MI- Sex offender avoids registry

Its about time a Judge has stood up and said, enough there are folks who just do not belong on the public registry!

10-5-2009 Michigan:

Prosecutors to appeal judge's ruling that keeps teen off books

Ann Arbor -- Prosecutors are appealing a Washtenaw County judge's decision that kept a convicted juvenile sex offender off the state's public sex offender registry.

Debra Keehn, an Ann Arbor lawyer who represents the juvenile identified in court records as T.D., said Friday the implications of a ruling by Family Division Judge Darlene O'Brien could be profound if the state Court of Appeals takes the case. "The decision is so well reasoned it's likely the Court of Appeals will affirm the decision and then the law changes for everyone in Michigan," said Keehn, who declined to identify her client by name or allow The Detroit News to interview him.

Steve Miller, chief deputy prosecutor for Washtenaw County, said his office has decided to appeal the Sept. 30 ruling. He had no further comment.

In the case, T.D. was 15 when he was accused of second-degree criminal sexual conduct. The case involved a 15-year-old female classmate who accused T.D. of grabbing her and touching her breast in school. A jury convicted him of the charge when he was 16.

T.D. remained in detention while his case was prosecuted and was placed on 18 months of probation for his sentence. He completed a juvenile sexual offender treatment program, had no contact with the victim and provided his fingerprints as ordered, Keehn said. He also placed himself on a nonpublic juvenile sex offender registry as required by law.

Once he turned 18 in March, T.D. was required under Michigan law to place himself on the public sex offender registry, where his name would remain for 25 years.

His lawyer filed an appeal to keep his name off, claiming the registry marginalizes rehabilitated offenders and puts up tremendous barriers that force many to resort back to crime.

In her decision, the judge said she considered T.D. to be rehabilitated and the severity of the teen's offense to be "low," saying the incident was "more akin to a juvenile prank than predatory, perverted, criminally deviant sexual conducted likely to be repeated."

O'Brien said: "It would be cruel or unusual punishment to require T.D. to publicly register for the remainder of the 25-year period."

Asked how T.D. reacted to the ruling, Keehn said "he is very happy."

Larry Dubin, a criminal law professor at the University of Detroit-Mercy, said O'Brien has ruled part of the sex offender registry law is unconstitutional.

"Judge O'Brien's opinion warrants serious consideration by an appellate court to determine whether the current law is unconstitutional in depriving a judge of exercising discretion when the facts do not warrant registration as a sex offender," Dubin said. ..Source.. by Jennifer Chambers / The Detroit News