000 dollars each year.

“Whether it is worth $78,000 dollars to make our state less safe and to give our citizens less information about sex offenders, and in my view, it's not worth that sum of money.”

Stenehjem says the state is in 99 percent compliance. He says he's talked to justice department officials who say their hands are tied. Senator Byron Dorgan says he understands many states feel they have a better way to deal with sex offenders, but that can be addressed after they come into compliance. ..Source.. by WDAY Staff Reports

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National sex offender registration struggles to take hold

8-1-2010 National:

Earlier this month, the state of North Dakota received another extension from the federal government, putting off for another year compliance with a 2006 law setting national standards for sex offender registration.

Earlier this month, the state of North Dakota received another extension from the federal government, putting off for another year compliance with a 2006 law setting national standards for sex offender registration.

It’s the last extension allowed by the feds and, the thing is, the state may never comply with the law the way it’s written.

The law is better known around here for creating the Dru Sjodin national sex offender website, named after the UND student who was kidnapped and killed nearly seven years ago.

Unlike several of the states and American Indian nations that haven’t complied with the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, also known as the Adam Walsh act — only three states and two nations have — North Dakota doesn’t have funding problems. It has a difference of opinion.

“We’re in full compliance except for a couple of areas, and those areas are where I have policy disputes with the one-size-fits-all federal approach,” said North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem. The state, he said, is “99 percent” in compliance.

One of those areas of differences is how sex offenders are assessed for risk. The federal law says risk should be based on the statute the offender was convicted of. North Dakota has a committee that evaluates not just the crime, but factors that could increase the risk of reoffending.

Stenehjem’s not alone. Some law enforcement experts feel the same way and have told Congress so.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who wrote the part of the law creating the Dru Sjodin website, said he understands many states feel they have a better way to deal with sex offenders, but that can be addressed after they’ve come into compliance.

“The reason the Adam Walsh act, and the Dru Sjodin part of it, exists is because hasn’t been anything on the national level that works,” he said. If 47 states won’t comply, he said, there still won’t be national system that works.

At some point folks will realize just what a disaster the Adam Walsh Act is, as it permits Federal Administrative employees (SMART Office) to OVERRIDE state judges, state legislatures and constitutional rights of citizens of the states. One day they will wake up, North Dakota is blinking its eye already!

Deadline 2011

SORNA, as the law is called in the federal jargon, consolidated a patchwork of national standards for registering sex offenders and extended them to American Indian reservations.

The law memorializes two well-known victims, UND student Dru Sjodin and Adam Walsh, the son of John Walsh, host of “America’s Most Wanted.” The son’s 1981 murder inspired the father to become an anti-crime activist, eventually landing on TV.

Starting July 27, 2006, states, U.S. territories and reservations around the nation had three years to comply, and may seek two, one-year extensions, meaning the drop-dead deadline for compliance is July 27, 2011. Reservations may choose to have the states they’re in take the lead.Jurisdictions that that don’t comply risk losing 10 percent of their annual allotment of the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant, a major source of federal grants to state and local law enforcement agencies.

For some states, such as California, the cost of compliance far outweighs the loss of funding. The state’s Sex Offender Management Board said in early 2009 that compliance would cost $31.3 million a year, not including $6.8 million in one-time costs. Noncompliance, on the other hand, would risk just $2.1 million a year.

For North Dakota, which is already mostly compliant, the loss of funding would amount to $78,000 in fiscal year 2010. Stenehjem said it’s just not worth it to make the state, in his opinion, less safe.

Approaches to risk

What SORNA does is expand the kinds of offenses that require registration — for example, some juveniles who aren’t tried as adults must still register — and it requires offenders to provide more information about themselves and update that information, including their whereabouts, more frequently.

By and large, Stenehjem said he considers SORNA a good law. Sex offenders aren’t required to stay in one place and a national law will do a better job tracking them, he said.

Even within North Dakota, he said, it’ll help the state work better with tribal governments. Reservations don’t have the same kind of registration and tracking requirements as the rest of the state and, sometimes, sex offenders will head for reservations and disappear from the radar, he said.

But Stenehjem has a real problem with SORNA when it requires the state to base the risk level of sex offenders on the offenses they’re convicted of. This is the so-called “offense-based” approach, which contrasts with the “actuarial” approach of some 20 states, North Dakota among them.

The actuarial approach bases the risk level not only on offenses committed, but also factors such as the person going through sex offender treatment and holding steady jobs. States argue that this is a more accurate method of assessing risk, allowing authorities to focus finite police resources only on the sex offenders that are truly likely to reoffend.

In North Dakota, Stenehjem said, the state’s Sex Offender Risk Assessment Committee is made up of psychologists, law enforcement officials and victims’ advocates who go through every sex offender’s case to determine the risk level.

He faulted the offense-based approach because a conviction alone can give a false impression of a sex offender. For example, if the sex offender managed, through plea bargaining, to attain a conviction on a lesser charge, his risk level drops simply because it was negotiated that way between prosecutors and the defending attorney.

Plea bargaining is extremely common in the U.S. justice system with most cases never going to court.

The state committee considers the circumstances of the offense, Stenehjem and Assistant Attorney General Jon Byers said, for example, the age of the victim, the offender’s criminal history, what police said happened along with the evidence gathered compared with what the victim and the offender said. The committee also looks at other factors that raises or lowers risks, they said, for example, going through sex offender treatment or drug abuse treatment lowers the risk, as is having a steady job and a consistent place to live.

Crude instrument

There is disagreement among law enforcement experts about which approach is appropriate at the national level. In early 2009, that disagreement came before Congress again when the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security held a hearing to find out why so few states had complied with SORNA.

On one side are those that, like Stenehjem, think offense-based risk assessment is too crude an instrument to be effective.

“One of the fundamental problems in our field is that we tend to paint all sex offenders with the same brush,” Madeline M. Carter, director of the Center for Sex Offender Management in Silver Spring, Md., told the subcommittee. “Professionals have long recognized key differences among them. These differences relate to the types of crimes they commit, to the victims they target, to their risk for re-offense, and to the types of interventions that will most likely reduce their risk.”

SORNA may even impede states from effective management of their sex offender populations.

In Washington state, authorities may raise the risk-level of a sex offender if there were indications that he was engaging in risky behavior, said Bob Shilling, a detective in the Seattle Police Department. “This helps put precious public safety resources where they are needed the most, monitoring the highest-risk offenders.”

SORNA, he said, would not allow this.

National approach

On the other side are those that think the actuarial approach is too subjective and varies too much from state to state to work at the national level. How could there be a national system if a sex offender might be a moderate risk in one state and a high risk in another?

“Individuals who do not have a national perspective do not understand the significance of the jurisdiction-specific modifications they seek,” Laura L. Rogers, the former director of the Justice Department office charged with implementing SORNA, told the House subcommittee in a statement. The law already has flexibility for different jurisdictions, she said, and changes to make it more so would only create problems.

“There is little consistency to these various programs,” complained Rep. Louis B. Gohmert Jr., R-Texas, the subcommittee’s ranking member and a former judge. “They are not uniform in the criteria they apply or in who performs the assessments. This creates discrepancies over which sex offenders should be tracked nationwide.”

Nevertheless, states do want SORNA modified and North Dakota is among them.

Stenehjem said he’s contacted the Justice Department, which says its hands are tied by the language of the law, and congressional leaders who “listened politely” but have yet to take action.

Dorgan’s office said the only correspondence with the attorney general is a copy of a letter requesting this year’s extension.

The senator said he’s sympathetic. If states think they have a better approach, he said, Congress may address that, but the first priority is to establish a consistent national system. ..Source.. by Tu-Uyen Tran, Grand Forks Herald

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