AL- Two sex offenders talk about life in the public eye

1-31-2009 Alabama:

_____ is a sex offender.

Very soon, all his neighbors in Auburn will know it too—because a sex offender notification flier is about to be sent out.

“It still stresses me out,” he said. “All they see is a sex offender. They want to judge somebody. Only God can judge me. Let God judge me.”

They’ll know that _____ was charged with sexual abuse in the third degree in 2005, that he was charged in Oregon and that his victim was a 15-year-old girl.
They’ll also know it was consensual.

“It was a female I knew,” Grody said. “We just had sex one night. I’m no rapist.”

_____ was 26 when he slept with the girl.

He was charged when his ex-wife — to whom he was still married at the time— learned of the weeklong affair and turned him in, _____ said.

“The girl told me she was 18,” he said. (Because sex crime victims’ identities are kept confidential, the Opelika-Auburn News was unable to interview the victim for this article.)

“I got messed up,” he said, meaning that he was charged with something he didn’t do.

Although _____ spent only 30 days in jail, the incident has followed him ever since.

“They made it out that I’m a bad person. I’m not,” he said.

Like other sex offenders, _____ cannot live within 2,000 feet of a school and has a driver’s license that identifies him as a sex offender. A lot of his personal information has been made public.

Although some sex offenders have a hard time finding a job, _____ said he didn’t and now works as a heavy equipment operator.

But on the job, it’s a different story.

He said that when he’s working, he occasionally hears people who know about his status talk about it on the CB radio.

“They don’t know the whole story,” he said. “They’re just judging me.”

____ said he once went outside his house to discover his truck covered in eggs and ketchup.

“It’s embarrassing,” he said.

He said he’s not a predatory offender, someone who “hides out in the woods and rapes little girls.”

“She lied to me. She looked older,” he said. “I’m a good ol’ country boy. I won’t ever do it again.”

___________, who now lives in Phenix City, is also a sex offender.

He was convicted in Lee County of sexual abuse in the second degree and attempted sexual abuse in the first degree.

At the time, his victims were 4 and 14, he said. They were the daughters of his ex-wife.

“I can tell you this, the easy part was going to jail,” he said. “Getting out of jail was the hard part.”

_____ maintains he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, when the 14-year-old said he fondled her. (The victim could not be interviewed due to victim confidentiality.)

“It’s embarrassing to me. … With that kind of charge, you’re automatically guilty. You’re automatically guilty for the rest of your life,” he said.

Like _____, _____’s real battle began after his 12 months in jail.

“It’s hard to find a place (to live),” he said. “Every July and January, I have to check in and re-register in Opelika.”

When he moves into a new place, he tells neighbors that he’s a sex offender, he said.

“I try to be up front with people,” he said.

_____ said his family has been supportive. He works with his brother.

“I did apply for one job,” he said. “They saw my license and they said, ‘No, unfortunately, we’re not hiring at this time.’ ” ..News Source.. by Brittany Whitley, Staff Writer