Also take the poll at the article above.
07/20/2011
By MaryAnn Spoto
SOMERSET COUNTY — Call it bullying or call it horseplay. Either way, a state appellate court panel says roughhousing with a sexual connotation by a pair of 14-year-old Somerset County boys was a crime that requires them to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives.
- The legal system is a total joke these days. Ruining kids lives before they even start, that is just pure evil, IMO. What ever happened to the parents disciplining them, or sending them off to juvenile detention centers? This is what happens when the government intrudes into our lives, they ruin them, just like everything else they try to control.
In a decision handed down Monday, the three-judge panel acknowledged the severity of its decision, but said it was bound to uphold the law.
"We are keenly aware that our decision may have profound lifelong ramifications for these two boys as well as others similarly situated," Judge Jose Fuentes wrote.
- What would you do if it was your own son? Hell, it may be one day!
One of the boys, whose case went to trial, said he had sat on the faces of a pair of 12-year-old schoolmates with his bare buttocks in November 2008 "cause I thought it was funny and I was trying to get my friends to laugh," he told a family court judge.
But an act is considered criminal sexual contact if it is done for sexual gratification or to degrade or humiliate the victim, and punishable by lifetime registration — even for juveniles — under Megan’s Law, which requires a person convicted of a sex crime against a child to notify police of changes of address or employment.
- So are you going to label all the college hazing incidents as well? When in the hell will this SEX hysteria stop?
The trial judge concluded the teenager intended to humiliate or degrade his victims and found him guilty of criminal sexual contact. The second teenager who was implicated pleaded guilty to criminal sexual contact, and received the same penalty.
The convictions were appealed, and the attorneys for the teenagers argued that their behavior amounted to horseplay, which other appellate court panels had exempted from Megan’s Law. David Fassett, an attorney for the boy who pleaded guilty, argued that the court should not take such a literal view of the law.
"I think the Appellate Division was simply offended by the conduct here and just couldn’t get past that issue,’’ he said.
- How many kids can you think of when you were growing up, or maybe yourself, who did the same thing? Now you get ruined for life for stupid stuff, as in this case. If the judges have no discretion anymore, then why do we even have judges anymore?
The appeal did not challenge the application of Megan’s Law to the 14-year-old youths since courts have already ruled the law applies to offenders as young as 13, but on the ground that the offense was not severe enough to carry a lifelong stigma.
SOME VIEW RULING AS 'HARSH' PUNISHMENT
Ronald Chen, the state’s former public advocate who is vice dean at Rutgers-Newark Law School, said in an interview that the ruling highlights the "collateral" consequences of Megan’s Law.
He said that although the boys’ convictions for criminal sexual contact met the law’s requirements, "I don’t think lifelong registration is a proportionate response.’’
- Of course it's excessive, it's cruel and unusual punishment!
Chen said that is something the Legislature has to take up.
"It is a very harsh result and maybe the Legislature should take a look at it,’’ he said. "But for now, it is what it is.’’
- So, when are lawyers going to grow a pair, and step up and fight these laws, which are ruining hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lives? Wait until it affects you, but by then, it will be too late.
The panel, which also included Judges Victor Ashrafi and William Nugent, noted its constraints under the law.
"Although we are not unsympathetic to the arguments criticizing the application of the lifelong registration requirements in (Megan’s Law) to 14-year-old offenders, we are bound to uphold such application because that outcome is mandated by the Legislature,’’ the court said in its ruling.
- I thought judges had discretion? Apparently not anymore, so like I asked above, what good are judges for anymore?
The Somerset County prosecutor, Geoffrey Soriano, and Robert Wilson, a lawyer for the teenager who was tried, both declined to comment.
For the boys, who are now 16, there is still a possibility of having their convictions overturned. The appellate panel sent their cases back to Superior Court, where one youth will have a hearing on whether he understood the ramifications of pleading guilty, and the other will get to argue that his trial attorney was ineffective.
While I understand the need to punish these boys. Horseplay is just that, horseplay. Has our society sunk so low that it must go after its most precious, its children? People are afraid of sex offenders. Why because the media and our politicians use the "fear" factor to get money and votes to stay in office. They use incorrect statistics to garner a better image. Most of the sex offenders never offend again but they are the most punished. Maybe the rest of society should live in the shoes of a sex offender for a week. I wonder what they would think then? The rights of the offender is trampled upon for the greater good of society, or so they say. Take a look, whenever a politician or media group goes aftewr a sex offender, it equates to money somewhere in the chain. As an enlightened society we need to take back control of our goverment. How? through exercising our right to vote and peacefully assemble, through as many "non-violent" ways possible, through recalls of key players. For example, look at the recall elections happening in Wisconsin. Unless we stop the slide of the judicial and financial arms of the goverment our way of life and its freedoms, that we take for granted, will be gone within the next few years. Our children will not be able to enjoy what we, ourselves, enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteGod, this makes me ill!
ReplyDeleteYou (SOI) made two points above that I'd like to comment on:
1. No, judges DON'T have discretion any more (or, at least, very little). The prosecutor holds all the cards and all the judge can do is try and manipulate the prescribed sentence so as to appear sympathetic yet strong
2. Lawyers, at least in most cases, are very busy getting rich. I don't think they have much time to care about the nuances of the laws or the unfairness of them
Government is like smoking: it starts out being enjoyable and perhaps beneficial at first. Then, over time, it has the potential to become a cancer that will eventually kill the host..
Look at the IRS, Homeland Security and other neo-Nazi organizations who's only mandate is to oppress society and erode our so-called "inalienable rights" and freedoms...
By the way, I noticed you using the abbreviation, USSA earlier. I thought I was the only one using that... I call it the United Socialist States of America (although I'm ready to drop the "united" part since that's the last word I'd use to describe the current state of affairs)...
I think this might have turned out differently if they had a jury trial like they are entitled to. The court acknowledged the severity of the case so I would agree that if either boy's attorney didn't even request a jury trial, that "his trial attorney was ineffective." I don't know if the New Jersey constitution grands juveniles the right to a jury, but I believe the US constitution does, whether or not the state acknowledges it.
ReplyDeleteIMHO, sometimes there has to be martyr's sacrificed like this to demonstrate to society how ridiculously cruel we've become. I've read a quote on this site a thousand times and will probably misquote it here:
ReplyDelete"The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly." I'm sorry for the kids and their parents and hopefully an appeal will be in their future.
ReplyDeletehey that
was really amazing,, keep posting such things,, really appreciated,,, thanks a
lot,, normally i read on Generic Viagra,, but this has been the more
interesting than that
I heard another quote once:
ReplyDelete"Some must be sacrificed if ALL are to be saved"
It is a very great burden and an even greater loss yet the future is often born in pain...