Judge: Man Convicted of Sodomy Shouldn’t Be on Sex Offender Registry
A Montana man who sued the state in order to be taken off its sex offender registry over a past sodomy arrest has won the right to be removed from the list, Boise State Public Radio reports.
Randall Menges was arrested in Idaho in 1994 shortly after his 18th birthday after police say they caught him having sex with two 16-year-old boys. Menges and one of the boys at the time said in the original police report that the encounter was consensual. According to Idaho law, statutory rape occurs when either one partner is under 16 or when the younger person is 16 or 17, if the offender is more than three years older. Menges was not charged with that, and was only charged with Crimes Against Nature.
Menges ended up spending seven years in prison and having to register as a sex offender in the state. When he moved to Montana, he thought he’d have a chance to start over, as that state has no laws against sodomy.
However, Montana does have a state law requiring anyone who is registered as a sex offender in another state to register the same way. So Menges was forced to register in that state as well.
This week a federal judge ruled that there is “no rational basis” to keep him on the list, noting that if the sex had involved Menges and a girl with the same age difference, he would not have been on the registry in the first place. Montana now has until May 21 to remove him from the registry and permanently expunge all state records related to his registration.
But things might not be over for Menges. The state will appeal the decision, said Emilee Cantrel, the press secretary for the Montana attorney general’s office. “This order weakens our state’s sex offender registry law and opens it up to more attacks from out-of-state lawyers who are more interested in politics than the safety of Montana children,” she said in a prepared statement.
Menges is also suing the state of Idaho over its sodomy laws. The U.S. Supreme Court declared laws against consensual sex between adults unconstitutional in 2003, but Idaho and several other states still such laws on the books.
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Thank you FAC for bring this matter to the for front by giving all registrants hope that change can happen. The courage of those in the fight for justice and fairness cannot be over appreciated. Again thank you!
‘This order weakens our state’s sex offender registry law and opens it up to more attacks from out-of-state lawyers.’
Out-of-state lawyers, please take note of this opportunity.
Isn’t it shocking that we’re not seeing LGBT groups complaining about this law that pretty much says gay sex is illegal? Where’s all the uproar for putting people on a sexual offense registry based on their sexual orientation?
Then there’s the comment made about protecting the children (the typical fear mongering talking point), but this man was practically still a “child” when he and his friends did what lots of teenagers coming of age do- experiment with their sexuality. But who cares about the course of nature when we’ve got to make everything illegal to get our voters to cheer us on?
This is a perfect example of the Idiocracy that is the United States of America. The fact that there are so many contradictory laws, and people who work in the field of law so blatantly sabotaging and misrepresenting it on personal agenda’s, just goes to show how ridiculous this nation truly is.
Here’s something new:
Florida Association asks church with sex-offender to resign
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville Baptist Association (JBA) is seeking a member church’s resignation after the church hired a convicted sex-offender to provide pulpit ministry in January.
According to a statement by JBA lead missional strategist Rick Wheeler and moderator David Tarkington on March 2, the “pastoral staffing decision” of Christ Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church in Jacksonville has caused the Florida association to initiate conversations with the congregation resulting in a “mutual understanding that it is necessary for CTMBC to leave” the association.
The person at the center of the controversy is a once-prominent and former Southern Baptist preacher who completed a three-year prison sentence in December for sex crimes against minors, according to the Florida Times-Union. (TAB)
https://thealabamabaptist.org/fla-assoc-asks-church-with-sex-offender-to-resign/
If this church can’t forgive, they are not real Christians. Soul saving, not fund raising should be the goal of true Christians.
This appears to be the same man and case as:
“Judge Blocks Requirement for ‘Gay Sex’ Offender Registration”