Note that the sessions we are concerned with are on Tuesday and Thursday @ 1pm. It is so important for us to show up at everyone of these public sessions. I will be there as oten as I can.
Showing posts with label get involved. Show all posts
Showing posts with label get involved. Show all posts
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Schedule for the Upcoming Week
Sunday, September 6, 2009
CFC Maine Meets
We are having our first planning session for CFC Maine next Saturday September 12th at 10:30am in Gorham. We will be discussing and setting forth our goals for the upcoming year. If I haven't contacted you about this meeting yet please consider attending. We want everyone interested in promoting change to RFSO laws to join us. RFSOs, family members and the general public are all invited. There are many jobs that can be done without being in the public eye. We need to plan the best way we can exploit the current climate asking how things should change to prevent more crimes like the recent one with Kaycee. Email me at ladyfurebear@yahoo.com if you want more information. Hope to see you there.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Sexual Predator Insanity-Ricky's story
This is a thoughtful well written article about my friend Mary's son. Unfortunately Ricky's story is not an rare thing these days. Read more about Ricky here. Link
Sexual Predator Insanity
By Paul Elam | Aug 3, 2009
At sixteen, Ricky Blackman was fairly typical of teen-age boys. He loved sports, especially basketball and football, and played them well enough to have realistic hopes for a scholarship. He liked socializing and hanging out with his friends. And girls—of course there were always the girls.
His Middle American upbringing produced unsurprising ambitions. He dreamed of serving his country in the Navy after school, and ultimately of a career in law enforcement. He was, by all accounts, a healthy and well adjusted young man.
Skip ahead three years, and you’ll find Ricky and his life have changed radically. He takes private instruction in web design because he isn’t welcome on a campus. He no longer trusts the law he once wanted to serve, and, when in the presence of young women, he panics and withdraws. In fact, his life, once so full of promise and hope, is now little more than a daily struggle to survive, and a challenge to even find reasons for doing so.
While Ricky’s view of the world has changed since his younger days, it is nothing compared to the way the world’s view of Ricky has changed. He has become the ultimate pariah and outcast. He is, at least in the eyes of most, pernicious persona non grata; human refuse hardly worthy of life itself.
It all started before his seventeenth birthday. Ricky was at a local hang out for teens and met a girl there. Amanda was from his area, said she was fifteen years old and they seemed to have much in common. They began seeing each other, and eventually had sex on two occasions.
The encounters would undo the rest of his life.
Like many young people trying to impress someone they like, Amanda lied to Ricky about her age. She later told Ricky’s mother, Mary Duval, that she was only fourteen, and pled with her not to let Ricky know. Mary promptly told her son of the confession, and he cut off the romance immediately. They found out later that she still wasn’t being entirely honest.
Later Amanda, a runaway, became involved with the police, who discovered her prior ties with Ricky. She admitted the sexual relationship to the police during questioning. She also admitted that she had lied to Ricky about her age. After evaluating the situation, Amanda’s parents weren’t interested in pressing charges and the police weren’t interested in making an arrest. Until, that is, the Dallas County (Iowa) District Attorney’s office got wind of the case.
Shortly after Ricky turned seventeen, he was questioned by the police. His mother was present, and it was her instinct to remove Ricky from the interview. But she had just undergone surgery on her eyes and was disoriented due to the post-operative medications she was taking, so she allowed Ricky’s then-stepfather to handle things. Unfortunately, the stepfather wanted the matter quickly resolved, and signed a waiver for the police to question him without legal counsel.
The police had something they wanted Ricky to sign as well.
It was a simple statement that he had, in fact, had sexual relations with Amanda. Ricky was apprehensive, but he signed. It was, after all, the truth. And in Ricky’s world, the truth served an honest person well.
“Sorry to tell you,” the police officer told Ricky after he had signed the statement. “Amanda admitted she lied to you about her real age, but she was only thirteen.”
It probably wasn’t the tactics Ricky envisioned, when he thought of becoming a police officer: Get a kid to sign a confession, and then tell him what he just confessed to. Ricky’s naiveté took a hard blow. But it was only the first of many times that the real world would land on him like a Mack Truck.
The officer told him that the case would be sent back to the D.A., and that it might come to nothing since Amanda had confessed to lying about her age. He also advised him, in a rare moment of clarity and honesty from the system, that it could go either way.
The Arrest Made the Papers
Ten days later, Ricky was handcuffed in front of his friends and taken to jail. He was charged as an adult with two counts of third degree sexual abuse, a felony. In an almost artistic manipulation of timing and the system, police and prosecutors used laws applying only to juveniles to garner evidence and a confession, and then used it all to charge him criminally as an adult.
He was threatened with twenty years in prison (more time than he’d yet been alive), but that was only the beginning of a two-pronged assault on his life. When the arrest made the papers, complete with Ricky’s full name, address, and the nature of the charges against him, the community in which he had lived and thrived turned on him in an instant.
When Ricky and Mary went food shopping, cashiers in one line at a local grocery store refused to check them out, forcing them to go to another line while other customers glared. His younger brother, who was nine at the time, was badgered and humiliated at school.
Duval read the writing on the wall, and immediately made plans to take Ricky and his brother to Oklahoma in hopes that they could put the matter behind them. Unfortunately, the move would have to wait until the Dallas County Prosecutor’s Office was done with him.
That process began with a rare, upbeat moment that seemed to promise a partial reprieve. The prosecution offered a deal with Ricky that almost seemed reasonable, given the circumstances. He would plead guilty to one count of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child, a class D felony, which would be expunged from the records if he satisfied the terms of his two-year probation. He would not have to state a felony on job applications, and, because of the adjudication, he would not be placed on a sex offenders’ registry.
It seemed like the best offer possible, all things considered, and Ricky agreed to the plea.
Ricky and his mother took their seats in the courtroom. Then, just minutes before the hearing was scheduled to begin, the state appointed attorney advised them that there had been a recent change in Iowa law.
Any plea arrangement Ricky made would be contingent on being placed on a sex abuser registry for ten years. Both Ricky and his mother erupted in tears at the news, causing a commotion in the courtroom. It took some time for them to compose themselves.
The “recent” change in the statute had happened, they would discover, nearly a year earlier, but right now, Ricky had just moments to decide whether or not to take the deal.
He didn’t want to be placed on the registry. He didn’t think it was right. But to fight it was risking two decades behind bars; a place where young men, especially those not hardened by criminal life, were sure to find out what real sexual deviance and assault are all about.
It was a double blow for Duval, who had lost her eyesight entirely, just five weeks before the hearing. Now she could lose her son.
Ricky took the deal, but almost ran into another snag with the court. The prosecution wanted Ricky to state on the record that he had lured the girl to his home for the purpose of having sex. The request was clear. In essence they wanted Ricky to commit perjury, a real crime, so they could have on the record a phony allocution to something he never did. Blackman, with courage almost unimaginable for his age and the circumstances, refused. He told the court that the sex was what they both wanted, and he wouldn‘t make a statement to the contrary.
They entered his statement into the record and closed the case. Ricky had received the adjudication, and they were now free to move away from Iowa.
It was something Ricky couldn’t wait to do. The promise of getting away and making a fresh start almost made the situation bearable.
A Fresh Start
The state of Oklahoma, and some of its citizens, had other plans.
They’d had no idea when they moved, but Oklahoma law required Ricky to register as a sexual offender for life. And because of the age difference between him and Amanda, he would be listed as a Level Three Offender, which labels him as violent and dangerous, and his crime as “aggravated.” He was placed on the sexual offender registry, and, as a result, Ricky’s life has been affected in ways that most of us cannot imagine.
Since moving to Oklahoma he has been kicked out of school, ousted from public parks, and verbally abused by neighbors and strangers. One neighbor shouted obscenities and videotaped him whenever he stepped outside his door. The same man came to their home and told Mary Duval he would not quit bothering them till she took her “child rapist” away. He was not interested in the facts surrounding Ricky’s case. He had seen everything he needed to know about Ricky Blackman on the “Offender Registry.”
Ricky cannot live or go within 2,000 feet of schools, parks or any other establishments where children are known to be present, and this forces him to live as far from town as possible. It also means he cannot attend his younger brother’s football games, or go almost anywhere where he could make and maintain friendships. He cannot even attend church unless he informs the clergy there that he is a sex offender and gets their permission.
Now that Ricky is off probation, his younger brother can have his friends in the home while Ricky is there. But most parents don’t want their children in a home with a registered sex offender. And the reality is that children around Ricky do present a dangerous vulnerability… for Ricky. Any allegation against him, even the most patently false, could have disastrous results.
His probation officer had him dismissed from the school system, saying, according to Duval, “He is a liability to them.” He was denied G.E.D classes because they were offered on a school campus, and the State Board of Education denied him online classes because he was on the registry.
Ricky was eventually allowed to take G.E.D. classes, at a local police station.
He now lives his life in near solitude, helping to take care of his mother and trying to sort out how he is going to make something of the rest of his life. He had a job in a fabrication plant, but was “laid off” when his employers discovered his history. Effectively in prison, Ricky will remain that way for the rest of his life unless something changes.
Ricky and his mother are both involved in trying to effect those changes. They have both taken the story public, and Duval has an on-line radio program to raise awareness of what the registry actually does. She has managed to get the story covered by some television stations and newspapers. She also has an internet petition demanding changes in the laws. Primary among those demands is that the states recognize the difference between sexual predation and consensual sex between teens.
In many places, including Oklahoma, the law sees no such difference, and consequently makes no legal distinction between someone who lures a child into a car and rapes them and someone like Ricky Blackman.
The Court Knew Better
It was a difference, however, that the prosecution in his case was apparently able to see, even as they held twenty years in prison over the young man’s head in order to coerce a guilty plea. It was the prosecution that recommended to the court that Blackman receive two years probation with deferred adjudication. In that recommendation, they advised the court that this course of action would be sufficient to rehabilitate the defendant.
One only need consult a mental health professional with experience dealing with sexual offenders to learn that the nearly universal perception is that recidivism for sexual offenders is high. In my considerable time in the field, it was the general consensus of clinicians that predators were untreatable, and that incarceration was the best option. (There is research that disputes all this, but in Blackman’s case, it was always perceptions that guided events, not reality.)
That being said, prosecutors are generally less generous than psychotherapists. With their recommendation to the court, the prosecution openly acceded to what everyone else in that courtroom already knew.
Ricky Blackman was not a sexual predator.
Ricky Blackman was just a kid that had sex with a girlfriend he thought was a year younger than him.
Ricky Blackman had no business being there in the first place.
At this point, though, it was too late. Blackman was caught up in a system largely devised by politicians clamoring to quell public fears about the safety of children. Fanning the flames of public outrage, and sometimes lighting them, lawmakers run for office against each other on platforms largely consisting of “tough on crime” one-upmanship. One ever more draconian measure after another is offered up as a sales pitch to a panic-ridden, woefully ignorant public that will sign on to whatever sounds the most extreme.
The result is laws that not only fail to protect our children, but in the case of Blackman and others, have actually started destroying them. Elected politicians, like prosecutors and judges, fearful of being seen as soft on crime, force people like Ricky through the legal gauntlet without compunction. They have become robotic assassins, creating unthinkable collateral damage in a war that is supposedly being waged in the public’s best interest.
Meanwhile, children are no safer on the streets than they have ever been.
His Whole Life in Front of Him
It is perhaps fitting to point to the silver linings in this story. Duval, the loss of her sight notwithstanding, has emerged as a dogged and tireless advocate for her son, and for bringing problems with the sexual offenders registry to the public’s attention.
Ricky has found some focus for the future as well, though it took some hits and misses. He wanted to get a law degree and work to change the system for the better, but he won’t be allowed to practice law anywhere, because of the registry. Now he takes private lessons in web design, a profession suited for someone who has little reason to leave the house. He also wants to reach out to young people and caution them about the hazards and consequences of teen sex. The jury remains out on whether that can ever happen.
These are thin consolations, lending neither redemption nor solace. Even if Mary Duval had not lost her eyesight, she would never again see the Ricky she knew before all this happened. Her life is, and will be, consumed with trying to find justice for her son. She openly admits this may never happen.
Ricky, at nineteen, is supposed to have his whole life in front of him. When he should be looking forward to the time he will marry and have children of his own, his path looks to be marked by a single set of footprints. His ideas on women are not what they used to be.
“I don’t trust them,” he says. “When I see one looking at me I just walk away.”
Still, he is a young man with a message, albeit forged in the fires of adversity. It is a message that assaults the complacency in which we all too often and too easily find comfort.
“Anybody who looks at the registry should not judge people just for being there,” he says, “There are lots of people that don’t belong. People like me. There are even people that had to pee so bad they went outside and the next thing you know someone takes a picture with a cell phone and they end up on the registry too.”
Right alongside the child rapists.
Little at this point would ameliorate the damage done to this family. The Kafkaesque tempest that overtook them three years ago still darkens every horizon and pummels the simplicity out of life that they used to take for granted. It rattles their doors and windows, as though trying to shake loose the last of their dignity. And it has swept away hope for the future, leaving behind only the solemn, desperate need for peace.
We love to think that justice is blind. But we also pray that those who administer that justice are people of vision. When systems become so twisted that the letter of the law strangles its spirit, then justice cannot exist. It will die as surely as the dreams of a teen-age boy when the world caves in around him.
-
Mary Duval has an online petition in Ricky’s behalf. Petition
Paul Elam is the editor of A Voice for Men
Sexual Predator Insanity
By Paul Elam | Aug 3, 2009
At sixteen, Ricky Blackman was fairly typical of teen-age boys. He loved sports, especially basketball and football, and played them well enough to have realistic hopes for a scholarship. He liked socializing and hanging out with his friends. And girls—of course there were always the girls.
His Middle American upbringing produced unsurprising ambitions. He dreamed of serving his country in the Navy after school, and ultimately of a career in law enforcement. He was, by all accounts, a healthy and well adjusted young man.
Skip ahead three years, and you’ll find Ricky and his life have changed radically. He takes private instruction in web design because he isn’t welcome on a campus. He no longer trusts the law he once wanted to serve, and, when in the presence of young women, he panics and withdraws. In fact, his life, once so full of promise and hope, is now little more than a daily struggle to survive, and a challenge to even find reasons for doing so.
While Ricky’s view of the world has changed since his younger days, it is nothing compared to the way the world’s view of Ricky has changed. He has become the ultimate pariah and outcast. He is, at least in the eyes of most, pernicious persona non grata; human refuse hardly worthy of life itself.
It all started before his seventeenth birthday. Ricky was at a local hang out for teens and met a girl there. Amanda was from his area, said she was fifteen years old and they seemed to have much in common. They began seeing each other, and eventually had sex on two occasions.
The encounters would undo the rest of his life.
Like many young people trying to impress someone they like, Amanda lied to Ricky about her age. She later told Ricky’s mother, Mary Duval, that she was only fourteen, and pled with her not to let Ricky know. Mary promptly told her son of the confession, and he cut off the romance immediately. They found out later that she still wasn’t being entirely honest.
Later Amanda, a runaway, became involved with the police, who discovered her prior ties with Ricky. She admitted the sexual relationship to the police during questioning. She also admitted that she had lied to Ricky about her age. After evaluating the situation, Amanda’s parents weren’t interested in pressing charges and the police weren’t interested in making an arrest. Until, that is, the Dallas County (Iowa) District Attorney’s office got wind of the case.
Shortly after Ricky turned seventeen, he was questioned by the police. His mother was present, and it was her instinct to remove Ricky from the interview. But she had just undergone surgery on her eyes and was disoriented due to the post-operative medications she was taking, so she allowed Ricky’s then-stepfather to handle things. Unfortunately, the stepfather wanted the matter quickly resolved, and signed a waiver for the police to question him without legal counsel.
The police had something they wanted Ricky to sign as well.
It was a simple statement that he had, in fact, had sexual relations with Amanda. Ricky was apprehensive, but he signed. It was, after all, the truth. And in Ricky’s world, the truth served an honest person well.
“Sorry to tell you,” the police officer told Ricky after he had signed the statement. “Amanda admitted she lied to you about her real age, but she was only thirteen.”
It probably wasn’t the tactics Ricky envisioned, when he thought of becoming a police officer: Get a kid to sign a confession, and then tell him what he just confessed to. Ricky’s naiveté took a hard blow. But it was only the first of many times that the real world would land on him like a Mack Truck.
The officer told him that the case would be sent back to the D.A., and that it might come to nothing since Amanda had confessed to lying about her age. He also advised him, in a rare moment of clarity and honesty from the system, that it could go either way.
The Arrest Made the Papers
Ten days later, Ricky was handcuffed in front of his friends and taken to jail. He was charged as an adult with two counts of third degree sexual abuse, a felony. In an almost artistic manipulation of timing and the system, police and prosecutors used laws applying only to juveniles to garner evidence and a confession, and then used it all to charge him criminally as an adult.
He was threatened with twenty years in prison (more time than he’d yet been alive), but that was only the beginning of a two-pronged assault on his life. When the arrest made the papers, complete with Ricky’s full name, address, and the nature of the charges against him, the community in which he had lived and thrived turned on him in an instant.
When Ricky and Mary went food shopping, cashiers in one line at a local grocery store refused to check them out, forcing them to go to another line while other customers glared. His younger brother, who was nine at the time, was badgered and humiliated at school.
Duval read the writing on the wall, and immediately made plans to take Ricky and his brother to Oklahoma in hopes that they could put the matter behind them. Unfortunately, the move would have to wait until the Dallas County Prosecutor’s Office was done with him.
That process began with a rare, upbeat moment that seemed to promise a partial reprieve. The prosecution offered a deal with Ricky that almost seemed reasonable, given the circumstances. He would plead guilty to one count of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child, a class D felony, which would be expunged from the records if he satisfied the terms of his two-year probation. He would not have to state a felony on job applications, and, because of the adjudication, he would not be placed on a sex offenders’ registry.
It seemed like the best offer possible, all things considered, and Ricky agreed to the plea.
Ricky and his mother took their seats in the courtroom. Then, just minutes before the hearing was scheduled to begin, the state appointed attorney advised them that there had been a recent change in Iowa law.
Any plea arrangement Ricky made would be contingent on being placed on a sex abuser registry for ten years. Both Ricky and his mother erupted in tears at the news, causing a commotion in the courtroom. It took some time for them to compose themselves.
The “recent” change in the statute had happened, they would discover, nearly a year earlier, but right now, Ricky had just moments to decide whether or not to take the deal.
He didn’t want to be placed on the registry. He didn’t think it was right. But to fight it was risking two decades behind bars; a place where young men, especially those not hardened by criminal life, were sure to find out what real sexual deviance and assault are all about.
It was a double blow for Duval, who had lost her eyesight entirely, just five weeks before the hearing. Now she could lose her son.
Ricky took the deal, but almost ran into another snag with the court. The prosecution wanted Ricky to state on the record that he had lured the girl to his home for the purpose of having sex. The request was clear. In essence they wanted Ricky to commit perjury, a real crime, so they could have on the record a phony allocution to something he never did. Blackman, with courage almost unimaginable for his age and the circumstances, refused. He told the court that the sex was what they both wanted, and he wouldn‘t make a statement to the contrary.
They entered his statement into the record and closed the case. Ricky had received the adjudication, and they were now free to move away from Iowa.
It was something Ricky couldn’t wait to do. The promise of getting away and making a fresh start almost made the situation bearable.
A Fresh Start
The state of Oklahoma, and some of its citizens, had other plans.
They’d had no idea when they moved, but Oklahoma law required Ricky to register as a sexual offender for life. And because of the age difference between him and Amanda, he would be listed as a Level Three Offender, which labels him as violent and dangerous, and his crime as “aggravated.” He was placed on the sexual offender registry, and, as a result, Ricky’s life has been affected in ways that most of us cannot imagine.
Since moving to Oklahoma he has been kicked out of school, ousted from public parks, and verbally abused by neighbors and strangers. One neighbor shouted obscenities and videotaped him whenever he stepped outside his door. The same man came to their home and told Mary Duval he would not quit bothering them till she took her “child rapist” away. He was not interested in the facts surrounding Ricky’s case. He had seen everything he needed to know about Ricky Blackman on the “Offender Registry.”
Ricky cannot live or go within 2,000 feet of schools, parks or any other establishments where children are known to be present, and this forces him to live as far from town as possible. It also means he cannot attend his younger brother’s football games, or go almost anywhere where he could make and maintain friendships. He cannot even attend church unless he informs the clergy there that he is a sex offender and gets their permission.
Now that Ricky is off probation, his younger brother can have his friends in the home while Ricky is there. But most parents don’t want their children in a home with a registered sex offender. And the reality is that children around Ricky do present a dangerous vulnerability… for Ricky. Any allegation against him, even the most patently false, could have disastrous results.
His probation officer had him dismissed from the school system, saying, according to Duval, “He is a liability to them.” He was denied G.E.D classes because they were offered on a school campus, and the State Board of Education denied him online classes because he was on the registry.
Ricky was eventually allowed to take G.E.D. classes, at a local police station.
He now lives his life in near solitude, helping to take care of his mother and trying to sort out how he is going to make something of the rest of his life. He had a job in a fabrication plant, but was “laid off” when his employers discovered his history. Effectively in prison, Ricky will remain that way for the rest of his life unless something changes.
Ricky and his mother are both involved in trying to effect those changes. They have both taken the story public, and Duval has an on-line radio program to raise awareness of what the registry actually does. She has managed to get the story covered by some television stations and newspapers. She also has an internet petition demanding changes in the laws. Primary among those demands is that the states recognize the difference between sexual predation and consensual sex between teens.
In many places, including Oklahoma, the law sees no such difference, and consequently makes no legal distinction between someone who lures a child into a car and rapes them and someone like Ricky Blackman.
The Court Knew Better
It was a difference, however, that the prosecution in his case was apparently able to see, even as they held twenty years in prison over the young man’s head in order to coerce a guilty plea. It was the prosecution that recommended to the court that Blackman receive two years probation with deferred adjudication. In that recommendation, they advised the court that this course of action would be sufficient to rehabilitate the defendant.
One only need consult a mental health professional with experience dealing with sexual offenders to learn that the nearly universal perception is that recidivism for sexual offenders is high. In my considerable time in the field, it was the general consensus of clinicians that predators were untreatable, and that incarceration was the best option. (There is research that disputes all this, but in Blackman’s case, it was always perceptions that guided events, not reality.)
That being said, prosecutors are generally less generous than psychotherapists. With their recommendation to the court, the prosecution openly acceded to what everyone else in that courtroom already knew.
Ricky Blackman was not a sexual predator.
Ricky Blackman was just a kid that had sex with a girlfriend he thought was a year younger than him.
Ricky Blackman had no business being there in the first place.
At this point, though, it was too late. Blackman was caught up in a system largely devised by politicians clamoring to quell public fears about the safety of children. Fanning the flames of public outrage, and sometimes lighting them, lawmakers run for office against each other on platforms largely consisting of “tough on crime” one-upmanship. One ever more draconian measure after another is offered up as a sales pitch to a panic-ridden, woefully ignorant public that will sign on to whatever sounds the most extreme.
The result is laws that not only fail to protect our children, but in the case of Blackman and others, have actually started destroying them. Elected politicians, like prosecutors and judges, fearful of being seen as soft on crime, force people like Ricky through the legal gauntlet without compunction. They have become robotic assassins, creating unthinkable collateral damage in a war that is supposedly being waged in the public’s best interest.
Meanwhile, children are no safer on the streets than they have ever been.
His Whole Life in Front of Him
It is perhaps fitting to point to the silver linings in this story. Duval, the loss of her sight notwithstanding, has emerged as a dogged and tireless advocate for her son, and for bringing problems with the sexual offenders registry to the public’s attention.
Ricky has found some focus for the future as well, though it took some hits and misses. He wanted to get a law degree and work to change the system for the better, but he won’t be allowed to practice law anywhere, because of the registry. Now he takes private lessons in web design, a profession suited for someone who has little reason to leave the house. He also wants to reach out to young people and caution them about the hazards and consequences of teen sex. The jury remains out on whether that can ever happen.
These are thin consolations, lending neither redemption nor solace. Even if Mary Duval had not lost her eyesight, she would never again see the Ricky she knew before all this happened. Her life is, and will be, consumed with trying to find justice for her son. She openly admits this may never happen.
Ricky, at nineteen, is supposed to have his whole life in front of him. When he should be looking forward to the time he will marry and have children of his own, his path looks to be marked by a single set of footprints. His ideas on women are not what they used to be.
“I don’t trust them,” he says. “When I see one looking at me I just walk away.”
Still, he is a young man with a message, albeit forged in the fires of adversity. It is a message that assaults the complacency in which we all too often and too easily find comfort.
“Anybody who looks at the registry should not judge people just for being there,” he says, “There are lots of people that don’t belong. People like me. There are even people that had to pee so bad they went outside and the next thing you know someone takes a picture with a cell phone and they end up on the registry too.”
Right alongside the child rapists.
Little at this point would ameliorate the damage done to this family. The Kafkaesque tempest that overtook them three years ago still darkens every horizon and pummels the simplicity out of life that they used to take for granted. It rattles their doors and windows, as though trying to shake loose the last of their dignity. And it has swept away hope for the future, leaving behind only the solemn, desperate need for peace.
We love to think that justice is blind. But we also pray that those who administer that justice are people of vision. When systems become so twisted that the letter of the law strangles its spirit, then justice cannot exist. It will die as surely as the dreams of a teen-age boy when the world caves in around him.
-
Mary Duval has an online petition in Ricky’s behalf. Petition
Paul Elam is the editor of A Voice for Men
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Know who is looking you up on the Registry
Did you know that under Maine and Federal law you are entitled to request who has been viewing you on the Registry both online and through other means? They are required to provide this information to you. This is a letter a RFSO sent me to share with you. With the recent murder of the 13 year old of a Florida RFSO's son and the news that the Portland gunman's intended target was a RFSO, we need to be concerned for our family's safety. If everyone requests this information not only will we know who to point Law Enforcement to if something does happen
but it creates work for the State. One of the big concerns lately is the budget, if we start costing the state money maybe they will be more willing to reconsider the registry as a whole. My contact is planning on sending this request out on a monthly basis. It's a small step but one everyone can take with just a few minutes time and a postage stamp.
Monday, July 25th, 2009
Maine Dept. of Public Safety
Anne H. Jordan, Commissioner
45 Commerce Drive
Suite 1, 104 State House Station
Augusta, Maine 04333-0104
Request for Information Pursuant to Maine Revised Statues, Title 1, Chapter 13, Subchapter 1: Freedom Of Access and under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S. C. subsection 552.
Dear Commissioner Jordan:
Pursuant to Maine Revised Statues, Title 1, Chapter 13, Subchapter 1: Freedom Of Access and under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S. C. subsection 552, I am requesting access to any and all files related to the State Sex Offender Registry for one xxxxxxxxx, myself.
I respectfully submit this request in consideration of events here in Maine and Nationally where individuals using State sponsored and supported Sex Offender Registry Information have used said information to locate and find Registered Former Offenders to then commit acts of violence, property damage and even the murder of Registered Former Sex Offenders and/or their family members. The State sponsored and supported Sex Offender Registry has put my family and I in danger and the release and disclosure of the requested information is paramount in taking steps to identify and protect myself, my family and my property from individuals who would use the State sponsored and supported information to harm myself and/or my family.
The information I am requesting includes any and all requests submitted to the State of Maine and/or State of Maine Sex Offender Registry for copies of and/or for requests for information on xxxxxxxx, myself, by anyone including, but not limited to, the general public, State Agencies, Agents of any State, Federal or any other Governmental Agency. Discovery should include any and all the names, position or title, addresses, phone numbers, ISP (Internet Service Provider) address if requests and/or viewing of xxxxxxxxxx's information was facilitated by electronic means such as, but not limited to, computers, Palm Pilot, cell phone, of other means not requiring interpersonal contact for requesting information and/or viewing xxxxxxxxxxx‘s State sponsored and supported Sex Offender Registry information.
If there are any fees for searching for or copying the records, please let me know before you work on my request. [Or, please supply the records without informing me of the cost if the fees do not exceed $20.00 (twenty dollars and no cents) which I agree to pay.] Any or All files, records and/or information may be provided electronically/digitally via email or DVD when and where possible and to pursue environmental goals to reduce waste.
If you deny all or any part of this request, please cite each specific exemption you think justifies your refusal to release the information and notify me of appeal procedures available under the law.
Optional: If you have any questions about handling this request, you may telephone me at xxxxxxx
Sincerely,
xxxxxx
but it creates work for the State. One of the big concerns lately is the budget, if we start costing the state money maybe they will be more willing to reconsider the registry as a whole. My contact is planning on sending this request out on a monthly basis. It's a small step but one everyone can take with just a few minutes time and a postage stamp.
Monday, July 25th, 2009
Maine Dept. of Public Safety
Anne H. Jordan, Commissioner
45 Commerce Drive
Suite 1, 104 State House Station
Augusta, Maine 04333-0104
Request for Information Pursuant to Maine Revised Statues, Title 1, Chapter 13, Subchapter 1: Freedom Of Access and under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S. C. subsection 552.
Dear Commissioner Jordan:
Pursuant to Maine Revised Statues, Title 1, Chapter 13, Subchapter 1: Freedom Of Access and under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S. C. subsection 552, I am requesting access to any and all files related to the State Sex Offender Registry for one xxxxxxxxx, myself.
I respectfully submit this request in consideration of events here in Maine and Nationally where individuals using State sponsored and supported Sex Offender Registry Information have used said information to locate and find Registered Former Offenders to then commit acts of violence, property damage and even the murder of Registered Former Sex Offenders and/or their family members. The State sponsored and supported Sex Offender Registry has put my family and I in danger and the release and disclosure of the requested information is paramount in taking steps to identify and protect myself, my family and my property from individuals who would use the State sponsored and supported information to harm myself and/or my family.
The information I am requesting includes any and all requests submitted to the State of Maine and/or State of Maine Sex Offender Registry for copies of and/or for requests for information on xxxxxxxx, myself, by anyone including, but not limited to, the general public, State Agencies, Agents of any State, Federal or any other Governmental Agency. Discovery should include any and all the names, position or title, addresses, phone numbers, ISP (Internet Service Provider) address if requests and/or viewing of xxxxxxxxxx's information was facilitated by electronic means such as, but not limited to, computers, Palm Pilot, cell phone, of other means not requiring interpersonal contact for requesting information and/or viewing xxxxxxxxxxx‘s State sponsored and supported Sex Offender Registry information.
If there are any fees for searching for or copying the records, please let me know before you work on my request. [Or, please supply the records without informing me of the cost if the fees do not exceed $20.00 (twenty dollars and no cents) which I agree to pay.] Any or All files, records and/or information may be provided electronically/digitally via email or DVD when and where possible and to pursue environmental goals to reduce waste.
If you deny all or any part of this request, please cite each specific exemption you think justifies your refusal to release the information and notify me of appeal procedures available under the law.
Optional: If you have any questions about handling this request, you may telephone me at xxxxxxx
Sincerely,
xxxxxx
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
RFSOs Must Now Wear Blue Armbands at Mayo Clinic
I know this is old news to some but I just had this story e-mailed to me. I have long feared that one of the next steps down the road was to identify someone in a visual manner as an RSFO. Now I found that in fact it is going on. It isn't enough that RFSOs names, photos and addresses are posted on the internet making them subject to harassment and other stigmas. Now when they are the lowest points in their lives and many have incurable illnesses when they go to the Mayo Clinic, they now have to wear an bracelet that will let everyone know their RFSO status. We are becoming a NAZI nation! If you read your history you will see that the Nazi's started identifying those they felt where undesirable with those who they considered to be sexual deviants. They forced them to wear Pink Triangles. I will have my shipment of Pink lapel pins in any day now. Please consider buying one and wearing it in protest. Tell the government they have gone to far. No matter where you stand on sex offenders this should not be tolerated. Once the government takes the rights away from any class of citizen it won't be long before they find others who they must protect the people from. Just like the Nazi's did in WWII, It started with sexual deviants, then political dissidents and finally ended with the Jews. Who will be the next group? Will it be you???
Also see post Pink triangles and Swastikas
October 13, 2008
Sex Offenders Required to Wear Blue Wristbands at Mayo Clinic
article here
Convicted sex offenders who are receiving care at the Mayo Clinic will now be required to wear blue wristbands in order to identify them. The rule also applies to other 'predatory offenders.' From Rochester Post-Bulletin:
Convicted sex and other predatory offenders getting care at Mayo Clinic now must wear blue wristbands as a way to identify them.
That's the newly revised policy implemented to inform employees of the offender's status, said Adam Brase, Mayo Clinic spokesman.
A year ago, state lawmakers added the health care facility notification requirement to the state's predatory offender registration law. Now, facilities are developing policies to comply.
"It's so new we are going along and feeling our way to make sure we are doing it right,'' said Rochester police Lt. Al Kuehl, who coordinates predatory offender notification for the department.
Kuehl told members of the Olmsted County Safety Council on Thursday that convicted predatory offenders who are required to register with law enforcement now also must notify health care facilities of their status when being admitted for treatment. That includes hospitals, nursing homes, residential, mental and chemical dependency treatment facilities licensed as health care facilities. The facilities then must make sure employees are aware of the offender's status. Except for hospitals, other licensed facilities must also notify other patients, or the patient's next of kin or emergency contact.
Mayo's policy requires a hospitalized predatory offender to wear a Mayo-provided blue wristband next to their ID wristband, so that employees who have contact with the patient will know he or she is a predatory offender, Brase said. Offenders will be housed in private rooms.
Kuehl predicts more changes next year as lawmakers debate changes that might be necessary under the Adam Walsh Child Protection & Safety Act passed by Congress. That establishes a comprehensive national system for the registration of sex offenders.
Predatory offenders, as defined in Minnesota, aren't just convicted sex offenders. They include some people convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, false imprisonment and soliciting minors to engage in prostitution.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
In This Fight Together
This e-mail came to me in response to another e-mail giving us the story of a 29 year old Police Officer who had relations with a 16 year old and didn't even lose his job. Story here.
Many of our young men and some young ladies have been sent to jail and are being forced to Register, often times for life. And they were even closer in age then this police officer and his 'victim'. I personally feel that no one should be on the Registry for a consensual relationship. The Registry should only be for those who are truly dangerous, rapist and pedophiles, not for non violent, non abusive situations. But I agree with the mother who sent the story to us that if it's against the law for her son to be with a 16 year old girl when he was 19, then this Police Officer should have had to face the same law. We need to change the laws! Here's what webmaster@sodefnd.org answered, (used with his permission)
Due to this situation, now it is even more imperative that we stick together and fight this. There is motivation going on, people are starting to see that the law is flawed, we must stay strong in our efforts to combat this. The more this hits the new, the more people are going to be looking for ways to put an end to this. We need to be ready and available to assist these people in all ways. We know the registry is bullshit and that its ineffective. Lets use this against them. We now have ways to communicate. Mail a letter to some people around you that are on the registry. Let them know there is help available. Let them know they are not alone in this fight. The more people we have standing on our side, the better our fight will be. And just because there are people on the registry doesn’t mean they don’t have family and friends that will join in the fight for change. We have avenues that we can explore, and we have the knowledge and the talents to make this possible. Every voice in this fight has there own entity in there talents and attributions. Everyone can contribute something. I know two people in my area that are forced to register for life because they were drunk and urinated on the side of a building. These two people happen to be very prominent speakers and writers. They have submitted several pieces to the local media stations, who refuse to give their greifs any public attention. This is due to the fact that it is frowned upon for anything to be aired that speaks against the registry. A lot of my states funding comes from the money given to run and maintain the registry. This is wrong, and an atrocity. The point still remains, WE NEED TO STAND TOGETHER AND FIGHT THE FIGHT, NOT EACH OTHER. One voice will not be heard, the voice of many cannot be ignored
Friday, June 5, 2009
Protect The Children???
This is a serious miscarriage of justice! If you read the article not only have they railroaded an autistic young man but coerced the 5 year old to make statements against him! Sounds to me like in their Zeal to protect a child they have scarred and ruined two young lives. Whose child is protected here???? Read this story,
Justice for an Autistic Teenager?
article here
ANGELICA - Currently most of the cases that go through criminal court in this country are pled out rather than going to trial. Most of us have gone to court for a traffic ticket and had an automatic option presented to plead to a lesser charge. Until today, I had never really thought about what it would mean to someone who is innocent of the charges, but in some way compromised by the court. But today I saw our system for the cynical and hypocritical tool that it is.
Where to begin? Let me just say that my son, an autistic and mentally challenged teenager, was charged with a very serious crime that he did not commit. He was taken from a respite house by the police, denied access to a lawyer, and deliberately separated from the counsel of his parents. After my son was taken into custody, a police officer, a man he knew from school, whose office was right next to his special ed class, “the man with the gun,” told him that if he did not agree to the charges and sign off on them, he would never be let out of jail, and if he agreed to doing these things he could go home. He then handed him over to an interrogator with a pre-written list of culpable actions. Before the day was out, my son had signed off on all charges.
Hopefully, he will recover from his terrible sense of betrayal when the school policeman, who he thought of as his protector, became his primary accuser, tricking him and lying to him. He is afraid to trust anyone now.
At his arraignment later that afternoon, the judge asked him if he needed a lawyer, and he said that, no, he did not need a lawyer because he was going home. If the accused person of a serious crime tells a judge he doesn't need a lawyer because he is going home, is it not a fair assumption that:
1. He does not understand how serious the charges are.
2. He is confused and under the false impression that he will be free to go home after the arraignment?
3.The judge should challenge the accused,because he obviously doesn't understand?
At the Huntley Hearing called to challenge the veracity of the confession, the interrogator and the State Trooper who arrested my son said that they didn’t notice anything unusual about him, a physically immature, autistic teenager with the mental development of a much younger child, and a markedly odd social presentation. They said that he was cheerful and direct (my son, like most autistic people, rarely meets your eyes when he talks to you), and discussed the bizarre charges like a 'normal' 17 year old. They also said that they were certain he understood the charges because he was reading them off the computer screen. Despite being presented with school records, which clearly show that my son reads and comprehends what he reads at approximately third grade level, and therefore could not possibly have read the confession and understood what he read off a computer screen, the interrogator and the state trooper were unshakable in their assertion.
The judge ruled that he would not challenge the integrity of the police. We have a tape of the arresting officer questioning my son during a preliminary investigation where he repeatedly states that he didn't do anything. They also have a tape of a three hour session, the third such session, with the five year old plaintiff, a social worker and the arresting officer, in which, after two and a half hours of coaxing and prompting, the alleged victim finally states that the accused has done something related to, but much less than, the contents of the confession. He then refuses to talk any more. Before the end of the session, he asks when he can see my son again. According to a doctor, there is no physical evidence that anything whatsoever has occurred. However, we are looking at a trial in a small town court where the judge has made it clear that he stands behind the police who, we can see, are not stating the facts as they occurred, but have rather fabricated a story to make their beliefs about the case clear to the rest of us. We can’t put the defendant on the stand to refute their claims because he is autistic and mentally challenged, the proceedings have confused him, and if the prosecutor starts to badger him, it is unclear how he will respond, this could further damage his mental health But, in any case, he doesn’t act ‘normal’. He has been in the county jail since July of 2008, mostly in solitary. Up to now, there has been no consideration of his disability in the court proceedings, but in the jail, they have had to make some adjustments for him. He is on 72mg of concerta, 5mg of ritalin, 5mg of abilify, 30mg of temazepam, 500mg of depakote 2 X a day 400 mg of seraquel 2 X a day, .05 mg of synthroid, and 0.15mg of clonidine 2 X a day, which they denied him the first 4 days he was in jail. He is naive and open, and easily confused by the attitudes of the other prisoners. So, he spends his time alone in a cell with a pile of coloring books with mazes and word search and card games.
The prosecutor has asserted the most severe charges and punishment possible. They are talking about 25 years in the state prison. This developmentally disabled, 110 lb, immature boy cannot survive 1 year in the state pen; worse yet, labeled as a pedophile. What can we do? Finally, the lawyers arrange for him to ‘plead’ to a lesser charge, and be placed in the care of the NYS Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. He probably should be heading toward a residential program anyway. The downside is we have to ask him to lie by telling him to say he did things he did not do. And, even with the lesser charge, he will have to be registered as a “sex offender”. This is tough to swallow because he did not do anything, and it is clear, even to my son, that he should not have believed the State Police that told him he could go home if he signed the paper saying he did something that he didn't do. . Given the weakness of the evidence, it isn’t clear that anything happened at all. But it’s a big risk to go before a jury, up against a crying mother, lying police and a confession that states the most horrible crimes.
The lawyer says it is best to plead. My son will, hopefully, end up in a safe place where they have resources to make his life pretty good. So, here we are in court to go through the formalities of the plea. He sits at the defense table, a slight youth in an orange suit, his hands shackled to his feet, surrounded by grown ups. From the standpoint of the court, he is a normal grownup too, but it is difficult to justify when you see him sitting there, confused and uncomfortable. The judge first asks the lawyers, the prosecutor and the defense lawyer, to explain their understanding of the deal so as to be sure everyone is on the same page. It appears they are ready to proceed. The judge then asks my son if he understands what he needs to be doing. When he doesn’t respond, the judge suggests he talk with his lawyer and get clarification. The lawyer talks to him in a low voice for several minutes. He is basically giving him the script and reassuring him that it will be alright.
Finally, they look up and the lawyer indicates to the judge that they are ready to proceed. So, the judge tells my son he doesn’t have to come to the witness box, that he will swear him in right where he sits. He then proceeds to state in a loud and dramatic voice “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and . . . Do you understand the charge . . .?” Do you understand that by pleading to this charge you are giving up your right to a Jury trial and all future rights to deny the charge . . .?” So the defense lawyer reads out an action, the minimum action necessary to validate the charge to which they are here to plead. Did you do this. . .” My son doesn’t reply. There is an eerie silence. He is deadlocked, frozen in the headlights. Truth on the right, necessity on the left. He just swore to tell the the truth, the whole truth etc. Everyone is waiting for him to tell a lie.
So the judge says, “I thought you understood what you need to do here. Would you like to talk to your lawyer again?” A slight nod. So now the lawyer is once again whispering away in his ear. And finally, they indicate that they are ready. The lawyer, again, states that minimal action necessary to substantiate the plea. After a tense pause, he responds with a hesitant “yes”. The prosecutor stands up and stalks across the room and indignantly cries “That isn’t what we agreed. I need him to say more!” The defense lawyer asserts that the statement does substantiate the charge as he rises from his seat and follows her to the bench. There is more busy whispering. Later we will hear that the judge sided with the prosecutor. He said that if my son didn’t plead to a more serious version of the offense, then he would substitute the original confession (to far more serious crimes) for whatever my son says. Finally, they return to their places. The defense lawyer is again whispering to him , After a time he stops and asks, “Ok. Are you ready?” There is no response, so he returns to his whispered explanations and instructions. Finally, they look up. He reads again from his paper. This time the action he states is a little more ugly and personal. He asks my son if this is what happened. Again, there is a breathless silence followed by a faint “yes”. Further, he asks if it happened twice. Another low, almost inaudible, “yes”. The judge then asks my son to repeat what the lawyer has just said. He doesn’t respond. The judge asks again, and the lawyer whispers encouragement. Finally, he haltingly repeats the statement of guilt. “Where did these events occur?” asks the judge. A long silence. “Where did you do this?” Another pause, then “In the house?” It’s a question. “In what house?” The judge isn’t satisfied. Another pause. Finally, “His and mine?is that ok?” It’s still a question. Is this what you want to hear. But mercifully, the judge and prosecutor are satisfied.
This is a mockery of justice. If he is lucky, this innocent victim of a witch hunt will find himself in another institution where they at least are competent to deal with his disability, but with a very dark cloud of suspicion hanging over his head. He will need time to recover from the trauma of having to recite self-incriminating lies to save his life. He twitches and his hands tremble when he raises them to gesture. He will need time to recover from a year of mostly solitary confinement. He has lost 30lbs., he has trouble sleeping, and tends to fall into a paranoid mindset regarding the people around him. He occasionally wonders how he can hide when he ‘gets out’ so that the school cop, his primary accuser, won’t find him and kill him. It is going to take time, but hopefully, he will be able to move into a residential program, perhaps somewhere in the country where it won’t be an issue that he is registered as a sexual predator. And hopefully, he won’t lose the residential program that buys his freedom to cost cutting measures or some such, and find himself back in the courtroom under mortal threat. If he isn't lucky, well . . . he won't survive. Where is the justice here? I thought this was the United States of America, where you are innocent until proven guilty. Aren't we all guaranteed certain constitutional rights, like a fair and speedy trial? How is it that the very people who are supposed to protect you lie and threaten to cause you harm. I think there should be laws to protect the disabled so there can be no more injustices to autistic and mentally challenged persons.
(The writer lives in Angelica)
Justice for an Autistic Teenager?
article here
ANGELICA - Currently most of the cases that go through criminal court in this country are pled out rather than going to trial. Most of us have gone to court for a traffic ticket and had an automatic option presented to plead to a lesser charge. Until today, I had never really thought about what it would mean to someone who is innocent of the charges, but in some way compromised by the court. But today I saw our system for the cynical and hypocritical tool that it is.
Where to begin? Let me just say that my son, an autistic and mentally challenged teenager, was charged with a very serious crime that he did not commit. He was taken from a respite house by the police, denied access to a lawyer, and deliberately separated from the counsel of his parents. After my son was taken into custody, a police officer, a man he knew from school, whose office was right next to his special ed class, “the man with the gun,” told him that if he did not agree to the charges and sign off on them, he would never be let out of jail, and if he agreed to doing these things he could go home. He then handed him over to an interrogator with a pre-written list of culpable actions. Before the day was out, my son had signed off on all charges.
Hopefully, he will recover from his terrible sense of betrayal when the school policeman, who he thought of as his protector, became his primary accuser, tricking him and lying to him. He is afraid to trust anyone now.
At his arraignment later that afternoon, the judge asked him if he needed a lawyer, and he said that, no, he did not need a lawyer because he was going home. If the accused person of a serious crime tells a judge he doesn't need a lawyer because he is going home, is it not a fair assumption that:
1. He does not understand how serious the charges are.
2. He is confused and under the false impression that he will be free to go home after the arraignment?
3.The judge should challenge the accused,because he obviously doesn't understand?
At the Huntley Hearing called to challenge the veracity of the confession, the interrogator and the State Trooper who arrested my son said that they didn’t notice anything unusual about him, a physically immature, autistic teenager with the mental development of a much younger child, and a markedly odd social presentation. They said that he was cheerful and direct (my son, like most autistic people, rarely meets your eyes when he talks to you), and discussed the bizarre charges like a 'normal' 17 year old. They also said that they were certain he understood the charges because he was reading them off the computer screen. Despite being presented with school records, which clearly show that my son reads and comprehends what he reads at approximately third grade level, and therefore could not possibly have read the confession and understood what he read off a computer screen, the interrogator and the state trooper were unshakable in their assertion.
The judge ruled that he would not challenge the integrity of the police. We have a tape of the arresting officer questioning my son during a preliminary investigation where he repeatedly states that he didn't do anything. They also have a tape of a three hour session, the third such session, with the five year old plaintiff, a social worker and the arresting officer, in which, after two and a half hours of coaxing and prompting, the alleged victim finally states that the accused has done something related to, but much less than, the contents of the confession. He then refuses to talk any more. Before the end of the session, he asks when he can see my son again. According to a doctor, there is no physical evidence that anything whatsoever has occurred. However, we are looking at a trial in a small town court where the judge has made it clear that he stands behind the police who, we can see, are not stating the facts as they occurred, but have rather fabricated a story to make their beliefs about the case clear to the rest of us. We can’t put the defendant on the stand to refute their claims because he is autistic and mentally challenged, the proceedings have confused him, and if the prosecutor starts to badger him, it is unclear how he will respond, this could further damage his mental health But, in any case, he doesn’t act ‘normal’. He has been in the county jail since July of 2008, mostly in solitary. Up to now, there has been no consideration of his disability in the court proceedings, but in the jail, they have had to make some adjustments for him. He is on 72mg of concerta, 5mg of ritalin, 5mg of abilify, 30mg of temazepam, 500mg of depakote 2 X a day 400 mg of seraquel 2 X a day, .05 mg of synthroid, and 0.15mg of clonidine 2 X a day, which they denied him the first 4 days he was in jail. He is naive and open, and easily confused by the attitudes of the other prisoners. So, he spends his time alone in a cell with a pile of coloring books with mazes and word search and card games.
The prosecutor has asserted the most severe charges and punishment possible. They are talking about 25 years in the state prison. This developmentally disabled, 110 lb, immature boy cannot survive 1 year in the state pen; worse yet, labeled as a pedophile. What can we do? Finally, the lawyers arrange for him to ‘plead’ to a lesser charge, and be placed in the care of the NYS Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. He probably should be heading toward a residential program anyway. The downside is we have to ask him to lie by telling him to say he did things he did not do. And, even with the lesser charge, he will have to be registered as a “sex offender”. This is tough to swallow because he did not do anything, and it is clear, even to my son, that he should not have believed the State Police that told him he could go home if he signed the paper saying he did something that he didn't do. . Given the weakness of the evidence, it isn’t clear that anything happened at all. But it’s a big risk to go before a jury, up against a crying mother, lying police and a confession that states the most horrible crimes.
The lawyer says it is best to plead. My son will, hopefully, end up in a safe place where they have resources to make his life pretty good. So, here we are in court to go through the formalities of the plea. He sits at the defense table, a slight youth in an orange suit, his hands shackled to his feet, surrounded by grown ups. From the standpoint of the court, he is a normal grownup too, but it is difficult to justify when you see him sitting there, confused and uncomfortable. The judge first asks the lawyers, the prosecutor and the defense lawyer, to explain their understanding of the deal so as to be sure everyone is on the same page. It appears they are ready to proceed. The judge then asks my son if he understands what he needs to be doing. When he doesn’t respond, the judge suggests he talk with his lawyer and get clarification. The lawyer talks to him in a low voice for several minutes. He is basically giving him the script and reassuring him that it will be alright.
Finally, they look up and the lawyer indicates to the judge that they are ready to proceed. So, the judge tells my son he doesn’t have to come to the witness box, that he will swear him in right where he sits. He then proceeds to state in a loud and dramatic voice “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and . . . Do you understand the charge . . .?” Do you understand that by pleading to this charge you are giving up your right to a Jury trial and all future rights to deny the charge . . .?” So the defense lawyer reads out an action, the minimum action necessary to validate the charge to which they are here to plead. Did you do this. . .” My son doesn’t reply. There is an eerie silence. He is deadlocked, frozen in the headlights. Truth on the right, necessity on the left. He just swore to tell the the truth, the whole truth etc. Everyone is waiting for him to tell a lie.
So the judge says, “I thought you understood what you need to do here. Would you like to talk to your lawyer again?” A slight nod. So now the lawyer is once again whispering away in his ear. And finally, they indicate that they are ready. The lawyer, again, states that minimal action necessary to substantiate the plea. After a tense pause, he responds with a hesitant “yes”. The prosecutor stands up and stalks across the room and indignantly cries “That isn’t what we agreed. I need him to say more!” The defense lawyer asserts that the statement does substantiate the charge as he rises from his seat and follows her to the bench. There is more busy whispering. Later we will hear that the judge sided with the prosecutor. He said that if my son didn’t plead to a more serious version of the offense, then he would substitute the original confession (to far more serious crimes) for whatever my son says. Finally, they return to their places. The defense lawyer is again whispering to him , After a time he stops and asks, “Ok. Are you ready?” There is no response, so he returns to his whispered explanations and instructions. Finally, they look up. He reads again from his paper. This time the action he states is a little more ugly and personal. He asks my son if this is what happened. Again, there is a breathless silence followed by a faint “yes”. Further, he asks if it happened twice. Another low, almost inaudible, “yes”. The judge then asks my son to repeat what the lawyer has just said. He doesn’t respond. The judge asks again, and the lawyer whispers encouragement. Finally, he haltingly repeats the statement of guilt. “Where did these events occur?” asks the judge. A long silence. “Where did you do this?” Another pause, then “In the house?” It’s a question. “In what house?” The judge isn’t satisfied. Another pause. Finally, “His and mine?is that ok?” It’s still a question. Is this what you want to hear. But mercifully, the judge and prosecutor are satisfied.
This is a mockery of justice. If he is lucky, this innocent victim of a witch hunt will find himself in another institution where they at least are competent to deal with his disability, but with a very dark cloud of suspicion hanging over his head. He will need time to recover from the trauma of having to recite self-incriminating lies to save his life. He twitches and his hands tremble when he raises them to gesture. He will need time to recover from a year of mostly solitary confinement. He has lost 30lbs., he has trouble sleeping, and tends to fall into a paranoid mindset regarding the people around him. He occasionally wonders how he can hide when he ‘gets out’ so that the school cop, his primary accuser, won’t find him and kill him. It is going to take time, but hopefully, he will be able to move into a residential program, perhaps somewhere in the country where it won’t be an issue that he is registered as a sexual predator. And hopefully, he won’t lose the residential program that buys his freedom to cost cutting measures or some such, and find himself back in the courtroom under mortal threat. If he isn't lucky, well . . . he won't survive. Where is the justice here? I thought this was the United States of America, where you are innocent until proven guilty. Aren't we all guaranteed certain constitutional rights, like a fair and speedy trial? How is it that the very people who are supposed to protect you lie and threaten to cause you harm. I think there should be laws to protect the disabled so there can be no more injustices to autistic and mentally challenged persons.
(The writer lives in Angelica)
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Miami Mayor Tries to Evict Homeless RFSOs
A short time ago I wrote a blog about the homeless RFSOs living under the Julia Tuttle Causeway Bridge in Miami. They are being forced to live there because the cities Residency Restricts prohibit them from living anywhere else. Probation/Parole officers drop off their charges there when they are released to live in Miami. They have to be back under the bridge every night by 10pm they are free to go work if they can find it during the day. All of them are being monitored by GPS that they must find the money to pay for.
Now the Mayor has written a letter asking the state to remove them because a small island owned by the city is within the 2500 feet restriction, saying the park is considered a place that kids gather. By doing this he reveals the true intent of the law which is to banish all RFSOs from the city. I am sure when they developed the plan they never expected that there was anyplace for the RFSOs to go so they would have to leave.
In spite of the research that where someone lives has nothing to do with whether they re-offend and that these kind of laws may actually cause more harm because people being released from jail need stability to go straight. Being homeless does not allow people to have any source of stability.
I wish we lived closer I would advocate a protest march on Miami's city hall. What can we do? We can write to the ACLU both here in Maine and in Florida, urging them to fight for their human rights. We can write letters to the Miami papers, the Mayor, the Governor of Florida and even the President! I am collecting e-mail addresses, snail mail addresses and anything else we might need to wage a campaign against this inhumane treatment. Stray animals are treated better then this in the USA today! Also if you can contribute anything to help the people living under the bridge I have an address for you to send donations to. The money would go to buying tents, providing clothing, blankets and other needed items. They are often dropped off with only the clothing they wore out of jail. Send me an e-mail at ladyfurebear@yahoo.com for more information.
Link to the news article http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/1078655.html
Now the Mayor has written a letter asking the state to remove them because a small island owned by the city is within the 2500 feet restriction, saying the park is considered a place that kids gather. By doing this he reveals the true intent of the law which is to banish all RFSOs from the city. I am sure when they developed the plan they never expected that there was anyplace for the RFSOs to go so they would have to leave.
In spite of the research that where someone lives has nothing to do with whether they re-offend and that these kind of laws may actually cause more harm because people being released from jail need stability to go straight. Being homeless does not allow people to have any source of stability.
I wish we lived closer I would advocate a protest march on Miami's city hall. What can we do? We can write to the ACLU both here in Maine and in Florida, urging them to fight for their human rights. We can write letters to the Miami papers, the Mayor, the Governor of Florida and even the President! I am collecting e-mail addresses, snail mail addresses and anything else we might need to wage a campaign against this inhumane treatment. Stray animals are treated better then this in the USA today! Also if you can contribute anything to help the people living under the bridge I have an address for you to send donations to. The money would go to buying tents, providing clothing, blankets and other needed items. They are often dropped off with only the clothing they wore out of jail. Send me an e-mail at ladyfurebear@yahoo.com for more information.
Link to the news article http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/1078655.html
Monday, June 1, 2009
Why we must speak out!
I found this on a friend's blog and thought I'd share it with all of you. I agree with him we do need to stand up and speak out! It is vitally important. When Calvin and I went to Augusta so he could speak to the Justice Committee there were mere handful of RFSOs there. There are approximately 2,700 on the Maine Registry and that's not counting the friends and family members who are also effected by this. If even a tenth of registrants attended, everyone would have to sit up and take notice. Not everyone needs to get up and speak but showing up shows you are not willing to let them pass laws against us. Get involved! Write a letter, send an e-mail, or even just show up in Augusta! Please contact me for more information on what you can do. ladyfurebear@yahoo.com.
Why do RSO's just sit there and do nothing but complain? Either do something or quit complaining!
I have heard from many people who have been reading and leaving comments on this blog, saying how nobody wants to listen to RSO's or their families, and they say "Why try?"
It's that kind of reasoning why nothing is being done. And that is what the public wants, for RSO's and their families to sit back, shut up, and do nothing. So you are letting them win.
Either stand up and fight for your rights, or continue to sit there, saying "poor me" and suffer the consequences.
I cannot stand people who sit there, bitch, moan and whine about how they are being punished, yet they do nothing about it. Either shut up, or do something about it!
Many say, I don't want to expose myself to harassment, etc. Well, you are probably on the registry, so it's already occurring. Many have thought the same way, they'd rather hide in the shadows and hope something changes. Well, you will be waiting a very long time. So that is why you must act now and speak out now, don't wait, do it now. Harassment comes with the territory, I cannot tell you how many emails and other threatening comments I have received here, in emails, on video sites. Now I just archive the comments for my own records, delete them, ignore them, and move on, continuing the fight.
AGAIN, YOU MUST FIGHT FOR YOUR FREEDOM!!!
Send legislature a fax, snail mail, email or the best bet, set up and appointment with them, and meet them in person. Prepare notes beforehand, so you are prepared, and let your voice be knows. Don't just sit back and hope some "SUPERMAN" comes to your rescue, it's not going to happen.
Join the other organizations like SOSEN, ROAR FOR FREEDOM, and the others forums, prepare letters, donate money to help the cause, FOR GOD'S SAKE DO SOMETHING!!!!
I cannot stress the above enough, again, do something about it, or sit back, suck it up, and enjoy the punishment! http://sexoffenderissues.blogspot.com/2009/05/why-do-you-view-this-blow.html
Why do RSO's just sit there and do nothing but complain? Either do something or quit complaining!
I have heard from many people who have been reading and leaving comments on this blog, saying how nobody wants to listen to RSO's or their families, and they say "Why try?"
It's that kind of reasoning why nothing is being done. And that is what the public wants, for RSO's and their families to sit back, shut up, and do nothing. So you are letting them win.
Either stand up and fight for your rights, or continue to sit there, saying "poor me" and suffer the consequences.
I cannot stand people who sit there, bitch, moan and whine about how they are being punished, yet they do nothing about it. Either shut up, or do something about it!
Many say, I don't want to expose myself to harassment, etc. Well, you are probably on the registry, so it's already occurring. Many have thought the same way, they'd rather hide in the shadows and hope something changes. Well, you will be waiting a very long time. So that is why you must act now and speak out now, don't wait, do it now. Harassment comes with the territory, I cannot tell you how many emails and other threatening comments I have received here, in emails, on video sites. Now I just archive the comments for my own records, delete them, ignore them, and move on, continuing the fight.
AGAIN, YOU MUST FIGHT FOR YOUR FREEDOM!!!
Send legislature a fax, snail mail, email or the best bet, set up and appointment with them, and meet them in person. Prepare notes beforehand, so you are prepared, and let your voice be knows. Don't just sit back and hope some "SUPERMAN" comes to your rescue, it's not going to happen.
Join the other organizations like SOSEN, ROAR FOR FREEDOM, and the others forums, prepare letters, donate money to help the cause, FOR GOD'S SAKE DO SOMETHING!!!!
I cannot stress the above enough, again, do something about it, or sit back, suck it up, and enjoy the punishment! http://sexoffenderissues.blogspot.com/2009/05/why-do-you-view-this-blow.html
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