I wish I was speaking hypothetically. Last winter, over at a neighbor’s, bunch of kids goofing around. The daughter repeatedly mooned everyone, he did it back and one of the other girls there told her parents. Enter the State Police and take a number at Family Court. 1 year’s probation and sex offender register, Tier 1. The kids were in ages from 11-14 - anyone under the age of 12 sees something like that and it’s automatic registry.
We had extensive testing, interviews, evaluations etc and everyone ‘in charge’ agreed that it was just the dumb action of a 14 year old boy, not done for any type of sexual gratification or coercion. Even the judge said that he didn’t want to sentence him like this and that he didn’t think it was right but the law left him no choice. So it’s 15 years on the registry, but he can petition after 10 years to be removed if he’s had no other related offenses (not likely). It’s been pretty hard on him. He says he can’t even hold a girl’s hand until he’s 30.
Oh yeah..the girl who first did the ‘mooning’ wasn’t charged with anything. Police didn’t want to.
Oh yeah..the girl who first did the ‘mooning’ wasn’t charged with anything. Police didn’t want to.
You’ve already been through enough and I bet you want to just walk away from the whole situation. But have you considered an appeal based on equal protection under the law?
Or maybe file charges against the girl? Not wanting to get her in trouble but maybe to push the idea that the authorities can’t have it both ways.
Just a thought to help your son get something close to a normal life back!
God almighty...tough on you, family and son. Our laws are nuts right now.
Not to raise any false hope, but just in the interest of thoroughness, if you have not already looked into your state’s laws on expungement, rehabilitation, and sealing of juvenile records, it couldn’t hurt to do so. In some states, and some cases, the juvenile can petition upon reaching majority.
Unfortunately, there’s great political capital to be gained by claiming to be ‘tough on sex offenders’, and legislators keep drafting laws that apply draconian sanctions to a lot of relatively innocent behavior. All they’re doing is leaning harder on the minor offenders, while making no significant impact on the major offenders, but it gets them re-elected.