MO- Registered sex offender files suit against sheriff

6-18-2008 Missouri:

A registered sex offender from Willow Springs has filed a civil lawsuit against Howell County Sheriff Robbie Crites.

Scott Kramer is the petitioner in the suit, filed Friday in Howell County Circuit Court. He is represented by Jacob Y. Garrett of Garrett & Silvey attorneys at law in West Plains.

The suit states that on Aug. 28, 2001, Kramer entered a guilty plea in Pennsylvania for a misdemeanor offense of indecent assault, according to the laws of Pennsylvania.

After the guilty plea, Kramer was sentenced to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and started his sentence Sept. 11, 2001. He was released on parole Feb. 27, 2002.

Kramer later moved to Missouri, the suit says, and transferred his parole to Missouri. At that time, he was required by his parole officer to register as a sex offender. Kramer now has completed his parole, but is still being required by the sheriff to register as a sex offender.

The suit states Kramer believes that under statutes on the date of his conviction – Aug. 28, 2001 – he would not have been made to register as a sex offender.

“The crime for which the petitioner pled guilty to in Pennsylvania constituted a misdemeanor offense and thus was not a registerable offense under the applicable statute that was then in effect in Missouri on the 28th day of August, 2001,” the suit says.

The suit further states that Kramer wouldn’t have been required to register as a sex offender in Pennsylvania if he still lived there since he pled guilty to a misdemeanor.

The petition filed in the suit also states that laws of this nature “could not be applied retroactively to an individual requiring them to register as a sex offender for a crime committed prior to statutory requirements.”

Kramer is asking that the court find he “is not required to register under Missouri law as a sex offender,” as well as “for an order directing the sheriff to remove the name of the petitioner from the sex offender list for the state of Missouri; for an order providing that the sheriff no longer be required to direct the petitioner to register as a sex offender; and for such other relief as the court deems just and proper in the premises.”

Attached to the petition filed by Kramer is the definition of indecent assault in Pennsylvania.

The documents state, “A person is guilty of indecent assault if the person has indecent contact with the complainant, causes the complainant to have indecent contact with the person or intentionally causes the complainant to come into contact with seminal fluid, urine or feces for the purpose of arousing sexual desire in the person or the complainant and:

1.) the person does so without the complainant’s consent;

2.) the person does so by forcible compulsion;

3.) the person does so by threat of forcible compulsion …;

4.) the complainant is unconscious …;

5.) the person has substantially impaired the complainant’s power to appraise or control his or her conduct …;

6.) the complainant suffers from mental disability …;

7.) the complainant is less than 13 years of age; or

8.) the complainant is less than 16 years of age and the person is four or more years older than the complainant.”

According to the documents, the crime is considered a misdemeanor in Pennsylvania unless it is the second or subsequent offense, there has been a course of conduct of indecent assault by the person, the indecent assault was committed by touching the complainant’s sexual or intimate parts with sexual or intimate parts of the person, or if the indecent assault is committed by touching the person’s sexual or intimate parts with the complainant’s sexual or intimate parts.

Kramer, age 45, currently is registered on the Howell County list of registered sex offenders, as well as the database maintained by the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

The petition filed in the civil lawsuit only states one side of the case. ..News Source,, by Howel County News