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Massachusetts Sex Offenders Can?t Be Subject to New Probations Restrictions Until After They Violate Rules, Says Supreme Judicial Court

By Altman & Altman

In a 4-3 ruling, the Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that unless released sex offenders violate their probation, they cannot be made subject to new probation limits. The decision was issued in the case of Level 3 sex offender Ralph W. Goodwin, who in 1990 was convicted of the Massachusetts rape and kidnapping a 7-year-old boy. The 49-year-old Lowell man was released from custody last year after a jury determined that he was no longer sexually dangerous. Goodwin was ordered to undergo sex offender counseling and keep up his mental health care. However, his whereabouts were not restricted and no one ordered him to wear a GPS device so that he could be monitored. Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. and the probation department disagreed with the lack of restrictions placed on Goodwin and sought that he be required to use a GPS bracelet...continue to full post

Full post as published by Boston Criminal lawyer Blog on September 18, 2010 (boomark / email).