I am currently struggling to help my husband who was charged with a sex crime at age 17 in Minnesota, 2007. We are currently living in Missouri and at 19 he was charged with failing to update his registry in 2009. While going through his previous divorce his ex-wife told the police that he needs to register as a sex offender and they told him to just do it. He complied with what he was told to do. He was also under the understanding that he only needed to register for 10 years in Minnesota and being so young at the time did not understand or consider that other states have their own laws. Further, the mistake of youth haunts him still, he would rather forget it happened. Nether did anyone look into the circumstances to determine if he truly needed to register according to Missouri Law. He was adjudicated as a juvenile and if Missouri is saying they follow their own laws for registering and not Minnesota, then as as an adjudicated minor, he should never have been on the adult registry as the registration requirement in this case is until turn 21 and automatically ended, further it is kept confidential. However, in all this now, he has been posted publicly and labeled. We have been suffering so much and I feel so powerless to help him and he is suffering most of all sitting in jail prejudged and no one caring to look at the facts and the law. After the first arrest, he lost his housing, his job/income, and we were split up so I could stay with my daughters while he took to the streets. How is roaming and sleeping in the elements safe for anyone? While trying to figure it all out he struggled even more and on top of it my car broke and he was on his own. He even went to the ER and showed early signs of a stroke coming on. Thankfully he got help first and was stabilized. He had just gotten help from a church, going to a recovery group, got a new job, and even was given a safe place to put up a tent to shelter him. However, when he went to update the registry again, he didn’t have 5.00 cash on him. Even with a witness he was there, the State doesn’t care. How is this for public safety when our safety doesn’t matter if someone doesn’t have 5.00 and they are sent away? There is no record of him in any registry online, not in any state or Nationally. And all that is moot considering in Missouri Law (RSMo § 211.425) he should not have been categorized on a Tier and he should not be registering at all. He was not tried and convicted as an adult. The prosecutors own document stating the case shows it was still a Juvenile case as indicated with the letter J. There is just failure all around and now they are making him an adult offender when he was Juvenile who made a mistake in believing the person’s age was 2 years older than it was. He has not had any further sex offenses in his lifetime nor has anyone around him every had concerns with him with children. Looking now, 18 years later, yes seeing 13 year old victim seems shocking due to thinking his age now. But he was 17 at the time, they said they were 15. I lied about my age at 13 to be 15 or 16 to talk to older boys. Just about every female friend I know did that at some point. One of my best friends was 14 when she met her now husband who was 23 at the time, they are still married and with grandchildren. All the State is looking at now is applying their law of Felony charge for the age, as if they are re-charging him with a crime and not looking at the adjudicated juvenile and applying that law. He paid his dues and completed his requirements. 17 and 13 is not uncommon to have an attraction especially with puberty, it is difficult to gauge ages. He is grown up and has no attraction to children so to treat him like he does is beyond ridicules and completely ignores that people grow up. I feel so hopeless and we don’t have money for an attorney, all I feel I can do is pray that the absolute truth will set him free from all this. And that justice will prevail. Actual justice. This has caused so much damage to him, me,. and our children.
