People don't believe it until it happens to them, but instead of proving someone did something "beyond a reasonable doubt," all it takes is someone to accused you of a sex crime, and your life is over. Brian is one of the many examples, which can be seen by clicking the "WronglyAccused" label above.
"I’m beginning to see myself re-trained, re-focused, and re-created. I thank God for keeping me another day." - Brian Banks
They say 1 out 3 African American men will experience incarceration at some point of their life. Having only 2 close friends, Brian Banks was that third. On July 8th, 2002 at the age of 16, and on a fast track to a promising college and NFL career, he was arrested on the charges of raping another student on campus.
Awaken by the heavy knee to his back and barked orders of a cop, Brian was forced from bed and stood cuffed in boxers as he was told to quickly pick something to wear. The police were in his room and with guns drawn. Their voices imitating the sound of calm, their actions filled with anxiety. Shit just got real. It was the beginning of a true act of evil. As police took him into custody and from his home, he could only watch as his mother drop to her knees shouting in terror as they lead him, her middle child, out the door. The LA Times and news reports said, “Long Beach Poly High School Football Player Arrested for Rape”. For the next 10 years he will endure some of America’s greatest nightmares, with the question “why”, an answered prayer, and an amazing struggle for vindication.
Brian was, by all accounts, a high school football star. At the early age of 16, Brian stood 6’3″ tall, 225 pounds, and played the position of middle linebacker for the legendary Long Beach Poly High School. In fact, Banks’ physical fitness and his great speed for his size meant he was heavily recruited by a number of NCAA Division I football programs. At the time of the incident, the University of Southern California had offered him a full-ride scholarship. Other universities also expressed an interest in Banks, including Colorado State, the University of Illinois, the University of Nebraska, the University of California – Los Angeles, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Arizona, Michigan State University, Utah State University, and the University of Kansas. It is indisputable that Banks was on the fast-track to a free college education and a potentially successful football career..
Prisons are often the scenes of brutality, violence and stress. Hear a story of struggle and triumph as one 16 year old boy spends the next 5 years and 2 months behind bars as a wrongfully convicted sex offender. His day to day struggles once released from prison, and the emotional roller-coaster of such an inhumane experience.
For smacking a woman on the butt? I mean come on! It's obvious he should not have done that, but slam him with a sex crime and ruin him for life?
Video Description:
Prichard Police arrested [name withheld], 16, and charged him with first-degree sex abuse after they said he smacked a woman's backside at a local convenience store. This isn't the young [name withheld]'s first run-in with the law, however.
[name withheld] has paid dearly for his crime but he can’t outrun his past.
The new offensive left tackle for the Toronto Argonauts just wants to play football. He’s already said what he wants to say about what happened a decade ago when he was 16, living in a Louisiana project where gangs, drugs and prostitution were part of his neighbourhood’s daily life.
But there are some ugly truths that can’t be ignored. His back story is one of them.
On May 9, 2003, [name withheld] pleaded guilty to prohibitive sexual conduct with his sister, [name withheld]. At the time, he was 16. She was 15.
He wasn’t charged with sexual assault. Their sex was consensual. But it was still against the law. He was convicted and remains a registered sex offender in the U.S. where his photo is available on a website with the more than 720,000 registered sex offenders in America. - Why is it that it's always the male who gets the punishment while the female doesn't? What kind of message is this sending to men and women? This double standard BS needs to stop.
The graduate from Abilene Christian University where he played NCAA Division II football has completed his five-year probation. But the 26-year-old father of two young boys won’t discuss his past with the Toronto Star, choosing instead to let an expansive 2010 article in ESPN The Magazine stand as the definitive piece on a troubling part of his life that he wished never happened.
Scouts had projected him to be a second-round pick in the NFL but he was never drafted.
The stigma of being a sex offender prevented him from getting a shot, according to the ESPN article.
But the Calgary Stampeders in 2011, and now the Toronto Argonauts, have been willing to judge him solely based on his talent.
“For us, it came down to, ‘can he be the kind of individual on and off the field who we want in our organization?’ and he’s been nothing but that since we signed him,” Argos GM Jim Barker said. “He made a mistake at a young age when he was a minor. There’s no doubt about that. But if you don’t give some people an opportunity, what are they going to do?"
“There are a lot of guys, who have had issues, who have gone through this league. They play here a few years and prove what happened was a mistake. [name withheld] grew up in an incredibly bad situation.”
All [name withheld] has ever wanted was a chance to play football.
“With my record it’s damn near impossible to get a job,” he said in the ESPN article. “So really this is all I have.”
The scuttlebutt was that his presence on any team would be too hard of public relations sell. He would be crucified by opposing teams and perhaps not accepted in his own locker room. He would have to explain himself in every new city.
“I get it,” [name withheld] said about not being drafted. “It isn’t just about sports. It is politics and money. Why would they take on a sex offender? I wouldn’t.”
Canadian immigration officials had to give permission for him to enter the country to play initially for the Stampeders with whom he played for in 2011 before being released at training camp this season.
“The people in Calgary and people whom I know and trust have nothing but fantastic things to say about him,” Barker said. “He’s been nothing but great since he’s been with us. If he had never been up here before it might have been a lot tougher for him. But the government let him in the country."
“He’s not somebody who has had perennial problems and moved from team to team in the NFL with issues after issues. He was let go by the Stampeders but it had nothing to do with any kind of issue. They just had other tackles they wanted to use.”
Last Saturday, [name withheld] got his first chance to play for the Argos after being on the practice roster for the first six games. He played as QB Ricky Ray’s blindside protector, part of coach Scott Milanovich’s revamped offensive line.
The 6-foot-7, 310-pound left tackle held his own as the line generally gave Ray plenty of time to sit in the pocket and throw as Toronto beat the Stampeders 22-14 to move into a first-place tie in the East with the Montreal Alouettes. He’ll be starting again Monday when Toronto plays the Edmonton Eskimos at the Rogers Centre.
In the ESPN piece, the Argos offensive lineman revealed he never knew what he and his sister did was against the law. Basically alone in their world, they trusted nobody but themselves.
At 9, he had already been exposed to pornography and sexual misconduct involving a close relative in the suburbs of Dallas. At 12, his mother and siblings moved to Louisiana. They would move from one rough neighbourhood to another in the project of Marrero across the Mississippi River from New Orleans.
According to the ESPN article, police discovered the incestuous relationship several months after it happened when [name withheld] was arrested on suspicion of prostitution. When [name withheld] came to the station to get her, he was asked about having sex with her. He didn’t deny it.
“I didn’t know it was illegal,” [name withheld] said in the ESPN article.
In the piece, [name withheld] claims the police coerced her into revealing what she and her brother had done after they threatened to put her in jail. The police asked her about her life, and how such a young girl ended up on the streets and had she ever been sexually abused at home. She denied being a prostitute. She was questioned for hours without a lawyer. Afterwards, [name withheld] was arrested and spent a month in jail.
The article reports [name withheld] understands now what he and his sister did was wrong.
“I’m more than what people see me as,” he said. “What I went through as a kid. I wanted to find love so bad. But I had no idea what love even was.”
Her looking like she was 21 is no excuse Mr. Walsh, and you should be on the sex offender registry for life, and forced to live in certain places, like under the Julia Tuttle Causeway in Florida! You were 22 or 23 at the time.
LAKE CHARLES (KPLC) - Despite being passed in January a Lake Charles ordinance that would enforce some of the toughest restrictions on sex offenders has yet to be enforced. The ordinance restricting where sex offenders can live and increasing their registration fee from $60 to $600 with another $200 annually has been tied up in the courts for the better part of the year.
"I'm just asking that the council really considers what they are trying to pass," said [name withheld], registered sex offender.
[name withheld], 35, was convicted at 16 years old for forcible rape. He served his time and feels the added costs and restrictions are more punishment for a crime he's already done time for. He's challenging the ordinance and filed a lawsuit against the city earlier this year.
"I understand it is your job to protect the community and disadvantaged, but if you continue to take money out of the pockets of the mouths of not just the registered sex offenders, but my wife and my son and other people's families. You all are creating circumstances that we cannot breathe," said [name withheld].
The City argues the extra money is to offset taxpayer dollars for enforcement of compliance. After discussion the City Council amended the fees from the initial $600 to $400 and $100 annually. Changes were also made to certain notification provisions that might invade privacy of victims and the distance a sex offender can live from a school was changed back to 1000 feet rather than the original 1200 feet.
"I understand your family situation I really do. But if a person does not want to be in this type of dilemma then they need to make the right decisions on acts of that nature before it happens. Ignorance of the law does not excuse you of the penalty," said Rodney Geyen, Lake Charles City Councilman.
"What I did 20 years ago is not a factor in my life today. I was 16, I'm now 35. I will work with the council and I will work with the attorneys. I will help you all create this ordinance," said [name withheld].
With pending litigation the State Attorney General's Office has declined to rule on the case.
"Mr. [name withheld] based on these amendments made tonight is going to dismiss his suit without prejudice. We are not going to enforce that ordinance for 180 days and once that dismissal happens we can submit the amended ordinance to the Attorney General's Office for an opinion of the constitutionality."
Based on the decision of the Attorney General's Office [name withheld] could refile his lawsuit in the future.
A vigilante mob burned down a gipsy camp after an Italian teenager allegedly claimed she had been raped by two Romany men – only to confess later that she had invented the entire story.
The 16-year-old reportedly made up the account to conceal the fact that she had lost her virginity to her Italian boyfriend, but the lie unleashed a chain of events that she could not have foreseen.
She went to the police near her home on the outskirts of Turin late last week to report that she had been raped.
Police officers conducted interviews with dozens of people in the area to try to find witnesses to the supposed attack, and the news of the assault quickly spread.
Up to 500 people staged a peaceful protest march on Saturday in the suburb of Le Vallette but a mob of around 50 peeled off from the rally and headed to a nearby gipsy camp.
As the Romany inhabitants fled, the vigilantes set fire to around 20 makeshift shelters and huts, creating a huge blaze. They threw stones and beat up at least one gipsy man.
It took fire fighters two hours to extinguish the flames, with reports that they were prevented from doing their jobs by the arsonists.
No one was hurt by the blaze. Two people were arrested and another 20 are being investigated.
The teenage girl, who has not been named, is expected to be charged with giving false evidence, along with her brother, who is alleged to have repeated her story.
She apparently invented the account because she feared the anger of her parents, who were reportedly "obsessed" with her remaining a virgin until she married and subjected her to frequent visits to a gynaecologist.
Piero Fassino, the mayor of Turin, called the attack on the camp a "lynching" that was totally unacceptable.
He said Turin was a "civilised" city and anyone fomenting hatred and violence on the basis of racial prejudice would be held to account.
Italy has a large population of Roma, some of them Italian-born and others from Eastern European countries such as Romania and Bulgaria.
As in other European countries, they often encounter hostility, particularly when begging on the streets.
There have been several similar incidents in which camps have been burned down or attacked by vigilantes in Milan, Naples and Rome.
Many Roma live in illegally-constructed shanty camps on the outskirts of big cities which are subject to frequent clearances by the Italian authorities.
Video Description:
Sex laws in America harm countless innocent children. Politicians get paid to spread lies, hype and feed the Media frenzy about laws setup to protect children.
Earlier this year Lake Charles City Council passed what some suggested might be the strictest sex offender law anywhere. But that law has yet to be implemented due to a lawsuit.
The proposed sex offender registration ordinance would have increased registration fees to six hundred dollars and created more restrictions on where sex offenders can live. - Requiring anybody to pay a fee or go to jail/prison, is extortion.
In March local sex offender [name withheld] went to court to block the new law.
In his suit, he challenges the constitutionality of the law and says it goes too far that it's more severe and stricter than the state law.
A temporary restraining order has been in place but this morning Judge Mike Canaday granted a preliminary injunction without objection from the city-- which is still researching whether amendments to the ordinance are needed.
[name withheld] doubts the ordinance can be amended in a way that would cause him to drop the suit:
So, the preliminary injunction will prevent the city from moving forward with the ordinance for now. At this point no trial date has been set.
Like many Wisconsin communities, Niagara passed an ordinance in 2009 restricting where registered sex offenders can live.
And when [name withheld], 29, tried to move there last summer from Appleton, city officials cited the ordinance as the reason why he could not join his wife in the tiny former mill town on the Upper Michigan border.
Now in a federal lawsuit, the couple accuses Niagara and its city council members of violating the couple's civil rights, as well as racial harassment and discrimination.
[name withheld] is African-American.
According to the lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court: When he began preparing to move to Niagara, where his wife, [name withheld], 38, already resides, [name withheld] was told by city officials that he was prohibited from living with her because he is a registered sex offender.
The lawsuit contends that Niagara's ordinance targets any offender whose victim was 14 or younger, and that [name withheld] was 16 and the victim 15 at the time of his offense. The couple appealed under the ordinance, and was again denied.
Rules being altered
They then notified the city that they intended to use an exception under the ordinance for any offender moving in with certain family members, including spouses, who have lived in the residence at least two years.
The city council then proposed amending the ordinance to eliminate the exception, according to the [name withheld]' suit, an action the couple says was retaliatory, discriminatory and intended to specifically deny them from living together in Niagara.
The Niagara ordinance prohibits designated offenders from living within 2,500 feet of a school, day care, park, trail, church "or any other place designated by the city as a place where children are known to congregate."
[name withheld] lives on _____, which runs through the town of about 1,700. Neither she nor her husband could be reached for comment. Their attorney, Michael Menghini of Green Bay, did not return messages.
None of the city council members named in the lawsuit returned a message sent via the city clerk.
Reached at home, one of them, Glenn Lantagne, referred a reporter to the city's attorney.
The attorney, Kim Coggins of Marinette, also declined to comment, saying the lawsuit would be turned over to Niagara's insurance carrier.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages from the city council members, and a declaration that Niagara's sex offender residence ordinance is unconstitutional.
The 16-year-old boy who pleaded no contest Monday to sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl probably was not thinking her age would make a difference if they got caught.
He was wrong.
The March 1 incident at Tate High School has prompted discussion about where the line is drawn between a sex crime and misconduct involving two students.
The boy was accused of pushing the girl's head toward his genital area during a reading class. On Monday, he was placed on probation until he turns 19.
He told investigators he wasn't the aggressor; rather, he said he pulled back his shorts to expose himself when the girl asked him to. The girl told school officials she was forced.
Actually, under the law, it makes no difference.
The girl's acquiescence, if true, would not be a legal defense. She is not old enough to give consent, according to state law.
If a teen 16 or older engages in sexual activity with another who is younger than 16, it is a crime, even if both consent.
Laws on consent
Brian Shorette, an Escambia County Sheriff's Office sex crimes investigator, said it is crucial for parents to talk to their children about consent laws.
"A lot of kids are aware that there is some law out there that's controlling what they're supposed to do, but I doubt many of them know exactly what it is," Shorette said. "If they're under 16, they can't consent to any sexual activity, whether it's just touching or sex."
Teens can face felony charges for sexual assault in two main areas. The first is sexual battery — the penetration by or union with the sexual organ of another or penetration by any object. The second is lewd and lascivious molestation — intentionally touching the breasts, buttocks or genital area, or the clothing covering them.
Assistant State Attorney Anne Patterson said there are a lot of good reasons for children under 18 to refrain from engaging in sexual activity besides the fact that it could be against the law.
"There are health concerns, the threat of unplanned pregnancy, the disruption of their education and general mental health issues in engaging in that behavior before they're economically or emotionally ready for the implications," she said.
ATLANTA — When Ricky Blackman was 16, he pleaded guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl, and an Iowa judge ordered him to register as a sex offender.
But if Blackman had lived in at least a half-dozen other states, his name would never have appeared on a registry because states are deeply divided on how to deal with the nation’s youngest sex offenders.
Juvenile justice advocates want rehabilitation instead of registration, yet public safety experts argue children must be protected from predators, even if they are minors.
The confusing array of rules for juvenile sex offenders persists despite a vast overhaul that was adopted four years ago to bring clarity and consistency to the nation’s sex offender regristration laws.
“It’s a real bind for the states,” said Michele Deitch, an attorney who teaches criminal justice policy at the University of Texas. “Do you want to comply with what could be poor public policy or risk not complying with the federal law? And there’s no easy answer.”
Twenty-one states currently require juveniles convicted of a serious sex crime to register with law enforcement, according to an Associated Press review of state laws and interviews with state officials.
In 19 other states, only juveniles convicted as adults or who move from a state that requires registration are required to provide their information to authorities. In the remaining states, the laws vary. In Nevada, for instance, a juvenile sex offender can petition a judge to set aside registration requirements.
In 2006, President George W. Bush signed a law requiring states to adopt a series of sex offender measures, including the registration of all juveniles who commit serious sex crimes such as abuse or rape. The law was designed to create a national sex offender registry and toughen penalties for those who fail to register.
Ohio is so far the only state to meet the new federal standards (not exactly), but states have until July to comply so they can build up their online registries and ensure the information can be incorporated into the national database.
Of the 21 states that require juvenile sex offenders to register, at least four states do not publish all of their details online, such as photographs and home addresses.
Critics said young offenders will be more likely to reoffend because of the humiliation of being labeled a sex offender.
“These kids can get better and here you are punishing them for life without offering any treatment. That to me is unethical,” said Dr. Valerie Arnold, the interim chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Tennessee. “Even convicted murderers aren’t put on a list like this.” - The same applies for adult offenders, many can be helped and rehabilitated, but if you do not give them a chance, and assume all will reoffend, then what is the point?
“It’s a difficult balance,” said Ernie Allen of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. “We’re in favor of the rehabilitative ideal and targeting treatment for the youngest offenders, but many of America’s offenders are kids — and they are committing very serious sex offenses.”
The stress of being listed on a public registry can be overwhelming for young sex offenders. - Adults as well!
In Blackman’s case, his family later moved to Oklahoma, where he was also required to register. After his name was posted, Blackman said he was kicked out of school and neighbors began harassing his family.
One neighbor followed him with a video camera and insisted the family move, and they eventually decided to resettle in a rural area to escape the scrutiny.
“I was really depressed and I was always stressed out,” said Blackman, now 21. “It changed me. I lost a lot of my childhood and now I have a lot of catching up to do.”
Even though his record was expunged, his name stayed on the list until his mother lobbied state lawmakers to change the law. Blackman has since been removed from the registry.
Yet he says he still suffers with the stigma — reluctant to go to the park, watch his little brother’s basketball games or be alone with his cousin’s infant — fearing his actions could be misconstrued.
“It’s sad. He’s 21 now and there’s so much damage that’s been done to him,” said Blackman’s mother, Mary Duval. “All he wants is his life back but he doesn’t know if it’s going to happen.”
Those who want juvenile sex offenders on registries acknowledge the requirements are not ideal, but they say the benefits to public safety far outweigh the impact on a juvenile sex offender’s psyche.
Supporters often refer to the case of Amie Zyla, who was sexually assaulted when she was 8 years old in Wisconsin by a 14-year-old family friend. She became a leading advocate of juvenile registration requirements when her perpetrator was sentenced to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to later fondling two teen boys.
“The simple truth is that juvenile sex offenders turn into adult predators,” she said at a 2005 Congressional hearing. “Kids all over the country need the same kind of protection as in Wisconsin.” - This is a flat out lie. If this were true, then they should be locked up for life, but of course it's not true!
Yet there is a wide disparity in how states treat juvenile offenders.
In Texas, where judges decide whether to put juveniles on the registry, lawmakers led a push several years ago to make it automatic. But the measure’s sponsor, Texas state Rep. Jim McReynolds (Contact), said he abandoned the effort after concluding the new requirements would be too costly and may end up harming the juvenile offenders.
“The more I began to look at it, the more I saw it was pretty doggone tough on juveniles,” said McReynolds, who chairs the House Corrections Committee. He now favors more treatment.
In Maryland, powerful lawmakers are aiming to require those 14 and older who commit rape and other serious sex crimes to register.
“Juveniles are treated as adults in other areas of the law,” said Delegate Bill Frank (Email) of Baltimore County, one of the measure’s sponsors. “And if a juvenile commits a first-degree rape, that juvenile should be required to register as a sexual offender.” - So just make sure, when your child commits a sex crime, you stick with this, and put them on the registry, ruining their life. We all know, when it hits home, you will see it differently!
A 16-YEAR-OLD girl who laid false kidnapping and rape charges against two student police constables in Piet Retief and later changed her statement has been arrested and charged with perjury.
The teenager allegedly pointed out constables _____, 32, and _____, 21, attached to the Piet Retief police station, at an identification parade last Wednesday as the people who kidnapped and raped her in February.
The two were immediately arrested and appeared in court on Friday and their case was postponed to today for formal bail application.
Captain Leonard Hlathi said the complainant lied about having been kidnapped and raped by the constables.
As a result, “Piet Retief police charged her with perjury yesterday,” said Hlathi
Hlathi said she initially claimed that the two constables kidnapped her on the evening of February 27 and locked her inside a disused government mortuary near the police station and left.
“They apparently returned late at night and raped her,” she claimed.
On Monday she approached the police saying “she pointed out wrong members and that wrong people have been arrested."
She submitted a supplementary statement and based on its contents, the two constables were taken to court the same day and the charges against them were withdrawn.
He also said the case was only reported two days after the alleged incident, making it difficult for the district surgeon to determine if indeed she had been raped.
He added that the doctor also found that the teenager was already sexually active.
Hlathi said she apparently came up with the false allegations against the two when her parents questioned her about where she spent the night of February 27.
"The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly." - Abraham Lincoln
PUTNAM COUNTY -- They are children who have committed serious crimes, and their victims are other children. And it's an epidemic, Juvenile Court officials say. They are talking about child sex offenders, children raping other children.
"We currently have three child rape cases on the Juvenile Court docket, and there have been so many of these cases in the past couple of years," said Greg Bowman, administrator of the Juvenile Court here. In the current three cases, which are unrelated, a 16-year-old boy is charged with two counts of rape of a child under 13, a 14-year-old boy is charged with rape of a child under 13, and a 17-year-old is charged with rape of a child under 13.
"Unfortunately, this type of case is becoming an epidemic, and the offenders seem to be getting younger all the time," said Juvenile Court Judge John Hudson. Asked for his opinion on the cause of this increasing problem, the judge said, "It's Internet access -- and the fact that the traditional family structure of the previous generations doesn't seem to exist any more."
Administrator Bowman said he finds Internet access and cable TV channel access play a big role in the problem, exposing children to sights and activities from which children used to be sheltered.
What about the parents of these children who are charged with sex offenses?
"Many seem to be in denial or unaware of what's going on with the children," Judge Hudson said. He said the problem of children committing these type offenses is much more widespread than it once was and said, "They come from all types of homes and socio-economic levels -- it's across the board."
What happens to these children in court? "They get evaluated for psychological and mental health issues, and we develop a treatment plan in each case," Bowman said. Some offenders are sent away to inpatient sex offender treatment programs which can last for months or years, depending on "the level of their issues," he said.
Some offenders react to being caught and brought to court in a "remorseful way," while others seem indifferent, he said. The cases come to the Juvenile Court usually through the investigative work of Child Protective Services and law officers assigned to work "all types of child abuse cases," Bowman said.
The purpose of the Juvenile Court is to rehabilitate children, but this court also has a duty to "protect public safety," he said. Children in court for any reason make a sad spectacle, but cases in which the victims are also children are doubly painful for those who work in this system.
And to see these cases continue to increase is a problem that Juvenile Court officials worry deeply about. "I don't know what the solution is," Judge Hudson said.
"The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly." - Abraham Lincoln More Quotes
Congratulations Ricky, I wish you the best of luck!
02/11/2010
By Emanuella Grinberg
Stilwell - As a teenager, Ricky Blackman carried an Oklahoma driver's license with the words "sex offender" stamped in red below his picture.
His crime? Having sex with a 13-year-old girl when he was 16. The offense occurred when he lived in Iowa, and the label followed him to Oklahoma.
As a Tier 3 offender on Oklahoma's sex offender registry, Blackman could not attend high school, visit the town library, or go to his younger brother's football games.
But the label did more than limit where Blackman could go. It transformed him from an outgoing, sociable jock into an introvert who has trouble trusting people, his mother says.
"He's not the same," said Mary Duval, a straight-talker who has become a full-time activist to reform sex offender legislation since her son's conviction.
"I used to get a kick out of Ricky," she added. "He was so fun-loving and just full of life. I mean, there's no other word. Ricky was full of life and now he's definitely more cautious, more reserved."
Now 20, Blackman tenses up when he sees children at a supermarket and avoids talking to girls his age, even if they initiate contact, his mother says.
"I got a lot more fear in me, I mean, because anything could happen," Blackman said. "Say you're on the registry, and you're in the mall and a kid comes up missing. Well, guess what? You're the first person they're going to because you're on the sex offender registry."
Blackman lived with the "sex offender" label for nearly four years, until a law that took effect in Oklahoma in November removed his name from the registry.
His soft-spoken, reserved manner belies Blackman's hulking physical presence -- a reminder of his days as a high school athlete. On a sunny afternoon in December, he met a CNN reporter in the parking lot of the Stilwell Public Library, arm-in-arm with his mother, who is blind.
As he told his story, Blackman cast furtive glances at each passing car and sized up every person entering the library as if to ensure no one was after him. It was his first time at the library since 2006, when he moved back to his hometown. Though free of the scarlet letter that changed his life, he still feels the stigma of one of the country's most reviled labels.
It was all but impossible to independently verify details of Blackman's case. Prosecutors did not return repeated phone calls for comment, and efforts to check court files with Iowa's Fifth Judicial District were also unsuccessful because Blackman's record has been expunged.
But Blackman tells it this way: It all began when he met a girl at a teen club in Des Moines. They hit it off and started dating. He was 16 and thought she was 15.
When the girl ran away from home, police came looking for Blackman, who says he admitted to having sex with her twice. That's when police told him she was really 13, he says. Two weeks later, police returned to his home and arrested him.
Blackman pleaded guilty to one count of sexual abuse for having sex with the 13-year-old. The age of consent in Iowa is 14.
Taking into account the circumstances of the case, an Iowa judge accepted Blackman's plea and ordered that his record be expunged if he successfully completed probation and sex offender treatment. At that time, his name would be removed from Iowa's sex offender registry.
After his conviction, Blackman's family moved to Oklahoma to get a fresh start. He finished his probation and sex offender treatment, and his record in Iowa was expunged in October 2008, according to court documents.
But the action did not carry over to Oklahoma, where Blackman continued to be listed on that state's sex offender registry. The stigma followed him to his new home and the harassment continued, the family said.
A neighbor who found out he was on the registry videotaped him when he went outside, Blackman said. His picture and address were posted on a vigilante Web site, and a gas station attendant refused to sell him cigarettes, one time taking his license and throwing it across the store.
To comply with state residency restrictions that prevent registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or day care center, the family moved onto a small plot of land in the rural southeastern Oklahoma community of Stilwell, population 3,500.
The back door of the single-wide trailer faces the forest, a fact that Blackman's mother finds comforting should her sons ever need to escape a vigilante attack.
"Does it sound crazy? Yes. But knowing that my boys will have a few extra seconds to get out of the house and slip into darkness if someone ever comes provides some measure of comfort," Duval said.
Having a son on the registry also made a lasting impression on his mother. She now devotes most of her time to reforming sex offender legislation --specifically, the registry -- as chief operating officer of Sex Offender Solutions And Education Network.
"What keeps me going? My anger, my guilt," she said. "My ignorance is why Ricky's on this registry, or was on this registry. I didn't know the law. I didn't know how to protect my son when he talked to those cops. I just sat there thinking the truth will set him free. And that's what got Ricky convicted, the truth."
Blackman's story comes at a time of increased push-back against sex offender policies that some see as overly broad.
Many states have been resisting toughening their sex offender policies. Only one state, Ohio, has complied with the federal Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, which lists sex offenders as young as 14 on a uniform registry.
In Georgia, the Southern Center for Human Rights is challenging a state law prohibiting sex offenders from living and working within 1,000 feet of a school, church or day care. Georgia's laws go so far as to ban sex offenders from living near bus stops. The case is still pending.
Last summer, the American Civil Liberties Union (Contact) filed a lawsuit against Miami-Dade County, alleging the county's 2,500-foot residency restriction interfered with Florida's ability to monitor and supervise released offenders. With nowhere to live, dozens of homeless sex offenders clustered under the Julia Tuttle Causeway. The lawsuit was dismissed in September 2009.
Meanwhile, Blackman was just trying to graduate from high school. He attempted to enroll but was told that he was considered a danger to the rest of the students. He couldn't take GED classes at the vocational school in town because of an on-campus day care center.
His mother persuaded the school board to provide him with a tutor and private classes at the local police department, under the supervision of an officer.
Finding a job presented its own challenges. He says he was turned down by Wal-Mart, McDonald's and another fast food outlet that told him he was considered a liability. He spent most days at home learning to build Web sites and helping his mother and brother.
Due in large part to the efforts of his mother, the Oklahoma Legislature last year passed the law that makes expungements of certain sex offenses in other jurisdictions applicable in Oklahoma.
Blackman traded in his driver's license for one that does not label him a sex offender, and has since returned to the mall and a movie theater.
"I know what I did was wrong and I deserved to be punished for it. But this destroyed my life. Took it away from me," he said. "You never forget about it. I know I'm off the registry but it's taking a long time for it to settle in."
In November, Blackman received a letter from the Oklahoma Board of Probation and Parole. It said he had been removed from the state's sex offender registry, where he had been designated the highest level of risk possible.
His return to a "normal" life has been slow. He still is reluctant to go to his brother's football games, and the thought of going to places where children convene makes him nervous.
"I know I'm off the registry but others may not know," he said. "I don't want to go somewhere and cause a scene 'cause people may not know that I'm allowed to be there and get upset."
But he is making progress. He has opened up to friends and relatives outside his immediate family. He married a 19-year-old childhood friend after he completed probation in September.
As a Christmas gift to her, Blackman made his way to the Stilwell High School Fine Arts Winter Celebration, where his wife sang in the choir.
Walking arm-in-arm with his mother into a building from which he once had been banned, he slowly made his way up the gymnasium's bleachers. From his seat in the fifth row next to relatives, Blackman trained his eyes on people entering the gymnasium, cautiously returning a wave or smile from an acquaintance.
How did he feel? "Nervous," he said. "It's still new to me."
'Alarmingly High' Number of Teens Claim Sexual Harassment at Work
Watch "20/20" tonight at 10 p.m. for the full report.
An "alarmingly high" number of high school students are reporting sexual advances from their adult bosses and other supervisors at some of the country's best known fast food operations, according to an official of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
"It's an incredibly serious problem," said Bill Cash of the EEOC in an interview to be broadcast tonight on the ABC News program "20/20."
"Employers that choose to use high school kids to work have a responsibility to protect these young people," Cash said. "We don't want them to be fondled, we don't want them to be raped."
The issue is being raised in a number of lawsuits, including cases now pending in California against Starbucks and a McDonald's franchise owner.
_____ of Orange County, CA claims a 24-year old supervisor at Starbucks made almost daily demands on her for sex, months after she began working as a 16-year old barista.
"I felt like I didn't have a choice," _____, now 20, told ABC News."I was ashamed and embarrassed. And I felt like he had complete control over my job... he knew all this stuff about my family and my friends and my school."
She says the supervisor would summon her for sex in hundreds of text messages, including one that said, "I'd liked to f--- tomorrow."
"It was an everyday, numerous times a day occurrence," _____ said. "And I just saw it and did what I had to do."
She says other Starbucks supervisors and managers knew what was happening but did nothing to stop the illicit relationship.
After the young woman's mother learned of the relationship, she alerted prosecutors who brought criminal charges against the Starbucks employee, Tim Horton. After claiming he did not know the barista was 16 years-old, Horton pleaded guilty to a felony charge of illegal sex with a minor and served four months in prison.
The family has sued Starbucks claiming the company failed in its responsibility to protect the young woman from Horton.
Starbucks executives declined to be interviewed but in a statement the company said, "These two employees concealed their relationship from Starbucks, which violated company policy. We are confident that the case will ultimately be resolved in finding that Starbucks is not at fault."
Hard Ball Tactics
The case turned ugly as the Starbucks law firm, Aiken Gump, used hard ball tactics to defend their client, including successfully seeking to make public the young woman's sexual history once it learned she had been interviewed for "20/20."
"They are trying to defend themselves by calling me a slut," she told "20/20." "It's intimidation. It's harassing to sit though deposition and just be re-victimized."
Federal judge Andrew J. Guilford agreed with Starbucks lawyers and ordered the information unsealed because of the company's need "to defend themselves" and "level the playing field."
Starbucks disclosed in court papers that the woman has had sexual encounters with 12 men other than Horton, seven of them before she met Horton.
Starbucks says it does have a strict policy against sexual harassment and managers dating baristas, but there is nothing specific about relationships with teens under the age of 18.
The case against McDonald's was brought by another 16-year old employee, _____, who says a 23-year old shift supervisor lured her into a back storage room and put his hands around her waist and pulled her close.
"He said, 'It's okay, don't be scared, you can trust me,'" _____ told ABC News. "I thought his plan was to try and rape me."
She said she broke away and went to another supervisor in hysterics, who she says told her not to be so upset because everyone knew the shift supervisor, who was later fired, was a pervert.
In a statement to ABC News, the McDonald's franchise owner Michael Godlove said there is a "strict policy prohibiting any form of harassment in our restaurants."
"When Ms. _____ complained about the incident, which occurred in 2007, we responded promptly and took appropriate action," the statement said.
In another case, a manager at a Taco Bell restaurant in Memphis, TN pleaded guilty to raping two of his 16-year-old high school workers, one of whom became pregnant.
"The first victim worked for him about two months before she was raped. The other young lady, he attacked her on the first day that she was working for him," said Cash, the attorney for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Taco Bell
In a consent decree with the EEOC, Taco Bell, while denying any wrongdoing, agreed to pay several hundred thousand dollars to the teens and to begin a training program for its managers about dealing with high school employees.
In a statement Taco Bell told ABC News, "We are outraged that this situation occurred and committed to maintaining a workplace free from harassment in all of our restaurants."
"They make enormous profits based on the work of high school kids, and that's fine," said Cash. "That can be a great working relationship in many cases. But employers that choose to use high school kids to work have a responsibility to protect these young people."
What happened to _____ is not uncommon, experts say. The problem is especially prevalent in fast food restaurants where so many teenagers have their first jobs, said Susan Strauss, a consultant on corporate sexual harassment policies.
"They're vulnerable, they're young, they're new to the workforce," Strauss said of the teenage employees.
One in three high school students reported unwanted sexual advances in the workplace, according to a study in Maine.
CHANDLER - For a Lincoln County woman it's a nightmare each time she looks at her couch; her 4-year-old daughter allegedly molested by a 16-year-old boy who was spending the night with her son back in 2006. However, just two years after he was sentenced to a juvenile facility, state officials released Montia Robbins after he turned 19.
Not only was he released, but the state didn't require Robbins to be registered as a sex offender.
According to state law, a youthful offender only has to register for crimes such as rape and sodomy, not molestation
"If two counts of molestation charges does not qualify to be put on the sexual offenders list then there is something wrong," said the victim's mother.
The woman is now in the process of working with state lawmakers to help change the law.
The ordinance in question is the Barnstable Active Safety Information for Child Awareness, known as BASIC. Among its provisions is a 2,000-foot exclusion zone from places where services to children are provided for sex offenders registered categorized by the state at levels 2 or 3 "by reason of a sexual offense against a child."
The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts (Email) (ACLU) is representing the plaintiff, and filed the 39-page complaint in Barnstable Superior Court in late August. It is the first challenge of residential restriction ordinances in Massachusetts.
The plaintiff, allowed by the court to proceed under the pseudonym "Mark Moe," is described as 34 years old and living with a family member in Barnstable. His classification as a level 2 sex offender stems from a juvenile California case when he was 16. According to the complaint, Moe was found delinquent for engaging in sexual acts with his 13-year-old girlfriend. According to the complaint, this is his only offense.
"Because the ordinance effectively forecloses all of the housing options in town, the plaintiff will be forced to leave Barnstable and, because he is indigent, will become homeless," the introduction to the complaint reads.
The town has agreed to suspend enforcement of the ordinance on the plaintiff while the case is pending.
Barnstable Assistant Town Attorney David Houghton said the town served a motion to dismiss this week, which has been received by the plaintiff’s attorney.
ACLU’s John Reinstein, lead attorney in the case said that in general, the issue of residential restrictions on sex offenders "one that we’ve been concerned with."
In addition to seeking a permanent injunction against the enforcement of the BASIC ordinance against the plaintiff, the complaint asks the court to enter a declaratory judgment that BASIC ordinance violates the Home Rule Amendment and violates the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and articles 1,10, 12 and 24 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights.
The plaintiff also seeks court costs and "further relief as this Court deems appropriate."
A statement on the ACLU of Massachusetts Web site (aclum.org) explains the organization’s opposition to such restrictions: "The empirical data suggest, however, that these measures are not only ineffective, but may actually increase the likelihood of sex offenses. In addition, they raise serious constitutional questions by infringing upon well established civil rights."
Since going into effect in February 2007, the Barnstable Police Department has issued 20 citations under BASIC all to separate individuals.
The Plaintiff
Moe moved to Massachusetts in 2000 to be near family and registered as a sex offender in 2007, although "he contests his obligation to register in Massachusetts." Moe also says that he was not informed of his right to a hearing by the Sex Offender Registry Board, which classifies offenders a at one of three levels, low, moderate and high for risks of re-offense.
Moe is classified as a level 2 offender based on the California case.
The plaintiff has had difficulty finding and holding a job, due in part, according to the complaint, to his status as a registered sex offender. He moved to Barnstable in January, accepting the offer of a cousin. That residence is described in the complaint as being on Pitcher’s Way in Hyannis. His mother lives a short distance away, according to the complaint.
On Feb. 17, 2009, Barnstable Police served Moe with a citation for a single violation of the BASIC ordinance, which carried a $300 fine. Failure to pay the fine or request a hearing within 21 days could result in a criminal complaint being issued.
According to the court filing, Moe did request a hearing, but the town applied for a criminal complaint on Feb. 27. That resulted in a court magistrate issuing a criminal complaint, which is pending in Barnstable First District Court.
The Town of Barnstable has relied upon the Massachusetts Home Rule Amendment as the basis for some of its more progressive legislation and legal positions. Among the arguments put forth in the complaint is that the town’s BASIC ordinance exceeds its permissible scope under Home Rule.
The stated purpose of the BASIC ordinance is "to advance the public safety and welfare of the residents of the Town of Barnstable by making certain environmental information and controls available for the benefit of children and those who care for children."
It was approved by the town council in late 2006 and went into effect in February 2007.
"The Barnstable residency restriction at issue here violates the Home Rule Amendment and Act because it is inconsistent with a number of different statutes formulated to monitor the whereabouts of sex offenders," the complaint reads.
Moe argues that the state’s statutory scheme for regulation of sex offenders preempts local legislation.
"Local residence restrictions for sex offenders such as the BASIC ordinance significantly interfere with the implementation of state law and policy," the complaint reads.
"The ordinance is not rationally related to any legitimate governmental objective and subjects the plaintiff Moe to arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable restrictions on his freedom of movement, association and residence," the complaint reads.
The ACLU is expected to file an opposition to the motion to dismiss, after which a hearing before the court will be filed.
"The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of a civilization. We must have a desire to rehabilitate into the world of industry, all those who have paid their dues in the hard coinage of punishment." - Winston Churchill (United States Constitution)
Sixteen-year old Subway sandwich shop employee Kenneth Ireland was planning to join the National Guard. Wallingford, Connecticut police gave him a new career direction—50 years in the Connecticut State Prison for the rape-murder of 30-year old Barbara Pelkey. Pelkey's nude body was found at the former R.S. Moulding & Manufacturing Company in Wallingford in 1986 where she was working the graveyard shift alone. Pelkey was the mother of four. Her distraught husband, Arthur Pelkey, Sr., never got over her death. He committed suicide in 1991. Pelkey's mother and sister raised their children.
Ireland became the prime suspect because Wallingford police, who had absolutely no real suspects, were under considerable media pressure to solve the case. Cops remembered a homeless vagrant who police found, twice, living behind the factory. That vagrant was Kenneth Ireland. When he was around 13-years old, cops found him living in an oversized cardboard box behind a store near the factory. On another occasion they found him living in a storage shed behind the factory.
When they picked him up for questioning, police took a DNA swab. They could not match the swab with DNA material left at the crime scene. The only thing the DNA indicated was that Ireland had the same blood type as Pelkey's assailant. But then, so does 20% of the population. Good enough for the State. The prosecutors buried the information that Ireland's DNA did not match the DNA left by the assailant. They focused on the blood type, like it was conclusive evidence of Ireland's guilt, when they knew there was no DNA match. They should have released Ireland. Instead, they found two witnesses to bolster their case. The twosome agreed to testify against Ireland in order to collect a $20 thousand reward which had been offered for information leading to the conviction of the killer. The newspapers said Ireland was guilty, so what was the harm?
The same DNA that convicted Ireland exonerated him. The DNA proved conclusively that Ireland could not have been the rapist or the killer. But then, it proved the same thing in 1986 when the crime was committed and he was charged with its commission. It still proved he was innocent in 1988 when Ireland was convicted and sentenced to 50-years in prison for a rape and murder the prosecutor knew he did not commit. And, it was the same DNA that proved he was innocent in 2009 when the Connecticut Innocence Project presented it to a Connecticut Circuit Court Judge who dismissed all charges against Ireland and ordered him released from custody.
Ireland lost 21 years of his life because of overzealous prosecution. No amount of restitution can make up for those lost years spent in a prison. The prosecutor who pursued his conviction, but who was not named in any of the media stories about Ireland's release, should be forced to spend the next 21-years of his life in the same 6'-by-12' prison cell with two bunks, a small desk and a toilet—with a burly homosexual roomie named Bruce.
To date, over 240 wrongly convicted people nationwide have had their convictions overturned by DNA evidence. In Connecticut, Ireland was the third person whose convictions were overturned because DNA evidence proved they were innocent.
Also on Wednesday, Aug. 19, the conviction of Ralph Armstrong was overturned in Wisconsin when DNA evidence proved he was innocent. Armstrong was framed for the murder by his brother, Steve, who actually confessed to the 1980 killing of 19-year old University of Wisconsin-Madison student Charise Kamps. Because Dane County Assistant DA John Norsetter liked Ralph Armstrong for the crime, and believed he had enough circumstantial evidence to convict, he did not test the DNA material at the crime scene. Had he done so, he would have learned that Ralph Armstrong was innocent. But, his job was not finding suspects innocent, his job was finding them guilty. Even if they were innocent.
In the early 1990s a remorseful Steve Armstrong confessed that he raped and murdered Charise Kamps to two close friends: Fawn Elaine Cave and Debbie Holsomback. After Armstrong confessed, Holsomback called the Dane County Prosecutor's office and spoke with John Norsetter. She gave him details of the crime that only the killer would have known. Norsetter told Holsemback that he was satisfied that he had convicted the right brother. He was satisfied because Steve Armstrong was dying, or already dead, and even if he was still alive, it was not likely he would live long enough to endure a trial. Norsetter dropped the matter and never investigated Holsomback's claim. Convicting the wrong man is something no career prosecutor wants in his resume. It's not good for votes.
In fact, to protect his own backside, Norsetter destroyed the affidavits of Steve Armstrong's confession given to him by both Holsemback and Cave. In April of 2009, after learning that Norsetter had destroyed exculpatory evidence, Jerome Buting and DNA expert Barry Scheck took Armstrong's case. In their court filing, they said: "[T]he state deliberately suppressed and withheld, for approximately the last 13 years, information that a known third party confessed to the rape and murder of the victim in this case." In their statement they call the confession of Steve Armstrong "...exculpatory evidence supporting the claim of Ralph Armstrong that he is innocent of this crime." The DNA evidence, which Norsetter never tested, proved conclusively that Ralph Armstrong was innocent. While Armstrong has now been exonerated of the rape and murder of Charise Kamps, he still faces charges in New Mexico for parole violation. When Armstrong was arrested in Wisconsin, New Mexico revoked his parole on drug charges, and wants him remanded to their custody to return him to prison in that State. Wisconsin was determined to retry Ralph Armstrong, but on Wed., Aug. 19 prosecutors decided they would not appeal the ruling of the judge who freed him.
The State of Connecticut has reopened the murder investigation of Barbara Pelkey since they now know that a murderer-rapist has been at large in their community for the last 23 years.
"The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of a civilization. We must have a desire to rehabilitate into the world of industry, all those who have paid their dues in the hard coinage of punishment." - Winston Churchill (United States Constitution)
