I took a pop at the law that permits government to go after a teenager as a sex predator for a minor offense when I wrote about it here 10/9/08. I said it was Jay Hottinger's badly written law at fault.
Well, it's a lot more complicated than that. After exchanging correspondence with Jay and his legal assistant I have concluded that the law is indeed imperfect and Jay may have contributed to that imperfection by not being able - any more than any other legislator who voted for it - to envision the loophole that allows prosecutors such as Ken Oswalt to snare a child into the category of sexual predator for inappropriate behavior. Also, that this law will be revised by the Ohio legislature.
Here are are three key paragraphs from Jay's letter to me as they relate to the prosecution of a local teenager under Megan's Law, which he authored, and which was revised under the title Adam Walsh Law:
"I can tell you with 100% certainty that as I was writing the bill, as it was being debated, and as it was being passed with broad and overwhelming bi-partisan support in 2001- the discussion was always on these young people doing very dangerous and serious adult-like crimes.
"I was not involved in the Adam Walsh writing but I can tell you that no legislator ever envisioned an incident like our current local situation being used to prosecute a young person as a sex offender and having to register.
"This case is a classic example of why are laws in Ohio are called the Ohio Revised Code. I believe there certainly needs to be some revision as while this girl broke the law and there needs to be some form of consequences - to label her a sex offender and to have to register for 20 years is tragic and absurd. I am certainly not condoning her behavior but this possible sentence is not in balance with the offense."
At this link you can read Jay's letter and an explanation by his legislative aide of the laws in question.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
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Clearly, as such 'offenses' are covered by the media, our government has to start 'getting it'.
ReplyDeleteSORNA/A.W.A. is being abused by prosecuting such individuals and worse, is the ones that have become a registered sex offender due to such circumstances.
As the media covers such abuse, the need to clean up the sex offender registry should become a priority.
Officials such as Hottinger, who have agreed with such legislation for 'votes' are now learning they must 'amend' these laws for continued support and of course, VOTES!
Thank you for allowing me to comment!
GREAT JOB BRUCE!!
To those who also commented, my deep apologies for having somehow lost them in my attempt to get them published.
ReplyDeleteOne was another attaboy and the other was a question about why, in view of my constant criticism of government, I don't run for office. The answer to that is because I don't want to be in office, I probably wouldn't get any votes, and if I were in office I couldn't be critical of that office and that wouldn't be any fun whatever.