A 25-year-old teacher at Oakleaf High School faces a sex charge after he was arrested Tuesday amid an investigation into inappropriate text messages reported by a student\u2019s parent, according to the Clay County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
Authorities interviewed the girl, whose age was not listed, and she told them there was a relationship that ended this month. She said the two had sex a \u201chandful of times,\u201d usually in her car at the school\u2019s baseball field in June and July, according to the arrest report. She said they also had sex at the man\u2019s brother\u2019s house.<\/p>\n
Franzese was hired in 2016 after a background check that included a screening with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, FBI and the FDLE sexual offender and predator registry, according to the district. All instructors in the district are also screened in the Department of Education database for past disciplinary action.<\/p>\n
SOURCE<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n While laws keep anyone with a sexual offense anyplace in their history from living within 2500 feet of schools, Florida school teachers are\u00a0 committing sex crimes.<\/p>\n Yesterday, a Naples, FL teacher was arrested for two counts of sexual assault of a teen, sending information to harm a minor, and obscene communication using a computer to seduce a child.<\/p>\n In June of this year, Leanne Zinser, the Supervisor of Communications and Community Engagement for the Collier County School District responded to an FAC Public Information request by claiming that there was \u201cno document responsive to [our] request because such a list is not maintained by the District\u201d.<\/p>\n Apparently the Collier County School District does not maintain records of teachers or school administrators who sexually assault students.<\/p>\n Well here\u2019s one for you Ms. Zinser!<\/p>\n The Florida Action Committee put in Public Information Requests to the FDLE and the School Boards of every county in the State, asking for the number of registered sex offenders who have been accused of, arrested for or convicted of committing a sexual crime on a school campus during 2016 and the number of teachers, administrators or school staff who have done the same.<\/p>\n The results will shock you!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As Broward State Sen. Lauren Book prepares for her annual walk to raise awareness about child sex abuse, she wants to make sure one of her harshest critics is nowhere near her.<\/p>\n On July 26, Sen. Book filed a petition in Broward Circuit Court seeking a restraining order against Derek Logue, a 40-year-old Ohio man convicted of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl in 2001. Logue today is an advocate for registered sex offenders.<\/p>\n You won\u2019t find Sen. Book\u2019s petition at the county courthouse. A clerk in the Broward court\u2019s domestic violence division told a reporter it is confidential. The reason: Florida Statute 119 says that any documents that reveal the identity, address or phone numbers of a potential crime victim are exempt from Florida\u2019s liberal public records law.<\/p>\n Florida Bulldog<\/em>\u00a0obtained a copy of her petition from Logue.<\/p>\n Sen. Book claims she fears for her and her family\u2019s safety following physical threats Logue allegedly made against her online and in person during two public events in 2015 and 2016. In addition to seeking to bar Logue from showing up at her annual walk events, she wants to keep him from coming within 500 feet of her home and her offices.<\/p>\n But Broward Circuit Court Judge Michael G. Kaplan rejected Sen. Book\u2019s request for a temporary restraining order on Aug. 9, noting there was insufficient evidence showing she was in immediate danger. A hearing on her request for a permanent restraining order is scheduled for Sept. 1.<\/p>\n Sen. Book declined comment, but her father, prominent Tallahassee lobbyist Ron Book, told\u00a0Florida Bulldog<\/em>\u00a0Logue has been harassing him and his daughter for roughly four years. \u201cWe had ignored his harassment because we don\u2019t believe he is terribly relevant,\u201d Book said. \u201cHe has little credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Book said the last straw occurred on July 8, when Logue tweeted \u201cI think I found the official Laura Ahearn\/ Lauren Book theme song\u201d next to a link to a YouTube video for a song titled, \u201cYou Are A C\u2014,\u201d by Australian singer and comedian Kat McSnatch. Ahearn is executive director of Parents for Megan\u2019s Law, a New York-based advocacy group for victims of sex crimes.<\/p>\n Among its provocative lyrics is this ugly line: \u201cWhy don\u2019t you shut that scabby c\u2014 mouth before I f\u2014 up your face.\u201d The crude video also features an image of a tombstone that reads, \u201cR.I.P. Annoying C\u2014.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Ron Book and Sen. Book\u2019s petition, officials from several New York law enforcement agencies advised that Logue\u2019s tweet was a credible death threat. \u201cWe were advised to contact local law enforcement and take steps to make sure that the encounters we\u2019ve had with Mr. Logue don\u2019t happen again. When you cross the line and threaten to f\u2014k up someone\u2019s face followed by \u2018R.I.P.,\u2019 that is a credible threat,\u201d said Ron Book.<\/p>\n Logue dismissed the Books\u2019 accusations as \u201ca load of hogwash.\u201d He claims the petition is an attempt to stop him from exercising his First Amendment right to speak out against their lifelong campaign against registered sex offenders.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is easy to make me look like the bad guy because I am a registered citizen,\u201d Logue told\u00a0Florida Bulldog<\/em>. \u201cYou may not like my choice of words. I do cuss and I do call people the C word. She is offended by it, but I don\u2019t care. It\u2019s protected free speech.\u201d<\/p>\n He added, \u201cShe is simply trying to prevent me from raining on her little parade.\u201d<\/p>\n Sen. Book is the founder and $135,000-a-year chief executive officer of Lauren\u2019s Kids, a non-profit agency that has collected more than $10 million in grants from the Florida Legislature to fund an array of educational programs to convince victims and children advocates to report child sex crimes. However, the effectiveness of the programs have come under fire as Sen. Book has used Lauren\u2019s Kids to elevate her public profile.<\/p>\n The Plantation Democrat, who was sexually abused as a teen by her former nanny, also makes an annual trek on foot from Key West to Tallahassee to raise awareness for child sex victims. This year\u2019s walk is scheduled to begin on Sept. 9.<\/p>\n In her petition, Sen. Book claims that in 2015 Logue traveled to Tallahassee and organized a group of sex offenders in an attempt to disrupt the final mile of her annual walk. \u201cThe workers were warned in advance and they were able to keep the walk peaceful with the help of the Capitol Police, the Tallahassee Police Department and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement,\u201d the petition says.<\/p>\n A year later, Logue traveled to New York City to attend a screening of the documentary\u00a0Untouchable<\/em>\u00a0at the Tribeca Film Festival to harass Sen. Book during a question and answer session, the petition alleges. The Books are prominently featured in the movie about the impact of sex offender laws on individuals convicted of sex crimes.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring the question and answer segment, he became unruly enough that his microphone was cut off and petitioner was surrounded by New York Police Department officers to protect her,\u201d the petition states. Sen. Book claims she learned of Logue\u2019s July 8 tweet after being contacted by an advocate for Parents of Megan\u2019s Law who saw it and who filed a report with the New York field office of the FBI.<\/p>\n The petition also noted that Logue\u2019s website OnceFallen.com and a Facebook page he is affiliated with is promoting a rally planned for Miami in September: \u201cThe coincidence is palpable.\u201d<\/p>\n In his response to the petition and during an interview with\u00a0Florida Bulldog<\/em>, Logue said he has participated in and helped organize demonstrations across the country against sex offender registry laws and other legislation he believes discriminate against sex offenders who have done their time. He has also been interviewed on the topic by CNN, HLN and Russia Today, as well as local and regional news outlets, Logue said.<\/p>\n He said the 2015 demonstration in Tallahassee was peaceful even though Lauren\u2019s Kids officials tried to report him for not registering with the state of Florida for the event. \u201cI am free to travel anywhere in the United States of America,\u201d Logue\u2019s response states. \u201cIn fact, I made it a point to contact the Leon County Sheriff\u2019s office to confirm that I would not need to register as a sex offender to visit for less than 48 hours to engage in a peaceful demonstration.\u201d<\/p>\n Logue said he attended the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival because he had been interviewed for\u00a0Untouchable<\/em>, but the footage did not make into the documentary. He did make a brief appearance halfway through the film during scenes of the demonstration in Tallahassee. He said he only learned the Books were also in attendance when he arrived for the screening.<\/p>\n Logue said the documentary\u2019s director David Feige asked him not to be too nasty to the Book family and he obliged. He denies disrupting the question and answer session. \u201cI asked her why she preaches that sex offenders don\u2019t deserve second chances when her father is also a convicted criminal that got second and third chances,\u201d Logue said. \u201cShe made a snarky remark, I laughed and sat back down.\u201d<\/p>\n On Sept. 21, 1995, Ron Book pleaded guilty to four misdemeanor charges and was fined $2,000 following a criminal investigation that found he violated state law by funneling more than $30,000 in illegal campaign contributions to at least a dozen county and state politicians.<\/p>\n Logue, who isn\u2019t shy about owning up to his sex crime conviction, claims when he went to register in his home state in July, his registration officer told him someone claiming to be a state senator called to complain that he called her a c\u2014 and that she was offended by it. \u201cI call a lot of people c\u2014s,\u201d Logue said. \u201cI understand not everyone appreciates crude language. Yet, we elected a president that uses crude language and what not.\u201d<\/p>\n Logue\u2019s lawyer, Jamie Benjamin, did not respond to a phone message seeking comment. Sen. Book\u2019s lawyer, Fort Lauderdale\u2019s David Bogenschutz, said her role as a public official makes her a vulnerable target to threats of a violent nature.<\/p>\n \u201cShe and several law enforcement agencies believe [Logue\u2019s behavior] crosses the line between what is protected by the First Amendment and threats that cause individuals to have legitimate concerns for themselves and their family members,\u201d Bogenschutz said. \u201cIf it continues, and it has continued, we need the court\u2019s intervention to draw the line for us.\u201d<\/p>\n SOURCE<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The following is an excerpt from an article by Nicole I. Pittman and Riya Saha Shah of Impact Justice. The article is titled, \u201cCruel and Unusual: the Case Against Registering Kids as Sex Offenders\u201d and you understand more, from these personal accounts, how horribly punitive the registry can be for relatively innocent offenses.<\/p>\n \u201cJason was 14 years old and living in a foster home in Richmond, California, when he met his first girlfriend, a 13-year-old neighbor named Tianna. A few months into their relationship, Tianna\u2019s mother discovered them engaging in oral sex. It was consensual, but the law in California treats any sexual activity with someone under age 14 as child molestation. Jason was prosecuted in juvenile court, and before he was even old enough to drive, his name and address were added to the California Sex Offender Registry.<\/p>\n Brandon was only 11 years old when he was registered as a sex offender\u2014all because of a silly game among kids home alone. In a twist on musical chairs, Brandon\u2019s 13-year-old sister turned off the lights and told everyone to undress and then try to quickly redress before she turned the lights back on. Brandon, always the clown, thought it would be funny if he left his clothes off. When the lights came on, he was standing there naked. Everyone laughed, then he got dressed and they all ate pizza. But when a seven-year-old girl who had taken part in the game told her mother she had seen Brandon\u2019s penis, the police got involved and charged Brandon with indecent exposure. He was adjudicated delinquent in a Texas juvenile court, and from then on known as a sex offender.<\/p>\n Jason is now 34 years old. Despite earning a college degree, he cannot find steady employment, is often homeless, and suffers from acute depression. As a young adult, Brandon also was frequently homeless. Unable to provide a permanent address for the sex offender registry, he was convicted three times for failure to register, and each time sentenced to prison. After his third term in prison, he became increasingly depressed. Unable to find work, he was arrested within a year for theft. Calling Brandon a \u201ccareer criminal,\u201d the judge sentenced him to 15 years to life. Now 31 years old, Brandon has spent the majority of his life behind bars.\u201d<\/p>\n SOURCE<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n For nearly three years, county officials and police in Miami-Dade failed to respond as a tent city of sex offenders grew along train tracks near Hialeah.<\/span>\u00a0The squalid camp is just the latest consequence of a 2005 county law that banned sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of any school, daycare center, or park, effectively banishing them into homelessness under highway overpasses and the Julia Tuttle Causeway until they were forced into this remote industrial corner. More than 300 offenders are now registered in the area \u2014 living without running water, electricity, or plumbing.<\/p>\n Furious local businesses and property owners have repeatedly begged the county to do something, but their grievances fell on deaf ears. That is, until this past Monday.<\/p>\n About two weeks after\u00a0New Times\u00a0<\/i>published an in-depth\u00a0story about the deplorable conditions in the growing encampment<\/a>, calling it a \u201csanitation and security nightmare,\u201d Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust workers, city officials, and police officers visited the site. Now they\u2019ve announced a new campaign they claim will finally find housing for the long-transient sex offenders.<\/p>\n Among those supporting the move is\u00a0Homeless Trust chairman Ron Book and his daughter, state Sen. Lauren Book, who both visited the camp after\u00a0New Times<\/i>\u2018 story was published. Book, whose day job is an \u00fcber-influential lobbyist, has long backed the county\u2019s harsh restrictions on sex offender housing. And when\u00a0New Times<\/i>\u00a0contacted him earlier this month, he argued that\u00a0\u201cthe Constitution doesn\u2019t guarantee where you can live when you break the law.\u201d At the time, he insisted he had no intention of reexamining or changing the county\u2019s rules, asserting that \u201cit\u2019s not a question of will [sex offenders] reoffend; it\u2019s a question of when.\u201d<\/p>\n So has Book changed his tune? \u201cThis has got to close,\u201d\u00a0he said of the camp Monday in an interview with the\u00a0Miami Herald<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n The lobbyist insists that, in fact, nothing has changed.\u00a0Book says the county is simply allocating resources to the sex offenders for temporary rental assistance, such as first month\u2019s rent and security deposits. But he says that service has always been available to the offenders and blames them for lacking the initiative to arrange proper housing.<\/p>\n So why is the county finally stepping in now? \u201cIt\u2019s become a health hazard and a health emergency,\u201d\u00a0Book says.\u00a0Even\u00a0though he had no response when\u00a0New Times<\/i>\u00a0asked him about the tent city\u2019s sanitary risks two weeks ago, Book claims, \u201cI was only notified a week ago. Before that, nobody ever said this was a health crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u00a0admits local property owners have filed complaints over the years but argues that the taxpayer-funded Homeless Trust \u201c[doesn\u2019t] operate based on people complaining.\u201d Instead, Book states that the role of the Trust is to \u201cprovide assistance equally to the homeless\u201d but that it is \u201cnot [his] job to find housing for sex predators and offenders.\u201d<\/p>\n Because offenders are prohibited from living in most subsidized federal housing and homeless shelters due to the restriction, it is their responsibility \u201cto avail themselves to other funding paths for housing,\u201d Book says. \u201cIt\u2019s not a free lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n Even so, many county officials, such as Commissioner Xavier Suarez, insist there must be a better legislative solution to deal with the tent city. In a 2014 interview, Suarez told\u00a0New Times<\/i>:\u00a0\u201cThat we restrict where [offenders] can live and not provide any facilities for them isn\u2019t human or logical.\u201d<\/p>\n Regardless, Book says the county will soon announce a deadline to shut down the encampment, essentially evicting the sex offenders once again.<\/p>\n Where will they go when this tent city is closed? That\u2019s up to them, Book says.<\/p>\n SOURCE<\/a><\/p>\n It is with a heavy heart I break this news.<\/p>\n Though many of you did not know him, Greg Evers was a Senator and Gentleman Farmer. He chaired the Criminal Justice Committee in Tallahassee for several years. He understood our issue better than most in Tallahassee and although had not sponsored legislation for us directly he helped us more than I could ever explain to you all.<\/p>\n He was a good soul he believed we could do better and this and find solutions.<\/p>\n He introduced me to many in Tallahassee who still have the power to fix this and hopefully may see the light. One can only pray.<\/p>\n Greg was a good man with all his flaws as a human he had a wonderful soul and caring heart. His legacy to me was his decency and much he cared for people and the human condition.<\/p>\n He often said,\u201d where would any of us be if we had to live by these rules and and never given a second chance? I\u2019d be long gone or living in a tent if not for my own many second chances\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Gods grace I pray for him, feel his loss and am sad I won\u2019t ever have the opportunity to chat with him again on this earth. Greg you are in my prayers and I for one will miss you. Gods speed to a better place. Thank you for all you shared with me and others\u201d<\/p>\n Gail<\/p>\n Roughly\u00a0260 sex offenders have registered as their residence\u00a0<\/a>the intersection of Northwest\u00a036th\u00a0Court and\u00a071st\u00a0Street, on the edge of Hialeah and Miami. \u00a0The closest house is four blocks away and the only buildings here are squat warehouses.<\/p>\n They start to roll in around 9:30 p.m., just in time for curfew. By the end of the night, around 50 people fill two dozen tents pitched on the ground on either side of the street.<\/p>\n Most people in the encampment wear evidence of their crimes on their ankles, \u00a0as devices that beep when they\u2019re out of range. Others just know the rules they must abide by. They\u2019re living in rough conditions\u2013no running water or toilet facilities and flooding is a regular fact of life\u2013in order to comply with laws restricting where sex offenders can sleep at night.<\/p>\n \u201cRats live better,\u201d said Gregory Baker, aka Claudia, who has lived at the encampment for a year and two months. He was convicted in 2009 for possessing and sending child pornography and attempting to send inappropriate material to a minor. He was told to come to this homeless encampment by his parole officer, who wrote down the address on a piece of paper.<\/p>\n \u201cI was like,\u00a0 You have to be kidding me,\u2019 \u201d said Baker. \u201cApparently they weren\u2019t, because every place that my dad, my sister put an address at, [my probation officer] said no.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2005, Miami-Dade County prohibited offenders from living within 2,500 feet of schools, daycare centers and playground. It was a response to a similar ordinance passed in the city of Miami Beach, which effectively made it a no-go zone for anyone convicted of a sex crime.<\/p>\n That\u00a0restriction is in place<\/a>\u00a0from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. Outside of those hours, sex offenders are allowed more free rein. So some people work, go over to their family\u2019s homes and shop during the day and\u00a0 sleep in the tent camp at night.<\/p>\n If you\u00a0draw a 2,500-foot buffer<\/a>\u00a0around all of the institutions mentioned in the ordinance, not much of the county is left. Even less when you take out the airports and particularly unaffordable areas where home prices are in the six figures. What is left are bits of Homestead, West Kendall and a few small patches like this one.<\/p>\n In 2007, the Miami New Times\u00a0broke the story\u00a0<\/a>that these restrictions had, in essence, created a sex offender village under the Julia Tuttle Bridge. Social workers sent or dropped off people when they got out of jail and the DMV was printing \u201cJulia Tuttle Causeway\u201d on their driver\u00a0licenses. The camp was dismantled in 2010 and residents relocated to temporary housing that eventually left them in the street.<\/p>\n This encampment on\u00a071st\u00a0street, tucked between warehouses next to the railroad tracks, is like the reincarnation of the Julia Tuttle Bridge camp.<\/p>\n And on Monday night, this is what Ron Book, the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust and county officials went out to address.<\/p>\n Teams of Green Shirts, as the homeless outreach workers are called, escorted by Miami-Dade police went tent to tent, handing out a letter written by\u00a0 Book, president of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, to the deputy mayor about wanting to find a new place for those in this area. They also handed out a blurry black and white map of all the areas in the county that are off limits.<\/p>\n The plan is to help the sex offenders living here to find housing that works with their living restrictions. The Homeless Trust has offered to subsidize part of the expenses through rental or housing assistance.<\/p>\n \u201cThe goal tonight is to inform all of the people that are living out here that this is not going to continue,\u201d said Book. \u201cAt some point, sooner than later, we\u2019re going to dismantle this place and close it down.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the next week, they Homeless Trust will help process those living in the encampment for rental or housing assistance.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have made clear in the memo that they\u2019re being handed [is] that it\u2019s their job to go find a housing opportunity and bring it back to us,\u201d explained Book. \u201cThey\u2019ve got to take control of their lives and find housing opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n They are not passing out a list of available housing, confirmed Book, but he says they\u2019re handing out information to help them go search. He says this is one of the differences in how the Homeless Trust is handling the encampment on 71st street from the one under the Julia Tuttle bridge. The Homeless Trust will not be prioritizing these sex offenders over other homeless people as they did last time.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat they want to do is wallow in self-pity and blame everybody else for their problem and blame laws and blame this and blame that,\u201d said Book. \u201cThey want to sit around and blame other people. They can choose to do that or they can take responsibility for what happened, for the crimes they committed, understanding society and go out and take control.\u201d<\/p>\n The name Book might not be familiar to those living in this homeless encampment, but it\u2019s the name attached to the ordinance restricting sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of places where children go \u2013 it\u2019s called the Lauren Book Child Safety Ordinance.<\/p>\n Ron Book himself\u2013who by day is one of the most powerful and influential lobbyists in Florida\u2013drafted and pushed through this county ordinance. His efforts followed the horrible sexual abuse that his daughter suffered through as a child.<\/p>\n The Books\u2019 nanny of six years sexually molested Lauren starting when she was 11. Now, State Senator Lauren Book is married, mother to twins, and an advocate for those who have been sexually abused.<\/p>\n As chair of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, tasked with figuring out what to do with all these people in tents and tarp shacks, Ron Book was behind the 2005 law that made it more difficult for these sex offenders to find anywhere else to live.<\/p>\n But Book rejects the notion that he should be held personally responsible for their difficulties.<\/p>\n \u201cThey can blame me all they want.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never shied away from my work to make our community and our state and our country safer so that what happened to my daughter, doesn\u2019t happen to them,\u201d said Book.<\/p>\n Lauren Book, the namesake of the Miami-Dade County restrictions, was out with her father and the green shirts, talking with the sex offenders living out among the warehouses.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not easy to do, for me, for my dad,\u201d said Lauren Book. She has made a point over the years to visit with and try to understand the behavior of sex offenders in an attempt to prevent what happened to her from happening to other children.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t feel badly for these individuals. There are laws that were broken. You did some terrible bad things. That does not mean that anybody should be in a desperate situation,\u201d said \u00a0Lauren Book.<\/p>\n When asked about how she feels to have her name attached to the legislation that is an undeniable part of the formula that has led to this homeless encampment, she said that while she is proud of her engagement with the issue, there is not an easy answer.<\/p>\n \u201cThe truth is this is not a black and white issue,\u201d she said. \u201cThe minute you start to think you can broad-brush this issue you\u2019re in a terribly bad place, so I would be lying if I wasn\u2019t conflicted.\u201d<\/p>\n And, Lauren Book adds emphatically, she and her father don\u2019t agree about everything when it comes to this issue.<\/p>\n \u201cWe fight all the time, very badly. You should see dinner at our house,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n But they do agree on the residency restrictions.<\/p>\n \u201cRon Book, I beg you to come out here and live one day the way that we live and this will never ever happen,\u201d said Gregory Baker. \u201cThey will change their story so fast it will make their head spin around.\u201d<\/p>\n He says if he could find an address he would be gone immediately.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d be burning rubber. That\u2019s how quick I could get out of here. If they came and told me, \u2018Hey, [you have] this address,\u2019 phew, you wouldn\u2019t see me. I\u2019d be gone.\u00a0 You\u2019d see smoke,\u201d said Baker.<\/p>\n SOURCE<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A tent community in northwest Miami-Dade is a place people call home but it\u2019s not a place most of them would want to live.<\/p>\n The community is the last resort for people like Bret, who would only give his first name.<\/p>\n \u201cAbsolutely not, I wouldn\u2019t even come into this part of town if I didn\u2019t have to be here,\u201d he told NBC 6 Monday. \u201cI was released from state prison on February 21. I am a registered sex offender\u201d<\/p>\n County restrictions on where registered sex offenders are allowed to live has many of them at the industrial area near Northwest 71st Street and Northwest 36th Avenue.<\/p>\n \u201cThis situation is unconscionable and needs to be closed down,\u201d said Ron Book, the chairman of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust.<\/p>\n Book said he and others are working to relocate those who call the place home. Miami-Dade County officials say the businesses there have said enough is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese folks that have businesses here, they\u2019ve put up with this for several years, people eating out here, throwing their garbage, people urinating and defecating in public, it creates a health hazard for them and the businesses and property owners,\u201d Book said.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, we do have definitely concerns but we are working on mitigating those concerns as we speak but the main issue here is to try to relocate,\u201d said Lillian Rivera, with the Florida Department of Health.<\/p>\n County workers will be out explaining the resources that are available and working to encourage this community to break down in coming days.<\/p>\n Seven years after Miami-Dade County shut down a camp housing about 100 homeless sex offenders under a bridge in Miami, it\u2019s now trying to deal with an encampment on the outskirts of Hialeah that has almost three times as many residents registered to live there.<\/p>\n Police and social workers on Monday night visited the roughly 30 tents set up near warehouses that sit by railroad tracks outside Hialeah\u2019s city limits, the legally registered homes of more than 200 people convicted of sex offenses against minors and barred from living within 2,500 feet of schools, parks, daycare centers and other places where children congregate.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has got to close,\u201d said Ronald Book, the powerful head of Miami-Dade\u2019s homeless board who has also lobbied for the county\u2019s tough residency restrictions on sex offenders. \u201cThe complaints have continued to grow and grow and grow.\u201d<\/p>\n Book said about 270 offenders are registered as living in\u00a0the tent village outside Hialeah<\/a>, sitting on either side of the 3500 block of Northwest 71st Street. There is no electricity, running water or bathroom facilities, leading to complaints of human waste being tossed roadside and around the warehouses whose fences front the tents. Others use bathrooms at a Wal-Mart and a Walgreens about a mile away.<\/p>\n Claudia Marie Baker, 58, who said she spent nine years in prison on child-pornography charges, has lived in a tent there for about a year. \u201cMy sister has five different real estate people looking for places for me,\u201d said Baker, who said she was convicted as a man, Gregory Baker. \u201cEvery place they picked, it was too close.\u201d<\/p>\n The 2,500-foot restriction is far tougher than Florida\u2019s 1,000-foot rule, but matches the limit for some local governments across the country, including Lake County near Orlando and Pasco County north of Tampa. In dense Miami-Dade, hemmed in by the Everglades and the Atlantic Ocean, the 2,500-foot rule eliminates wide swaths of Miami-Dade\u2019s housing stock as an option. The county also bars sex offenders from homeless shelters where families are housed, making most of the tax-funded emergency housing off limits, too.<\/p>\n Miami-Dade adopted the 2,500 limit in 2010 after the Tuttle controversy, replacing a patchwork of city laws that generally had the same distance in their sex-offender restrictions.<\/p>\n Book, a prominent lobbyist, visited the camp with county homeless staff who take direction from him, and with daughter Lauren Book, a Democratic state senator who runs a nonprofit, Lauren\u2019s Kids, dedicated to fighting child sexual abuse. The elder Book\u2019s advocacy for the county\u2019s sex-offender law \u2014 named after Lauren Book, a childhood abuse victim \u2014 landed him at the center of the Julia Tuttle controversy, with some tent residents\u00a0naming the encampment Bookville<\/a>.<\/p>\n The county shut down the Tuttle encampment in 2010, and Book said the homeless agency placed the more than 100 residents in private apartments and other residences outside of shelters and in compliance with the 2,500-foot limit. Monday\u2019s deployment was designed to start a similar process, with the county offering to help with rental subsidies and placement to get the tent residents to move. The action followed a\u00a0New Times story profiling the tent village<\/a>\u00a0in early August.<\/p>\n There have been other encampments in Miami since the Tuttle one closed, including one in Miami that lasted until 2012 when the city created a tiny park that triggered the 2,500-foot restriction. Book said any former Tuttle residents living in the Hialeah encampment would have lost a prior home, since Miami-Dade determined each registered Tuttle offender had found a place to live.<\/p>\n Miami-Dade\u2019s restrictions on where sexual offenders live largely survived a suit by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2014, which was filed for anonymous plaintiffs that a lawyer said Monday were living in tents near Hialeah at the time. A federal judge rejected the bulk of the ACLU\u2019s complaint that the local law constituted unfair punishment, but the nonprofit is appealing whether the county can enforce restrictions on offenders convicted before the law went into effect.<\/p>\n Jeff Hearne, a Miami lawyer working on the case, said the county rules create the problem that Miami-Dade spent Monday night trying to solve.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s our position that forcing people into homelessness is punitive,\u201d Hearne said.<\/p>\n Because probation rules require sex offenders to sleep at the addresses where they\u2019re registered, he said, many tent residents could afford to live elsewhere if they were allowed to do so.<\/p>\n \u201cMany of them have places they can go to,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have family members who have homes that can keep them there. Many of them have rooms they rent to keep personal belongings. But at night, they\u2019re forced to go out and sleep in tents.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n<\/div>\nAnother Florida Teacher Commits a Sex Crime<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
\nState Sen. Lauren Book seeks restraining order to silence protester<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
Ugly lyrics<\/h3>\n
A rally planned for Miami<\/h3>\n
\nOne in five kids raised on registries attempt suicide at some point in their lives; many succeed<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
\nTwo Weeks After New Times Story, Ron Book Wants to Close Sex Offender Camp Near Hialeah<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
\nFormer Senator Greg Evers<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
\nSex Offenders Sent To Homeless Encampment Told To Find Housing, But Where?<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
\nSex Offenders Set Up Camp in NW Miami-Dade<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
\nTent camp of homeless sex offenders near Hialeah \u2018has got to close,\u2019 county says<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n