re: The hypocrisy of the sex offender list between Men and Women

I read just yesterday that they are appealing this case and have a good shot at getting this sentnce reduced or the entire case dismissed.

Let me find the story....

LINK

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A 19-year-old Indiana man convicted of a sex offense after a teenaged girl lied about her age on a hookup app may get a new sentence.

The judge in the case, Dennis Wiley, did not make a decision Wednesday, but he agreed to consider Zach Anderson's request to be resentenced, meaning that Anderson could potentially be taken off the sex offender registry.

Anderson met the girl on the dating app "Hot Or Not." The 14-year-old girl lied about her age, claiming she was 17, which made having sex with her a crime. She lived in southern Michigan, close to Anderson's parents' home in Elkhart, Indiana.

Anderson was given a 90-day jail sentence, five years probation and placed on both Indiana's and Michigan's sex offender registry for the next 25 years -- the same registry as child rapists, pedophiles and predators.

Anderson and his lawyer, Scott Grabel, had asked a court in Niles, Michigan, to vacate Anderson's sentence, alleging that prosecutors broke the plea agreement, the defense attorney said.

Grabel, who accuses the prosecution of not staying neutral during the sentencing of Anderson as required under the agreement, described the judge's decision Wednesday as a "significant step." Wiley is expected to make a further ruling in about a week.

"In the long run, I'm confident we're gonna get this thing fixed," the attorney told CNN.

Both the girl's mother and the girl herself had earlier appeared in court, to say they didn't believe Anderson belonged on the sex offender registry.

The girl admitted lying and outside of court, she handed the Anderson family a letter. She wrote in part, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you my age. It kills me every day, knowing you are going through hell and I'm not. I want to be in trouble and not you."

But even if the sex was consensual and even if the girl did lie about her age, it is not a defense under current sex offender laws.

Prosecutors couldn't be immediately reached for comment.

"Our goal is to get this case resentenced in front of a different judge, because the law mandates if the prosecutor violates their plea agreement, then it should be sent to a different judge for possible resentencing, or if we want to withdraw the plea and go to retrial that may be an option, as well," Grabel told CNN before the court action Wednesday.

Anderson's attorney is also striving to get the entire case dismissed.

"I don't certainly speak for the public in general, but the comments I've read nationally think that his whole life shouldn't be ruined by his decision to go on a date and obviously have sexual relations with that person, especially when that person in all honesty misrepresented their true age," Grabel said.

As a registered sex offender, Anderson can't access the Internet, go to a mall or linger near a school or playground. His parents say because he has a 15-year-old brother, he can't even live at home any longer.

Wiley earlier said he was angry that Anderson had used the Internet to meet a girl.

"That seems to be part of our culture now," he said, according to a transcript. "Meet, have sex, hook up, sayonara. Totally inappropriate behavior. There is no excuse for this whatsoever."

Anderson's case has stirred much debate about the one-size-fits-all sex offender laws that treat all offenders the same whether they are serial child predators or teens who've had sex with a girlfriend.

His family has started a Facebook page, called "Justice 4 Zach," and has been very vocal about what they call the injustice of the sex offender registry.

"He's obviously not a sex offender," Anderson's father told CNN, "I mean when there's a consensual act, to have one person labeled as the offender and the other person as a victim ... It's hard to swallow."

A former judge in a nearby town said the sex offender registry has to be changed.

"If we caught every teenager that violated our current law," said former Judge William Buhl, "we'd lock up 30 or 40% of the high school. We're kidding ourselves."

According to The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, there are 850,000 people on the sex offender list and about a quarter of them were juveniles when they were sentenced, but the records are not broken down by the severity of the crimes they committed.

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His parents say because he has a 15-year-old brother, he can't even live at home any longer.

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Wow, this is just fricking ridiculous.

judge jumped the shark with judicial actions on morality they deemed unsavory

"get off my lawn" judicial action needs to be checked

Is there something you need to tell us?

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Like I said, I don't know how to fix it, because I fully understand the need to prosecute those who commit actual crimes. I understand you have to be strict. But we're taking a lot of "innocent" people down to protect our little princesses.

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Its very similar to the prosecution and imprisonment of people for non violent drug offenses.

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Zach was arrested and eventually pleaded guilty to fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct. After admitting that she had lied about her age, the now 15-year-old and her mother even testified on Zach’s behalf at his trial.

According to court documents, the girl’s mother told the judge, “I don’t want him to be a sex offender because he really is not.” Her daughter added, “I feel nothing should happen to Zach.”

But the judge condemned what he called a culture of “meet, hook-up, have sex, sayonara, totally inappropriate behavior,” according to court documents.

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I really don't understand why he plead guilty. He should have went to trial. A jury would have likely let him off. Especially with the girls and her mom testifying on his behalf....

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Michigan state Sen. Rick Jones, who helped write the state’s sex offender registry law, says Zach should have been more careful.

“As you grow up, I mean young men are told you know in high school, 15 is jailbait,” Jones said. “Now that’s a slang term, but that’s what young men are told … I would hope that somebody who was 19 years old would say ‘Well do you have a driver's license or something? You don’t appear to be the appropriate age.’”

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I have gone on the record saying that I think most males, particularly those who are college-aged, are capable of distinguishing a 19-year-old female from a 15-year-old female.

However, for a fricking 62-year-old politician to have the audacity to state that a teenage male should be able to effectively distinguish between a 17-year-old and a 15-year-old female or exhibit some suspicion regarding her age is completely ludicrous.

There is little to no distinction between those ages because there are so many variations in terms of physical, mental, and emotional maturity. Some individuals at 17 act like children, while some 15-year-olds are forced to behave like young adults due to a number of factors.

I think that judge was a woman.

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What is this?

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A frickING LIBERAL

It's fricked up, but here's a novel idea: don't do something that could get you on the list. It's not that hard.