“An Oklahoma teenager is swept up in laws aimed at protecting kids from child predators. He must register as a sex offender for life, as the worst level offender, after having a sex with his girlfriend, who said she was his age, 16…
“[T]he district attorney charged Ricky as an adult for two counts of felony sex abuse of a child. He was facing 25 years in prison…”
More anti-male sex hysteria. From Teen Feels Snared In Sex Offender Law (www.newson6.com, 11/7/08):
TULSA, OK — An Oklahoma teenager is swept up in laws aimed at protecting kids from child predators. He must register as a sex offender for life, as the worst level offender, after having a sex with his girlfriend, who said she was his age, 16. Sex between teenagers is no longer just a moral issue, it’s a legal one.
Ricky (pictured) grew up dreaming of joining the Navy and becoming a police officer. He was 16 and living in Iowa when he met a girl at a club for kids 16 to 20 years old. He says she told him she was nearly 16. They began dating and had sex. Soon after, police questioned him.
“The cop asked me, did you have sex with her? And, I said twice. He said sign this statement and I signed it. Soon as I got done signing it, he said, sorry to let you know, she’s only 13,” said Ricky.
Ricky’s mother, who has recently gone blind, met with the girl’s parents.
“They said, look, we know she lied, we don’t want to press charges, we just want Ricky to say away from her and I said okay,” said Ricky’s mom, Mary.
But, the district attorney charged Ricky as an adult for two counts of felony sex abuse of a child. He was facing 25 years in prison, so he pleaded guilty and got a deferred sentence, which means it would expunged off his record.
Ricky and his mother moved back to Oklahoma and learned he must register as a sex offender for life in Oklahoma as an aggravated offender, the highest level.
That means he’ll have to forget his dreams or even getting a job.
“I read one application that said if you answer yes to sex offender, this does not make us not hire you, but, it does. If you say you’re a sex offender, automatically, you’re not getting a job,” said Ricky.
Ricky’s record was expunged last month, but Oklahoma won’t take him off the registry.
“With the expungement, there is no plea now. It’s gone, no record anymore, so no plea, why is he on this registry?” said Ricky’s mother, Mary.
Ricky now educates teenagers as his mother works to get the law reformed.
Police officers told The News On 6 the law started good, but as it’s been added to, it’s become a “screwed up mess.”
They also believe the laws must be reformed to protect children from dangerous sex offenders and also, teenagers like Ricky.
The accompanying video can be found here.
For more details about this injustice and to fill out a petition, see the website http://www.rickyslife.com
Mary, Ricky’s mom, can be reached at rickyslife@windstream.net.
{ 3 comments }
While the laws may be a problem, there’s also a distinct lack of good prosecutorial discretion.
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Well, as has often been pointed out on this site the Sex Offender Registry laws in general are ‘feel good’ legislation that nobody in an elected government office would dare say anything negative about, and the trend is to make these things more far-reaching and more draconian every time they are revisited. Some are better than others (for instance, here in New Hampshire they give a good deal of information, such as what the crime was in both legal and layman’s terms and how long ago it occurred), but in general they just serve to ensure anyone on them can never get a good job for as long as they live. Of course, sometimes they are used as hit lists for vigilantes, as happened a couple years ago here in New England.
In this case (assuming all the facts are as presented) the Prosecutor really blew it- a ‘continued without finding’ or some such mechanism would have avoided something like this. Better yet, a stern "Do you know what I could do to you, boy?! Don’t do it again!" would have done the trick, too.
I’ll bet you a dollar the prosecutor was either up for re-election, or was planning to run for some elected office in the near future. Cynical? Maybe, but cynicism is just a derogatory term for pattern recognition. :)
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At least in this case it seems like there are some in law enforcement that want to help Rick out and recognize what a mess this actually is. That’s definitely a step in the right direction.
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