Sex Offenders I've Known

Labeling someone a sex offender tags them for life.  In many places, a sex offender has to register with law enforcement and notify all neighbors before moving in.  Sex offenders are the worst of society, the absolute lowest bastards and not really worthy of life.

Jimmy, a guy I knew in Oklahoma City is a sex offender.  He owned a Corvette that he'd rebuilt and done all the bodywork on himself.  Jimmy was 20 years old, tall and thin.  He worked as a motor mechanic, rebuilding the industrial motors used by oil companies to drive pumps, piping petroleum across oil country.  He was a very talented mechanic, albeit a little on the wild party side.

His family lived in Little Rock, Arkansas and he'd gone to High School with Roger Clinton.  Jimmy claimed that Roger had been the biggest Pot Dealer in the high school.  At least one weekend a month Jimmy would drive back home to visit and party, and one weekend Jimmy wasn't back to work on Monday morning.  Or Tuesday.  Or Wednesday.  On Thursday we got a call and Jimmy was in jail.

Jimmy had met a girl at a party and they'd really gotten along well.  She was in Little Rock for the weekend also, and lived in Oklahoma right along I-40 in a town called Sallisaw.  He agreed to give her a ride home, so off they went.

When they pulled into Sallisaw it was dark and she directed him to a city park.  There she unzipped his pants and proceeded to show her gratitude orally.  Jimmy was having the time of his life until the flashlight shined into the Corvette, he was dragged out of the car and arrested.  The girl happened to be the cop's daughter, and she happened to be sixteen, not eighteen like she'd told Jimmy. 

He was convicted of Statutory Rape, spent a year in jail and then worked a lot of community service labor time after that.  Jimmy's a sex offender for life.

I knew a college professor who was having an affair with another professor's wife.  This was at the University of Oklahoma, and the plot is so complicated that I'm just going to summarize.  Prof. Hardy found out about the affair and as revenge he worked out a grade-swapping deal with an attractive, but failing student, who accused Prof. Jones of attempted rape.  It was a big deal - news all over campus.

Prof. Jones would've been convicted in this scheme if the girl's roommate hadn't come forward with the truth.  How many false accusations have planted sex offender labels, jail time, and more on men who didn't deserve it.

I know a cop who was accused by a fourteen year old girl he'd arrested for possession.  There wasn't any substantiating evidence, but it nearly destroyed his life and career at the time.  He was cleared, but it easily could've gone the other way.  I'm sure it has for many police officers.

I'm not defending people who really victimize women and children sexually.  But that's a hard label to pin on someone permanently.

- CV Rick

Comments

[graeme]

I read a story one time about a family that went on vacation and when they got home and went to get there pictures developed, their pictures got "flagged" because were of little kids with swim suits on. The family went through a big ordeal and lost a lot of friends. They were vacationing at a lake and it was their kids who had the swim suits on, because they were swimming.