Teen Sex Offenders Find Past Catching Up With Them

By DEE-ANN DURBIN

Dec. 16, 2001 12 AM PT

ASSOCIATED PRESS

LANSING, Mich. —

The boy was 10 when a slightly older neighbor in his northeastern Michigan town asked him to play.

The two climbed into a treehouse with the neighbor’s 9-year-old sister. There, he said, the neighbor told the boy to have sex with the girl.

“I didn’t know what I was doing,” said the boy, now 18, who asked that his name not be used because of fear of harassment. “It was kind of like me and a girl playing doctor.”

After a similar incident later that summer, the boy was convicted as a juvenile of criminal sexual conduct. He was sentenced to a year of probation and fined $80.

But for him and hundreds of other youthful sex offenders, their sentence continues. Under Michigan law, the teen’s name will be on Michigan’s registry of sex offenders for 25 years. That means his name appears when potential employers, landlords or neighbors search the state’s registry.

He and other young offenders say the state is sending confusing signals to juveniles, who are generally considered easier to rehabilitate than adults and can have their convictions erased when they turn 21.

Every state has a sex offender registry. Michigan is one of 28 states that requires juvenile sex offenders to register once they have completed their sentences, according to the Washington-based Center for Sex Offender Management.

Public Granted Broad Access to Names

Of the 28, about one-third have limits on releasing those names to the public, according to the center.

Michigan publicly releases the names of juvenile sex offenders who have been tried as adults. The names of offenders who were tried as juveniles and convicted of the most serious sex crimes--including rape of a child--are posted when they turn 18.

In Texas and South Carolina, juveniles’ names are posted publicly. In Mississippi, only juveniles who are twice convicted must register. Indiana requires those older than 14 to register. In South Dakota, the cutoff is 15.

Many supporters of sex offender registries say there’s nothing wrong with including teenagers on the lists.

Many of the laws are inspired by Megan’s Law, a 1996 federal law that required states to register sex offenders. It was named for a 7-year-old girl who was raped and murdered by a twice-convicted sex offender.

Laura Ahearn, executive director of Parents for Megan’s Law, a New York-based group that supports registries, backs registering juveniles as long as they’re being treated.

“A broad law that gives you release from the registry is a mistake,” she said.

But others say the laws are unfair because they don’t take into account whether the teens are a danger to society.

“At the minimum, if you’re going to stigmatize people, there should be a showing by the government that they pose a danger to society,” said Michael Steinberg of the American Civil Liberties Union.

In New Jersey, where the original Megan’s Law was passed, a judge ruled earlier this month that posting sex offenders’ addresses violates their privacy, undercutting a constitutional amendment overwhelmingly passed last year.

Attorney Nichol Palumbo, who is representing the Michigan boy convicted of raping his neighbor, said that even the victim’s father asked the judge not to make the boy register as a sex offender.

The victim in that case could not be reached. The county’s current prosecutor, Gary Rapp, said he wasn’t familiar with the case and wouldn’t comment.

In a separate action, three Michigan men are appealing a court’s decision that their names be posted on the registry, arguing that they were sentenced under a law that erased their convictions when they turned 21.

Some Want Judges to Be Given Discretion

Palumbo says the state has gone too far by not allowing judges to decide who should be on the registry. Oakland County Judge Gene Schnelz, who recently had to sentence a 16-year-old to the registry for touching a girl’s breast, agrees.

“It’s an excessive punishment for a minor to stain them for 25 years. It could preclude them from a normal, happy existence,” Schnelz said.

Schnelz is concerned that teenagers having consensual sex could wind up on the registry.

Meanwhile, the boy convicted of raping his neighbor lives with constant worry. He left his hometown because of harassment after his conviction. Now that he’s 18 and his name and address have been posted on the Internet, the harassment is beginning again.

“I’ve had calls at my house, saying, ‘You’re a pervert. You’re a disgusting pig,’ ” he said. “I can’t deal with it anymore. It just feels like my old life is coming back to me again.”

His girlfriend of three years broke up with him when he worked up the courage to tell her about the registry. He wanted to join the Navy but he’s unsure if the military will take him.

“I want to tell everyone, don’t judge a book by its cover,” he said.

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States Registry of Teen Sex Offenders

States that require sex offenders under 18 to register once they’ve completed their sentences:

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Delaware

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana (only those 14 or older)