Summerfield sex offender jailed after showing up a day late to register
A Summerfield sex offender spent a night in jail last week after showing up a day late for his quarterly registration update.
He has re-registered 25 times since originally registering in April 2015. He most recently re-registered in Marion County on Dec. 4, 2020 and was reminded his next re-registration was scheduled for March, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office report.
On the morning of Thursday, April 1, XXXX reported to the sheriff’s office to register. After being read his Miranda warning, he told a deputy he forgot he was required to register in March. XXXX said he realized on March 31 he had forgotten and came to the sex offender unit office, but it was closed. XXXX has been provided with the unit’s office hours in the past and is aware the office is closed on Wednesdays, the report said.
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Preface: I studied digital (1 or 0) and philosophical (true or false) logic in college. They both use identical axioms and theorems. I also took the LSAT and that test requires a fundamental knowledge of logic. Logic is the way laws should be applied (although it is sometimes improperly applied).
We should hope that judges have a good understanding of how to logically apply the law.
Here is my two cent logical analysis of why punishment for a collateral consequence of a law that was not in effect at the time of the qualifying offense is an expost facto punishment.
The subject of this article was convicted in Oct. 1997. That is the exact same month of the sanction cutoff for being put in the “new” registry. Therefore his qualifying crime had to have been committed before the registry existed.
The registry is a “collateral consequence” and supposedly not punishment (we all know it is in effect).
I would really like to see this defense tried (but don’t want to be the guinea pig); I think someone in this defendant’s shoes may have little to lose trying it:
Being placed on the registry requires a a qualifying felony sex offense (regardless of adjudication). A felony conviction for an FTR (Failure to register) and being sent to prison can only be called “punishment”.
The punishment for the FTR is not an island upon itself, it is a product of two things,
1 ) the registry violation
AND
2) the collateral consequence of the original conviction.
So the punishment imposed may be ok for the current registry violation but it is also a collateral consequence of the original conviction.
Without that original conviction the defendant would not be standing before the court.
Therefore, a collateral consequence of the new FTR punishment would make the original conviction portion a violation of the expost facto clause of the constitution.
(In my logical opinion), it may be ok to apply an expost facto registry law making a pre-registry law offender register, because that is (supposedly) not punishment. However, The expost facto punishment for violating a collateral consequence of the original offense should not be allowed to be applied.
The registry may be allowed to be applied ex-post facto, but there should be no lawful teeth to enforce it punitively.
I do have a question which is not related to this thread but nontheless is important to me:
My wife is from Ecuador and her daughters are currently visiting and are staying with us until June 10th. One is an adult and two are under 18. Do I need to report to the OCSO of their staying with us?
This coming May is when those clowns are stopping by to check my residence….and I absolutely want no problem with them…so advice would be appreciated.
If you are on “sex offender” probation:
948.30 Additional terms and conditions of probation or community control for certain sex offenses.
(1)(e) If the victim was under the age of 18, a prohibition on contact with a child under the age of 18 except as provided in this paragraph. The court may approve supervised contact with a child under the age of 18 if the approval is based upon a recommendation for contact issued by a qualified practitioner who is basing the recommendation on a risk assessment. Further, the sex offender must be currently enrolled in or have successfully completed a sex offender therapy program. The court may not grant supervised contact with a child if the contact is not recommended by a qualified practitioner and may deny supervised contact with a child at any time.
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0900-0999/0948/Sections/0948.30.html
If you are not on probation, I see nothing in s. 943.0435 nor s. 775.21 which prohibits contact with minors:
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0900-0999/0943/Sections/0943.0435.html
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0775/Sections/0775.21.html
FAC, please correct if I am in error.
What happened to intent? I thought u have to have intent to be charged with a crime?
Not for registration violations. Those are strict liability
Yep, same thing happen to me in 2009 I ended up getting sentenced to 20 months in prison for forgetting to register, and I should have been off of the registry almost 30 years ago when I was originally sentenced in the 80s I was only supposed to be on the registry for 10 years but then they did the ex post facto law crap and now have lifetime registration