Watch the full Dr. Phil Episode: “My Son Was Caught in a Sex Sting”
In case you missed it, you can watch the full episode that aired this past Monday here:
UPDATED LINKS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwZ4r9cAFdc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WQB7XmVu-g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN0EF88wdKk
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I feel fortunate that I was scared to death of sex as a teenager. I preferred fishing, camping, and model aircraft building. I should have stuck with those…although I have gone back to them since my wife passed away…add in politics.
Our country’s puritan background has a part in this. Legislators have codified what was for millions of years just human nature such as an 18/19 year old man and 14 year old ‘girl’.
Mommy and Daddy are fumin’ angry that their precious little innocent butterfly is doinking the whole varsity football team.
Hell, many of our ancestors would be deemed ‘predators’ in today’s world.
No one here thinks it’s ok for a 19-year-old to have sex with a 14-year-old. But that’s not what’s happening in these stings.
I agree. All I’m illuminating is consensual teenager sex has been criminalized.
It’s not illegal to give an illegal plea bargain and people accept them every single day. Everyday people file 3800s to correct illegal sentences and get released. People are charged (information filed) every day for multiple charges that if sentenced to everything constitute double jeopardy by cautious prosecutors. Only most attorneys aren’t telling you guys this they play along and hope you’ll just take a deal based on fear because your facing life when really your facing 5 years or 15 years on a weak case. Do your own research send emails questioning the law to your attorney for later use as proof. Your more likely to force the attorney to follow the law if your emailing him “case law” than if you ask him in person. Attorneys and everyone in this life can forget things with no repercussions except registrants who forget to register on time or close their registration with officer error entered data you sign is correct only to be arrested for an email that is 1 letter off. At that point you are on trial for your past charges and those points attach to enhance the non criminal intent charge. This is law and order where as you provided the means and vessel they take their “pound of flesh”.
Curious:
This is one of the flaws in the law. In some states the age of consent is 16 and you can have sex with a 16 year-old but it is illegal to solicit a 16 year-old online.
Right now I am helping someone in Indiana in a similar situation. The age of consent in Indiana is 16 but you cannot photograph a 16 year-old engaged in a sex act. When you think that you cannot photograph a person engaged in lawful conduct, you can understand the flaws in these laws.
It is even a bit more nuanced than that. It is not unlawful to solicit a 16 year-old online if the age of consent where he/she lives is 16. The key phrase in 18 USC 2422 (i.e. solicitation) is “to engage in prostitution or any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense,….” That wording is also used in 18 USC 2423(a) (i.e. transportation).
Photography is a different animal. The federal statute explicitly states the age is 18 (see 18 U.S.C. 2251 and 2256(1)). In 2423 sections (b) thru (e) the term “illicit sexual conduct” is used, which is defined in section (f) to include pornography production or commercial sex act for someone under 18. It also refers to a violation of section 109(a) (i.e. sexual abuse) with someone under 18. That is where the age of 16 for consensual sex is defined for federal jurisdictions and for U.S. citizens in foreign countries.
I don’t know if all of this is intended to make sex laws intentionally vague. However they certainly are, particularly when it involves interplay with state statutes. Registration laws are just as obscure. Good luck with the Indiana case.
Veritas.
As we used to say in the Navy while overseas…KYPIYP.
These stings frequently ensnare persons with low IQ’s or developmental disabilities. As I mentioned in a previous post, these persons are over represented in these stings and on the registry. We had a law professor here in Michigan who had a son with autism placed on the registry. In Michigan, a person with a developmental disability or autism cannot consent to having a sexual relationship. Logically, if the state views persons with autism as requiring the protection of the state in these matters then persons with autism don’t possess the mental capacity to commit these “crimes”. Any good attorney should attack a case on these grounds and hopefully get the case dismissed. Most attorneys don’t know about autism so this defense is foreign to them.
The attorney in this case is named Larry Dubin and he is a law professor at the University of Detroit. He wrote a book about this that you can purchase off of Amazon or at your local book store. I urge anyone who knows someone with developmental disabilities or autism that is on the registry to read this book.
Just wanted to make everyone aware that there are already 94 bills filed, at the time of this post, for the 2021 legislative session. Some have already been referred to committees. Of course there are already several “sex offender” bills (~10) filed. One bill will remove the fines as an obligation so it can’t be used to avoid being put on the registry. Others are rehashed failed bills from last session such as removing statute of limitations on civil suits, ensuring aged registrants cannot get out of prison early, but physically or mentally incapacitated ones may be able to, etc.
https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bills/2021?chamber=both&searchOnlyCurrentVersion=True&isIncludeAmendments=False&isFirstReference=True&searchQuery=sexual&citationType=FL%20Statutes&pageNumber=1