08/09/2011
By Kyle Martin
An Augusta man is asking to have his name removed from Georgia's sex offender registry, 18 years after pleading guilty to two sex offenses, court records show.
In a lengthy petition filed Aug. 1, [name withheld] makes the case for his removal based on several factors, including his community involvement and family life.
His attorney, C. Scott Connell, writes that [name withheld] is a "very different person in 2011 than he was in 1993" and calls him a "model citizen."
[name withheld] "... has done everything imaginable to demonstrate that the offenses of nearly two decades ago will never happen again," the petition reads.
Connell declined to comment Tuesday before the case is closed.
More than a year has passed since Georgia eased restrictions on its 20,000 sex offenders and made it easier to be removed from the registry. Since the law was signed in May 2010, 107 sex offenders have been removed from the sex offender registry, with 42 other applications pending before the Sex Offender Registration Review Board, according to The Associated Press.
- Not sure how this is true, since I've been monitoring the registry for a year now, and the number of offenders continues to grow, instead of going down. See here.
The law removes the 10-year waiting period for low-level sex offenders and makes it possible to immediately petition for a removal from the list. These include the so-called "Romeo and Juliet" offenders who had sex with an underage girlfriend, for instance, or were convicted of a nonsexual offense involving a minor, such as false imprisonment.
Because the law is relatively new, little precedent has been established for these cases, said attorney Page Pate, whose law firm handles sex offender petitions across the state.
Generally, judges will consider the type of offense, whether any threats were made against the victim, the risk of re-offending and any psychological evaluations of the offender, Pate said.
"It depends on the judge," Pate said, because removing someone from the registry is not a politically popular decision.
[name withheld]'s petition addresses all of those issues. He pleaded guilty in 1994 to two counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor in Greenville, S.C. His concurrent sentence of 15 years was suspended after two years of confinement, followed by five years' probation.
He was released on probation on Nov. 1, 1995, and registered with the South Carolina Sex Offender Registry. For several months after returning home to Augusta, he reported to Augusta and Greenville probation offices, then only Richmond County probation.
He was removed from the South Carolina registry one year after his release, but it wasn't until three years later, in 1999, that authorities told him to register in Georgia, court records said.
The petition said that [name withheld] has been "fully compliant" with the conditions of his release for the past 11 years. He also has been evaluated by four psychologists, who agree he is at a low risk of offending, the petition states.
The petition described [name withheld] as a husband, father and "successful businessman." His children's application at a private school was rejected because of [name withheld]'s name on the registry, the petition alleges.
"This is yet another source of great pain which has been brought about by his status on the Registry," the petition said. "If there ever was a person for whom the removal portion of the Registry statute was made for it is surely this man."
