Sex Offender Issues

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08/01/2007

The question isn't whether laws regarding sex offender registries in Wisconsin need some adjustment. Rather, it's just how crazy will the stories have to get before the public and state lawmakers realize that.

The latest yarn stars 19-year-old Jenna Simons. The Waupaca teenager made what she admits was a poor decision two years ago, when she had a consensual sexual encounter with a 20-year-old man and a 15-year-old girl. Her mother found out about it and called the police.

Past editorials here have detailed the absurdities in the case of Sam Roloff, the 20-year-old man. Waupaca County Circuit Judge Philip Kirk tried a couple of times to avoid listing Roloff as a sex offender, once by refusing to sentence him on the three felony charges he faced and once by staying the sentence for a century.

Those approaches were rebuked by the state attorney general's office and the state Court of Appeals, respectively, so Kirk eventually will have to re-sentence Roloff to the registry, despite his belief that Roloff doesn't present a threat to society and doesn't need to be tracked.

Now, a Post-Crescent story reveals that Simons' case was no less bizarre.

Simons was charged as an adult with four sex crimes, and ended up pleading no contest to sexual exploitation of a child, since it's illegal for anyone in Wisconsin to have sex with someone younger than 16 — even someone the same age. By law, that got her placed on the sex offender registry for 15 years. However, for the purposes of Roloff's case, she was considered a victim.

It's difficult to conceive of another criminal situation where one person is considered both an offender and a victim for one set of actions.

The fact that state law allows such duplicity only reinforces what many in the justice system and even support groups say: Sex offender laws in Wisconsin need to be more flexible and cognizant of the unusual sets of circumstances that can arise in such matters.

As it stands, Simons has had difficulty holding a job or making much progress in life because of the "scarlet letter" she wears, even though most would agree that a 17-year-old making one bad choice bereft of any coercion or violence isn't likely to be a lifelong offender.

The common complaint is that judges "legislate from the bench." But in cases like Simons, it seems legislators are judging from the Capitol.

Let judges do their jobs and find solutions that satisfy both the law and common sense.