One Tin Soilder

originally 9/13/2010

My birthday just came up this month, do I celebrate…no!  NOW it only means I crawl with my tail between my legs to the county sheriff and the city police department to have a mug shot and be fingerprinted.   Then in six months I do it again or go to prison!  For the third time in a row the city police tell me I have to go to the state troopers’ office and have “SEX OFFENDER” put on my drivers’ license.  The state where I live requires that as of about two years ago.  Nice when you have to cash a check or rent a movie or a hundred other things.  A few years ago, the police came to notify me I had to register or go back to prison.  I stupidly told them MY eight and 1/2 years in prison , as well as my release from parole, was before that registry law was passed.   I knew they could not make a law that was retroactive (ex-post facto).   My wife was in tears and tried to tell them I had paid my debt.   To add to the the shock they brought the local newspaper reporter and a camera.   So we got to watch our home and my picture on the 6 o’clock news two days in a row.   So much for no ex post facto laws.

Anyway, back to the driver’s  license issue,  I had to wait in line with 20 or so folks and tell the clerk in front of all these folks that I wanted to have SEX OFFENDER on my license.   I was told I was in the wrong line and had to do the same thing in the other line.   After all this I was told by the state trooper that due to my conviction date it was not required (praise the Lord).   As I said this was the third time the police told me I had to do this (they really got their xyz together).   I live in a small town where everybody knows everything.  The irony of it all is before the gestapo ruined our lives (my wife has never even had a parking ticket), a few years ago I had a construction company.   My shop was one block from the court house, jail and detectives’ office.   My picture had been in the paper many times working on community projects.   I have lived in the same house since my release.   But as the news media stated they tracked down an unregistered sex offender who had molested his daughters.   I do not feel I owe society one XXX thing, it was the people I loved the most that I hurt and will never forgive myself for.

I had a year and a half of intense sex offender treatment that opened my eyes to the harm that I had done.   My daughters have forgiven me and we all tried to move on. I did eight and one-half years in prison and the hardest time of all was that treatment program.   I will always be grateful though to the Department of Corrections for that program.   I was convicted in January, 1980; I guess 30 years though is still not enough, they say I must register every six months for the rest of my life.   Oh, by the way, the sex offender treatment program was cancelled due to lack of funding, I guess they needed the money to pay for the registry.  I can take whatever they throw at me;  I guess I deserve it.   My wife (we were married while I was in prison)  deserves none of what the registry has put her through.   Sadly  had I known they could do this I would be single,  she is the light of my life though and stood by me through it all.  Thanks for the support. RSOL, it means a lot.

1 thought on “One Tin Soilder

  1. I’m a new member of RSOL. It’s stories like yours that help me to reaffirm my decision to be an advocate for people on the registries, and their families. Hold your head up high, sir. You’ve earned it!

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