Forgetfulness: Felony or Human Nature?
The point of this post is to remind us that we all forget. It’s human nature. We recently had a situation where a guest speaker forgot about our meeting date. He’s still a great person, sympathetic to our cause and a someone who will undoubtedly make a positive difference. But here’s a thought that was shared internally…
I can’t help but think about the consequences to a registered citizen who “forgot” a registration obligation or forgot to report a vehicle or internet identifier, or forgot their GPS box at home… Registration obligations are strict liability and carry minimum mandatory sentences in Florida.
While we recognize that “forgetting” is something that we all do and is human nature, to a registered citizen….”forgetting” is not an option…it is a felony.
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After 9 years of a PERFECT record, Always reporting every move and on time, Last March I FORGOT to register during my birthday month !!. I usually have it programmed in my phone to remind me, But I just got a new phone because my other one died. I’m on several different medications for ,my anxiety and PTSD also well as morphine (very high doses) and medical Marijuana for cronic pain. Well, I simply forgot to register. It was the 2nd if April before it hit me, Well, Marion County isn’t open for Registery on Wednesday (the 3rd), So it was the 4th before I got there !!They already had my name on the Board for arrest !”***!.=, THANK GOD I showed up, They reemed me a new one, But let me register and didn’t arrest me. But they made it very clear that if I EVER screw up in ANY way, They are gonna. “Throw The Book” at me !;. So now I live in even MORE FEAR of slipping up somehow and ending up in prison !!. Everyone else on the planet can forget EXCEPT a Sex Offender !!!!!!.
I wonder, does the treatment provider aka therapist who forgot about the session work under contract for the feds or the state? I ask because one of the so called therapists at the ITM group that both Florida and good ole Uncle Sam use ratted out an offender to the probation office bc the offender was simply late to a group session since his public bus was late. The offender then got violated for failing to participate in court ordered therapy bc of that therapist (aka. the-rapist). So, the offender went back to prison and that therapist still works for ITM as more of a snitch than anything elses.
F**k Florida. They can kiss my a$$. What they dont know wont hurt them, or me. We had a rule in prison… stay out of the officers faces. What they dont know wont hurt anybody. That’s how I see this whole life on the registry. Only tell them what they need to know. The obvious like car registration, address changes, etc… but if I go on a trip for 2, 3, 7, 14 days and dont get pulled over and come back safely and discreetly, nobody will ever know I left. So why stress myself out about these damn laws? I refuse to do it.
If you are an SO, forgetting is NOT an option…
Good point. I think they should make the jury read all the laws then give them a questionnaire on what the heck were supposed to be doing it takes a legal mind or attorney to navigate it and they still ain’t sure and don’t want to give advise when you call Fdle or the county they don’t exactly know I’ll say well I need to know for sure they’ll put me on hold then either tell me to call the other or give me an verbal answer they need to send me the statue and proof this is what they want cause some the stuff Theyve told me was wrong in the past and I’ve herd people being arrested for wrong info but no proof. All I was supposed todo is register once a year now I’m on lifetime probation reporting 15 times a freaking year and under investigation on the info I give them I’m a suspect in what crime? nothing ! I’m targeted unconstitutionally for technical probation type stipulations that aren’t a real crime it’s probation
On the last Friday in September 2017, after having taken 338 dialysis treatments, on the 339th treatment, I forgot my GPS. I was on a paratransport bus the kind which picks up patients and takes them to various appointments and dialysis. I could not go back and get the GPS.
I called my probation officer immediately after realizing I had forgotten the device. It was 6:30 a.m. I was ready to forgo dialysis in order for me to get the GPS. My probation officer suggested the best thing to do was to take the 4-hour dialysis treatment and to call him when I was on the way back home afterward.
That very day when I returned home, I called the paratransport bus company and requested a copy of the manifest with my name/schedule and date of transport. This would show I was on the bus to the hospital with specific pickup and dropoff times in both directions. I was able to secure a copy of my treatment sheet while I was there at my dialysis session. I also obtained an article through the internet about the correlation between dialysis and short-term memory loss which included a very easy to understand description of what happens. I submitted all of this to my probation officer. He needed to make a report and send it to Miami-Dade County (where my original crimes were committed).
With all the information given in support to my whereabouts at any given time, Miami-Dade sent an arrest order to Orange County Sheriff’s Department on Oct. 27, 2017. I was picked up and booked under a technical violation of probation and I spent a month at the Orange County Booking and Release station. I was in the medical unit and I was given dialysis 3 times a week on my regular schedule (M/W/F) but the session was only 3 hours long (no exceptions) instead of my usual 4 hours. During that month I lost 12 hours of dialysis treatments that I would never get back.
The day before Thanksgiving, one of the most heavily trafficked day of the year, Miami-Dade picked me up from OC BRC. I was taken to TGK (Turner Guilford-Knight) in Miami and put into the Psych ward. Not for forgetting my GPS, but because of my previous crimes as a sex offender. I was there for almost a week. During that time, I received NO dialysis treatments. I spent the next 10 days in the medical unit. I was taken to dialysis at a location in Coral Gables twice only.
On Friday, December 8th, 2017, I was taken to 11th District Court for Miami-Dade County. Judge Del Pino released me under a technical violation of probation with the requirement I would return to the same court in February of 2018 (2 months after I was released). At such time, if there were no more incidents with the GPS, she would take the charge off the books. When I was released, my son drove from Sarasota to Miami to pick me up and take me home to Orlando.
I had lost 30 pounds in 30 days. I was so weak I could barely walk because of the lack of dialysis treatments. My son, after having parked his car 2 blocks away literally carried me to the parking lot. On December 11, 2017 (Monday after my release) I went to dialysis at the usualy place, Florida Hospital East Orlando. After my treatment, I was admitted to the hospital and stayed for 2 weeks to recover from what happened to me at both OC and M-D jails.
A word to the wise: No matter how clean and tight your alibi is regarding leaving your GPS behind, the state of Florida does not care. They will want their pound of flesh as an example to all other SO’s.
I am so sorry this happened to you. They place these rules on us not as a way to keep the public safe, but as a way to keep us in the system. The Department of Corrections around the U.S is a pure profit engine. The more bodies in the system, the more funding for law enforcement, corrections, probation and courts. The shame is, someone who is not a registered citizen, say a drug felon, gets caught with a bag of weed by their P.O and gets a warning. We on the other hand, even if we are not on probation and have completed our sentences decades ago, can be put back into the system for what, forgetting that we have an email address we haven’t used since the internet was invented?
In Florida I have come to refer to the Department of Corrections as the “Department of Collections” That is one thing they are good at,
David,
Your story is horrific…my wife is on dialysis and I would be livid if this happened to her. Please know that we are standing with you and hope that you will be able to receive some measure of justice and recompense for the harms caused to you by the state.
Despite our founder’s highest ideals, we are not always assured that our government will defend our liberties as they ought, but I do have this one hope and conviction: that I have complete confidence a higher court will convene, with One who will judge fairly and will ensure perfect justice on that Day. Every unjust action and laws of men will be held to account, for God is a defender of the weak and the oppressed.
You are truly in my prayers…
Amen, James.
He was all I had with me during that month and a half. There’s no doubt in my mind God was keeping me in his arms through all of that.
This is why I shredded my passport. I use to travel and know when I came back, I would be stopped, detained, questioned and maybe miss my flight. With the new rules it is anybodies guess what they have in store for you. Pretty soon I will just lock my doors and never leave the house and just order everything online . I got pulled over once for a burned out tail light. The cop said normally he would give a warning but for offenders he gives a ticket because we should know better? Really ? I went to court over the ticket and got it tossed , officer didn’t show up.
If forgetfulness is a crime then I’m doomed to be locked up the rest of my life…it comes with trying to juggle a bowling ball, sledge hammer, and chain saw all at once.
I would be more impressed if you threw in a 4th item such as a fish bowl full of water and liver fish, now that would get me to buy a ticket to your show lol
PS: I have seen a lot of weird crap in my lifetime
I sympathize with David’s story and have heard others, although not quite that severe. It brings to mind the saying I heard repeatedly while in prison. “God may forgive, but the State of Florida will not”.