Niles — A southwest Michigan judge who placed an Indiana teen on the sex offender registry for having sex with an underage girl is considering allowing the teen to withdraw his guilty plea.
Berrien County District Judge Dennis Wiley said Wednesday he’ll review other court cases before making a decision.
Wiley made the ruling during a court hearing where the teen, Zach Anderson, 19, of Elkhart, sought the dismissal of his plea agreement.
The judge didn’t give a timetable for the decision.
If Wiley allows Anderson to withdraw the plea, the case would start over from the beginning.
Anderson’s attorney, Scott Grabel of Lansing, argued that the plea should be dismissed because the prosecutor violated an agreement not to oppose Anderson’s entry into a program that would have softened his punishment.
As a first-time offender younger than 21, Anderson was eligible for the state Holmes Youthful Trainee Act, which would have allowed him to avoid the sex offender registry and have his conviction erased after serving probation.
During Anderson’s sentencing hearing in April, Assistant Prosecutor Jerry Vigansky told the judge that two other teens recently sentenced for underage sex weren’t sentenced under the Holmes act.
Vigansky argued his comments didn’t violate the agreement.
Anderson and his attorney don’t refute what happened in December between him and a 14-year-old Niles girl who said she was 17. The age of consent in Michigan is 16.
What they’re most alarmed about is the punishment. They’re strongly hoping it will be softened through the Holmes act.
After spending 73 days in jail, Anderson began a five-year probation that imposed 61 restrictions. Among them: No Internet access. An 8 p.m. curfew. He can’t go to restaurants that serve alcohol.
Worst of all, he’s on the Indiana Sex and Violent Offender Registry for 25 years, a scarlet letter that will make it hard for him to find a job or a place to live.
His quest for softer punishment has drawn support from around the country, including the mother of the girl.
An online petition asking the judge to reconsider has received 172,000 signatures. Several newspapers have written editorials supporting Anderson. A national justice reform group has rallied behind him.
The group Reform Sex Offender Laws, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said sex registries have become bloated with teens like Anderson, and fail to distinguish between them and bigger threats, such as pedophiles.
Michigan has the fourth-highest number of people on its registry, 43,000, behind California, Texas and Florida, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Kids. Each state can set its own rules for who qualifies for the registry.
Recent Comments