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Forum: Victims and Survivors Corner
Thread (Discussion): Megan's Law California - other motives?
Message 128482
Looking for advice
Posted by HerFriend
on Mar 10, 2004 10:27 PM | Also by HerFriend
| Gender: Male,
Age Bracket: 30 - 39,
State: New York,
Country: United States |
My friend (woman) married a convicted pedophile in 1996. She had two children prior to this marriage and one was under 16.
I am trying to research two things: 1. The dates of enactment of Megan’s law as well as any changes to it in California and, 2. What are the responsibilities of a registered sex offender to inform and have standards been defined by a court or some other regulatory entity.
Any advice you can give me would be appreciated and if you know of any sites I should be looking at, I’d appreciate the urls.
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Message 128483 (In Reply to Message 128482)
Posted by steve
on Mar 10, 2004 10:45 PM | Also by steve
| Gender: Male,
Age Bracket: 30 - 39,
State: Virginia,
Country: United States |
You probably want to look at The Jacob Wetterling Act (Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Law), which Megan's Law is a section of and the Pam Lychner Sexual Offender Tracking and Identification Act of 1996. You can start at the following page from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children site. Also look at our site's California Sex Offender Registry page and the California Megan's Law legislation page which is linked from it. Let us know if any of those pages were useful and if you come across any pages on other sites that we should consider adding links to in our Directory section (which may have some sites that you want to check) or elsewhere feel free to reply here or to use the site Private Message tool to let me know privately.
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Message 128484 (In Reply to Message 128483)
Thanks and here is some more.
Posted by HerFriend
on Mar 10, 2004 11:12 PM | Also by HerFriend
| Gender: Male,
Age Bracket: 30 - 39,
State: New York,
Country: United States |
Thanks for this.
I am aware of the public disclosure parts of Megan’s law. My direct concern is the effect it might have on the responsibility of the preditor to disclose his conviction to a woman with children that he marries. (My understanding is that this is not uncommon.)
What I believe is:
Sec 290 (Magan’s Law) adds additional responsibility on any sex offender. According to Calsexoffenders.net (a website that gives advice to California Sex Offenders):
“DUTY OF DISCLOSURE
If you are going to apply for or accept a position as either an employee or volunteer with any Person, Group or Organization where you would be working directly and in an unaccompanied setting with minor children, or be supervising them or have disciplinary authority over them, the law requires that you TELL THE PERSON OR PEOPLE OFFERING YOU THIS POSITION THAT YOU ARE A REGISTERED SEX OFFENDER or it's a misdemeanor punishable by six months in the County Jail or a fine of $1,000. or both.”
I already know he was on probation – and that his probation specified that:
21a Not associate with minors, nor frequent places where minors congregate, unless in the company of a responsible adult who knows the defendant is on probation for 664/288(a.
I am also trying to find the date California's Megan's law was passed so that I can know if it even applied when they married.
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Message 128503 (In Reply to Message 128484)
Posted by orolan
on Mar 11, 2004 01:26 AM | Also by orolan
| Gender: Male,
Age Bracket: 30 - 39,
State: N/A,
Country: United States |
To answer one of your questions, California enacted its version of Megan's Law on September 26, 1996
The portion of §290 that you cite pertains to employment, not getting married. Although some might see a lot of similarities in the two.
You say the SO has violated his probation. Is he still on probation? Was he when he got married? Surely he hasn't been able to keep this detail of his life a secret from the PO after 7 years? If he is no longer on probation, it matters not one bit if he was at the time and violated.
A little more info would be helpful.
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Message 128506 (In Reply to Message 128503)
290.95
Posted by HerFriend
on Mar 11, 2004 02:38 AM | Also by HerFriend
| Gender: Male,
Age Bracket: 30 - 39,
State: New York,
Country: United States |
Thanks for the info and I will give you any information that will take the conversation further.
Its disappointing that the law was enacted in Sept 96 because that postdates the marriage by 3 months. I wonder if someone employed prior to Sept 96 had the obligation to inform their employer once the law was enacted.
Regarding 290.95 being limited to employment, I think the language reads:
“Every person required to register under Section 290, who applies or accepts a position as an employee or volunteer with any person, group, or organization where the registrant would be working directly and in an unaccompanied setting with minor children on more than an incidental and occasional basis or have supervision or disciplinary power over minor children, shall disclose his or her status as a registrant, upon application or acceptance of a position, to that person, group, or organization.”
My guess is that this is a little broader than employment. A spouse is clearly a person and a family might be considered a group so I would guess that a registered child molester has a responsibility to tell the neighbor or the wife if he’s going to baby sit the kids.
Regarding the probation, I believe it ended (one year) after the wedding but I’m not 100% clear on that. It clearly ended after she moved in with him which was a couple of years before the wedding.
I think the relevance is not if he can be held accountable to the State of California Probation Department but rather does it help in showing in a civil proceeding that he deceived the probation department and his future wife. Did he lie to his probation office when a woman with two children moved in with him?
I’m just trying to educate myself and maybe find someone that has knowledge of a similar situation.
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Message 128538 (In Reply to Message 128506)
Posted by orolan
on Mar 11, 2004 08:31 PM | Also by orolan
| Gender: Male,
Age Bracket: 30 - 39,
State: N/A,
Country: United States |
I think it would be a pretty far stretch even in california to attempt to relate §290.95 to a marriage. You don't "apply" for a "position" as someone's spouse.
I wonder if someone employed prior to Sept 96 had the obligation to inform their employer once the law was enacted.
I think they did. California has been registering sex offenders since 1947, a fact many don't know. They just couldn't tell the public. And I think it was around 1976 that they began requiring disclosure and background checks when SO's applied for jobs as teachers, etc. But I'd have to dig up a copy of the old statutes to see.
A spouse is clearly a person and a family might be considered a group so I would guess that a registered child molester has a responsibility to tell the neighbor or the wife if he’s going to baby sit the kids.
I can see him having to tell the neighbor if he is babysitting the neighbor's kids. But as for the spouse's kids, he is their de-facto parent. There isn't any job or volunteering about this. It's a duty.
Regarding the probation, I believe it ended (one year) after the wedding but I’m not 100% clear on that. It clearly ended after she moved in with him which was a couple of years before the wedding.
You lost me. Did it end a year after the wedding, which would be about three years after she moved in? Or did it end a year after she moved in, but two years prior to the wedding?
does it help in showing in a civil proceeding that he deceived the probation department and his future wife.
You say civil proceeding. Are we talking a divorce here? Or a lawsuit? The only way to know if he deceived the PO is to ask him or her.
I guess that brings it to the main question. I understand you are looking for knowledge. But it is easier to provide that knowledge if one knows why it is needed. So what happened? Ammunition for a divorce? Did he molest the kids? The neighbor's kids?
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Message 128550 (In Reply to Message 128482)
HerFriend
Posted by dp1
on Mar 12, 2004 01:52 AM | Also by dp1
| Gender: Female,
Age Bracket: N/A,
State: Florida,
Country: United States |
Are you implying that your friend had no knowledge that this man was a pedophile before they married or were intimate in their relationship? Has he done anything to her children? How did she find out? Just curious.
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Message 128669 (In Reply to Message 128482)
other motives?
Posted by poetsdreamscape
on Mar 14, 2004 10:52 PM | Also by poetsdreamscape
| Gender: Male,
Age Bracket: N/A,
State: N/A,
Country: United States |
What are your motives ? sounds like you are trying to find fault in him to destroy a marriage . If you are a freind why dont you just tell your lady freind what you know and let her look into it .it just seems to me your more interested in doing harm to their marrigae then good for it. Why are you concerned about his past , im sure she knows about it if you do.
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Thread
128482, HerFriend, Mar 10, 2004 10:27 PM [Looking for advice]
128483, steve, Mar 10, 2004 10:45 PM
128484, HerFriend, Mar 10, 2004 11:12 PM [Thanks and here is some more.]
128503, orolan, Mar 11, 2004 01:26 AM
128506, HerFriend, Mar 11, 2004 02:38 AM [290.95]
128538, orolan, Mar 11, 2004 08:31 PM
128567, Rejected
128550, dp1, Mar 12, 2004 01:52 AM [HerFriend]
128669, poetsdreamscape, Mar 14, 2004 10:52 PM [other motives?]
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