N.H. court sides with sex offender who hired minor
A registered sex offender did not break the law by hiring a 16-year-old boy to work for his landscaping business, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled Friday.
Edward Proctor was convicted in 2017 under a law prohibiting certain sex offenders from undertaking employment or volunteer services involving the care, instruction or guidance of children. According to court documents, he hired the teen in February 2016 for snow removal work and again in May 2016, driving him to job sites for weeding, mulching and other landscape work. He was arrested after the boy’s mother typed Proctor’s name into an online sex offender registry database.
Proctor, who is serving a three- to six-year prison sentence, appealed his conviction, arguing that the law prohibits accepting certain types of employment, not providing employment. The high court did not weigh in on that argument but agreed with his second argument that the law, which specifically mentions jobs such as teacher, coach and camp counselor, only prohibits activity that inherently involves children.
The court reversed Proctor’s conviction and sent the case back to the lower court
Each time they sneak a new trap, I mean law, no I mean trap into being, they are just trying to assure none of us make it. That includes those already off probation that they want back in prison.
Imagine if Edward had not had the where with all to fight back. He would still be rotting in lockup. Unfortunately, now he has a re-arrest on his record so if he gets another bogus charge, the courts may not be so willing to help him out.
We all have a target on our backs. Not just from neighbors, but mostly from law enforcement who seem to have focused on us as their “Pet project” lately. How long will it be if they keep coming up with insane laws, rules and ordinances that leaving our own property is cause for arrest ?
I was hoping all these false arrests getting over turned that we would start to have more gun powder in our arsenal for war against the enemy. But seems most of our shots are blanks or miss their marks ( Fall of deaf ears )
I do not want to compare us to anyone but here is how I feel.
For 40 years, the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, eating quail and manna. They were led into the Promised Land by Joshua; the victory at Jericho marked the beginning of possession of the land.
Please God don’t make us wait too much longer.
This won’t stick. Court expressed no opinion on what registrants should or should not do, only what state law is. NH legislature can simply clarify the statute if they disagree with the court’s interpretation of it. Does not apply to any other state.
Only good I see coming out of this is that it may force legislative committee hearings in which NH registrants’ families can speak out.
What’s N.H.’s age of consent law? If it’s 16 then no “crime” or violation was committed here and they wasted tax payer money on an irrelevant court case.
When I was on probation, my PO and the SO group counselor told me they don’t care who I date as long as the person is 16 or older because my case was a consensual with a teen a year under legal age. I was not prohibited from being around, working with, associating with anyone aged 16+. That was Connecticut.
Another example of the Registry being a hindrance and a waste of resources for society. I hope he can sue the State for ruining his landscaping business.
We must force a new narrative in society’s mind that the Registry is pointless in the hands of law enforcement and society, not to mention punitive and unconstitutional.
This craziness will not even start to improve until those entrusted with law enforcement know the law themselves. Then the law makers will need to be educated on exactly the ramifications of their attempts to keep society safe from a threat that doesn’t exist. It’s tough to believe that our justice system has gotten so entangled.
I have been telling people for years if you want to live an easier life in a few states that will at least give you a fare shake you have to move to NH/VT/ME although some of the bigger cities in ME are starting to give RSO’s a hard time. There is still some common sense in these states and they have not given up fully on RSO’s
If you have been off sanctions for 10 years and you weren’t classified as a predator, then you’re automatically off of the registry in Vermont. I actually talked to the poor woman who has to handle the entire registry in Vermont like two years back. And unlike say Massachusetts, you don’t have to move to Vermont before they determine what’s your classification might be. There are someThere are a few states where you might be able to get off the registry, like Oregon and Colorado and Even Georgia, but it’s not a sure thing. There are also some states where like with every other aspect of registration, out of stators are treated differently than instigators, but we see that changing a bit like with the recent case in Indiana. To my knowledge, Vermont is the only automatic state where you don’t even have to apply to be removed. Of course the problem with Vermont is that parts of it are quite expensiveIn the entire state has a population that is about equivalent to the Lakeland Florida. Metro area.
The problem is though, no matter where you move to, if you are still on the Florida registry, when someone Googles you, it still comes up no matter where you live.
So moving will not keep someone from finding out. And not everyone has the luxury of being able to move. Either due to finances, job, family or even wanted to live in Vermont which is cold as crap during the winter.
Something has to eventually, legally give. Just hope it doesn’t take 90% of the U.S population being on the witch hunt list for that change to happen.
One final thought. My Dad use site an old saying. “The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence”. I did move out of the county I was living as they were making my life a living Hell.
I tried once to move to California and start over but found out I would have ( at the time at least ) have been on for life there so moved right back to Flora-duh.
If I see is working on the out of state thing, but think about this. Sure if someone googles you they can find you but they have to know who you are and where you are. One of the advantages of even living in Georgia when you’re still on the registry, at least as long as your conviction is old enough. Is that they no longer keep track of the Internet information because they lost in their own courta few years ago. You don’t really think about this until you can no longer do it but the relative anonymity of the Internet would at least allow you to try to conduct business without being stocked. That’s what happened to me for a number of years until I finally gave up. Likewise if somebody looks up your address to see who’s living there, if you own the property you can just have it registered in some corporate name so they would have to try a lot harder to find out who you were. In a situation like that at least you could try to do some kind of business and you could possibly even have if not friends, at least regular acquaintances. That’s my biggest problem right now. I have been off probation for 14 years and my life is actually worse now than it was back then
Joe
I agree. My incident was in 1991, arrested in 1992 and sentenced in 1993. I did not take a plea and lawyer said since I had no previous arrests and was former law enforcement judge would show mercy. When he found out who the judge was, he went into the hallway and threw up. If I knew what was going on, I would have withdrawn my guilty plea.
The judge basically sentenced me to life. I did 10 years before I filed a 2nd appeal before a “New” judge who would listened and tossed the remainder of my sentence.
Although the sentence was not illegal, he asked me “Who did you piss off to get this sentence?” Looking through the evidence he agreed the former judge had used emotion instead of common sense to sentence me. The consensual so called victim never even showed up in any of the hearings.
When my sentence was squashed I knew that was “Some” freedom but by that time I had been registering since 1997. First 1 time a year, then they changed it to 2 and now for some reason my lawyer cannot understand legally, 4. He wants to go before a judge but I do not have the $1000 to do it and he said no guarantees a judge will change it even though he is 100% sure it is a mistake or most likely done on purpose but the FDLE because of a previous law suit I won against them.
Anyway, all that jabbering was to say what you said, I am worse off than when I was on probation, minus the probation officer and paying a monthly fee.
No way to move on, being on the registry. Every time I got a job, even though I was honest about my charges, somehow the registry came back to bite me at a job when flyers would show up and my work embarrassing the boss or making their way to the corporate offices.
New york youre off automatically…. then I came to florida. Orifinally I was supposed to be on 7 yrs then they retroed and made it 20 bit its automatic.
Is there a follow-up to this article, which is dated 2/8/2019?
Didn’t realize this was old news. Sorry about that.
First I heard about it so new to me. I have been on here for a long time now and don’t remember it ever being posted here. Old or not I like to be informed of what is going on with us even if it is a little older news if it has not been previously posted on F.A.C site.
Information is power.
It so happens that it does pertain to a current issue in FL, e.g., whether the SOR statute means what it says or whether legislature will need to clarify what they expect of registrants:
https://www.news-journalonline.com/opinion/20200508/donrsquot-let-sex-offenders-hide-from-registration–sheriff-rick-staly?template=ampart
Funny how folks like that sheriff probably thought that considering unpaid fines and costs part of the sentence was a good idea when it pertain to restoration of voting rights. Doesn’t look so good now, does it? So, if the legislature decides to close the “loophole” Wouldn’t retroactive application be considered ex post facto punishment? New and exciting way to avoid registration. Don’t pay your court cost. It’s not going to impact your ability to vote anyway.
If legislature closes loophole, it won’t be considered ex post facto punishment until the court characterizes the registration scheme in general as ex post facto punishment. In Florida, that has not happened yet. The fix, once introduced as a bill to the legislature, will be retroactive.
But I think it would be a good idea for us to watch for the bill’s introduction and follow it through the process. If there is a committee hearing, that might be a good opportunity for people to express how the registry has affected their families.
What is even more odd is, Those of us who had it applied retroactively, who got to decide that those who were not on sanctions at the time got a pass but those of who had been sentenced before the law even existed had to be on it?
If there was going to be a registry at all ( Which none of us support ) then apply it to only those sentence on or after the date the law took place. Instead there are three levels of stupidity.
So if me and a friend were both on probation and he got released from it on Tuesday and I got released from it on Thursday and the law took effect on Wednesday, he doesn’t have to register but I do for life?
Some of these law makers need to get a refresher course on fairness of law. Also do not want anyone to go through what we go through but one of these prosecutors, judges or law makers need to have one of their kids on the registry so maybe they can feel what our families go through on daily basis.
I feel sorry for those who live in a sparsely populated area where everyone knows everyone’s business. If you were on the registry where the judge, the sheriff, the prosecutor are all related, you are screwed.
My offense was in Virginia. I tried looking my name up on the Virginia registry and I am no longer on it. Here in Florida where I have not had any sexual offense charges I am on the registry. Makes no sense unless you follow the $$$.
So are you just on it or do you also have to register still? If so, what is keeping you from moving back to Virginia where you can live in peace? Just asking. I would be all over that even if I had the walk the entire way.
I still have to register in Florida. I built my retirement home here in Florida when I moved here to help my parents…who have since both passed away. I have good neighbors, friends and plenty of activities. I love it here in Florida. My children and their families have moved to Florida and live just a short drive away. I spent 29 years serving my country and I do not intend to let a bunch of ‘tin-horn’ politicians run me out of my home. My goal with FAC and NARSOL is to change things so that justice and not ‘revenge’ prevails.
I understand, I was just wondering. Like I said, I tried to move away to be treated more fairly but seems most states at the time anyway, were basing the decision on where you came from and not their current law. SO I would have been back to square one AND away from my family so came back to the slum slime state.