Category: Personal Tales

By 345… Mine is like many others, I made a mistake, plead out for fear of jail and am serving my probation. While others certainly have it much worse than I, there are still some times where my life feels worthless, hopeless and very isolated. Therapy tells me this is considered zero state, I consider it the new normal. I can never take back the horrible things I have done, nor can I change how others were impacted by my actions. All I can do is move forward however that might be. I only hope that this life will prove to have some positive meaning for someone and maybe give them a perspective or hope that they may come out on the other side and be able to keep on keeping on. I am lucky, I was facing 2-10 years for indecency with a child by exposure. In Texas this means I do not have to be the one naked,…

By L Y… Three weeks ago, my fiancé’s brother texted me saying that my fiancé, “Eric”, was killed in El Salvador. I cannot express how stunned, sad, and angry I am about my Love’s needless death.Eric grew up in America after his parents brought him, at age five, to the U.S.A. I was both his kindergarten and third grade teacher. Later, when he was a young man, to my regret and shame, Eric became the underaged so-called “victim” in my sex offense case. My psychologist reported us. I was given a one-year sentence, and I lost my teaching credential. When Eric became older, he couldn’t find work in the United States. He didn’t have a legal U.S. birth certificate, so he went back to his birth country, El Salvador, to get a job and attend college. He wanted to teach English. He also wanted to help youths resist getting into Salvadorian gangs.I now admit that I thought about Eric obsessively…

By Titus Johnson… I was convicted of two counts of rape 32 years ago. I have never been convicted of such offenses since that time. However, like every other offender and victim, the guilt and shame is something that barely ever takes a recess.As result of being convicted of these offenses, I always wanted to know how I could go about helping victims and offenders in dealing with this dilemma.Three years ago I realized there weren’t any books written by Offenders who were truly sorry for their crimes and needed to express this, while helping society in understanding the different types of offenders and how it all plays out in everyday life. I wanted to contribute something to this cause besides having my name on a registry.With that said, I’m do to release my book titled, ” The Secrets That We Keep” sometime in June. I’m also thinking about advocating a” Forgiveness Act ” that would allow victims to have…

By Dan… My son was falsely accused of molesting his 19 month old daughter in September 2010. The accuser was his ex-wife, a somewhat mentally impaired individual with whom he was living. He had just landed a good job and was taking care of her and their 2 small children. He was arrested at his workplace, taken out in handcuffs. During his interrogation the investigator asked him about the other incidents of which the accuser had accused him. Being naïve he didn’t know about this interrogation technique and volunteered that maybe his ex was speaking of an incident 10 months prior when his daughter was 9 months old, in which he was caught by his ex in a compromising situation; watching an adult dvd and doing what many young men do secretly (but usually without getting caught). The baby was playing with toys in the kitchen; my son was in the living room, out of view of the kitchen. This…

By Jason… The story I am about to tell you hasn’t been enhanced for drama. It hasn’t been fabricated. I couldn’t make this up. The story I have wanted to tell others for so long now is real. Its my story. Its also the story of so many other men like me. Who were incarcerated in Pennsylvania’s worst experiment since the creation of the registry. Not surprising. Its a story your only going to hear about here. Unless you know someone who went through it or you lived it. It all started on an October morning in 2016. I had been on parole for a while and was doing my groups and keeping to my conditions. I kept curfew, I paid my supervision fees, and I went to my treatment program. But I had so much trouble finding a new place to live. The homeowner where I lived was selling the home and it would be hard for me to…

By Connie… My husband visually offended two adult women by wearing shorts without underwear and was charged with indecent exposure in 2003. He was advised by his lawyer to plead guilty expecting to receive 10 years probation and registry, but the judge unreasonably with held sentencing for many months till the law was changed to 20 years registration. He has 5 more years before he is allowed to not register. Two cruise lines, Royal Carribean and Carnival canceled our booked cruises because of the registry. Although, the head of security on Carnival said if he was removed from the registry, my husband would be welcomed aboard.We also cannot sell our home and move to any decent senior housing in Broken Arrow or Tulsa, OK where we would like to live.My husband has successful completed all probation, treatment program, and polygraph requirements for over a decade. He has not committed any sex offense of any kind in 15 years.Currently he voluntarily…

By Daytona… Don’t travel to Florida,as I found the hard way.Bottom line is I didn’t domy homework.I’m a level 1 living in Mass. In 2015 I made a decision to move to Floridaand retire there.I had lived in Mass all my life without any trouble with thelaw. Its been 30 years since my sentencing.There was no Registry then,but Istill had to appear before a local PD to be processed,Finger printed,andmug shots taken each year till 2000-2001.the Mass.registry was then formed,and I have been on it since.I was given a Level 1 Classification in2003.I petitioned to have my name removed but was denied.I had lived quietly alone in the country,and was never bothered.the onlypeople who knew about my status was the people involved with myarrest and conviction.I was contacted by an old girlfriend i knew 40 years ago who lived inFlorida. I made the decision to visit her and see if we could live together.This is where I went wrong.I had…

By Elizabeth… My letter below will explain the circumstances of my sons case and the incident at hand. Please feel free to share taking out any names and personal information. In this letter I am updating the local newspaper I reached out to hoping to buy ad space in the local paper after hearing they changes their prior request for him to fulfill to attend the local community college. However, the contact at the newspaper declined to allow me to purchase an ad. This is my response and was also sent to the College. I am writing to update you on the outcome of the hearing at Chipola college conducted for my son upon his re-application for admission. To refresh your memory, my son applied, and was fully accepted to Chipola Community College for the Summer semester of 2018. He was completely honest on the screening questions of his application, allowed to register and pay for classes and then on…

My name is Matt and I was convicted of a sex offense in 2006. Some of you may know me already. I got caught up in the “non-nude” underage modeling websites back then and was arrested and convicted of downloading and distributing CP (even though the photos were all non-nude). I take FULL responsibility of my crime and feel remorse everyday. I won’t go into all the details about my struggle with employment, housing, my five year prison sentence, my arrest, etc., because today I try to focus more on the future. In 2012, while on federal probation believe it or not (with approval from my P.O.) I started the documentary film company, Metamora Films. To this day, I’ve produced five films which have all won some sort of award, either online or at a local film festival. I’ve also had the chance to attend the Sundance Film Festival as a press member and interview celebrities such as Kevin Bacon,…

“Sex abuse is a ‘growth industry.’” –in “The ‘Validators’ and other examiners” in Issues in Child Abuse Allegations in 1991 by Richard A. Gardner—found in Manufacturing Victims: What the Psychology Industry is Doing to People by Dr. Tana Dineen. Dineen’s 1996 book is heavy reading but has scads of very interesting, very relevant quotations with details of sources. (A list of the more interesting pages is added below. A pdf of Gardner’s full article is online.) Gardner has some very vocal critics, and he does say things even I find questionable. However, I imagine his critics can’t even begin to deal with his first irrefutable point: counseling ‘professionals’ who call themselves “validators” of abuse reveal a telling bias and prejudice about themselves. Having skimmed the article and some of his other work myself, I’d bet those critics cannot even begin to respond to some of the other things he says in an effort to improve how evaluations of allegations are…