Brandon James Furlough

In 2007 I was convicted of a crime of a sexual nature. I immediately accepted responsibility, served a prison sentence, and completed supervision, What remained—and remains–is lifetime sex offender registration and everything that comes with it. I did not fully comprehend what that would mean until my son was born in 2016.

I grew up as the only boy in a family of two sisters. My father left when I was young. I know firsthand the demons that can haunt a young man wondering why his dad is not there. I will not have my son feel that because I chose not to show up. I choose to be there for him. The problem is that sometimes the law makes that choice illegal.

Years ago, my son had an appointment that took place at a school. Since I had finished my sentence and supervision requirements, I thought I was good. I was not. They let my son and his mother inside and called the police on me. Luckily, the officer understood that I had not knowingly walked into a situation that could get me charged again, and I was allowed to leave.

That experience stayed with me because it showed me how easily trying to be a father can become a criminal act. Choir, sports, band, parent-teacher conferences, school events—if they happen where I am legally prohibited from being, I cannot simply walk in and support my son like another parent. I can be charged with another felony for doing so.

I have tried working around that reality. Once, just so I could watch his baseball game, I sat on a sidewalk in a neighborhood I did not know because I could not go where the other parents were. The awkward looks were enough to prevent me from repeating that. Indiana has also

recently considered legislation that would make taking my son to parks a felony. He loves parks–walking trails, rolling down big hills, playgrounds, swings. Those are ordinary childhood memories. For us, ordinary things can become illegal.

I am not sure I cope with it, honestly. I write. I work building business organizations. I spend as much time with my son as I can. Mostly, I keep pushing forward because I have to change this for him. Where I am not present, it is not because I choose to be absent. I want to be there, I can be there, and I would be there. The law is the barrier.

That is what gets lost when people talk about registries and restrictions. The registry has my name on it, but my son feels its consequences too. He has done nothing, yet he can lose memories, experiences, and time with his father because of something I did before he was even born.

I am not dismissing accountability. I am asking when enough is enough. If society believes people should pay forever, then they should be kept locked up forever. But if they are released, they should be allowed to rebuild, work, grow, have a family, and live differently. What are we accomplishing when punishment to parents becomes punishment to their children?

That is a major reason I wrote An American Sex Offender: A Father’s Fight to Be There After a Mistake That Never Ends. Knowing how society looks at sex offenders, I wrote under the pen name Brent Jovani Falcone because I wanted the story to have a chance to be seen before the label ended the conversation. I wrote it in hopes that maybe we can do better than pretending people never change and that children do not suffer from the consequences.

Imagine something that you did as a teenager following you decades later; then imagine explaining that to your child and why it means you cannot show up for something important to him. If I am to be anathema, so be it. But I will make this truth known.

The post Path of Anathema first appeared on NARSOL.

Boynton Beach, Florida — August 11, 2026 — The Florida Action Committee (FAC), a statewide nonprofit organization advocating for evidence-based criminal justice policies, today announced the filing of a sweeping federal lawsuit challenging Florida’s sex offender registration and restriction scheme as unconstitutional.

Filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida (Case No. 4:26-cv-00388-MW-MJF), the lawsuit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief against Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass, along with fifty counties and municipalities that enforce additional residency and presence restrictions. The complaint argues that Florida’s registry has evolved far beyond its original purpose as a public notification system and now functions as a system of perpetual punishment that violates multiple provisions of the United States Constitution.

FAC spokesperson Teresa Bond explained, “This is not just another challenge to one law or one ordinance. This case asks the courts to recognize what has become increasingly obvious over the past three decades: Florida’s registry is no longer a civil regulatory system. It has become a lifetime system of punishment that reaches far beyond any sentence imposed by a judge.”

The lawsuit alleges that Florida’s registration scheme, together with the network of local ordinances adopted throughout the state, imposes severe and continuing restrictions on where individuals may live, travel, work, and even be present. It further alleges that the cumulative effect of these laws amounts to banishment, perpetual supervision, and punishment long after individuals have completed their court-imposed sentences.

Among the constitutional claims raised in the lawsuit are allegations that Florida’s laws violate:

• The Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment;
• The Constitution’s Ex Post Facto Clause by retroactively increasing punishment;
• The fundamental constitutional right to interstate travel;
• Due process through vague and undefined criminal prohibitions;
• The First Amendment by restricting protected speech in public places.

Unlike prior litigation that has challenged individual provisions of Florida law, this lawsuit takes a comprehensive approach by asking the court to evaluate the registry as it exists today – not as it existed decades ago when courts first considered these issues. The complaint details how repeated legislative amendments have transformed Florida’s registry from a recordkeeping system into one of the most restrictive registration schemes in the nation.

The complaint also documents the practical consequences experienced by FAC’s members, including widespread housing instability, barriers to employment, restrictions on family life, obstacles to travel, and high rates of homelessness created by overlapping state and local residency restrictions.

FAC emphasized that the lawsuit does not seek to excuse criminal conduct or diminish the seriousness of sexual offenses. “People who commit crimes should be held accountable” explained Bond, “but once a sentence has been imposed and served, the Constitution still matters. Public safety and constitutional rights are not mutually exclusive. This lawsuit asks the courts to reaffirm that there are limits on how far government may go in continuing to punish people long after they have paid their debt to society.”

The organization noted that the litigation has been developed over many months with the assistance of nationally recognized constitutional litigators and is expected to address legal questions that have never before been presented together in a single challenge to Florida’s current registry system.

As with any major constitutional litigation, FAC expects the case to proceed through multiple levels of judicial review before a final resolution is reached.

A copy of the complaint can be read here.

The post Florida Action Committee Files Landmark Federal Constitutional Challenge to Florida’s Sex Offender Registry Laws first appeared on NARSOL.

By Sandy . . . What is going on at Pawleys Island Baptist Church and school in South Carolina? For anyone who follows the topics of interest to our community, it would have been impossible to miss the headlines and videos starting the week of July 13, 2026, and intensifying every day for, as of this writing, almost two weeks.

A teacher at the school checked the South Carolina sex offender registry and recognized the church and school custodian as a registered sex offender. Another teacher reported to the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Department that Warren Perry, the registrant in question, was working in a children’s school; the sheriff’s department investigated, verified that Mr. Perry was in violation of his probation conditions, and subsequently arrested him on July 14. Whether his status was that of volunteer or of employee is unclear.

Mr. Perry had started volunteering/working at the church and school in

2021, possibly as early as 2020, which was the same year he committed the crime for which he was charged and convicted in 2023. He was convicted of one count of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. In South Carolina, this offense translates to possessing or viewing child pornography, now called CSAM—child sexual abuse material. Generally. each count equals one picture or image. In South Carolina law, a minor is defined as anyone under 18 years of age.

Perry was on probation; his conditions specified that he was not allowed to be in the proximity of children, and he knew it. He had probation’s permission to be at the church, but “Triple P”—Parole, Probation, Pardon—did not know about the school—almost without doubt a deliberate deceit on Mr. Perry’s part.

Arguably, what is with a great deal of doubt is that the church’s minister, Pastor Don Williams, his wife Ginny, and former school director Jennifer Howard knew about and colluded with the deception. This is the contention of Sheriff Carter Weaver and Georgetown County solicitor Jimmy Richardson when they arrested them on the 20^th, along with Perry, and charged them with a barrage of offenses; it is also the contention of the multiple civil suits brought in the case.

Pastor Williams, his wife, and the school director resigned July 17.

The lawsuits started immediately, with the first, filed on the 17^th, being a class action suit asking for 25 million dollars. Three more were filed on the 21^st. They claim negligence, collusion, putting children at risk, and at least one claims a child was molested by Perry in 2022. There almost seems to be a domino effect in play.

This is not uncommon when a celebrity or person in a high position is arrested for a sexual crime; new victims come forth daily. When victims are adults, this is understandable. A lone victim could be reluctant to make such a charge against a movie star, a state senator, or even a local popular figure, but once someone else has had the courage to do so, other victims see that they are not alone. This is akin to what created the “me too” movement.

It is difficult however, is it not, to apply this to the molestation of children? If your child was the victim of such an assault, would you wait for others to come forward before you did? If a child was molested at the school in 2022 by Perry, why is this not part of the criminal charges against Perry? Why is it brought up only as the basis of a civil suit?

So what is going on at Pawley Island’s Baptist Church? It is still very much of an active investigation, but several factors are indisputable:

• Perry began volunteering or working around the church and school in 2020 or 2021.
• In 2023 he pled guilty to a sexual crime committed in 2020; he received a sentence of probation and was placed on the sex offender registry.
• The conditions of his probation expressly forbade his being in proximity of children.
• He did not tell his probation officer that the church included a day-school for pre-k and kindergarten age children.

What does this mean for our advocacy community? Whenever a registrant reoffends or violates the terms of probation, especially when it becomes a high-profile case, the risk is increased for negative consequences. Some one in our legal community opines that whatever progress registrants have made in gaining acceptance in in-person faith communities has been, not only wiped out, but set back twenty years due to this one situation.

Additionally, many bad bills have been proposed and quickly passed in the wake of circumstances such as this one. South Carolina advocates need to be prepared for proposed bad legislation related to this specific case come January 2027.

The post What is going on at Pawleys Island church? first appeared on NARSOL.

NARSOL has received sad news. Our dear friend and one of our faithful and extremely competent gatekeepers, Ken Roberts, died Sunday morning, June 12, from complications related to congestive heart failure. Ken was 74.

In 2012, Ken was “on paper,” on probation. His first two probation officers were very strict in following the rules. So was he, by necessity. His third PO started out strict but over time realized that Ken wasn’t much of a threat and loosened some of the restrictions. Nevertheless, according to Ken, “I sort of went into a cocoon that I’m slowly crawling out of.”

Ken was reading the “Loving a Sex Offender” thread in the now-defunct PrisonTalk website and noticed several positive references to RSOL (later NARSOL). He checked out the national RSOL website and started following its work. After a while, he shared a couple of its brochures and the URL for its website with his PO and asked if it was okay to volunteer with them. His PO checked it out and said he thought it was a good thing to advocate for for him to advocate for his situation and gave him permission to proceed.

We are so very thankful that he did.

After correspondence with Brenda Jones, Ken was encouraged to be a state contact for his state and in 2015 became the official RSOL contact for Mississippi. That position asks the person filling it to become familiar with the state’s registry and sexual offense laws; the support that is available for jobs, housing, counseling, and legal assistance; keep up on current legislative activity that affects registrants; and communicate with people in the state to help their situation and answer questions as needed.

Later that year, Ken filled in for Tim Burgess, the then-gatekeeper for RSOL, while he went on vacation. Upon his return, Tim hinted he was looking for another person to do the gatekeeping job, and Ken decided to help out with that as well as remaining the Mississippi state contact.

What is a gatekeeper? The gatekeeper is the primary contact and liaison between an organization and people seeking information or help. Communication can be by phone or email. If there is a state contact in the person’s state, the gatekeeper usually will refer the correspondence to the state contact to follow up. If the gatekeeper doesn’t know the state or what the person’s issue is, he usually calls or emails the person back to better understand their needs.

“Part of the gatekeeper’s role is to be a good listener,” Ken related. “Often people just need to vent or share their story, and we are there to give help when we can, to give a sympathetic ear, and to give encouragement.”

Ken has been a gatekeeper ever since. He held the dual role of gatekeeper and Mississippi state contact until he had medical issues that made it necessary to drop one of the two positions. He decided to vacate the state contact position and maintain the gatekeeper role. Fortunately, we have had some other people step in to take the Mississippi position.

“It’s been gratifying to be a gatekeeper, to help people who are dealing with the many issues the registry places on them,” Ken said. “It’s enjoyable to talk or correspond with people in every corner of the nation. Maybe we can’t solve their situation, but we can at least let them know there are people who care and understand where they’re coming from.”

Ken was as good at doing that as anyone we know. He listened. He was patient. He was non-judgmental. He truly cared. He was a dear, dear friend to NARSOL, and we feel his loss greatly, but primarily, we are more appreciative than words can convey for the time he so generously gave to us.

The post A dear friend has died first appeared on NARSOL.

By Savannah . . . In May 2026, the Michigan Supreme Court issued an important decision in People v. Shaver, holding that its landmark 2021 decision in People v. Betts applies retroactively.

People who were convicted years ago for violating Michigan’s

unconstitutional registration law may now have an opportunity to have those convictions set aside.

The case arose from the experience of Gary Shaver, whose underlying offense occurred in 2004. At that time, Michigan’s Sex Offenders Registration Act (SORA) required registrants to report address changes within ten days. But over the years, the legislature dramatically expanded the law. By 2011, registrants faced far more burdensome requirements, including shorter reporting deadlines, in-person reporting, internet identifier disclosure, a tier classification system, and numerous additional restrictions.

In 2015, Shaver updated his address before moving into a new home. When the move unexpectedly fell through, his registered address remained incorrect for nineteen days. Although he had tried to comply, he was prosecuted under the much harsher 2011 version of SORA and ultimately convicted of failing to register.

Everything changed in 2021, when the Michigan Supreme Court decided People v. Betts. After examining the 2011 version of SORA in its entirety, the Betts court concluded that SORA was no longer merely a civil regulatory system. Instead, the law had become so punitive in its effects that applying it to people whose offenses occurred before the 2011 amendments violated the constitutional prohibition against ex post facto punishment. In other words, the state could not retroactively impose these new, harsher registration requirements on people whose crimes had been committed years earlier.

But one major question remained unanswered: What about people whose failure to register or disclose information convictions had already become final before Betts was decided?

That was the question presented in Shaver.

The Michigan Supreme Court held that Betts announced a new substantive constitutional rule, not merely a procedural one. Because substantive constitutional rules apply retroactively, people who had already been convicted under the unconstitutional 2011 SORA may seek relief through post-conviction proceedings.

The distinction between “substantive” and “procedural” may sound like legal jargon, but it carries enormous consequences. Procedural rules generally affect how courts conduct trials. Substantive rules, by contrast, limit the government’s power to punish certain conduct or certain people. The Michigan Supreme Court explained that Betts falls into the second category because it removes the state’s authority to punish pre-2011 registrants under the unconstitutional 2011 version of SORA.

The decision is significant for reasons beyond Michigan. Across the country, legislatures have repeatedly expanded registration laws years after people completed their criminal sentences. Courts have often struggled with the question of when those changes become punishment rather than regulation. Shaver reinforces an important constitutional principle: when a law crosses the line into punishment, the government cannot retroactively impose it on people whose offenses occurred before the law existed. Just as importantly, the decision recognizes that constitutional rights are meaningful only if they can be enforced by people whose convictions are already final.

For registrants and advocates, Shaver is a reminder that major constitutional victories do not end with the first favorable decision. Sometimes a second case is needed to ensure those victories reach the people they were meant to protect. In Michigan, Shaver does exactly that, opening the door for individuals convicted under the unconstitutional 2011 SORA to seek the relief that Betts promised.

The post  People v. Shaver — A Victory for Those Convicted Under Michigan’s Unconstitutional Registry Law first appeared on NARSOL.

By Sandy . . . Vigilantes killing individuals required to be on a sex offender registry is nothing new. The first recorded case we found was in Utah in 2005. Since then these murders have occurred in Maine (a double murder), in Washington State (twice, both double murders), in Nevada, in California (at least four times), Texas, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and at least another half-dozen states.

A significant number were cases where the murderers used the state’s registry to identify, locate, and slaughter their victims. One of the most horrific was when a couple, Jeremy and Christine Moody, tracked Charles Parker and, with gun and knife, slaughtered him and his wife Gretchen in South Carolina in 2013.

For shock value,  however, and horror verging on disbelief, it is difficult

to imagine anything more gruesome as what occurred on or about May 23, 2026, when Kian Neal slaughtered Robert Locke in Tennessee. Neal, who had been abused as a child, now–at 18 years of age–said that he decided killing someone on the registry would bring him justice. According to his statement, he used the registry to locate the registrant who lived closest to him, went to his home armed with a hammer, saw, and large trash bags, and beat Mr. Locke with the hammer repeatedly. When that was not totally effective, he choked him with the plastic trash bag ties.

Mr. Neal said that he then dismembered the body with the saw, put the body, hammer, and saw into the bags, and put them in a dumpster. Surveillance tape shows him loading two large garbage bags into a dumpster on May 23. Law officers have searched a landfill for the remains; they have not been recovered as of this posting.

This story is so fraught with tragedies that it is difficult to know where to begin.

It is a horrible tragedy that Kian Neal, for whatever reason, received no or so little help or therapy after his childhood trauma that he felt taking a man’s life would bring him justice.

It is a tragedy that Mr. Locke’s family, who reported him missing in late May, suffered the loss of their loved one in such an horrific manner and that, as of yet, they have no body to lay to rest.

It is a tragedy that persons who commit sexual crimes and are held accountable through our justice system are then marked, often for life, by public sex offender registration.

It is a tragedy that Tennessee, as well as the vast majority of other states, chooses to make the physical addresses of registrants available to the public in spite of the many, many known instances of vigilante attacks on the property, the homes, and the registered persons and their family members.

This all speaks to our justice system being broken, an utterly failed system when it comes to the handling of not only the persons who commit sexual crimes but also the persons harmed by them. For all of the millions spent on sex offender registries since their inception, they do not do what is needed.

They do not protect new victims from sexual crime; a very high percentage of all new such offenses are committed by first-time offenders. They offer no healing for previous victims. They impede, and are actually in conflict with, both private and state-sponsored rehabilitation mandates and programs.

And they facilitate vigilante activity against registrants. They allow disturbed men—and a few women—such as Kian Neal and others who have come before him to utilize the registry like a road map, locating and murdering persons they do not know out of some sense of twisted justice.

This particular situation has a relatively easy albeit temporary fix.

Whatever value is believed to be present by this information would still be accomplished with listings such as “500 block of Crawford Ave.” This would not stop vigilantes completely, but it would make them work a little harder to locate their victims. It could save some lives.

A “fix” of a more permanent nature will be much more difficult. That will require a revamping of sex offense legislation across the nation to reflect what addresses the needs of, not just victims, not just offenders, but society as a whole.

See the letter to Governor Lee here.

The post NARSOL asks TN. governor to remove registrant addresses from online registry first appeared on NARSOL.

NARSOL’s 18^th conference hit the ground running Friday morning, June 26, and didn’t slow down for two and a half days.

With powerball speakers such as Catherine Carpender and Miriam Auckerman, the

deeply moving stories of Amber Vlangas and Shawn Barrera-Leaf, and the brave advocacies of Peter Dross and Grant Hill, the conference attendees met with inspiration and encouragement at every turn.

The workshops enhanced the major presentations, completing and reinforcing what came to be recognized as the unifying theme for this conference: It takes all of us, and together we can!

The Friday night awards banquet was a delight. The meal was  good southern-cooking; the space in which to relax and enjoy the evening and each other was needed and appreciated; speaker Amber Vlangas moved us to tears, and MC Robin Vanderwall kept the program moving, culminating in the presentation of the year’s awards and the drawings for the raffle prizes.

The winners of the NARSOL 2026 awards are:

NARSOL Advocate of the Year: Shawn Barrera-Leaf

Paul E. Shannon Lifetime Achievement Award: Cindy Prizio

Braveheart Award: Grant Hill

Hawthorne Award: Catherine Carpenter

Hawthorne Award: Guy Hamilton-Smith

NARSOL Excellence in Service Award: Craig McAlexander

NARSOL Excellence in Leadership Award: Stephen Herto

Most of all, NARSOL thanks our wonderful attendees without whom there would be no conference. We are appreciative of your loyalty, your advocacy, and your dedication. Thank you!

The post NARSOL’s 18th conference is a wrap first appeared on NARSOL.

By Philip

Charleston, WV – June 17, 2026 – The National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws (NARSOL) has filed a second federal

lawsuit in the Southern District of West Virginia challenging the state law that imposes a $125 annual fee on individuals required to register as sex offenders.

The lawsuit, Basham et al. v. Mitchell, filed on behalf of West Virginia’s 6,450 registrants, argues that the fee, which became effective on January 1, 2026, constitutes an unconstitutional punitive fine rather than a legitimate administrative cost.

The Challenge

Under W. Va. Code Ann. § 15-12-2(o), registrants must pay $125 annually or face property liens, regardless of their ability to pay. The state expects the fee to generate over $800,000 per year.

Where the Money Goes

According to the complaint, none of the collected fees are earmarked for sex offender registration functions. Instead, the funds will:

• first support mental health counselors, seminars, and training for current and former West Virginia state police employees—whether or not they work with the registry;
• then fund any other expenses “essential to the general operations of the State Police.”

The complaint emphasizes that no fees will be used for “sex offender notification, registration, verification, or compliance.”

Constitutional Claims

The complaint, filed under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, raises an Ex Post Facto constitutional claim.

Ex Post Facto Clause (U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 10)

• Unlike the earlier Kaso v. Mitchell case, this lawsuit does not assert claims under the Eighth Amendment, the Due Process Clause, or the Equal Protection Clause. Instead, it focuses exclusively on the Ex Post Facto Clause.
• Plaintiffs argue that the annual fee constitutes a retroactive punishment because it was enacted in 2025 and later amended in 2026, long after their convictions and sentences became final.
• The complaint contends that the fee is not a genuine regulatory fee but rather a punitive fine because:
  • It is imposed solely because of a past criminal conviction;
  • It can be imposed annually, often for life;
  • Nonpayment triggers a judgment lien against the registrant’s property;
  • Revenue is used for state police mental health programs and general operations rather than registry administration.
• Plaintiffs further argue that the statute fails the punitive-effects analysis described in Smith v. Doe and Mendoza-Martinez, asserting that it resembles punishment in purpose and effect.

About NARSOL & WVRSOL

The National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws is a civil rights organization dedicated to promoting evidence-based policies and constitutional protections for individuals affected by sex offense laws.

West Virginians for Rational Sexual Offense Laws is NARSOL’s West Virginia state affiliate that advocates for registered citizens in West Virginia. We are working to make the 2020s ​a decade known for criminal justice reform, rational sexual offense laws, and restorative justice.

The post NARSOL & WVRSOL File Second Federal Lawsuit Challenging West Virginia’s $125 Annual Registry Fee first appeared on NARSOL.

Defendant, believed to be a Proud Boys member, never responded to the lawsuit. 

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – A man who spent months posting false allegations about the National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws (NARSOL) on Facebook, including a fabricated claim that the organization is linked to groups advocating child sexual abuse, was ordered last week to pay NARSOL $18,458.56 in damages by North Carolina Superior Court Judge Clayton Somers.

Ronald Creighton Davis, of Pierce County, Georgia, never answered the lawsuit. He didn’t file paperwork and didn’t appear in court; he did not contest anything. 

Davis participated in multiple campaigns aimed at preventing NARSOL from holding its annual conference. The first succeeded. In June 2025, a Hilton property in Grand Rapids canceled NARSOL’s conference contract after a pressure campaign that included online threats, doxxing of NARSOL leadership, in-person hotel pamphleting, and calls to Hilton’s corporate offices. Davis bragged in his posts that he helped make that happen, affiliating his actions with the Proud Boys, a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group.

The second campaign targeted a Holiday Inn property in Atlanta that fall. The strategy was the same: flood the hotel with calls, manufacture a scandal, incite outrage by falsely associating NARSOL with child sexual abuse, dox hotel staff, and make it too costly for the venue to honor the contract. This campaign failed, and the conference was held as planned.

“We are an organization advocating for the modernization of obsolete laws that ‘sound tough’ but, in reality, have proven ineffective and often harmful,” said NARSOL Executive Director Brenda Jones. “We don’t advocate for harming children. We never have. And if you visit narsol.org, you can read exactly what we do and what we don’t do, in plain English.”

Davis’s false statements were not accidental. NARSOL counsel Paul Dubbeling, Esq. of P.M. Dubbeling PLLC in Chapel Hill, described it in court filings as a deliberate strategy to invoke public fear and disgust, to make ordinary people and hotel managers react emotionally before they had time to verify anything.

“This small group systematically lied about who we are and what we do. They used lies to drive a hotel out of a legal contract with us,” said Jones. “But then, they didn’t bother to respond to a lawsuit. We sued. We won.”

NARSOL filed the lawsuit on October 7, 2025. Davis was served but failed to respond within the required time. The court’s order was filed on May 18, 2026.

“With this ruling, the court sends a clear message,” added Jones. “You cannot harass a civil rights organization out of existence by loudly repeating lies.”

Case: NARSOL v. Ronald Creighton Davis et al., No. 25CV035559-910, Wake County Superior Court, North Carolina

Media contact: Brenda Jones, bjones@narsol.org | www.narsol.org

The post NEWS RELEASE: North Carolina Court Awards NARSOL $18,458 Against Man Who Spread False Claims first appeared on NARSOL.

By Sandy . . . Is there anything more despicable than a scam? Schemes that use fear to extract money from those already living in fear go a step beyond despicable. Scams targeting people required to be listed on sex offender registries have worked their terror for longer than ten years, and they show no tendency of ending.

NARSOL warned registrants and the general public about this odious, illegal activity as soon as we became aware of it, and our efforts were eventually joined by those of law enforcement.

The scams have never stopped, but we have recently been notified of increasingly sophisticated efforts.

These scams can vary to some degree, but they will involve some variation of this: A person representing himself as someone in authority in law enforcement calls people on the registry and tells them that they are deficit in something regarding their registration, probation, or a new law; that a warrant has been or will be issued; and that he can take payment and stop the warrant.

This is what you need to know.

Law enforcement will not telephone you with notices that you are delinquent in some area of registry.

They will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER ask for money over the telephone.

The scammers will sound totally professional and knowledgeable and real, but they are NOT.

Here is what you should do: HANG UP.

However, if you don’t, if you, for whatever reason, think he might be legitimate, ask for his name and tell him that you will call him back at your registry office. Then HANG UP, call your registry office, and tell them you are calling to report a potential scam.

For more thorough information, including some law enforcement warnings, here are a few of the previously printed pieces. Some of the links within some of the pieces may no longer work.

https://www.narsol.org/2023/11/law-enforcement-paying-attention-to-sex-offender-scams/

https://www.narsol.org/2021/08/be-sure-you-know-about-sex-offender-scams/

https://www.narsol.org/2021/06/new-scam-warning-out-of-virginia/

https://www.narsol.org/2020/02/beware-of-scams-targeting-those-on-the-registry/

The post Scams targeting people listed on sex offender registries are alive and well in the U.S. first appeared on NARSOL.