THE 2015 SHIITAKE AWARDS

BACKGROUND: Filmed in Cincinnati, this was the eighth year of the annual awards show lampooning those who exploit sex offender panic for personal gain. Release Date: April 2016

VIDEO: In 2015, OnceFallen under the banner of Anti-Registry Movement protested the Book Crime Family, who was (and still is) responsible for the homeless crisis in Miami. I caught up with “Lauren Book” and sat down with her for an exclusive interview with her to discuss her feelings about the protest. (It was originally filmed in DC but the audio was bad & was re-filmed)

CHANGES FROM THE 2014 AWARDS: A new permanent category was created just for law enforcement, the “Keystone Kop of the Year” award, raising the total number of awards from seven to eight.

2015 SHIITAKE AWARDS WINNERS AND NOMINEES

2015 DUMBEST NEW LAW/ BILL

WINNER!
Virginia HB-1366
(60.94% of the Vote)

Requires a registrant seeking the right to step foot on any school to attend any of his or her own child’s functions to petition the Commonwealth Attorney & the school administrator for that right by way of a public hearing, and the petitioner has to have the notice published in a newspaper; any member of the public can come in and testify. Because, what parent doesn’t want to embarrass their kids by letting putting all this in the newspaper, right?

2015 DUMBEST LAW/ BILL RUNNERS-UP

  1. Ohio HB-353: This bill would require registrants to give personal information on ALL adults living in the household of the registrant, presumably to warn them they are living with a registrant. Because nothing could possibly go wrong with giving the personal info of private citizens to government agents, right? [29.69%]
  2. Oklahoma SB-578: Would turn over control of Oklahoma’s segregationist sex offender “nursing homes” to the state Dept. of Corrections. Because we all know how well “separate but equal” works. [9.38%]

DISHONORABLE MENTIONS

  • Florida SB-338: This bill would have named a major highway after controversial victim advocate Lauren Book. This bill was pushed by her corrupt lobbyist daddy Ron, who wanted to give this to her as a gift.
  • Michigan SB-581: Senate Bill 581 would prohibit a registered sex offender in Michigan from working or living within a student safety zone, which is defined as the school property and the area that lies 1,000 feet or less from the school property line. This is an attempt by State Sen. Rick Jones to circumvent an April court decision striking down a similar law.
  • Minnesota  HF No. 0889: This bill would make putting one’s bodily fluids in someone’s food or drink a sex offense under certain conditions.
  • Arlington Heights (IL) Garage Sale limits ordinance triggered by Predator Panic: Garage sales now must be held between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. and last no more than three consecutive days. The move is in direct response to the community outcry following a crime that happened in September. A woman reported that she was sexually assaulted when her home in the 2400 block of South Embers Lane was broken into. Neighbors claimed the area was becoming unsafe due to a regular flood of strangers attending garage sales.
  • California AB-201: Would have circumvented a state court decision by allowing municipalities and counties to adopt their own residency laws.

2015 DUMBEST QUOTE

 

WINNER!
Rep. Paul Ray (R-UT)
(65% of the vote)

If you are accused of a Sex Trafficking offense, he wants to kill you — “I got so fed up with what I’ve seen. It’s time to take the ultimate jump and say if you traffic a kid for sex, we’re going to kill you…I’m going turn the tables on them, and say ‘prove to me why you can execute for treason and I can’t execute for a crime that in my world is ten times worse than treason.’”

2015 DUMBEST QUOTE RUNNERS-UP

  1. NH State Rep Dick Marston: Derailed a bill that would provide a relief from harsh registry fees for indigent registrant, claiming it would be unfair to taxpayers — “There is a provision in the law that would currently allow the fee to be waived if the offender was unable to afford it. The (House Criminal Justice) committee determined that repealing the fee would have resulted in virtually eliminating the registry, which would be a disservice to the citizens of NH.” [25%]
  2. MI State Senator Rick Jones: In reintroducing a bill that will limit the living and working rights of registered citizens, Jones said the following –“A federal judge recently ruled that parts of Michigan’s sex offender registration law were too vague. As a result, sex offenders of all kinds can once again hang around our schoolyards. Whether the convicted sex offender is a flasher or a pedophile, they have no business hanging out at the local school playground and leering at children. It is important to clarify the law so that we are protecting our children and still meeting the federal guidelines.” [10%]

DISHONORABLE MENTIONS

  • Donald Trump: In attacking rival candidate Ben Carson, Donald Trump likens Carson to a “child molester — “If you’re pathological, there’s no cure for that, folks. There’s no cure for that… If you’re a child molester, a sick puppy, you’re a child molester, there’s no cure for that. There’s only one cure, we don’t want to talk about that cure. That’s the ultimate cure. Well, there’s death, and there’s the other thing. But if you’re a child molester, there’s no cure, they can’t stop you. Pathological, there’s no cure.”]
  • Keyon Lee of Buffalo NY: This self-professed victim industry advocate under the banner “Buffalo Center for Prevention and Treatment of Child Sex Abuse” made the following statement while pushing for the city to send out books of registry info to everyone in Buffalo by mail — “It’s chilling. It’s chilling because you have 600 registered pedophiles in the city of Buffalo, and those are just the registered ones. We’re not talking about the ones that we don’t know about.”
  • NJ Assemblyman Robert Auth: Used Predator Panic to attack a bill that required teenage drivers to put special decals on their vehicles — “These decals identify youthful drivers to the public and while most of the public is rational and sane there are people who have nefarious thoughts for youthful drivers, youthful people in general and have sinister thoughts with regard to interacting with them.”
  • Mass. State Sen. Bruce Tarr: Tarr believes if a registrant doesn’t pay his fee, it will lead him to commit more crimes — “What are they gonna think about- ‘I don’t have to pay the fee? Maybe I can be lax on the registration.’ We cannot afford to go down that slippery slope with folks that are being required to register for a reason.”
  • MI State Sen. Rick Jones: It isn’t often a guy gets two nods for a dumb quote but Prick Jones has made a number of dumb quote this year, this in opposition to reforming the registry — “The problem I have is should we go back and say only pedophiles have to register? Do we want violent sex offenders on the school grounds? Do we want public masturbators on the school grounds? I’m not prepared to change the way the list operates… I have 31 years of experience in police work, and as a retired sheriff in Eaton County I formed some very strong opinions that the science is still not clear for pedophiles. I believe it is society’s duty to keep pedophiles from children so that the temptation isn’t there. So I say you need to stay a thousand feet from schools.”
  • Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore: Believes murdering registered citizens is okay — “If these young, hot little girls on campus have a firearm, I wonder how many men will want to assault them. The sexual assaults that are occurring would go down once these sexual predators get a bullet in their head.”
  • Florida State Rep. Frank Artiles: He uses sex offender panic to push anti-transsexual bathroom bill – “The goal of HB 583 is not to discriminate against any individual, but to ensure the public’s safety in Florida.  My main concern is that criminals, sexual predators, and sex offenders will hide behind the law in order to commit a crime due to the over broad, vague, and subjective language passed by some counties across the State… “The reason for this bill is due to the Local county commission ordinance that allows MEN (who do not fall under any of the LGBT’s definitions) to enter a WOMENs bathroom, locker room and dressing room. It is disturbing for a woman to walk out of a gym shower and have a man staring at her. It is a matter of privacy/public safety and not intended to discriminate against transgender or transsexuals. However, criminals, sexual deviants, pedophiles and voyeurs will take advantage of the loop hole the local ordinance has created giving them protection under the law.”
  • Patrick Phelan, Greece PD (NY) police chief: He hays the registry causes no harm. “It isn’t conducive to the safety of the residents of N.Y. to remove sex offenders from the registry. It’s a good law. It doesn’t behoove anybody except sex offenders to take them off the registry…I don’t see where we’re harming them in any way by simply keeping them on the registry. They’re still free citizens in the USA. They can come and go where ever they want, whenever they want. We’re just monitoring them.”

2015 EVERYDAY ZEROES
(VIGILANTE FAILS)

WINNER!
RUSSELL SPEIGEL, COTTAGE GROVE, WI
(55.17% of the vote)

Tried to burn down the house of a registrant, ended up catching himself on fire instead. Flame on!

2015 EVERYDAY ZEROES RUNNERS-UP

  1. Doug Ennen of Hemet CA: Displayed two bright green posters in a Hemet neighborhood in an effort to warn neighbors of a man who is registered as a sex offender on the Megan’s Law database. Doug made the posters, one of which says “Child Molester Danger,” and taped them to his two cars. He then parked one of those vehicles in front of a registered sex offender’s home [24.14%]
  2. Alexander Horowitz: Administrator from The Doe Fund, a nonprofit organization which independently owns and operates the Peter Jay Sharp Center for Opportunity, which helps the disadvantaged get back on their feet, threatened to shut down his entire program rather than accept level 2 & 3 registrants into his program. “These people need help, we’re not debating that,” says Horwitz of the sex offenders. “But they’re not going to get it in our facility.” [20.69%]

DISHONORABLE MENTIONS

  • John Walsh: He is doing all he can to latch on to his fading fame. He now hosts “The Hunt” on CNN, and is lobbying Congress for increased funds for the Adam Walsh Act, and using sex trafficking fears to promote his agenda.
  • Chris Hansen: Another faded star, used Kickstarter to raise money for his new show ‘Hansen vs. Predators.” (Later busted for fraud related to this effort)
  • Stephen J. Schulhofer and Erin Murphy: Two New York University (NYU) law professor seeking to make California’s controversial “affirmative consent” law the law of the entire USA. Any act of sex in which permission is not repeatedly requested and granted would put at least one of the parties, usually men, in legal jeopardy. Absent the repeated “May I…?” and affirmative responses, any woman could later have her partner locked up over unexpressed mental reservations. Men could make the same accusations.
  • Joey Salads: Youtube “prankster” created a series of “kidnapping social experiments,” complete with outdated stats like “700 children are kidnapped every day” in order to teach the outdated stranger danger myth.
  • Dale Wren of Yuma County, AZ: Attorney who interfered in a hearing to determine whether or not to remove a man from the sex offender registry and is trying to get the alleged victim to protest the man’s bid for registry removal.
  • Eddie L. Manley of Georgia: She (yes, that’s a she) fired two shots to send a “message” to a registrant in his neighborhood. She was charged with aggravated assault, making a terroristic threat and pointing a pistol at another.
  • Delores Ann Harris of Virginia: Delores Ann Harris claims she was dumb for believing “the system works.” In this case, the system worked, and she was convicted for harassing a Registered Citizen. I guess by working she meant she expected to get off.
  • Chris Vogt of Mesa AZ: On calling for a protest against a sex offender home in his neighborhood, Vogt admits publicly he is “going to make them as uncomfortable as possible,” which is a violation of state laws against the harassment of registered citizens.

2015 HOLY SHIITAKES AWARD
(Worst SO-Related Story)

WINNER!
Dream Foundation revokes dream trip for Vet who is also Registered Citizen:
(59.65% of the Vote)

A dream trip to the Grand Canyon has been revoked for a local terminally ill veteran after the dream-granting organization discovered that he was a convicted sex offender. *** , 62, of Dayton, received a free vacation from the Dream Foundation, a national wish-granting organization for adults with life-threatening illnesses. *** and his brother, ***, have terminal cancer. Their three siblings were to accompany them on the trip.

2015 HOLY SHIITAKES RUNNERS-UP

  1. U-Mass Professor Mia Bloom compares “Sexual Predators” to members of ISIS: Mia Bloom of the University of Massachusetts says groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda go after young women in the West by using other young women as online recruiters. The tactics they use are similar to that of an online sexual predator: establishing a rapport and building trust. “It’s another woman. She’s cool. She’s just a few years older. And so this is how they will initially approach,” Bloom says. It’s an attempt to dupe unsuspecting young women in places like the United Kingdom, France and United States into joining. But it begs another question: Are the young women who end up being recruited victims or terrorist masterminds? [22.81%]
  2. Couple steals Xmas toys right under the noses of the Mass. SO Registry Board: According to police, a couple walked into the Sex Offender Registry Board and stole $1,000 worth of toys…a man and a woman walked into the officer on Congress Street, claiming to be there to pick up toys. They were not asked for their ID’s or asked to sign in. They were buzzed in and shown where all of the toys were. The two then gathered up the would-be gifts collected from a toy drive, and walked out the front door. What a bunch of idiots! [17.54%]

DISHONORABLE MENTIONS

  • Michigan keystone cops arrest the wrong guy for CP: So a guy named Billy JOE Rowe was investigated for possession of CP but let go. The police officer wrote the guy’s middle name as “Dean” not “Joe.” The investigation was picked up years later just as the statute of limitations was about to expire, by a cop ready to retire. So he arrests one Billy DEAN Rowe, who looks nothing like Billy JOE nor is of the same age or has been to Flint, MI (and quite frankly, no one without ties to Flint ever goes
    there). So Billy DEAN sits in jail for a few days as Billy JOE remains free. Now, Billy JOE can’t be charged because the statute of limitations ran out, and Billy DEAN had to get his good name reinstated. And the arresting officer gets to retire with immunity for his mistakes.
  • Virginia man widely believed to be innocent now facing possible “civil commitment”: Michael Kenneth McAlister’s prison term ended last month. But this Richmond man, who some former investigators believe is innocent of a 1986 abduction and attempted rape, now faces possible indefinite confinement as a violent sexual predator. McAlister’s saga will take a new turn March 3 at a hearing scheduled for Richmond Circuit Court that could see him serving additional decades, if not the rest of his life, inside the Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation in Burkeville.
  • Missouri family stages 4 hour fake kidnapping to teach their kid about stranger danger:  A 6-year-old boy in Missouri endured an emotional four-hour staged kidnapping because his family thought he was being too nice to people he didn’t know, police said Thursday.
  • Elma (WA) High School students walked out of class after learning a classmate was a registrant: The students and several parents were upset to learn a 17-year-old part-time Elma High School student pleaded guilty to two rape of a child charges in December.
  • Richmond area hospitals will not announce “first baby” of 2015 due to Predator Panic: “The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has cautioned against these announcements due to potential risk of abduction or identify theft. While the first birth of the New Year is a celebrated event, we jointly feel we must protect our patients and their children from unnecessary exposure,” the joint statement from the local hospitals said.

2015 WORST NEWS MUTTS

WINNER!
John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou, KFI Radio (CA):
(62.5% of the vote)

Radio shock jocks who trolled California RSOL head Janice Bellucci on the air. Now, during the interview, John Kobylt mentions that not only should “regular people” chase Registered Citizens out of their communities and annoy and threaten them until they leave, apparently John claims he has actually engaged in this behavior.

2015 WORST NEWS MUTT RUNNERS-UP

  1. Elaine Ambrose, HuffPost: Writes a bad piece called, “Monsters Are Real: Protect Your Grandkids From Sex Offenders” and calls her detractors “assholes” and claims her sources are valid after failing to present the sources. “His conviction has robbed our neighborhood of complacency and turned us into vigilantes. The carefree sounds of laughter from my childhood summers are silenced by a heavy click from the turning of the lock.” [30.36%]
  2. Peter Schorsch, FloridaPolitics.com: Aside from spending his days kissing up to Lauren Book, wrote an article bashing the Anti-Registry Movement’s Rally in Tally event this past April. “Critics of Lauren Book, you have the right to remain silent. [7.14%]

DISHONORABLE MENTIONS

  • SCV News commentator Betty Arenson: Bashes registrant activists and others who opposed a California bill that would have reinstated residency restrictions. “The aforementioned group, with no exceptions, never discussed the real victims, just the pathetic rapists and murderers.”
  • Janine Reyes of WFTV9, FL: Did an “expose” on a shelter that sells items at a yard sale because a few items were for children; the shelter offers housing for registered citizens.
  • Nakia Cooper of KPRC Houston: Bashes a mother who left her kids home alone for a while because “21 registered sex offenders reside within a mile of Anderson’s apartment.” She made it sound like they were living in the apartment with the child.  
  • Elaine Ambrose, HuffPost: Writes a bad piece called, “Monsters Are Real: Protect Your Grandkids From Sex Offenders” and calls her detractors “assholes” and claims her sources are valid after failing to present the sources. “His conviction has robbed our neighborhood of complacency and turned us into vigilantes. The carefree sounds of laughter from my childhood summers are silenced by a heavy click from the turning of the lock.”

2018 DUMBEST/
WORST POLITICO

WINNER!
US Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ)

63.16% of the vote

Three words.

INTERNATIONAL.

MEGAN’S.

LAW.

2015 DUMBEST/ WORST POLITICO RUNNERS-UP

  1. Dennis “The Menace” Wiley, judge in Berrien Co., MI: This is the judge that sentenced 19 year old Zach Anderson to 25 years for having sex with a teen he met online who lied about her age. [21.05%]
  2. FloriDUH state senator Dorothy Hukill: Plans on introducing a bill to prevent registered citizens from possessing drones out of her perverted thoughts about SOs using them to spy on kids [15.79%]

DISHONORABLE MENTIONS

  • Rob Portman (R-OH): US Senator has quickly become John Walsh’s new right hand man, particularly on the Sex Trafficking Issue.
  • Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval: Vetoed a bill that would have granted relief for juveniles forced to register, & would have moved Nevada away from AWA compliance
  • MI State Senator Rick Jones: Refer to his two quotes in the Worst Quote category, as well as his bill to circumvent a state Supreme Court decision striking down residency restrictions, to see why he is listed here.
  • NY Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: Despite being cleared of any misconduct, Gillibrand still calls an innocent man a “rapist.”
  • Chicago Alderman Michael R. Zalewski: Took a petition door-to-door in support of an ordinance banning registered citizens from entering public libraries.
  • Texas District Judge Michael Seiler: The jurist who has publicly described the offenders who face him in court as “psychopaths” and once suggested treating sex offenders with castration from the neck up, has become a flashpoint for
    criticism over whether his version of Texas justice has crossed the line; he has civilly committed over 200 people and has multiple complaints of abuse of power
  • Carson City CA councilwoman Lula Davis-Holmes: In vowing to fight in favor of an RSO park ban, Lula declared “war” on sex offenders. As the Carson City council voted to repeal the bans, Lula deserted her post, abstaining from voting.

2015 KEYSTONE KOP OF THE YEAR

WINNER!
Graham Co. NC Sheriff Danny Milsaps
(50.88% of the vote}

This Sheriff sent out notices to all registered citizens in his county that if they want to attend a church service in his county, they must do so at the county jail. Will Communion wine be served?

2015 KEYSTONE KOP OF THE YEAR RUNNERS-UP

  1. Nassau Co. FL Sheriff Bill Leeper: Much like Sheriff Gorden from last year’s awards show, this Sheriff posted big red signs at the houses of a dozen registrants just in time for Halloween. Monkey see, monkey do? [36.84%]
  2. Scott Parker of the U.S. Marshals Services, E Dist of NC: “We want sex offenders to know we are working 24/7 to make sure they are held accountable. In addition, we want to be the voice for the victims,” said Scott Parker, during one of the USMC’s many harassing “compliance checks.” [12.28%]

2015 ICBS NATIONAL CHUMPIONSHIP

WINNER!
Do we even need to say?
OK, it’s FloriDUH
(99.999999999999999% of the vote)

Because FloriDUH wins practically every year, we lampooned voting, making the choices Florida, Florida and Florida. We DID give an “other” (write in candidate) option, and most got the joke and also wrote FloriDUH as a write in
candidate.

To be fair, Alabama, New York, Missouri, Maine, and North Carolina all received one vote each, one wrote “all of the above” (meaning all Florida) and one wrote “All States.”

This is FloriDUH’s third in a row and sixth overall win.

2015 SHIITAKE AWARDS SHOW