Time to vote for the 2014 Shiitake Awards! Voting Ends February 1, 2015

Vote here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5DGKT85

It is time once again to vote for the 2014 Shiitake Awards!

Vote on the dumbest sex offender stories and the worst among those who exploit sex offenders for person game. Vote and share the awards with fellow activists! Voting ends February 1. It is free and fun. Most of all, you get to stick it to those who stick it to Registered Citizens.

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Below is the full list of Nominees.   Please pick the 2014 Worst News Mutt (Worst Reporter). There are four finalists.

1. Don Lehman, Glen Falls Post-Star (NY): In the story on an auto-accident, Don Lehman made it a point to bring out the past of one of the accident victims, who is a Registered Citizen. It is fairly amazing that a number of individuals rebuked Lehman; Don Lehman himself proclaims, "there seems to be inexplicable sympathy for sex offenders in some circles" in an article he wrote to defend himself (adding “Since many readers seem to be ignorant about how the newsgathering and publishing process works, here is some insight.”). He later implies the man should be in prison for life but the system failed, all of which has nothing to do with the auto accident.
2. Mike DeForest, WKMG 6 Orlando (FL): DeForest ran a sweeps week "Sex Offenders who have jobs and we get one fired" story in October, which featured a number of Registered Citizens trying to make a living. DeForest bragged about getting one fired. A couple of months later, one of the targets of his first story won $3 Million from a scratch-off ticket, and DeForest ran a nasty story on the lotto winner. DeForest seems almost obsessed with this man, making it a point to remind readers of his earlier expose.
3. David J. Neal, Miami Herald (FL): This guy is the antithesis of award-winning Miami Herald reporter Fred Grimm. This guy is not even a news reporter—he’s a sports writer. But since he decided to write a report on a former Florida International University baseball pitcher throwing the first pitch at an FIU game and that this pitcher is now a Registered Citizen. He even justified his article in a subsequent email: “Because it was adjudged to be of news value when a large public university gives even the minor honor of throwing out the first pitch to someone with that crime on his record. Some very vocal people had the same reaction as you. Others had the "What were they thinking?" reaction.” Not to mention much of the subsequent correspondence consisted of snide remarks.
4. Margery Eagan, Boston Herald (MA): The Boston Herald is not exactly a bastion for unbiased and non-opinionated reporting, but Eagan takes the cake by suggesting banning Registered Citizens from winning the lottery because one registrant used his lotto winnings for bad purposes. “Simple common sense tells you this spells disaster: a dangerous career sex offender, with $10 million to burn…A known pedophile wins $10 million in the lottery. Within days, the Lottery realizes it. And neither they, nor anyone else, says, wait a minute here. So from 2008 until now, **** lived as he chose on his winnings, and who knows how many children paid.”

______________________________________________ Please choose the 2014 Worst Politico (politician). There are four candidates.

1. Grady Judd, Sheriff, Polk Co., FL: Sheriff Dudd’s online entrapment stings involved trolling the Plenty of Fish dating site to entrap people looking for relations with adults, then switching the ages after contact had been made. Sheriff Grady Judd, when asked about over-aggressive detectives, instead went on the offensive: "The concern (I have) is that you inflate your investigative reporting to make it glitzy." He continued to call those entrapped “Predators” even when the DA elected not to prosecute. It is worth noting Sheriff Judd was the sheriff who arrested the man who was allegedly selling a "pedophile guide" on Amazon back in 2010 for "obscenity charges" despite living in another state.
2. Richard T. "Dick" Moore, State Sen., MA: Proposed a bill to prevent Registered Citizens from winning the lottery. Only a guy named Dick could come up with this. “The money, Mr. Moore suggested, could be withheld and donated to a fund for victims. ‘Whenever (a sexual offense) happens, the victims of sex crimes need certainly a lot of counseling and other assistance,’ Mr. Moore said. ‘And if someone is benefiting from the state lottery, we ought to be able to access that money to help pay some of the bills of people who have been hurt.’ Asked about potential ramifications on civil liberties, Mr. Moore acknowledged he was "sure the (American Civil Liberties Union) wouldn't like it.”
3. Matt Gaetz, State Rep., FL: Gaetz played a role in preventing the former head of the FL sex offender program from getting a job in Wisconsin, in addition to his constant pimping of FloriDUH’s new “scorched earth” policy. Today FloriDUH, tomorrow the world? Did I mention he had a recent arrest for DUI and can be found on mugshot websites?
4. Kurt Wallace, State Rep., AL: Kurt Wallace tried for years to push a statewide anti-clustering law. After ReFORM-AL fought this year’s version of the anti-clustering law, Wallace secretly pushed a local anti-cluster law to shut down a halfway house in his district, which went from committee to Governor’s desk in 12 days, superfast by Alabama standards. On the upside, he was voted out of office. A Shiitake Award would be a fitting swan song.

______________________________________ Please choose the DUMBEST quote of 2014! There are four candidates.

1. Emily Roberts, aka “The Guidance Girl” (NY): Roberts is a licensed psychotherapist in NY working mostly with teens. This quote came from the Dec. 11th Dr. Drew on Call segment, also featuring Once Fallen, in a discussion about the Registered Citizen who won the lottery in Florida. Not only does she feel we should suffer, we have a high recidivism rate as well: “Well, they should have to suffer. I mean they have ruined someone’s life forever. This child will forever harmed. This child will never be the same again. And, the other children, because it is pretty likely that he offended and hurt other children, as well beside these two children, because around 75 percent of people who offend do it again. So, we do not know. He could have done it again.”
2. Lauren Book, Lauren’s Kids (FL): Lauren Book stated the following in support of adding the words “Sexual Predator” to the driver’s licenses of some registrants in FloriDUH: “This designation is a tool that we as community members – from law enforcement officers to TSA agents to teachers, daycare workers, doctors, nurses and everyone in between – can use to further protect the children and families of Florida… I believe a statutory reference is too benign. This is a scarlet letter that clearly states ‘WARNING! Keep this individual away from children!’ They are a clear and imminent danger, and parents and families have a right to know.”
3. Barney Bishop, Florida Smart Justice Alliance (FL): The following statement was given during testimony before the Florida legislature in support of 50 year mandatory minimums: “We think that very long sentences are warranted; in fact, we'd like longer sentences. And I would just say in closing that with respect to smart justice that maybe what we ought to really be doing is thinking about giving the victims’ families an opportunity to have visitation with the perpetrators and a pair of scissors. That's our idea of smart justice, Mr. Chairman, not anything short of that.”
4. Chicago PD Detective John J. Escalante (IL): When Apple moved to add cop-blocking encryption to newer cell phones, LEOs like Escalante tried using Predator Panic to argue against the privacy measure. “Apple will become the phone of choice for the pedophile,” said John J. Escalante, chief of detectives for Chicago’s police department. “The average pedophile at this point is probably thinking, I’ve got to get an Apple phone.”

_____________________________________ Please select the dumbest law of 2014!

1. Arizona HB 2515: Arizona’s so-called “revenge porn” law makes it a felony — and potentially a sex offense — to share any image of nudity or sexuality before you get consent from every person pictured. Among the first to be investigated under the new law was an art photography display published in the Phoenix New Times. The ACLU is now representing a number of publications in a class action suit against the state (Antigone Books v. Horne).
2. California SB 967: Also known as the “Yes Means Yes” or the “affirmative Consent” law, the bill requires affirmative consent to be “ongoing throughout the sexual activity,” meaning that sexual partners must agree to each step of a sexual encounter as it progresses and consent can be revoked at any time. The standard would apply to all sexual encounters regardless of whether the parties are having a one-night stand or are in a long-term relationship. Critics say the proposal unfairly burdens those accused of sexual assault. “How does a person prove they receive consent shy of having it videotaped,” Joe Cohn, the legislative policy director at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, told Inside Higher Ed. Cohn said the policy reverses the presumption of innocence for the accused, which he called a “dramatic and important shift.”
3. Missouri Constitutional Amendment #2: This bill is a load of #2 alright; the amendment allows hearsay evidence of past sex crimes against someone in court accused of a sex crime. This is all the more interesting considering this is an amendment to the state constitution.

______________________________________ Please Select the 2014 Everyday Zeroes (this category is for people who aren't politicians or reporters). There are four finalists.

1. Carole Stabile, Oregon: Carole Stabile, a feminist professor at the University of Oregon, expressed outrage that the UO hired a Registered Citizen speak at a campus event to discuss the consequences of committing a sex crime. -- “We’re universities, for heaven’s sake, where we have some of the brightest minds in the country working on and researching these very issues. Why not bring some of them in to talk to students in at risk subcultures rather than a sex offender turned campus lecture circuit speaker whose main argument is that raping a baby sitter can happen to anyone?”
2. Chad Hightower, Texas: Hightower, a now-former Wise County Texas Sheriff's Deputy, was arrested for forcing Registered Citizens to pose for embarrassing nude photos while claiming it was part of the registration process. -- According to the arrest warrant affidavit filed by Texas Ranger Ron Pettigrew, Hightower forced a male sex offender to strip naked and be photographed…On June 17, he met with Hightower to complete the paperwork, and was told nude photos would need to be taken. “Deputy Hightower represented this as a change in the sex offender registration required by the state,” the affidavit states. The victim was taken to a bathroom in the sheriff’s office lobby where he stripped naked, and Hightower took “several photographs from all sides” before telling the victim he could get dressed and leave, the affidavit states. A month later, the victim had to meet with Hightower again to update his sex offender information. He was told the photos were defective due to a glare, and more would need to be taken…Hightower directed the victim into the impound office where he once again was photographed in the nude. The two were the only ones in the building at that time. “After a short time, Deputy Hightower reportedly advised (the victim) he believed the next thing the State was going to require was photographs of a sex offender’s erect penis,” the affidavit states. “Deputy Hightower asked (the victim) if he could obtain an erection for him, so that the needed photographs could be taken and (the victim) would not have to return in the future for them.”
3. Brent Oesterblad, Chuck Rodrick, & Traci Heisig, aka Offendex: Offendex is notorious for creating a private registry to attempt to extort Registered Citizens. This year, they lost a $3.4 million civil suit -- A shadowy network of Arizona-based Internet companies that used public records to demand money from sex offenders and harass those who complained has imploded amid lawsuits, court hearings and new standards enacted by banks, social media and technology companies. The websites, including Offendex.com, SORArchives and Sexoffenderrecord.com, in November stopped seeking payments from people in exchange for removing profiles, blaming the change on "many conflicts, threats, unreasonable requests and false accusations about this website…In an interview with Call 12 for Action last month, website operator Brent Oesterblad accused owner Charles "Chuck" Rodrick of taking elaborate steps to conceal his ownership of the websites and misleading state and federal judges about it. Rodrick and Oesterblad, both of whom were convicted on fraud-related charges in the early 1990s, are at the center of several state and two federal lawsuits… Among the financial transactions detailed in court were tens of thousands of dollars to Rodrick's girlfriend, Traci Heisig. Heisig, who is a court reporter and owns Desert Hills Reporting in Phoenix, is a joint plaintiff in the defamation suit against Rodrick's ex-wife, her boyfriend and a sex offender in Washington.”
4. Kellie Green, Texas: Kellie Green used a giant-sized photo of her 12 year old girl as a prop to attempt to force the small town of Mart to fire a Registered Citizen hired to perform sanitation duties for the town. -- At this week’s Mart City Council meeting, Kellie Green, 38, who is no relation to Lonnie Green, stood before the elected officials holding up an enlarged photo of her 12-year-old daughter. “How has the council worked toward her safety?” she said. “Can you tell her that you had the safety of the children of Mart in mind when you hired this person?” Kellie Green demanded that Lonnie Green be fired. The mother of six children said the council needs to realize the city can’t absorb the liability of keeping him as an employee. Hiring one sex offender sets a precedent that hiring all sex offenders is OK, she said. If one child is hurt because of that practice, the repercussions, financially, legally and publicly, would devastate the city, Kellie Green said.

______________________________________________ Please Select the winner for the 2014 Holy Shiitakes Award (dumbest sex-offender-related story of the year). There are three finalists

1. Manassas City (VA) cops proposed making child pornography to prosecute child pornography: A 17 year old boy takes a picture of his penis and sent it to a 15 year old girl (the girl sent naked pics of herself to the boy but was not charged for some reason). The girl's parents call the cops, and the cops charge the 17 year old boy with possession AND manufacturing child porn. It seems the police came up with a brilliant idea-- they were going to take the kid to the hospital, give him a shot of something to give him an erection, and take a picture of the boy's erect penis to compare with the photos he sent to his girlfriend. The plan was later dropped, but the suggestion alone is Shiitake-worthy.
2. Alabama high school’s failed attempt at an entrapment sting leads to an alleged rape: I wonder if these "edumacators" got the idea from that idiotic Dateline NBC show, TCAP. If you can't trust police with conducting a proper sting, then how reasonable is a plot where school officials hire a mentally handicapped girl to be bait for a potential rapist? – “A 14-year-old girl with special needs allegedly was raped at school after a teacher’s aide persuaded her to act as bait to catch an accused sexual predator, a fellow student…On January 22, 2010, the boy approached a 14-year-old girl with special needs who had already declined his “recent, repeated propositions” for sex, according to the brief. “She was not physically or mentally handicapped, although she does qualify for special education classes,” Artrip told CNN. When the girl told Simpson, she encouraged the girl to “meet (the boy) in the bathroom where teachers could be positioned to ‘catch him in the act’ before anything happened,” according to the brief. The girl initially refused, but then agreed, according to Artrip. Simpson and the girl went to Dunaway’s office to explain the plan. Dunaway “did not respond with any advice or directive,” according to the brief. “If this was problematic for the administration it would have been better to express that on the front end instead of the back end,” said attorney McGriff Belser III, who represents Simpson. The girl left Dunaway’s office, found the boy in the hallway, and “agreed to meet for sex,” according to the brief. “Something went wrong,” said Artrip. Instead of meeting in the boys’ bathroom on the special needs students’ corridor, the boy told the girl to meet him in the sixth-grade boys’ bathroom, in another part of the school, according to the brief. “No teachers were in the bathroom to intervene,” the brief reads.
3. Withholding sex and not listening to your lover's feelings count as "sexual violence" at the University of Michigan: Michigan's football program isn't the only embarrassment to the University of Michigan these days. It seems UM has published a rather strange set of definitions of sexual violence which includes "withholding sex" and "discounting your partner's feelings." -- Examples of abuse listed on the University of Michigan’s domestic violence awareness website say “sexual violence” includes “withholding sex and affection” and “discounting the partner’s feelings regarding sex” – definitions that have come under fire by some men’s rights activists. The terms, found under the heading “definitions,” also suggest verbal or psychological abuse include: “insulting the partner; ignoring the partner’s feelings; withholding approval as a form of punishment; yelling at the partner; labeling the partner with terms like crazy [and] stupid.” Janet Bloomfield, social media director for “A Voice For Men,” an activist group that counters feminist extremism and misandry, took aim at these University of Michigan examples, first on her Twitter account over the summer and more recently in an email to The College Fix. “These kinds of policies contribute to an increasing level of sexual misconduct hysteria and essentially create a chilling climate for young men,” Bloomfield said. “When things like ‘withholding sex’ and ‘ignoring a partner’s feelings’ are framed as a pattern of behavior that is abusive, they are not only pathologizing normal relationship behaviors, but they are opening the door for vindictive or spurned partners to make allegations that can have profound effects for the accused.”

_______________________________________________________ Please Select the ICBS National Chump-ion (aka dumbest state of the year). There are three candidates.

1. FloriDUH: FloriDUH has dominated the worst state category, and with its "scorched earth" policy in place, FloriDUH seems the logical choice to continue its dynasty as ICBS chumps. Aside from the scorched earth policy, Lauren Book, Sheriff Grady Judd's botched online entrapment stings, and the abundance of Florida reporters and quotes in this year's Shiitakes make a strong case for a repeat performance.
2. Missouri (aka 'Mizzery"): Missouri almost monopolized this year's dumbest law category will bills targeting registrant lobbyists, removing the ban on hearsay evidence in Sex crime cases, and allowing civil commitment on out-of-state registrants arrested on non-sex crimes help make the case for Missouri. Add the story of Donna Rosele, the hairdresser trying to pass a mandatory castration/ death penalty law on certain sex offenders, and Mizzery gives FloriDUH a run for its title.
3. WisCONsin: Someone had to fill the third slot. Why not the cheesehead state? After all, Wisconsin seems poised to be the first state in almost a decade to pass a statewide residency restriction law, despite the evidence of its inefficacy. 2. Sarah Barwacz of CBS 58 Milwaukee takes credit for convincing Wilwaukee to pass 2500 foot restrictions, making about 98% of the city off-limits. And the WI Governor has already stated he will support such a bill.