originally posted 9/4/2009 I am 31 years old, and have been living for the past 8 years with this “sex offender” title over my head. In 2000 I was a manager (22 yr old) at a fast food restaurant in a small town in TN. I was new to the town and was not well liked. I was brought there to rebuild this restaurant as it had basically fallen apart. My efforts were commended by most everyone as the place got cleaned up and business picked up. Everything was going great, until one day, a Friday night, I had two no-call, no-shows ( two 17 year old male students) not show up for work. This was the third time. They were close friends and were always together. Well when employees saw them come through via the drive through, I decided to call their parents and inform them that their kids were not at work where they were supposed to be and instead told…
originally posted 8/28/2009 My son has now been on probation 4 weeks. His emotions are up and down, as would be expected with any and all charged with these crimes and then completely losing their privacy. To further complicate, he also suffers from bi-polar disorder so I worry alot about him, having dealt with multiple suicide attempts since he was eleven. He’s also a self injurer and has often felt that he *needs* to die. The years have been hard, and it’s taken a lot of work and support to have him stabilized and then, his world, our world, came crashing down with this conviction. But, even with distance between us and family and friends, he has a strong support network which is helping and giving him some time to heal. When I told him about getting involved with RSOL, at first he was elated. And then he began to worry, not wanting any exposure or attention drawn to him, fearing for personal vendettas from…
originally posted 8/27/2009 It seems no matter how hard we try to change some of these laws we will not be able to. �Once a law is made it is forever on the books and rarely ever changed. �I was 19 years old and met a girl who was 14 years old at the mall. �well we ended up having sex and dated for just a few weeks and than we stopped seeing each other ..Almost 2 years went by and I was called down town and asked about how I knew this girl…..Long story short – her parents found an old letter that she wrote to one of her girl friends about me and her parents read it and went down town to file a complaint. �This was 2 years later. � By that time, I have a fiance and she is 4 months pregnant with our baby! �I go to court for the having sex with a girl…
originally posted 8/25/2009 The registry, more than the original offense, is why my son is incarcerated today. False accusations exist more than most people would believe. In 1998, my son K pleaded guilty to sexually abusing an 8-year-old girl. It was an Alford plea, meaning that while he maintained his innocence, it was believed that the state had enough evidence to convict him at a trial. The plea was agreed to during a 15-minute meeting with K’s- then-attorney, Warren Brown, as the trial deadline loomed. K had terrible legal representation. The nature and consequences of taking an Alford plea were not explained to us or understood by us. When I suggested “maybe we should think about it…”, the lawyer got up from his seat very angrily and said in a belligerent way “well, alright then, we’ll go to trial”. This was, believe me, very frightening. He also never told my son or me that it was the same as…
originally posted 8/23/2009 My son went to register for college today and of course, he had to go to the security office. Now they have real cops there and he told them, he is a registered SO. They asked him, what was the offense? He told them he had asked some girls if they needed a ride; he never got out of the car, never touched or promised anything. So he got sentenced for luring of a minor. The cops at the college looked at each other and said they had never heard of anything like that and this should never have been a registrable offense . My son came to my job and to see in his face all the pain of the last 8 years, the frustration and the health issues due to all this crap; I cried all the way home! I am 55 years old and I cried for the pain of my son! In the afternoon I had…
originally posted 8/20/2009 I was convicted several years ago of three counts of possession of child pornography. Sentenced to three months of home confinement, I opted for jail time instead. In the state where I was convicted, I am registered as a Level 1 offender and, in seven years, will no longer have to register. I live within several blocks of a school, live on the same block as a Level Three offender, and contact the local authorities every six months to keep them informed of my residence. I am definitely not at risk to re-offend. My home state lists me on their registry as a predator, and my picture appears on their site. I am unable to go home. I could not live with my parents, whose home is a few blocks from an elementary school. This situation is embarrassing and distressing for my family and friends. My predicament illustrates how destructive our current views on “sex offenses” really are.
originally posted 8/17/2009 Falsely accused by a woman with an incredible history of falsely accusing other doctors and wrongfully convicted by a judge who felt her background of previous false claims of assault, felony convictions, psychiatric hospitalizations, and prostitution were irrelevant. I have done more than 60 professional presentations, and am willing to help.
originally posted 8/17/2009 My husband and I are victims of the Commonwealth. At the age of 15-16 he was accused of rape by a classmate whose family filed charges but never followed through in court. The case was dropped due to the victim’s failure to appear. This followed him approximately two years later when another offense was committed in our area and he was immediately arrested. A young, single mother of three boys, with no legal or moral support at the time, was coerced by detectives in hopes of affording her middle son a chance in court. My husband was was charged, convicted and sentenced to 37 years. Seven years to be served, 10 years suspended sentence and 20 years on probation. With my lack of full understanding of the law it would stand to reason that the Grandfather Law would be applicable to his recent circumstance; he was subject to sentencing guidelines before 1995. My husband was released in 1992 to…
originally posted 8/2/2009 I read your article online. Please let me tell you my story and see if you can help me in any way. Please keep my story confidential. I was a high school teacher. In April of 2008, a “‘friend”‘ told a story about me that was false. However, because the boy who was named and his friend told a story, although different from hers, saying something happened, I was accused. I never told my side to anyone. The whole town believed in me, though. They still do, even though at the advice of my lawyer, I took a plea deal. That lawyer claimed teachers have no chance against juries anymore and so I took probation and having to register as a sex offender. I did this because I have 3 kids that mean the world to me. I felt they were more important than taking a chance on being sent to prison….
originally posted 7/27/2009 Back in 1995, before my husband turned 18 years old, he was accused of first degree sexual abuse by three girls. These girls were all friends, all of which disliked me and the fact that I was dating him at the time. One of the girls’ mothers was actually my then-boyfriend’s, and had recently fired him from his job and the other two were actually his cousin’s children and were very mad at their father. I still remember the acting officer coming to my mom’s house and saying, “I’m sorry, Joey, I know you haven’t done anything wrong, but I have to take you to jail for the night.” Numerous charges (25 to be exact) on top of the other charges he had. He was a troubled teen and into drugs, and I guess I thought that I could save him from himself. I never left his side. Even through the two years that he was…
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