The board of directors of Liberty & Justice Coalition is excited to announce that the Internal Revenue Service has granted us 501(c)(3) status as of January 9, 2019. This means all future support is now tax deductible, and any donation made after the effective date of the determination qualifies. If you have not supported us yet this year, this is a good time to do so. Visit our website, https://libjusco.net/ and donate.
LJC is now prepared to address some serious injustices facing New Mexico’s sex offender community and registrants because we now have funding to compensate our attorneys. We are preparing to launch our first lawsuit in the next 60 days. The lawsuit will seek to force the New Mexico Department of Public Safety (DPS) to provide a due process mechanism to those with non-New Mexico convictions. New Mexico law requires that an out-of-state conviction be “equivalent” to an offense on our list of registrable sex offenses. Despite this unambiguous language, the DPS has failed to provide a process, and we now have more than 500 in the category of “waiting for translation” listed on the website.
We have tentatively identified four areas of litigation:
- A Declaratory Judgment seeking a due process mechanism for translation of out of state offenses by the Department of Public Safety;
- Litigation to challenge the Parole Board for failing to release those who have served their time only because the parolee is unable to provide an acceptable address;
- A Declaratory Judgment seeking credit for time on registration dating back to enactment of retroactive registration requirements;
- A Declaratory Judgment to strike down the blanket imposition of GPS monitoring as violative of due process without individualized determination of need for such monitoring; and
- A possible fifth case is the state’s failure to hold hearings as required by statute when the parolee has served five years of supervision.
We need your help to find the best possible plaintiffs for the first lawsuit. If your offense occurred in any state other than New Mexico, we will consider you as a possible plaintiff. The sole issue in the lawsuit is the lack of due process in making the equivalency determination. We will not be asking the court to determine whether or not the terms of registration are too harsh for a particular offense. Rather, we will be asking that the state be compelled to provide due process for making the determination. A proper determination of equivalency can be significant because: (1) the person’s out of state offense may not be registerable at all in New Mexico; or (2) the offense should be a 10-year registration period rather than lifetime. If you are interested in being considered, contact Larry via email at libjusco.com@gmail.com. You may also call me, Rick, at 505 832-4291.
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