Attention Maryland

Hi fellow OMB Warriors!

My name is Annie. My battle in the Maryland family court system has been so scary and discouraging, that I've expanded my efforts to changing state laws, which would prevent the family courts from having so much power when it comes to dealing with convicted abusers.  My ex-husband is now a Tier III Registered Sex Offender for life, after being convicted of abusing one of our daughters.  Three years later, I am still struggling to protect my other two daughters.  At one point, he was caught on his "supervised" overnight visits actually sleeping alone with the girls, and after another investigation, CPS and law enforcement confirmed these instances had happened, but that it wasn't against the law.  It's purely a civil issue.  His behavior become so concerning that his probation was actually modified to include conditions limiting his access to children, but probation is only for 5 years, so in 2 1/2 years, there's no way to restrict his behavior.

We have a proposed bill in Maryland, SB0320, that would extend the period in which offenders can have restrictions to match the length of their time on the registry.  My hope is that going forward, offenders will have actual legal restrictions put on them, which would lift the burden on the mother's struggling to protect their children and keep their families afloat.  It would prevent family courts from having the ability to make decisions that further endanger the children.  Click here for the draft letter of support, along with my change.org petition.  Please consider providing a letter of support for this bill, or at least signing and sharing the petition itself.  We have 33,000 signatures to date, but I'm hoping that number increases before I testify at the Senate Judiciary Proceedings Hearing on February 11th.  Thank you all for your support, we have to work together to change the actual system so that our horrific stories stop being so common, and so children are actually protected during contentious divorces. 

View my video and become involved: https://www.change.org/p/governor-hogan-better-sex-offender-laws-to-protect-our-children-a2e241ce-e821-45ae-b9f3-7231f4a2c93b?recruiter=5797123&recruited_by_id=da039880-c922-012f-32d6-4040496dcccb&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=petition_dashboard