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Trapped as a sex offender

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Eekamouse

Senior Member
Had you had any sexual contact of any kind with the victim previous to the charges filed against you? Any flirting? Any online chatting of a sexual nature?
 


Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
Had you had any sexual contact of any kind with the victim previous to the charges filed against you? Any flirting? Any online chatting of a sexual nature?
The OP should NOT answer these questions - if the OP truly has an attorney advising him (which I doubt), then the OP would know better than to say ANYTHING about this to anyone except for his attorney.
 

Eekamouse

Senior Member
The OP should NOT answer these questions - if the OP truly has an attorney advising him (which I doubt), then the OP would know better than to say ANYTHING about this to anyone except for his attorney.
I call B.S. on his story. There's more to it than what he claims. These charges did not just happen out of the blue.
 

quincy

Senior Member
There were two charges, but one was dropped. They said it would be added back on if the deal was not accepted and/or if I violate probation. I think it was part of the deal my public defender made. Together they are 30 years.

When I say trial, I mean with a jury. I was told that they do everything they can to avoid a real trial because of how expensive it is.
Trials are costly and the outcomes are unknown. That is why, if the prosecutor has a solid case, a defense attorney often will recommend his client consider entering into a plea agreement. It can be of benefit to the defendant to accept an offered plea deal that reduces the sentence that could otherwise be imposed in a trial.

Problems arise when a defendant who has not committed the crime is advised against a jury trial. This advice comes at a huge cost for the innocent defendant.

Your current attorney can review the advice you received from your previous attorney and weigh it against the evidence the prosecutor had when pursuing the charges. If the evidence the prosecution had was weak, your first attorney might have failed you in advising you to accept the plea in exchange for your admitting guilt.

Again, though, you will need to trust to a certain extent what your new attorney says to you about your chances of challenging your conviction and/or the terms of your probation. It appears you have an uphill battle ahead.
 

Jmills86

Member
I think I have gotten off track from the original purpose of this thread. I don't really expect anything to be done with my case. Not without tens of thousands of dollars at least. If I had that, I could have had a real attorney from the start and never had any of this trouble to begin with.

For the most part I have been able to adapt to this life. I need only to stay in my car out at this spot during my curfew hours, and I'm lucky enough to not have been fitted with an ankle monitor. My biggest problem right now is dealing with the court mandated group therapy.

For instance: We were given an assignment to take with us where we must write a letter of forgiveness to the person who abused us as children. I do not have any such person. I was never abused in any way as a child or an adult. I express this to the therapist, and she immediately implies that I'm lying. Then threatens to talk to my PO and have me violated for not cooperating. So now I feel coerced to make up some story of abuse, and I'm not sure how to do that without sounding facetious, or without raising questions that I can't answer.

This is the kind of thing that goes on there routinely.

Most days, I just show up, pay my fee, then sit through an hour of listening to grown men cry and scream about how they were neglected and abused as children, or how they had sex with an animal. I can't relate to the things they're saying, so I become the target of scorn for them.

When I first began back in January, the therapist respected that I denied the charges filed against me, and assured me it would all be resolved once I took my denial polygraph. When the day came, and I took the polygraph, everything changed. It seems to me like she was expecting me to fail. Instead I was found to be truthful, and since then she has become increasingly hostile with me.

This has become extremely difficult to deal with. I have been nothing but transparent and forthcoming about everything with her, expecting her to be a reasonable professional who knows better. Instead, whenever I disagree with her blanket assumptions about who I am and what I've experienced, she loses her temper. She tries to insert her own narrative into everything I say. It's like she can't comprehend that I'm not identical in every way to the rest of her clients. --or that maybe, just maybe, I don't actually belong there.

Last month, I learned from my PO that she reported me as absent from the group on a day I had not been. This worries me, because I do not know who my PO would believe. It's like she's trying to assert her dominance over me- to show me that I am helpless. It certainly feels that way. She is no better than any of her clients. This company, ITM- their whole business model seems to be to prey on people who can't defend themselves. They are taking advantage of these court mandated therapy rules, and from what I can tell being present in this group, is that they really aren't doing anything to help anyone. This is not just a problem for me, but for everyone being put through this system.

I feel so full of dread thinking about the next session. Being stuffed into a small room full strange men. There are no more pandemic restrictions. It's all out the window now. I wonder if I'll have to listen to another rape role play or if they'll spend the entire hour badgering me again, hanging an axe over my head and threatening me with the unthinkable if I don't play along. This is clearly unethical, but I think it is allowed because we are people that no one cares about. We are pariahs and second hand citizens and we're all equally reviled no matter what we did or didn't do.

I worry about what will happen. During the day I was transferred to their other group, the therapist there expressed her desire to just have all of us killed. I used my job as an excuse to transfer back to my old group after that. It feels sick. It feels so wrong. I want to call their main office and say something, but I don't know how they might retaliate or if they'll do anything at all.
 

quincy

Senior Member
I think I have gotten off track from the original purpose of this thread. I don't really expect anything to be done with my case. Not without tens of thousands of dollars at least. If I had that, I could have had a real attorney from the start and never had any of this trouble to begin with.

For the most part I have been able to adapt to this life. I need only to stay in my car out at this spot during my curfew hours, and I'm lucky enough to not have been fitted with an ankle monitor. My biggest problem right now is dealing with the court mandated group therapy.

For instance: We were given an assignment to take with us where we must write a letter of forgiveness to the person who abused us as children. I do not have any such person. I was never abused in any way as a child or an adult. I express this to the therapist, and she immediately implies that I'm lying. Then threatens to talk to my PO and have me violated for not cooperating. So now I feel coerced to make up some story of abuse, and I'm not sure how to do that without sounding facetious, or without raising questions that I can't answer.

This is the kind of thing that goes on there routinely.

Most days, I just show up, pay my fee, then sit through an hour of listening to grown men cry and scream about how they were neglected and abused as children, or how they had sex with an animal. I can't relate to the things they're saying, so I become the target of scorn for them.

When I first began back in January, the therapist respected that I denied the charges filed against me, and assured me it would all be resolved once I took my denial polygraph. When the day came, and I took the polygraph, everything changed. It seems to me like she was expecting me to fail. Instead I was found to be truthful, and since then she has become increasingly hostile with me.

This has become extremely difficult to deal with. I have been nothing but transparent and forthcoming about everything with her, expecting her to be a reasonable professional who knows better. Instead, whenever I disagree with her blanket assumptions about who I am and what I've experienced, she loses her temper. She tries to insert her own narrative into everything I say. It's like she can't comprehend that I'm not identical in every way to the rest of her clients. --or that maybe, just maybe, I don't actually belong there.

Last month, I learned from my PO that she reported me as absent from the group on a day I had not been. This worries me, because I do not know who my PO would believe. It's like she's trying to assert her dominance over me- to show me that I am helpless. It certainly feels that way. She is no better than any of her clients. This company, ITM- their whole business model seems to be to prey on people who can't defend themselves. They are taking advantage of these court mandated therapy rules, and from what I can tell being present in this group, is that they really aren't doing anything to help anyone. This is not just a problem for me, but for everyone being put through this system.

I feel so full of dread thinking about the next session. Being stuffed into a small room full strange men. There are no more pandemic restrictions. It's all out the window now. I wonder if I'll have to listen to another rape role play or if they'll spend the entire hour badgering me again, hanging an axe over my head and threatening me with the unthinkable if I don't play along. This is clearly unethical, but I think it is allowed because we are people that no one cares about. We are pariahs and second hand citizens and we're all equally reviled no matter what we did or didn't do.

I worry about what will happen. During the day I was transferred to their other group, the therapist there expressed her desire to just have all of us killed. I used my job as an excuse to transfer back to my old group after that. It feels sick. It feels so wrong. I want to call their main office and say something, but I don't know how they might retaliate or if they'll do anything at all.
You could speak to your probation officer and express your concerns about the “assignments” and the group sessions and/or you could speak to an attorney in your area (use the links provided earlier or contact the public defenders office) about filing a motion to modify your probation.

You potentially could draft and file the motion for modification of your probation yourself but I recommend you find legal assistance in your area.

Different courts have different rules and you will need to follow the rules of the (county or circuit) court where your case was heard. You will be filing your motion with the court’s clerk and sending copies of your motion to the prosecutor and to your probation officer.

Otherwise, you will have to do your best to do whatever you are told to do. If you find you must be creative with the writing assignments in order to complete them, review the assignment with your probation officer and ask for direction.

The bottom line is that your probation officer does not want to violate you. Work with him so you can make it through your probationary period.
 

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