The headline from this story on WFLA reads, “Sex offender Santa seeking Christmas party employment arrested”, but the headline doesn’t tell anything close to the story. The person required to register, in this case, had committed his offense in 1993 (25 years ago) and was no longer on probation. As such, there’s no prohibition in the Florida Statutes on his being employed as a Santa.

What the police set up the elaborate sting operation for (as detailed in his arrest report) was to arrest him for not registering his self employment.

Granted, freelancing as a Santa is probably not the best way for someone on the registry to earn a few dollars during the holidays, but there was nothing inherently illegal about it. The lesson learned was to make sure your “i”s are dotted and your “t”s crossed because any petty violation can land you back in prison after a quarter century!

 

 

Share This

Let's Spread Truth

Share this post!