Sound Familiar? Dodge County sex offenders face challenges in registering
A local convicted sex offender — Ronald Eugene Teeslink Jr., 38, of Fremont — contacted the Fremont Tribune after his repeated efforts to comply with Nebraska’s sex offender registration requirements under his sentencing were unsuccessful.
Teeslink Jr. said he twice attempted to comply with the law on Friday, Dec. 16, after he was hired for a new job — one of the life actions many sex offenders are required to report to authorities. But each time he went to the sheriff’s office in Fremont, he was told he could not register because no staff were available to do the paperwork.
Dodge County Sheriff Robert “Bob” Reynolds verified Teeslink Jr.’s efforts to register, and said the only two deputies at the sheriff’s office who can complete the task under state law were not available when Teeslink Jr. came to his office.
Facing a possible 10-year prison sentence for failure to register, Teeslink Jr. contacted the Tribune to report his story and plight. He said he was previously arrested and convicted for failure to register his sex offender status is 2004, and is adamant in his efforts to follow the law and comply with his sentence.
I used to have this same problem here in Georgia. Every time I went to register here, I was told the one person that handles that was unavailable, come back at 2. At 2, come back at 3. At 3, come back at 4. At 4, come back tomorrow or Monday.
I got around it by demanding to see the watch commander. The first time I did that, he just repeated that I had to come back. When I told him to say that on my video phone, he went inside, used his master key to open the registration office, and got the forms. When I filled them out and handed them over, he said they’d call if there was a problem. Shocker – there wasn’t.
The next registration after that, the same runaround started, but I went to the watch commander immediately instead of waiting until hearing to come back the next day. Haven’t had a problem since.
Fortunately, they replaced the person who runs registration now. The new person is a lot more reasonable than the one she replaced.
Good tip!
yes, I would always recommend getting proof that you went to the office and attempted to get the paperwork straight. Either get video or a dated and signed document as proof. Sad how you can get violated for paperwork screwups and lack of staff. This is what happens when you push something into law without making Shure all the possible issues are covered.
Phil
And I obviously cannot speak for every officer, but I wonder how many of them would back us up and say, “You know, it wasn’t that guy’s fault, I told him he was good for the month”. Most likely they would forget and say I can’t recall or just cover their butt and say, “I never told them that”.
I mean what harm would it do for them to tell the truth. Not like they are going to get fired. And yet we face life in prison possibly for their failure.
But again, just my opinion, but pretty sure many on here would agree with me. I saw a lot of butt covering when I worked in law enforcement. I feel sometimes like I lied by not turning them in, but I valued my job, at least until I quit because it was giving me nightmares. Every time I tried to report something, I was told, “Think about what that will do to your career, snitching on another officer”.
I spoke with an old retired cop who was a deputy in Georgia back in the 1950s and he said “Son, you cannot even imagine the things we got away with back then”.
This sounds like entrapment to me. They cannot register you due to low staffing, and yet they have enough staff to go arrest him for failing to register once the time period passes before you are out of compliance.
I am sorry (Ok not sorry) to say. Punishment, punishment, punishment. Punitive, punitive, punitive.
The IRS is often short staffed and delays tax refunds, but they never seem too short staffed to fine you if you fail to file in a timely manner. Both scenarios define double standards, both in the Government’s favor.
You can almost guarantee had this not been brought up to a news article, that they most certainly would have arrested him, and eventually either drop the case, or proceed to prosecute him. Ridiculous is what this is. We have our responsibility, they need to also keep to their responsibility as well. What could have been so important, that their only trained staff, were pulled away for 2 days hmm? I hope they lose funding over this matter, and more people are made aware of this kind of stuff happening, outside of our control.
Tereto
Many of us, including myself, would never have been put on a registry if law enforcement enforced the “Right to an attorney”. During my interrogation, I asked not once, not twice, but three times for a lawyer. All three times the cop told me how he would ruin me, go to the news and embarrass my entire family.
After 6 hours of interrogations, I finally broke down and at that point just wanted to get it over with and I would have admitted to all the unsolved crimes since 1970 just to get out of there.
I tried to bring that up at my sentencing but the judge just said, “You had your chance for that and didn’t choose to take that route”.
This is absurd. He tried that is all that should be required. He can’t register himself! Glad that he went to the media.
The stupidity of this public shaming sham need to be exposed whenever possible.
Happy Holidays!
I remember during the height of covid, when everything was in lock down, some sheriff’s offices were telling people to do call in or online registrations on your required months. No paperwork or proof was provided. I never did hear back if anyone was violated for failing to registry under those conditions.
Once at my check in location, they said their printer was broke and they would give me a handwritten receipt. Since I had the entire month, I said no thanks I will come back in a week or so.
I may be wrong but with what I see in these posts along with your real world experiences in FL, it seems that the states with the most problems are the ones where the Sheriff is in charge of registration. Gee, Sheriff is an elected position. Go Figure. I again reference my state, PA, Where PSP is in charge of registration. NO elected people in that agency. Yes, I agree that if he would not have gone to the media, he would have been arrested. I also agree with CherokeeJack, in that this is entrapment, just like the sting posts earlier today. FUNNY how entrapment is illegal until it relates to us ex offenders.