IL: Illiniois Supreme Court upholds conviction of registrant who entered park to retrieve his own son
You won’t believe the absurdity of this one… The Illinois Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a man who entered a public park to retrieve his son.
Patrick Legoo had a 2006 conviction for a sexual offense. A decade later he rode his bicycle into a park to tell his son, who was there watching a game, that it was getting late and it was time to come home. He then left the park without incident. The whole event took less than 5 minutes.
Coincidentally, a police Sergent who was in the park with his grandson recognized Legoo, knew he was on the sex offender registry and called the police, who went to Legoo’s home and arrested him.
Illinois does have a law prohibiting a sex offender’s presence in a park, and the Supreme Court upheld the conviction. Pretty ridiculous! The only redeeming part of this absurd scenario is the dissenting opinion, which seems to indicate that the law is stupid.
You can read the opinion here: https://courts.illinois.gov/Opinions/SupremeCourt/2020/124965.pdf
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ILL-noise courts are the FloriDUH courts for the north.
Its Illinois; they are fanatical about their SO laws. For example, they civilly committed a man because he is a Christian AND a homosexual. They said the conflict between his sexuality and his religious beliefs denies him a healthy sexual outlet. Thats why I got out of there as soon as humanly possible.
Seriously? A person’s sexual orientation is none of the government’s business: get out of our bedrooms, sex life and other situations regarding sex. Government officials are the ones that are perverted not in only in their thinking; but in their actions as well.
I hope you are happier in the state currently are in.
I found many states have different laws for in-state vs out-of-state convictions. MN was reasonably unobtrusive and the police easy to work with (despite more recent incidents). Florida wasnt too bad (Orlando area) but thier travel notification policy needs work. I’m currently in AR and so far not too much to complain about. They insist on us being “evaluated” by a tribunal of sorts before being placed on a 4-tier system. It’s supposed to be done within 60days but it’s been 6 months and still haven’t gone through it thanks to Covid. So I’m duly registered but not yet tiered. In a limbo like status that actually favours me.
Kevin I was surprised when I looked this up.
Thirteen states’ statutes purport to ban all forms of sodomy, some including oral intercourse, regardless of the participants’ genders: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma and South Carolina.
Funny Illinois is not on the list.
The purpose of these laws is the safety of children, right?
Safety of children? No. These are laws do not protect anyone. Study after study after study, including ones done by the FBI, all say the same thing – these laws do not protect children. Recidivism percentages for sexual offenders is actually one the lowest in the criminal justice system. Children are infinitely more likely to victimized by a family member or a trusted person then by a complete stranger. Hundreds of millions of tax dollars are spent every year to enact and enforce these laws that have zero impact on public safety. In fact evidence shows these laws create problems where none should have existed. But it makes good sound bites and great headlines for politicians – and that is the real reason behind them. Adolf Hitler himself once said you can enact any law you want – as long as you say its to protect families. Yeah thats an example we want to follow.
Oh I am under no illusions that a law preventing one from retrieving his own child is doing nothing constructive in the area of child protection. It’s like nobody even remembers what the justification was for the law in the first place, other than banishing those who make us uncomfortable.
Laws are always about the children. Let’s build some really big casinos so all the revenue will fund our schools. With all that Casino money paying for schools the old school money can buy me a second pension. Big payoff in bribes too! Too bad the children don’t get child support since Dad got carried away at the casino. Yes, every cash grab law is ‘about the children’.
Seems with the the decenting opinion this case should go the the US Supreme Court…clearly there are strong Constitutional issues here!
The US Supreme Court? Really? They are the one’s that started this mess. They cant disagree with a ruling that they agree with.
And i should add that if the US Supreme Court does reverse this ruling they will be ousted by the people.
The US Supreme Court has known all along that this registry is unconstitutional in so many ways and is in fact punitive, but they can not and will not change that fore they will be ousted by the people, politics has us all branded and feared and undeserved of any pity with all the miss information it broadcast’s. All they say is {We brought this all on ourselves.} Is the US Supreme Court aware of all the study’s that have been published over the years? That in fact the registry basically does more harm than good? Common sense say’s yes they are aware, but the people scream, {IF IT SAVES ONE CHILD}
Riff Raff
I think when the supreme court justices lay their heads down at night, the registries are the last things on their minds. Maybe when a brief is sent to them they glance at it for a second and toss it into the “To do MUCH later” pile.
Then when the time passes they stamp it with a big red stamper that sends it back to the lower courts. It is like a game of tennis. It is like the child with chicken pox where both parents draw straws to see who stays home with them and risks getting it and missing work. It is like a game of hot potato and so on.
basically, they just really want it to go away, no go away as in the registry is abolished but go away as in, “it is not my problem and I do not want to deal with it” .
By they way, where are the protest for a man who, yes was on the registry, but did nothing wrong technically other than recovering his child. If I were the judge, I would have thrown the case out then told the man, “Do not enter the park again, if you want your child to play there, have another responsible adult take them there”. Case dismissed
I’d prefer the judge just toss the case and say nothing. Because the judge probably shouldn’t say what should be said, which is “The government that passed this ‘law’ is an illegitimate, criminal regime that is an enemy of all good, free people. You should take your child to a park where no one knows you.”
The crazy thing about this is that it harmed no one and nothing. It was not reckless or dangerous at all. Yet, if this where to happen to me, I would without question retaliate and there would be harm. Would just have to happen.
I’m dedicated to ensuring that the Registry Hit Lists cause as much harm to society as possible every day. I’ve been doing it for decades and America continues to devolve.
SCOTUS has never opened on the constitutional issue in dispute here— whether there’s a fundamental liberty interest to be present in a public park. They HAVE, I’m sure, opined on the other constitutional issue raised— that of caring for one’s own children— but IL court did not dispute this right, only the facts.
Even if SCOTUS HAD ruled on the issue of presence in public parks, they would remain free to reverse themselves on that issue. Historic SCOTUS reversals are well-known.
And I would love to see SCOTUS take up that issue. I can’t imagine an originalist such as Justice Thomas voting against such a right. But I’d be surprised to see them take up this particular case, due to procedural grounds (ie petitioner failed to raise the constitutional issue with lower courts first).
But we don’t need to worry about justices being ousted by the people for an unpopular opinion. That is not even a thing.
So he did what most decent parents would do in the same situation; yet he was arrested. If the police sergeant recognized him why didn’t he say; is there something you need to tell your son I’ll do it for you. Yet this cop calls the cops and they wonder why there’s much anger towards them. Not every damn thing needs to result in an arrest.
Compliance is the key no matter how ridicules laws are.. don’t trust any cop to protect you is the bi line to this tragic story.