Roland Riemers, Grand Forks, column: Not all sex offenders deserve scarlet ‘S’ for life
February 4, 2012 at 6:05 pm in Grand Forks Herald
In Texas, public urination also has led to sex offender status. And regardless of legal guidelines, if an underage male has sexual contact with an underage female, the male is likely to be rated as a high-risk sex offender and pedophile. Continue Reading
“If you sin when you’re drunk you pay the price when you’re sober.”
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Mr. Riemers makes many valid points.
I think we all deserve to know if someone is a predatory sex offender. But I also believe that public urination, a 13 year old kid sending an inappropriate photo from a cell phone, and some of the other things described do not fall into this category.
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There’s been so much over the top with sex offender status that it’s become absurd. There’s been young teens getting charged for sending nude pictures of themselves to a boy or girlfriend with a tag of child porn. There’s a famous case in NC where a kid was give something like eight years when he was 17 for getting caught having consensual sex with his 16 year old girlfriend. There was a young guy who at 19 wanted to marry his 17 year old girlfriend who was pregnant, but the judge who was going to marry them instead brought him up for charges for having sex with an under age girl.
Those are just a few examples of the courts going way over board. In each of those lives are basically ruined because of some over zealous people who want to put everything into the same big “Sex Offender” pool. That pool should be reserved for two types of individuals…Real predators, and a clearly defined set of deviant behavior. After all…Don’t you want the list you look at on line a list of those who might actually pose a threat to your family and not a host of individuals who had sex with a girlfriend who was a couple years younger when they were 18?
Some find the idea of teens a few years apart in age having sex as just awful, but ruining lives over it (Granted…There’s already a few other ways lives can be ruined from such acts, but that’s a roll of the dice…The law doesn’t have to make it a sure bet) is just plain wrong.
When you think about it we’re biologically ready to start reproducing in our mid teens so those teens who do fight the natural urge are a bit extraordinary. It wasn’t really all that long ago that families were started that young and it was considered normal. So to go from that to now making what’s basically a normal act between teens as something to be considered as a sexual offense…..Doesn’t make sense at all…Only if it’s non consensual…
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Thank you, I am a mom of one of those teens and I can tell you for a fact, this list is destroying the future of our country, our children. My son’s story is here: http://setmyfamilyfree.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/reality/
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Tundra Beast…you never disappoint me with your comments. You are one of the best on these boards.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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@lila
I’m so sorry. I wish there was something that could be done.
I wonder how people can sleep at night, basically sentencing a kid to a lifetime of poverty, homelessness, and prison because some girl’s diary had a fantasyland entry. I would be appealing to every court that would hear the case.
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@upnorthrunner, thank you. I have been fighting for my son for nearly 8 years now and will never give up so that he can at least salvage some of his life at some point. We have no money for legal help, so are forced to take any route available to force the necessary changes needed for these kids. Thanks to media presentation of writers like this we are able to get the stories out.
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Lila Foster, while I agree that there is an overuse of sexual offender registries, your story needs a little more explanation. You state that your son was sentenced. To be sentenced you either have to enter into a guilty plea or be convicted. To be convicted a jury would have to find beyond a reasonable doubt your son committed a crime which I find highly unlikely if the facts you provided are true; the diary is not admissible evidence without the girl testifying which means she would have either had to lie on the witness stand or not testify (if she didn’t testify there would be no evidence of sexual contact and no conviction). Assuming your son plead guilty, my question is why? To plead guilty your son would have had to agree with a statement of facts that would support a conviction; a judge can’t accept a guilty plea without a supporting factual basis. So, did your son admit to sexual contact? Regardless of how aggressive a prosecutor may be, at some point your son either had to admit to sexual contact or else a jury would have had to have convicted him (which would not have been possible without the girl’s testimony).
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Lila Foster, after reading your post I see you used the word trial. So what eveidence was used? Again, the diary is not admissible without the girl testifying; it is classic hearsey, an out of court statement used to proof the truth of the matter asserted. Did she testify? Did she lie? If she testified and didn’t lie are you telling us a jury convicted your son with no physical evidence and the “victim” claiming that nothing happened?Again, I think you may be leaving out a few facts. While I believe the use of sexual registries is abused by law enforcement, I’ve also been around long enough to know that the average parent sees their child with Rose colored glasses. Your son would have been a junior or senior in high school and the girl would have been a seventh or eigth grader. While that may have been the norm in the 1800′s, it is not the norm this century. I am sure that there will be plenty of comments about girls maturing faster and “do you know what seventh and eigth graders look like today”, but there are almost no circumstances under which I can see it excusable for a junior or senior in high school to have sexual contact with a seventh or eigth grader. While I understand your pain, the story you tell really doesn’t make add up to me.
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My son took a plea bargain as his court appointed lawyer told him it was his only choice, stating that the diary entry would be sufficient evidence to put him in prison for a long time if he went to trial. We had no money for legal representation and were naive enough to believe that my son’s attorney was acting in his best interest.
Ask any lawyer, plea bargains are standard fare for the accused who have not got the funds to make a jury trial worthwhile. The plea bargain was written up as a non- sexual charge, his lawyer’s effort to keep him from having to register. The judge used the diary entry to add on the requirement to register.
My son was in the ninth grade as he attended special ed because of his ADHD and the girl was in 8th grade, regular classes. So regardless of what anyone believes or thinks there are as many different sets of circumstances as there are individuals who are accused.
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Your son was entitled to be represented by an attorney and, because he could not afford to hire his own, was appointed an attorney by the court. A court appointed attorney for someone who can’t afford to hire their own attorney works without cost to the defendant. It would not have cost your son anything to go to trial. So now we have a girl who lied, a prosecutor who proceeded even though the victim recanted, an incompetent defense attorney who told your son to plead guilty based on inadmissible evidence and presumably knowing that the girl had recanted the diary statements, a judge who accepted a guilty plea on a non-sexual charge but imposed an unconstitutional registration requirement without giving your son a chance to withdraw his guilty plea and further incompetence by the attorney in failing to appeal sentence. Through this entire event not a single person informed the Judge that the diary entry was false; not the girl, not the prosecutor, not your son’s attorney and not your son. And throughout all of this your son is blameless. So, what was the “non-sexual” charge your son plead guilty to?
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“He was 17, she told him she was 16. At the time he had no reason to doubt her. A short time later he learned a harsh life lesson. They never got beyond kissing or hand holding, but she wrote in her diary that they had made love.”
If you can write so eloquently and lay out this matter so rationally, then why wasn’t this disapproved? If it was simply a kiss and nothing more, why the need to place your son on a registry? Also how is it those on the registry are able to get jobs and lead a life where your son cannot? I’m confused.
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Yes, of course there are some people labeled that don’t make sense….But the official conviction in this particular case is entering somebody’s bedroom and forcing non-consensual sex on that person. I think neighbors should be alerted to people convicted of that.
This person was also RECENTLY convicted of possession with intent to distribute–in other words, a drug dealer. This is hardly the case of a 15-year-old getting drunk and urinating outside at a party. Let’s not confuse the general issue with this particular issue.
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From http://www.sexoffender.nd.gov/OffenderWeb/OffenderDetail.aspx?Id=1806
“AGGRAVATED SEXUAL ASSAULT – MCGEE AND AN ACCOMPLICE ENTERED A WOMAN’S BEDROOM AND HELD HER DOWN AND FORCIBLY RAPED HER.”
If ever there was a reason to have a Sex Offender registry, this would be it. Would I want my wife and daughters to take precautions when this guy moved in next door? Um….yep. Especially now that he’s a convicted drug dealer. I’m sure he’s keeping great company.
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Stupid is stealing a “For Sale” sign in front of somebody’s house, getting in a drunken fight, or daring your friends to ride a piece of cardboard down some stairs like a sled. Getting a buddy to help you go into somebody’s bedroom and forcibly rape her is not a “stupid mistake”. It is sociopathic. The fact that he demonstrated such complete and total lack of empathy at 15 makes him more frightening 8 years later, not less.
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I get the impression he is still doing drugs and drinking alcohol. I feel that Mr. Riemer’s strives on controversy for the sake of getting attention. He is not someone that I would consider a credible source of information. He knew who he was inviting into his home…a kid on a sex offenders list for committing a crime. He’s using other cases to prop up his housemates image. I wonder if Mr. Riemer’s would leave his guest and a friend along with a supply of alcohol alone with his daughter.
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This is getting heavy! Whoa!
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The fact that he did time for possessing marijuana and no time for rape, now that is No Dakulous!
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tj for the most part you are right about mr riemers. he enjoys controvesy. He does make valid points but nothing is as simple as it may look. would this particular person done something else even if this event had not happened??? maybe….it doest look like he hanged with the best sort of “friend”. it is rare thing that he would be a upstanding young man with only this shadow on his life…. yes people can change. But do they want to??? I am for second chances but they are to be earned…. Perhaps he has made the mind set to change and unforunately he may have to keep proving it over and over the rest of his life. there is no easy answer. now there have been a lot of issues brough up here. adults who moleste or rape or abuse a child deserve full punishment and registration as offenders. BUT adults must keep in mind there are very few who are registered vs actually a risk. most sex offenders are not caught or even brought to justice. (look at the coach in PA how long was that going on before people started speaking up). The people who are molesters are family, friends, people YOU know and TRUST! You just dont know it.
crimes committed by children while need to be addressed should not be the same as for an adult. As parents we have to protect AND educate our children to make good choices. As a mother i pray i can protect and raise my children so they dont have to go thru that experience and help others from being victims or instigators……….I say this as a victim of child molestation by other children…..
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Just to be clear here…..My comments above were only in regards to the subject at hand and not whatever case the original writer was referring to. I never looked to far into it so I really don’t know any of the particulars. It’s just that this subject has bothered me for some time now so when there was an opening I took it…
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Tundra wasn’t referring to cases where a violent crime was committed. He was making a point about cases that should not be on the same list as violent offenders…such as two young in love teenagers having intercourse….or someone urinating outdoors without the intention of exposing himself.
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I understand exactly what tundrabeast was talking about, if you read my earlier posts you will see why. I do not condone violence either. I was only stating that people CAN change if they choose to make the effort, no matter what they have done in their past.
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Ma’am I’m talking about a thirty year old daughter….like the previous victim…not a sixteen year old girl. Frankly…I wouldn’t want him alone with any female regardless of age.
Once your story got entwined with Mr. Reimer’s you lost me. He’s an old curdmugeon with an axe to grind. Next week he will probably have a new cause…the week after that something else…on and on…all in the name of getting attention.
As far as my children go…we only have a son. We were well aware of what was going on in the world. We guarded him like he was the most important person on earth because to us he is.
On the subject of alcohol: It doesn’t turn a good man into a sexual predator. It only brings out what is already in the mind of the individual.
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Excellent insight TJ.
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i do think there should be a zero tolerance where molestation, rape, or any attempts of this sort is occuring. What I want done is the father of my daughter molested her when she was 3 years old and she told on him and the Judge Medd would not hear her testimony until she is 7 years old so we have to wait for justice? Also, we had several witnesses to testify and he would not hear them either so who knows and who gets justice here? Not my 3 year old daughter and when she is 7 will she then after waiting for 4 years to have a trial? Whatever i believe our system needs some repairing here!
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The problem is she was molested by her father, not a registered offender , correct? Most molestations take place in the home by friends and family. It must be just that individual judge who made that restriction, because there have been plenty of cases heard in court for children in that age group. I am truly sorry for what happened to your little girl, these are the children that are the most abused and protected the least, because they either can’t or won’t tell.
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I whole heartedly agree with virtually every statement on here, the system needs fixed.
However, Mr. Reimers spends his whole life trying to be the local lightning rod and the individual he chose to exploit for his own headline grabbing purposes just happens to be one of those that actually needs to be on the list.
Maybe next time he chooses someone to serve his needs for attention he will grab someone that actually deserves to have the label removed.
This is exactly the type of offender that i want to know about if he moves in my area; the others mentioned in this list are the kind that i dont care if they live right next door.
The law definately needs fixed, but Mr. Reimers needs to understand that his name on a topic does it more harm than good.
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The author Lewis Carroll who wrote “Alice in Wonderland” was an avid photographer who shot loads of film. His subjects? Naked boys and girls.
His “contribution” to society would get him arrested in today’s newest
Witch Hunt, but because he was Lewis Carroll its called “Art” so he’s OK!
What if you downloaded his pictures to your hard drive and some nosy Internet
Cop-Creep traced you, would you be found guilty of possessing Kiddie Porn or is it just Art? Captain America and Nodakulous– you have the right to see it
your own perverted way (in this big wide universe) — you creep me out.
Kudos to Roland Riemers for taking a chance for someone.
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I certainly agree that predatory sexual offenders should get what they deserve — especially repeat offenders — but just what do they deserve?
I ask, because I know of cases where multiple murderers have gotten shorter sentences than multiple gropers.
I ask because I know of cases where juveniles involved in consensual sex are branded as predatory offenders for life (and it’s usually the male of the consensual couple who gets punished).
I ask because the elephant in the room is the hyper-religiosity of the society we live in. From an early age many of us are indoctrinated with the notion that anything sexual is dirty and shameful — and the result is that sentences tend to be punitive rather than just (and nobody dare say so for fear of retribution from the self-righteous).
Mr Reimers stood up for justice — and some of the results would seem to prove my case.
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Thank you Mr. Reimers for your courage. It took guts to write this and some of the extremely self-righteous commenters prove this. Even the man who started all this has learned.
‘The system is broken. It’s overwhelmed
and I think the public is starting to realize that.
You can’t paint sex offenders with a broad brush.’
(John Walsh, father of Adam Walsh)
Distinctions don’t seem to matter when it comes to sex offenses. No wonder they couldn’t find Garrido so many on the registry who don’t belong there, who bloated it These laws are so unjust,so extreme. the self-righteous love them .I hope more rational minds will prevail. The registry unduly frightens parents & its ruining lives of men (mostly) who don’t deserve it. Now there are so many non dangerous people on it. Some have been murdered/ killed themselves http://ilvoices.com/medi /23945d47d1a0fd37ffff810bffffe415.pdf & http://www.reformsexoffenderlaws.org/
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One reason is because a huge, very lucrative industry has grown up around sex offender laws. Parents are easily terrified into believing that their children will be snatched off the street if they don’t have updates about who moves into the neighborhood sent to their phones and computers. Schools, catering to terrified parents, install expensive screening equipment that alerts them if a registrant enters. GPS tracking, sex offender treatment providers, huge bucks to the Federal Marshals to assist in tracking registrants, politicians gaining and keeping office because they promise more and more laws and restrictions against registrants–follow the money trail. And the sad thing is, none of that keeps their children safe. Over 90% of child sexual molestation is committed by close family and friends, people never previously arrested for a sex offense, not by a stranger who is also a registered offender.
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