Why Is Texas Requiring a Guy Who Stole a Car To Register as a Sex Offender?
In 2014, Rohn M. Weatherly stole a neighbor’s car, in the back seat of which was the owner’s 4-year-old daughter. Weatherly returned the child within a few hours, but his act was dangerous, illegal, and worthy of punishment.
What it wasn’t was a sex crime, yet Weatherly will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison. That’s a requirement that wasn’t specified at the time he pled guilty but was tacked on after the fact.
For all of the debate over the widespread use of sex-offender registries, few if any advocates of the system defend it as a catch-all mark of shame for anybody who commits a crime involving a child, yet that’s its role in this case.
Heyyyy – I know… lets force everyone convicted of any crime to register as a SO… I mean – after all, it’s “not punishment”… right? 🙂
Ok What judge on Earth is naive enough to fall for that?
Heck we then should be able to charge car thieves with murder with that reasoning. Hey, a crime is a crime right?
We all have neck aches by now from shaking our heads at these ridiculous, nonsense rulings, charges, laws etc. etc. etc.
Just when you think you have heard it all, mind blown once again.
The same happens in Michigan. One of the plaintiffs in Does v Snyder was convicted of kidnapping a man and his young son, forcing the man to withdraw money from an ATM. No sex of any kind took place, yet kidnapping of a child for any purpose in Michigan brands you a sex offender. The public registry doesn’t explain the details of a conviction unless you really dig for it. So the public assumes that he is a child molester. Totally unjust.
In Louisiana, you will get put on the sex offender registry as a tier 1 if you interfere with the custody of a child.
Louisiana law RS 14.45.1
Interference with the custody of a child is the intentional taking, enticing, or decoying away of a minor child by a parent not having a right of custody, with intent to detain or conceal such child from a parent having a right of custody pursuant to a court order or from a person entrusted with the care of the child by a parent having custody pursuant to a court order.
Oh the irony if the DA would pursue this against my former father in law after he manipulated and kept my own kids from me because I was the horrible RSO
Does that mean, that if you are the noncustodial parent, and you go to court, you are a sex offender? HOW F***ing stupid is that
Another reason you will be put on the Louisiana sex offender registry is if you employ a 15 year old gymnast, contortionist, bicyclist, or wire walker. It is considered “contributing to the delinquency of a minor”.
Louisiana law 23.251 – No minor under sixteen years of age shall be employed, exhibited, used, or trained for the purpose of exhibition: As a rope or wire walker, gymnast, wrestler, contortionist, stunt rider, or acrobat upon any bicycle or other similar mechanical vehicle or contrivance.
Sort of SUCKS if you are an Olympian from LA. Stupid
Also, in addition to my last comment, How do they have any youth sports. The way the law reads, Every person involved with youth sports is an SO
I guess the Olympic games better stay away from there. Most of the girls on the gymnastic teams are 14 or younger.
Perhaps a better question to ask might be how many police, prosecutors, legislators, etc., in Louisiana have ever had a child enrolled in a local gymnastics class and an event was held for that class to exhibit what the young “gymnasts” have learned.
By the very law the legislators created, the police are sworn to enforce, and the prosecutors duty is to prosecute, shouldn’t they follow their own “zero crimes against children” mantra and start arresting, prosecuting, and convicting themselves?
My inner “Gomer Pyle” wants to start shouting “Citizens ay-rest! Citizens ay-rest!” and take them all down myself to show them how idiotic these laws can be.
To be fair and up-front here, the law states no person can HIRE a child in those capacities. If a minor competes in events of this nature for a local school, athletic league, or the Olympics, they are not HIRED or paid to do so, and this law is specific about hiring, i.e. paying a minor to do these types of things.
Is anyone in Hollywood listening? This would make a great action series . All the crazy crimes or not that trough twisted imagination were turned into sex offender convictions which put people on the sex offender registry. A lot of money in this for the right person.
So long as it paints the justice system, law enforcement and the media in a negative light, I’m all for it! The public doesn’t have a clue how overly excessive and militant the registry actually is. Most see it as a tool for vengeance with the collective “they made their bed” narrative.
A culture shift needs to happen.