FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Supreme Court has been asked to decide whether a convicted sex offender can spend time alone with his own children.
The Courier Journal reports that 33-year-old _____ pleaded guilty to third-degree sodomy of a juvenile male relative in 2007.
In 2015, the state learned that _____ was married with two children, who are now 3 and 6. The state won an order from a family court judge barring _____ from being alone with his kids, but a Court of Appeals unanimously reversed that, saying that ruling infringed on his constitutional right to raise a family.
Awesome! I’m glad this man won’t lose his kids. I hope more positive rulings come down like this.
One of the man in my rehab had to deal with this his entire probation (luckily it was only 3 years). His crime was non-contact 647.6. He went through the court proceedings and finalized everything. Took 6 months or so. Then as soon as everything was finalized, his PO went rabid on him because he was living in his home with with his kids. The PO’s comment was something akin to “You better hope those kids are alright!”. It’s like, the court didn’t care about the kids until the conviction was in place and now suddenly they’re on death’s door?
And non of that would’ve happened had he and his lawyer simply thought to ask for an amendment to allow him to be around his own kids rather than the standard blanket ‘no contact with minors’. So he spent all three years having to walk down to the local train station and sit there for 3-4 hours every single day until his wife came home from work. They wouldn’t even allow his mother-in-law, who was living with them, to be the IRA (informed responsible adult). And getting an amendment after the fact provide to be incredible difficult and just never happened.
It’s incredibly ironic how the systems attempt to keep children safe in reality does an incredible amount of damage to them. I hear hell is building a new ring for legislatures, DA’s, and judges who continue to push these laws while being aware of the facts and damage they actually cause.
I’m not proud to say it but my crime was against my own child. It was not about sex. It was anger and jealousy towards my wife mixed in with alcohol. Enough about that.
I actually started seeking the right to be with my own child while I was in prison. I filed a court case via the divorce judge who took away my rights to see see our child (against my ex’s wishes). The judge laid out a plan for me, my ex, and our child to follow which included therapy for me, my ex, our child, individually at first, then as a group, then with just me and our child. It took over 3 years but eventually I got the rights to see my child unsupervised and even for our child to live with me if he chose to.
It never went beyond to local court although it did involve the Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS (NJ)), Parole officers, clergy, and several counselors.
Has anyone found the Court of Appeals decision? I can’t find it and wonder if it relies on *Skinner* at all.