Note the very last sentence, is the Pardon worth it? Or is it just a first step to getting his name off the registry too?3-28-2013 Alabama:
LEEDS, Alabama -- The state director of Victims Of Crime And Leniency said it was "shocking" that a letter on Leeds Elementary School stationery was submitted to the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles on behalf of a registered sex offender.
VOCAL state director Janette Grantham made the comment in a letter to an attorney for the state school system. Grantham said Dennis Lynn Phillips was pardoned Wednesday of a sexual abuse charge he pleaded guilty to in 1998.
Grantham said the letter written by Leeds Elementary Principal Andrew Briskey appeared to have swayed the board to grant the pardon.
"One board member stated by the letter being on school stationary (sic) implied the entire school was seeking a full pardon for a convicted sex offender. He stated if the offender re-offends, it would be a reflection on Leeds Elementary School not the Parole Board. He stated he had never before received such a letter on school letterhead," Grantham wrote.
Efforts to reach Briskey were not immediately successful.
Eddie Cook Jr,. the assistant executive director for the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, confirmed Phillips was pardoned but declined to release the letter written by Briskey.
"State statue restricts our agency/employees from providing information from any file. What I can say is there were a number of protest letters on this case, and that he was granted a pardon on yesterday," Cook said.
Leeds Superintendent John Moore said Wednesday afternoon he had received a phone call about the situation but had not yet spoken to Briskey.
"The letter was not endorsed by the school system or the individual school," Moore said.
Court records show Phillips, now 41, was charged in St. Clair County in 1996 with second degree rape and sodomy but pleaded guilty to first degree sexual abuse. Phillips was placed on probation for nine years, nine months, and 10 days, records showed.
According to the state sex offender registry, the victim was a 15-year-old girl.
Efforts to reach attorneys who represented Phillips at the time of his trial were not immediately successful.
"As a victims' rights organization, VOCAL has no problem with the principal sending the letter. The fact the letter was on school letterhead was shocking. Being on school letterhead made a much bigger impression on the Board as it implied to them the entire Leeds Elementary School was in favor of the pardon. By Mr. Phillips receiving a full pardon means he will never again have to register as a sex offender," Grantham wrote in her letter to the state school system.
Cook, however, said this pardon did not relieve Phillips of the sexual offender notification act. ..Source.. by Jeremy Gray
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