I publish a lot of stories about pastors gone bad and people who choose to sexually abuse children. Once in a while I find a good story to report. Like this one about removing the shame of a having ones name one a sex offenders website.
Joshua Tomlin was convicted of have sex with his 15 year old girlfriend when he was the tender age of 19. I would have broke his neck if it had been my daughter, even if she was a runaway who lied about her age, which appears to be the case here. There is a difference between sexual predication and teenaged trysts. Why is it that our legal system pursues both with such vigor?
With his name included on a popular state Web site that lists those convicted of having sex with underage girls along with rapists and pedophiles, he knows that volunteering as a coach for his 6-year-old daughter's soccer team is not even an option.
Two apartment complexes asked his family to leave after they found out about his conviction, and he worries that his daughter and 3-year-old son will start to wonder why a North Port police officer stops by their home to check on him once a month.
So when he found out about a new law giving him a chance to have his name stricken from the state's registry of sex offenders, he planned to use his income tax return to get a lawyer.
I've never been comfortable with the heavy hand used by the justice system when it comes to sex crimes. People like Tomlin are often caught in a net designed for more heinous offenders.
4 comments:
There should be a balance to the various sex-offender laws, but with such a violent subject - it's difficult to provide it.
Any system is open to abuse; it's also true that some will just seek to abuse it. The difficulty is accomodating such people as this guy against the desire of a someone else to get off the list. The scale is tipped against the predator, and rightfully so. But, as this case demonstrates, sometimes it's just too wide - and the metaphorical net catches those who shouldn't be in it.
It seems that the process is working in Florida.
Carolyn Ann
balance is so hard to achieve when political correctness is involved.
We often believe we will have rational actions in an irrational world. We would like perfection in an imperfect world.
If the world is to make any sense it is that the person will not make the same mistake. We get so caught up in the names and face of the wrong or possibly wronged that we lose sight of the world. If he had been hit by a car he would be gone and this story would not exist. Yet he lives and so does it. Is the point about this person or the meaning of what happened.
anon - duh
he does not matter.
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