Category: Tales from the Registry

originally posted 7/27/2010 When my son was 21 he was kissing a 13 year old girl.  The girl’s mother was relentless and wanted him locked away for life.   He was in jail for seven months, did three years’ probation and now is on lifetime supervision (which was never explained to us when we took the plea to keep him out of jail) for up to ten years. He has had two counselors who said that he is at very low risk of reoffending (he was never in any trouble before), many of the people in authority that he talks to agree that he is a low risk yet he is on lifetime supervision.  Whenever my daughter is here with my two grandchildren, he cannot be at home. He is not allowed to talk to them on the phone or see pictures of them. He cannot afford to live elsewhere right now. We found out that if he makes any mistakes,…

originally posted 7/19/2010 My son pled no contest to robbery in 1999.   He received a seven year sentence.  Somewhere around 2000-2001 while in prison he was again charged and took a guilty plea (indecent exposure) for exposing himself to a female correctional officer.   At the time he was 19 or 20 years old locked behind bars. He was paroled in 2005 just before turning 25 years old.   He later failed a drug test administered by his parole officer and was taken back to jail on a parole violation.    When he was released the second time he was made to wear a GPS device which prohibited his ability to live with friends or family and caused him to become homeless. I would like to know what type of programs, if any are available to help rehabilitate him.   My son told me that he does not qualify for programs he has tried to get into because of…

originally posted 5/23/2010 Social Services built a pretty hefty case against me, all circling around the  fact that I am “encouraging” my children to be in a relationship with a high-risk offender, and that I must be “grooming” them for him.   This is what I    am fighting.   I don’t know if this is a legal point or not.   I believe I am in     need of a pro-s.o. lawyer.  I don’t know if they can take my children from     me if I refuse to cut contact between him and them. They draw him pictures and make him art projects and occasionally, about once a month talk to him on the phone.  He has a very active part in their     life as co-parent with me.  Keep in mind, his crime was not against anyone violently, or against prepubescent children.  He never raped or molested anyone as his offense.  And furthermore, my children…

originally posted 5/22/2010 As long as the law can threaten, promise,  and lure, there will be no justice.   The law needs to be reformed.   Mass hysteria has to stop.  The public needs to be educated. The Sex Offender Registry is unconstitutional!  What about people who commit murder?  Or drunk drivers who kill innocent people? They don’t   have to register. THIS LAW NEEDS TO BE CHANGED:   There is a          difference between “PREDATOR” and “NO RISK OFFENDER”.   I checked my papers on my first year of registration and it said I would have to      register for five more years after probation.   The next year I checked, it   then said I had to register for life!   That’s B.S.   I am a God-fearing man and     I have paid my debt to society with thousands of dollars. I never failed one polygraph, or a plethysmograph which women offenders don’t…

originally posted 5/18/2010 This is a brief letter to give you background information on ourselves, our situation and our son.   He was convicted of a sexual offense against a        minor and sentenced to a term of three years, of which he was required to serve 85%.   He has done so, he was due to get out in April, 2010, after   serving his sentence.   But NOW he has been civilly committed in New         Jersey, and is subject to confinement for an indefinite period to time. Can he be helped;  has anyone fought civil commitment successfully and    won their release? Do you have any information we might be able to use to challenge this      unfair practice? At present we are using the Public Advocate as his attorney. Can you        provide us with any additional information and/or help?   We have a          …

originally posted 5/13/2010 My son is bipolar and was 19 when he had CONSENSUAL sex with two girls (each almost 14 years of age).   The acts were separate.   Both girls never wavered from their original police statement that the sex was consensual.       The judge ruled from the bench that it was consensual.   Yet he received ten  years’ probation and will be a registered SO for life.   I worry if he will be     able to pass a polygraph since he is bipolar and on medications. I want to help get these ridiculous laws changed.   It is my belief that they     are unconstitutional.

originally posted 5/3/2010 Well, here is my horror story.   And I can only hope that it’s seen with open eyes, like all the others, by the politicians, lawmakers and media, that have created this frenzy of false fear. I, for nine years now, have had to register as a SO at the local police department of which I reside. Time does not “heal all wounds” in this case as no matter what I do, or where I go, I can’t escape the title that has been bestowed upon me.  Did I do something wrong?  Many will say yes.  Even I, through my brief therapy, believe that I acted inappropriately towards my “victim”.  Of course when I went to therapy through court order, I refused to admit that I was a so called “sex offender”.  I was then told by my PO and therapist, that if I didn’t admit to that fact,  I would not successfully complete the class and…

originally posted 5/2/2010 I’m a convicted adult sex offender in the State of Ohio.  The problem is not that I mind registering as a sex offender, it is the Ohio Sex Offender Law that angers me.   Here, all sex offenders are in one category.   Even though my victim is an adult, I’m treated as a child molester through public notification within the community and I cannot move into a neighborhood with parks, schools, etc., that have children present. If I have to move, I have to notify the county sheriff’s department to get clearance, just to move into any town, city, etc.  It is a problem.   I am basically a prisoner in my own house and in fear of the neighbors through the community notification process.   It is Ohio’s Laws on Sex Offenders, there should be two separate laws, one for the child molesters and one for the offenders against adults. I am in sex offender…

4/22/2010 We have been together for almost five years and he has helped me raise my daughter like she was his own.   He is a 2nd degree offender, so is registered for life.   We would like to move close to my family but are afraid to do so, because the strictness of MN offender laws. That and when we lived in TX for about one year, the city ordinance people kept sending us fine after fine, because the lawn was too long, there was trash in the yard (we lived next to a gas station and on a windy day the yard would accumulate random garbage), so on and so forth. We asked the city ordinance manager if we were to move out of state within the next three months, would they kindly stop fining us?  The manager didn’t even bat an eye and was in agreement. We had three months to move out. We paid more in fines…

originally posted 4/19/2010 I was convicted of Possession of Child Pornography,  something I am deeply ashamed of.   My conviction was as a result of viewing a website on a single occasion, as an isolated incident resulting from a longtime struggle with pornography in general. I received a 1-1/2 year sentence that was all suspended except 15 weekends in county jail and 18 months of probation.   I also have to register for a period of 10 years. While I am fully willing to accept the consequences of a despicable act,  I  am reminded daily of my crime by being labeled as a monster. During my probation period, I was allowed to live in my home with my family- including my now six year old son, but I was not allowed to be  alone in the same room with him.   I was not allowed to hug him or have him sit on my lap, wrestle, etc. The registration has severely hindered my…