Category: Tales from the Registry

originally posted 8/8/2008 I have been an elementary teacher for 33 years. I am a foster and adoptive parent, including one who was a victim, one who is a convicted offender, and one who is facing charges. The day before Mother’s Day, 2004, my 6-year-old foster child told us that another foster child in the house had just “humped” him. He told us matter-of-factly, not distressed in the least. He had been bribed and allowed to play the older boy’s video games while the incident took place. The offender was an extremely immature 18-year-old whose birth father had been incarcerated for sexually abusing another son. It was a dilemma deciding what to do. It being a Saturday, I could not contact my (youth services) caseworker. I wasn’t sure what truth lay in the claim since that child was not always truthful. Also I knew that any decision I made could have a lasting impact on both children involved. By the…

originally posted 8/8/2008 There are days when I don’t even know where to start with all of this, then there are others where I seem to find a good deal of information. Many sex offenders must take a test in our state called a plesmograph, which measures sexual arousal. My young son and the others here face the possibility of having to take his test at any time, along with polygraphs. The results of a plesmograph are useless as researchers have found that many “normal” people would react physically when viewing erotic material as well, so what is the point? My son pled on in April, and though he is required to attend “sex offender classes” and pay $35 for them once a week, there have been no treatment providers. The ones they had before both quit because of the way these guys are treated. So, instead, they give them a fill-in-the-blank form — and my apologies here — “How…

Original post date: 5/8/2008 I do not see the need for a website so that the ‘public’ knows where a sex offender lives. Why? Do we know where murderers and burglars live? No, we don’t. My best friend has been paroled to me and it’s been no picnic. He has been verbally abused by his one agent who constantly called him ‘Jerry’ for ‘Jerry’s kids’. They are set up to fail once released as (the state) wants them all locked up. My friend can’t even talk to his children because they are minors. It’s ridiculous. I would imagine family support would be helpful, not harmful. And what the state calls counseling? They should be ashamed of themselves. They’re not here to help anyone. Their goal is to make life absolutely miserable in the hopes that you will re-offend. Anonymous in Illinois

Original post date: 16.05.2008 Editor’s note: The names and the state have been omitted to keep the anonymity of the persons involved. From the wife of a sex offender ‘out west.’ I have chosen to sign because I have watch the change in laws slowly destroy my husband. I don’t clam his innocent or his guilt as that was decided years ago when he took the plea agreement. I have found that claming his innocence, which I believe in, only makes my statement seem biased and defensive. His innocence or guilt doesn92t really matter anyways. The person he is matters! His criminal history only has two marks – The 13 year old conviction that made him a Sex Offender (lewdness w/ a minor under 14, His accuser was 13) and a 9 year old conviction for failure to register. The failure to register was simply a forgotten thing and he spent a 3 day weekend in jail to which the…

Original post date: 16.05.2008 A Tale of Eventual Justice, sent in by an RSOL participant from Oregon! Without money, forget justice! Never take a plea bargain if you are innocent! They are NEVER bargains! Wrongfully accused and indicted and ultimately had charges dropped. A vindictive ex partner in business planted cd’s that contained CP on them in a loaner car I used for two days. I was indicted by a politically motivated prosecutor (who is now a judge) and my life ruined as a result. Being accused makes you guilty and being exonerated means you had a good attorney who “got you off” I went from making 16,500 a month to 5,000 a month, I lost the life that I had spent a lifetime working towards. The financial stress it created caused me to lose my wife who had stood by me for the 3 1/2 years it took to finally get this case to trial. The charges were dropped by the…

Original post date: 15.04.2008 Try to imagine, you’re 17, a junior in high school on summer vacation. You’re unusually tall and still a bit awkward with girls. At a local resort you meet a girl vacationing with her parents, she is beautiful and she actually likes you. After a few days she invites you to her cabin while her parents are away. With heart pounding nervousness, you’re both kissing and touching each other. A phone rings, you’re interrupted and this ends the encounter. Seems so innocent, maybe a preview to an after school special. Now imagine, two days later you are arrested for a violent rape. You tell the police everything you know about the beautiful girl you’d met, you tell them about the kissing, the touching and you swear to God that you never had intercourse. You’re given a Public Defender who tells you the rape tests support the girls claim and that he has worked his magic and…

Original post date: 02.08.2008 My 20-year-old son sat in jail for six months with 39 charges pending initially, then dropped almost immediately to 16 and stayed posted online, with his picture, for the entire six months, enough time for the entire community to see it and for some ignorant people to speculate about what a “horrible sex offender” he must be. Of course, his circumstances were ridiculous, and passing polygraphs — more than one — and providing all sorts of irrefutible evidence supporting his innocence was of little or no help aside from the fact that his 39/16 charges ended up as 2 C felonies (because these were two friends who thought this was “fun,” and that they “make a good team.” ) They offered absolutely no evidence except for the allegation. They could not get times, dates, circumstances or anything right — the police reports and discovery were a mess on their side, so much so that when I read…

Original post date: 19.07.2008 My son is now released during the week, but has to go to jail from Friday’s at 6:00 p.m. to Monday’s at 6:00 a.m. He was put on high risk because of not living with a girl for two years or longer and his age. He had just turned 23.  He was also charged with two counts, because of being honest and telling every where he touched her and every aspect of their encounter. He cannot be around any family members or anyone else’s children under the age of 18. He is having to sell his home, that he worked so hard for because it is too close to a school. He did not get any time taken off his sentence for the 100 days he spent in jail and I have never heard of that, but I was told that (our) county does not take time served off before trial date. Some of the young…

Original post date: 14.07.2008 I want my son to have hope. He is still incarcerated at (our) County Prison. He is serving an 12 month less 1 day sentence for consensual sex with a minor. He was 19 at the time,she was 14. My son suffered from hemifacial paralysis when he was 18 months old. After 14 facial surgeries to reconstruct his eye, mouth and cheek, he suffered most of his childhood from low self esteem and never thought any girl would find him attractive. The surgeries improved his appearance and restored symmetry to his face. I thought he was very handsome, but he never saw anything but the scars. He and this girl found each other attractive and they had consensual sex. He felt so guilty, he turned himself in to police. The girl and her mother did not want to press charges, but the state did. Now he faces the public humiliation on the registry. He did take…

Original post date: 11.07.2008 Although the statute I was convicted under (Wisconsin, convicted in 1995) will read as though I forcibly assaulted a child, in reality, I had sex with a 15 year old who told me she was 19. That’s all I did. Now, I have to register every four months in Kansas (in person, at the police station, where I am frisked), and every year for the rest of my life in Wisconsin. I had hopes of getting through this, completing my PhD and becoming a professor. But last semester, A girl who failed the class I was teaching complained about me because she saw my name printed in the local newspaper, and stated that she was afraid to come talk to me. Can you believe that? I appreciate what you[RSOL] are trying to do, because my life is for the most part ruined because of the unnecessary stigma that has been assigned.