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Brotherly love...awwww.
By Theresa Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 11, 2006; B01
John Doe is 31 years old, received degrees in philosophy and psychology from the University of Mary Washington and is an aquatics coach in the Washington area.
He does not want you to know his name or that when he was about 18 he was convicted of having sex with his 14-year-old sister. The sex started, police said, when she was in second grade.
Now that Virginia's online sex offender registry has been expanded to include all sex offenders -- not just those considered violent -- people such as Doe are being told that they must register or face arrest. That means that their names, photos and professions will be posted on the Internet amid the rapists and child molesters already there. Hidden under the cloak of a pseudonym, Doe is taking the fight to court.
Today, Doe's attorney will stand on one side of a Prince William County courtroom, asking a judge to allow him to remain anonymous and safe from arrest. On the other, attorneys for the defendants -- the county and the state -- will argue that the public has a right to know who Doe is and where he lives and works. And that he was convicted of incest, a misdemeanor.
"The whole purpose of the registry is public notification and tracking," said Sandra Sylvester, a Prince William prosecutor. "From our point of view, it's not the ones we know about, the ones who are compliant, that worry us. It's the ones we don't know."
Although the registry requirements changed in 2003 to include incest, it wasn't until this year that the information was to be made public online. In July, Doe filed suit.
"Any requirement for Mr. Doe to register as a sex offender now, more than eleven years after his conviction, would not serve the community in the fashion that the legislators intended," his attorney, Melinda VanLowe, argued in court papers. "The registry would severely damage Mr. Doe's ability to maintain or gain employment, his standing in the community and general livelihood, causing irreparable injury that cannot be compensated by monetary damages." VanLowe would not comment further.
On the registry's Web site is this disclosure: "Effective July 1, 2006, this website will contain information on all sex offenders required to be registered in the Commonwealth, both classifications of offenders, the violent sexual offender and the sexual offender."
County and state officials said they predict that many more nonviolent offenders will challenge the stricter regulation.
Tucker Martin, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, said it is unfortunate that a registry is needed. But with the high recidivism rate among sex offenders, he said, awareness is a community's best protection.
"The question becomes: Do you let the feelings of a convicted sex offender outweigh the safety of Virginia citizens?" Martin said. "Law enforcement must work in the world we live in, not in the world that we wish we had."
Since July, Virginia State Police have added the names of about 2,800 nonviolent sex offenders to the online database, Lt. Thomas W. Turner said.
The agency, which administers the registry, is also creating a 45-member unit dedicated to ensuring that all sex offenders comply with the law. Turner estimates that at any time, 1,300 sex offenders are noncompliant, and his office often fields "outraged" calls from people reporting an offender in their community.
"It's not a matter of wanting to know," Turner said. "They are demanding to know."
Randi Lanzafama, deputy chief probation and parole officer for Prince William, said that even before the new regulations, her office had treated nonviolent sex offenders the same as violent ones.
"Everybody wants to know, 'Are these guys never going to re-offend?' " she said. "I can't ever say they won't. But I believe in what we do, and I believe we give them the opportunity to change, if they want to."
Doe pleaded guilty to incest in February 1994. According to an arrest warrant at the time, his sister told police that for seven years she and her brother had engaged in a variety of sexual acts, including intercourse.
In April 1994, a judge sentenced Doe to 90 days in jail, with all of it suspended if he stayed out of trouble and got counseling. In March 1995, Doe fulfilled his obligations and was released from probation.
Doe's sister wrote a letter of support for her brother to Prince William Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B. Ebert, saying that she and her brother received counseling and that she is doing well in life. She is a lawyer and is married with two young children.
"We have resolved our issues and maintain a close relationship often sharing in large family holidays and vacations," she wrote of her brother in May. "He is an important part of my family."
She described him as an "excellent uncle" to her children, saying she doesn't fear leaving them with him.
"I have healed from what happened to me as a child and continue to grow despite it," she wrote.
Their mother also wrote a letter, saying the two "enjoy a normal brother sister relationship in the family."
Brotherly love...awwww.
The entire concept should be illegal.
And what? does he have another sister who might be unaware of the risk she's under?
It said he started when she was in the second grade... i.e. when he himself was only 10-11. At that point it was 'kiddy sex' -- and he got hooked. It wasn't the typical adult/child predatory relationship.
This one is harder to gauge than only with a strict adherance to the label.
Last edited by Phenomanul; 09-11-2006 at 11:14 AM.
But really, some of the things that get you a sex offender label are wack.
It's situations like this that make me feel like the last four words of any law enacted should be "use some common sense".
Geez, surprised to see so much support for this guy. He abused his sister, got a psychology degree and now is an aquatics coach. He's worried about his ability to earn money? I am worried about his access to children. Without more information I am going to think worse case scenario. He has been taught how to manipulate others and is in position to see kids by themselves and possible lear into locker rooms.
Of course he may be teaching aquatics to geriatrics and used his psychology degree to better understand himself, but I doubt it.
Maybe he should have found a job where he would not be as concerned about his past becoming public.
This is true. A friend of mine is on the sex offender lists because he was ing a divorced mom. They got back from a date and sent the mom's sitter home because the kid was asleep. Well, after they had sex, he was in the shower and the kid came into the bathroom just as he was getting out of the shower and she saw him naked. The dad heard about it and called the cops, because he was trying to get custody, and used this incident to help the case. Well, my buddy was arrested and even though he just got a slap on the wrist, he is still listed as a sex offender on all the sex offender lists. This is total BS.
so the sex started when he was 10/11 and she was 6/7 and continued for 7 yrs.Doe pleaded guilty to incest in February 1994. According to an arrest warrant at the time, his sister told police that for seven years she and her brother had engaged in a variety of sexual acts, including intercourse.
In April 1994, a judge sentenced Doe to 90 days in jail, with all of it suspended if he stayed out of trouble and got counseling. In March 1995, Doe fulfilled his obligations and was released from probation.
Doe's sister wrote a letter of support for her brother to Prince William Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B. Ebert, saying that she and her brother received counseling and that she is doing well in life. She is a lawyer and is married with two young children.
nasty and gross, sure. but i don;t think he should be listed as a sex offender.
his sister grew up to be a lawyer and supports his suit now. She's not an idiot, they have both been thru counseling.....
... it seems like a fuycked up flowers in the attic type scenario. family phsycho problems.
I just don't think he should be listed the rest of his life for incest that happened from 11-18.
now if went out tomarrow and raped a neighbvor girl thats different. but 11 yrs have already gone by, don't think thats going to happen.
So it's okay because it was his sister? What if it was a neighbor girl to begin with?
Also, should we go back and review the cases of all pedophiles and if the victims turned out okay, we'll expunge their records?
this was a ed up mental childhood thing. it wasn;t right.
but i don;t hink that makes him a dangerous sex offender that we all need to be warned from.
it was a sick relationship gone out of control with his sister.
those kind of cases do not put Jane Doe stranger at the park in danger.
I don't think anyone is saying it's okay, but the fact that it's his sister puts a different dynamic on it. This way his parents are able to make sure that both parties got the proper counseling. That's something most offenders never get. The fact that they were brother and sister probably allowed them to partake in family counseling as well & I'm sure that is something that may have helped them heal. The fact that he was charged and arrested initially shows his parents took the matter seriously.
I got from this article that they are not asking for their records to be expunged, but only that they not be listed in public records. If they are non-violent and it was a matter of incest and they have undergone counseling then making family members aware of the situation should be sufficient.
If the victim was unrelated then this is a totally different situation and shows the offender does pose a threat to people he is not related to. But to accuse/convict someone of being a threat to an entire population of people that he/she has never shown a preference to by publishing their info on the web is unjust IMO.
Not enough facts are given to say that this was a case of kids being forced to bath or sleep in the same bed too long.
What we do know: She was in second grade when it started. It continued for seven years. Just because the plea was for incest does not mean that this child was not abused.
ing gross I think I am going to throw up.....
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