Member Submission: When Probation imposes their own rules.
XXXXX is a registered citizen and was told by his probation officer that if he wanted to own a business in his name, that his probation office would notify all of his clients that he was on the registry, and that XXXXX would be required to provide a weekly itinerary to probation.
Knowing that this wasn’t in his probation orders, XXXXX filed a motion to clarify with the 6th Circuit Court, Citrus County, and had a hearing in December.
At the hearing, the Judge ordered probation to have no contact with XXXXX’s clients, and XXXXX now has a business in his own name.
Furthermore, a friend of XXXXX’s, who is also a business owner, and a registered citizen, was told by the same probation office that probation would also notify all of his clients of his registration status. XXXXX’s friend filed a motion to modify probation in Pasco County last week and the Judge agreed that probation was not allowed to contact clients.
XXXXX just wanted to get this information out there, as probation officers across the state are likely telling registered citizens across the state of this incorrect information, and thus, limiting their ability to own businesses.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and for fighting for those who can’t.
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I am so proud of XXXXX, for having the courage to challenge this injustice and I am even more grateful to the courts for using their legal oversight to do the right thing.
Yes, I heard , in person, a P/O tell a client that he must tell all his potential clients of his status, and that it would be better to work for someone else even if he did 99% of the work so as not to have to disclose his status nor would she then (the P/O) have to ‘write him up’.
Also, a different P/O said that if one goes into a home or if someone comes into the residents home to do some work, or even work on the yard, all have to be told of their label.
This actually happened to my husband and I when we wanted to visit a friend, who already knew of my husbands’ status, but the Sherriff came and went through the home to be sure no children lived there before the P/O gave us permission to visit (same FL county).
When I was first put on probation in 1991, my PO took pleasure in showing up at my house at 6 am to rifle through my cabinets. I didn’t know any better, being green and all, that a probation officer is basically just a glorified security guard who doesn’t even have the power to arrest you. After about six months, I met a woman in college and I was going to move in with her at the far south end of the county, about 50 miles away. He told me if I went to her house, he would violate me. I went to his supervisor and told him all of this. My PO was no longer my PO. Didn’t make friends with the other POs though. I moved across the state and had a new PO that tried desperately to nail me for anything, even trying to say I was on drugs, among other things. An old PO from the old county transferred to where I moved and those two had lots of conversations about me. My PO told me he was going to violate me for drama someone else cooked up. I told him since he couldn’t arrest me, he’d better have the sheriff waiting at the door before I leave or they’d never see me again. I left the state for 2 years. 2 years of freedom was fantastic. Came back, did 8 months county, 1 year CC, and the remainder of my 15 year sentence. Been off probation 12 years. Working on clemency. Been waiting 2 years. I’ll let you know how that goes, but I don’t have high hopes. $10,000 is a lot to shell out for something that depends on whim and politics rather than facts and evidence.
You were on probation for a sexual offense back in 1991? I’m curious to know what the standard probation rules were back then before Megan’s Law. If you don’t mind sharing.
Good for them! Here’s my take on probation; It’s a waste of tax payer money to pay some schmucks to dictate your life for ANY duration of time.
If the law you break can get you 5 yrs in prison but the prosecutor makes a deal with you to only give you 2 yrs, then let it be the 2 yrs and be done with it. There is no rational need for any length of probation to follow the 2 yrs of incarceration. All that is is an attempt to HOPE you somehow screw up on a technical violation (not an actual LAW breaking crime) so that you can be “trafficked” in and out of the prison system.
This country should do away with probation entirely. We will ALWAYS have the criminal record so why the need to be “supervised”?
And as for lifetime probation, there is no need for that either. If someone commits a crime that is so heinous that they deserve a life of probation, then perhaps that’s a crime that should just require life in prison. Yes? No? Thought?
I see it like this – On probation you may have restrictions that you will no longer have when off probation. So then what damn difference does it make to even put probation restrictions on a person to begin with? It should simply be “Dont commit another crime”. But while on probation, you’re not allowed to have an alcoholic beverage. Once you complete probation, you can drink all you want.
When I was on probation, I got a technical violation for WORKING in a restaurant that had a bar. I kind of beat the violation, kind of didn’t. I didn’t do jail time for it but it IS on my record as a violation of probation. I moved to a different county afterwards and that new county’s probation dept didn’t have a problem with me working in a restaurant that has a bar. In fact, that restaurant was literally a block‘s walk away from that probation department and the probation officers used to go in there for lunch and SAW me working.
One probation dept had an issue with something another dept didn’t. Probation is POINTLESS and USELESS. Nothing can convince me otherwise.
(Parole is an entirely different issue and is a privilege. But probation should not even exist.)
My original PO in Tampa Jim Alexander was that kind a guy. He would just make up crazy stuff as he went along and after a while pretty much everyone knew he was doing it. I had to go to court on a couple of occasions and the judge sided with me, but it cost me time and money and, in one case, not being able to visit my children in Texas for months even though it was in my orders.
I’ve owned businesses for 20 years, was placed on registry in Texas in 2010 and quickly learned there are ways to own a business and mask the ownership of the business in a number of ways. If someone needs help, reach out to me.
Dale
713-682-2500 ext 101 or my cell is 832-404-2828.
The probation will try to do anything to manipulate the rules to impose hurt and insecurities on probationers finances just to cause hardship and undue stress.
One of the problems in Florida is that many small businesses absolutely require a social media presence and that is denied to anyone on the registry, at least the social media that actually appears to workWhich is another way of saying the platforms owned by Facebook