Janice’s Journal: Reaching the Goal of 100

It happened.  I have reached my goal of helping 100 registrants obtain a court order terminating their requirement to register.

That goal was met yesterday in Los Angeles County under the sweetest of circumstances when a Superior Court judge who previously denied a registrant’s petition granted the same registrant’s petition.  

The judge’s initial decision denying the registrant’s petition was flawed because it was based upon facts not in evidence.  That decision was also flawed because the judge acted as if he was still employed as a prosecutor and not an impartial trier of fact.

I was able to appeal the judge’s decision because I had a transcript of what the judge said in court including the basis of his decision which was a creative and adverse interpretation of my client’s offense involving one victim more than 30 years ago.  In addition, the transcript showed that the judge ignored the fact that my client had no prior convictions nor any subsequent convictions of any kind.

When I left the courtroom that day in February 2022, I made a vow to educate the judge by appealing his decision.  The appellate court ruled on that appeal two years later in February 2024, deciding that the judge did in fact make a mistake. 

Court rules required a delay until May 2024 when I returned to the same courtroom and appeared before the same judge.  The judge could have acknowledged he had made a mistake.  The judge also could have apologized to the registrant who was forced to wait an additional two years before he was free from the registry.

The judge did neither and instead stated that he was only signing the court order terminating my client’s requirement to register because the appellate court required him to do so.  In making that statement, the judge failed to take advantage of an opportunity to acknowledge his mistake and to take responsibility for the harm he caused my client.

Despite the judge’s behavior, the fact is my client is no longer required to register.  The fact is that he is the 100th person I have helped achieve freedom from the registry.

Now that I have achieved that goal, I am pausing briefly in order to reflect upon all of the 100 people I have helped obtain a court order terminating their requirement to register.  Of that total, only 14 petitions were objected to by a District Attorney.  And after hearings in those cases, all 14 of those petitions have been granted.  For the remaining 86 people, there was no hearing because the District Attorney did not object to their petitions.

Upon reflection, I have also noted that after two important appellate decisions – People v. Thai issued in April 2023 and People v. Franco issued in January 2024 – there are even fewer objections from District Attorneys.  That is because those decisions clarified that a District Attorney must prove that a petitioner poses a current danger to public safety.  Meeting this burden is difficult and therefore most District Attorneys are choosing not to object.

What’s next?  I could rest on my laurels after achieving my goal of helping 100 registrants obtain a court order terminating their requirement to register.  Or I could revise my goal to helping 200 registrants obtain a court order terminating their requirement to register.  I choose the latter. 

I vowed to be of service to the registrant community 15 years ago and one important way I do that is to help as many registrants as possible achieve freedom from the registry.  Until the day my services are no longer required because there is no registry.  I look forward to that day.