Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Did the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office interfere with fulfilling the dream of a dying vet?

A few days ago, I posted about the Dream Foundation's revocation of a dream trip for a dying vet after it was discovered the man was a Registered Person. Now, after a number of activists contacted the media and the Dream Foundation, it is highly likely the people most responsible for sounding the alarm were members of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office. 

Below is a press release from the National RSOL group. 

RSOL, Inc. | Cambridge, Massachusetts


Contacts:                                                                             FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
National RSOL | 888.997.7765 xt. 1
communications@nationalrsol.org
Ohio RSOL | ohiorsol@yahoo.com


Montgomery County Sheriff Office Conspires Against Veteran
Dying man suffers public humiliation as direct consequence of
overzealous operative determined to prevent his final wishes

January 20, 2015—Dayton, Ohio—Military veteran Greg Poston and his brother are dying of cancer. Their physician, Dr. Emily Vannorsdall, contacted the Dream Foundation about their dying wish, to see the Grand Canyon. At first the foundation was on board, and, with the help of the Veterans Service Commission, offered the trip to the brothers and their siblings.

The Dream Foundation is an organization headquartered in Santa Barbara, California, that grants dreams to adults with life-threatening diseases.

It was originally reported that after announcing the gift, the Dream Foundation received numerous phone calls from angry citizens informing them of Greg’s status as a registered sex offender. The Dream Foundation subsequently announced that it had withdrawn the gift to Greg, stating, " ‘After speaking with members of this individual's community, and consulting with our legal counsel and board of directors, Dream Foundation does not believe it is appropriate to proceed in the fulfillment of this individual's dream.’ ”

However, sources close to Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer have confirmed that his office was chiefly responsible for leaking Greg's status to Channel 22 WKEF, the local ABC affiliate in Dayton, and conspiring to puff Greg's registration as a legitimate reason to deny him the trip.

RSOL, Inc. demands to know who contacted WKEF and why. “I am outraged about all of this. The fact that the Dream Foundation first gave a gift to a dying veteran, then snatched it away, is bad enough,” said Brenda Jones, Executive Director of RSOL, Inc.

“But the very idea that the sheriff's office, in collusion with Channel 22, may be behind the effort to gin up the public's obvious indignation is too much to swallow. When is enough, enough? Greg Poston had been tried, convicted, and punished for his crime. Justice was served. What's the point in humiliating a dying man? 

“At this point, for Greg, there is not even the pretense of justice but only that of revenge, and it is an outrage that his last dream was held out to him and then snatched away due to the hatred and unforgiving heart of someone who is sworn to protect the public trust.”

Both National and Ohio RSOL had initially written the Dream Foundation to protest its decision. RSOL, Inc. is a national organization that advocates for and encourages the successful rehabilitation and reintegration of former sex offenders into a law-abiding society.

“We strongly object to continued consequences that amount to additional punishment after a registered citizen has satisfied his term of court-ordered punishment,” said D. Madison, head of the Ohio affiliate. “We have lived for years now with the absurd consequences of basing legislation and policy on emotions and victim-driven reactions rather than facts and evidence, and studies show these consequences to be ineffective—indeed, often harmful—in improving public safety.”

Founded in 2007, RSOL, Inc. (www.reformsexoffenderlaws.org) is a national organization dedicated to enacting effective, fact-based sexual offense laws and policies which promote public safety, safeguard civil liberties, honor human dignity, and offer holistic prevention, healing, and restoration.

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Dream trip revoked for sex offender with cancer

If this story makes you angry like it made me, feel free to contact the Dream Foundation here:

http://www.dreamfoundation.org/

This story makes me glad I'm not a vet.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/crime-law/dream-trip-revoked-for-sex-offender-with-cancer/njqHm/

Dream trip revoked for sex offender with cancer

By Katherine Wright
Staff Writer

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.
Greg Poston, 62, of Dayton, received a free vacation from the Dream Foundation, a national wish-granting organization for adults with life-threatening illnesses. Greg Poston and his brother, Roger, have terminal cancer. Their three siblings were to accompany them on the trip.
The foundation decided to revoke Greg Poston’s trip. Greg Poston was convicted of two counts of gross sexual imposition in Moraine in 2007, according to court records.
“After we announced the trip, we received a series of phone calls from the Dayton community to ask us if we were aware that this person” was a sex offender, said Tristan Layton of the Dream Foundation. “We were not. It was a very, very difficult decision to make. But we listened to the feedback and respected the families of these victims, and we made the decision to revoke Gregory’s trip.”
The organization serves 2500 dreams a year from its small Santa Barbara, Calif., office. This is the first time something like this has happened in 20 years, Layton said.
Greg Poston’s brother, Roger, and the rest of the family can still take the trip, he said.
“We hope that the rest of the family take the trip. That is up to them,” he said.
The Montgomery County Veterans Service Commission, which had partnered with the Dream Foundation to deliver the trip packet to the Postons, had nothing to do with the decision, said Montgomery County spokeswoman Cathy Petersen.