originally posted 9/27/2011
In 1991 my step daughter at the time was having trouble wetting the bed. after a while the bed wetting turned into a rash that she rubbed and scratched raw. as a result this led to a bladder infection from her dirty hands. At the time neither the mother or i knew about this because the child was hiding it somehow. one day she was scratching in class and the teacher asked her what was wrong and she pointed to her private. The teacher took her in the bathroom,and saw her private and called children and youth services. </p>
This resulted in me being accused of doing something sexual to the child. I was arrested and locked up before any test or facts were presented as evidence. My girlfriend at the time knew that i would never do anything like that and was on my side the whole time. eventually the child was seen by a doctor and the results was that the child had a rash from wetting the bed wish she scratched raw and as a result of her dirty hands caught a bladder infection.
Was I released? no. the state immediately went to work on my wife and tried to make a case of it. I guess they figured if they could get her on their side they might get a plea bargain out of it. well my girl stayed strong and stood by her man. On the day that i was supposed to go to trial they brought me into a court room full of hysteria. all the kids were being held by children and youth and my girlfriend was in handcuffs sitting at the prosecutor table. my public pretender told me that my girlfriend was being arrested for tampering with a witness. that she supposedly told her daughter what to say. what she did tell her was not to allow anyone make you say anything that was not true. my public pretender asked me did i want to take a deal and see what could be done about my girlfriend and her kids. I said yes see what you can do but I'm not pleading to anything that has anything to do with what they are accusing me of.</p>
He went and spoke with the DA and came back and said that the DA said if i plead to lewd acts on a minor that my girlfriend could go home right now with her kids. I asked him what lewd acts on a minor was and he told me that it was a form of child neglect or child abuse and that it was a misdemeanor and had nothing to do with anything sexual with a child. he told me that i would do 6 month. I weighed it out and the kids and my girlfriend seemed more important than the misdemeanor child abuse charge.</p>
I believed him and accepted the plea agreement ( yes even with doctors on my side) and my girlfriend and kids went home and i went to jail for 5 years suspended to 1 and did 6 months. that was in 1991. I went on with my life never really knowing fully well what it was that i actually plead to on that day in court. In 2007 I was in prison for a drug conviction coming up for parole when the board asked me what was this lewd acts charge was. and I answered " oh that's a misdemeanor child neglect charge that i got years go, but i was innocent.</p>
It was on that day the I learned just what it was i had plead to and just how deep a trouble i was in. I ended up doing a extra 2 years because i couldn't complete a sex offenders class that they recommended. but its hard to complete the class when your innocent. I finally made parole and was supposed to back to South Carolina to fight the case and tried to right the wrong. I was let out that time without registering because no one made anything of it at the time.</p>
I was arrested 18 days later for not going to SC on time. this time I was told i would stay in jail in PA and do the remainder of my parole ( another 6 years) unless i registered as a sex offender. well that left me no choice. I did a year and transferred my parole to SC. I was made to register from PA to SC .</p>
The sad part about it all is that i never ever committed the crime that i am registered for. and I have to endure any new laws that they add to sex offenders. If they say all offenders must live on an island, then that includes me. If they decide to start chopping off penises tomorrow then that includes mines as well. its unfair and its unjust not only to be a sex offender but being a sex offender falsely accused and not knowing you was a sex offender until 20 years later all because you believed in your public pretender and wanted to do right by a bunch of innocent kids. What now?