I sat waiting in the probation area for about 15 minutes and finally heard a door open right in front of me. Looking up I saw a middle aged lady standing there asking me to come on back. She looked friendly enough. We walked through a short hallway and into a small office where I sat down. She introduced herself, and leafed through a file that I noticed had my name and case number on it. After a few minutes she stated she would read through it in more detail later, but wanted to overview the probation process for me. She also asked that before we jumped in that I give her an overview of my case, which I did from start to finish.
When I was done, she just stared at me for a minute and said “Wow”. She had a very shocked look on her face, but hesitated saying anything. She only replied that given the charges and interest the DA had in my case, she was surprised I got a misdemeanor charge and 18-months probation. I responded by saying they didn’t have much of a case, but wouldn’t drop it. She just shook her head and opened up my file.
Probation Terms
The first item she reviewed was the terms of my probation. She walked through each of the items on the “special terms” I had agreed to as part of my plea bargain. We spent the most time discussing three of them.
Financial Terms
This is where I got my first little surprise. She informed me that I would be required to make monthly payments. Those payments would consist of the amount I owed “the victim” spread out over the 18-month probation term. Additionally, I would have to pay $35/month probation. The “victim” money I expected, the probation fee I didn’t. Nobody had told me prior to this meeting that I would need to pay a probation fee. While not a huge amount of money, $35 dollars over 18-months added up to be $630.00. Given the 20k plus I had just dished out to my attorney, plus the “victim money” and now this…the financial strain was definitely kicking in.
She filled out a financial terms form and had me sign it. Frankly, I didn’t have any choice. Not signing it would result in me being in violation of my probation terms meaning I would go to jail. So I signed it and expressed my concerns about not being aware of the fee. Her only reply was “sorry about that”. She then explained to me that if I got more than a couple of months behind on my payments, she would be forced to send me jail. I found this interesting. So if I can’t make the payment for some reason, I go to jail, resulting in me not working and thus further not being able to pay the bill. I wondered how that worked for people.
After signing and reviewing the financial terms, she told me how to make payments and that I was expected to make my first one today. Only cash was expected. What? I explained to her that I didn’t have the cash on me, but would come over later in the afternoon or tomorrow and make it. She agreed, but made it very clear that payment needed to be made.
Additional Terms for being around children
The next surprise occurred when we reached the item in my plea agreement where I wasn’t supposed to be around children other than my own without adult supervision. As she explained it to me, in order for an adult to be considered for “adult supervision”, that adult had to meet with and be approved by my probation officer. No big deal right? Well, let’s think that through…Can I go to other people’s homes that have children without my probation officer meeting them? Could I go to the mall? How about when other kids come over in our driveway or yard to play with my kids?
I asked her about all of this and her answer was wherever reasonable she needs to approve the adult that will be with me. So this basically allowed me to go to public places like malls, stores, etc where there were lot of adults. But for visiting friends, going to church, kids playing around our house, etc my wife had to be there and my wife had to meet my probation officer first. I asked her a little further about this since that wasn’t what the agreement actually said. Her response was that as the probation officer, she had the right to enforce the rules as she felt they needed to be enforced. I later learned this was not true and that probation officers can only enforce the rules as they are written in the judgement, no more, no less.
Counseling/Anger Management
Now for the big curve ball. She gave me the name and address of the organization I would be working with for the anger management counseling. However, she informed me that she had already spoken with them. The organization didn’t offer specific anger management counseling, but instead they would place me in the sex offender counseling sessions. Turns out they just happened to be getting ready to start the anger management portion of their curriculum. The slimey DA had worked this out in advance. This was the DAs way of getting me into sex offender treatment by tricking me. The only good news was that I only had to attend for 6-weeks.
I of course challenged this and was told that was the only option, and that if I didn’t cooperate it would be considered a probation violation and I would go to jail (seeing a pattern here?). I later contacted my attorney who said there was really nothing he could do and that technically what they were doing met the terms of the agreement. Lied to and screwed again! Folks, remember the law is NOT on your side.
My probation officer then called and made an appointment for me to have an assessment done before my counseling started. Another surprise. Since I was going into the sex offender counseling session, I had to have a formal assessment done. Something I had completely refused to do while I was waiting on this to be resolved. Not knowing what I was really getting myself into, I thought I would at least go over and meet with them. The appointment was for a few days later. If I became uncomfortable or felt the “assessment” was hurting me more than helping, I would just leave.
My probation officer then informed me that her and I would be meeting at least monthly and initially each wee. She made our appointment for the following week. She told me that if she needed to meet with me sooner, that she would call me. She also reminded me that she would be stopping by every so often unannounced and would also be doing searches of the property without a warrant. If I failed to allow these, I would be arrested immediately. She also went through in gory detail any “sexual materials” that would be considered in violation of my probation. This included sex toys, pornography (written or visual), and pornographic movies. My computer would also be checked and no pornography or history of viewing pornographic sites was allowed. If they found any guess what? Yep, go to jail. This was not a problem for me, I don’t have pornography and don’t view it.
I left her office to head to the bank to get some cash to pay for the initial probation payment. The whole time thinking that didn’t go at all as I expected. Even after agreeing to the plea, I was still being screwed. I wondered what additional surprises awaited me over the next 18 months and especially during my assessment appointment in the next few days. I was also very nervous about sitting in counseling sessions with real convicted sex offenders. I thought to myself, only 18 more months to go. I’d been through so much, I could surely endure this too.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Does it EVER end???? This is preposterous!!!! The country has NO idea how horribly these types of allegations ruin every single aspect of your life for eternity! It doesn’t even end if you are vindicated. You then have to pay thousands upon thousands more to have your record expunged, then you have to fight to have your name removed from the registry, all in the name of justice???? 1 little mistake, forget to make a payment on time, forget to do 1 little thing and your STILL thrown in jail for something you did not do. And this is the LAND OF THE FREE??????
Dad,
I pray for you and your family but struggle with your decision to “plead”. i too have been falsely accused. I married a beautiful woman who has had 2 girls from 2 earlier marriages. We have had custody of her eldest whom I’ve been raising for over 7 years and we have had 3 children of our own. I am active duty military and have recently been stationed for the first time close to where her estranged daughter from her second marriage could spend the summer with us.After spending the summer with us the estranged daughter (with the help of her illegal alien, who has felony charges of larceny, father) has accused me of “trying to touch her underwear”. Despite the fact that I had a son from my first marriage who was born with severe disabilities that I raised mostly as a single parent until his death at the age of 11, two ex-wives that are willing to testify to my integrity, 17 years of honorable service to my country, and the support of my current wife, my loving 14 year old step-daughter (who was used as a pawn in the middle of all this because they claimed she was being abused despite her unequivocal denial) they still have pressed charges for “attempt to sexually abuse”. Not a single shred of evidence leans to an I-O-T-A of guilt yet my family is still going through a tremendous amount of pain.
I understand your desire to :plead: to lessen the pain and am fully aware of the consequence of not “playing the game” but I can never reconcile the idea of explaining to my children how I could admit to something I didn’t do.
My prayers are with you and your beautiful family. My case goes to a jury trial in May 2010. Hopefully I can give you some good news and i plan on “documenting” my experience too.
Dan, I didn’t plead guilty, I plead “no contest” which basically means I’m not saying I did it, but I’m not going to fight it any further. If I had to plead guilty, I wouldn’t have agreed.
Trust me, it was a very long struggle but really boiled down to whether or not I was willing to risk my families future on my own need to “prove” to everyone I wasn’t guilty. My family believed me, and the only people I was trying to prove my innocence to where the same “friends” that had all pretty much turned their backs on us anyway. I also have a son with type 1 diabetes that requires a significant amount of medical care and medicine on a monthly basis. Had I went to court and lost (50/50 chance), I’d have gone to jail, lost my job and hence all my medical benefits, which are very very good. Another factor that played into this was that going to trial would have cost me another 20-30k on top of the 20-30k I had already dished out. I was pretty much broke as it was. I didn’t have another 20-30k.
I didn’t like it and still don’t like it, but I “took one” for my family. 18 months later, it was the right decision. My older kids understand and were part of the decision process. My younger kids don’t really know and frankly I’m not sure they need to at this point.
It really boiled down to a gamble of going to court and possibly facing a guilty charge of a class C felony (real serious) vs. a plea to a misdemeanor which I can most likely get expunged. Remember when an adult faces a child in court, especially a young child, the jury generally sides for the child. Court statistics show that.
There is a lady that comments on here. Here son went to court, as he believed in the system. He wanted to prove to everyone that he wasn’t guilty. He passed up a plea offer. He was found guilty and is now in jail with a felony conviction and gets to spend most likely the rest of his life on the sex offender list. The system failed him, as it fails many.
Unfortunately, it’s a game that can have life long consequences if you make the wrong decision or the “dice” don’t roll in your favor. My worst fear was sitting in the court room, and have a guilty verdict thrown at me. What would have been my first thought? “I should have taken that plea bargain”. I didn’t want to be in that position.
I am going to trial this week, turned down 2 “deals”, passed a polygraph and now the Prosecution has INCREASED the charge! It has been a year this month. Had to quit my job in the fire service and a destroyed relationship. I am confident that the jury will see the light. I couldn’t give into the scare tactics and agenda of a prosecutor trying to get another “win” and take a deal for something I didn’t do. If for some reason it doesn’t go my way, I will lose my daughter that I have had custody of since before the allegation from her half sister.
Mike,
I know how you feel. I won’t even discuss a plea deal. One, I could never give that worthless piece of trash the satisfaction and ANY type of plea deal would destroy me in my line of work. Not to mention the fact that the only way they could come close to putting on a case is if the investigator perjurs himself or the judge refuses to allow me to defend myself. From what I understand neither one of those is that far-fetched Let us know if you don’t mind how things go.
Increasing the charge is really common. They threatened me with the same. They were going to bump my charge to rape (digital penetration) if I didn’t take the plea. Would they have? I don’t know. No way it would have held, but just being charged with something like that would have completely ruined me and my family.
No, prosecutors purgering themselves is not uncommon…I mean who are they going to believe? Same with police, they lie like there is no tomorrow.
@Dan/Mike – I really respect both of you for sticking to your guns and “fighting the power”. Just consider the others impacted by your decision and potential outcomes. I had to swallow a lot of pride. Dan, is proving the prosecutor wrong worth losing your daughter? Trust me, I know it’s not right, it’s not fair and it’s not just. But it’s the reality of our court system. Seem to recall reading that more than 98% of cases are settled out of court via plea bargains. That shocked me before, now I completely understand why.
Dad,
My children’s ages right now are 14 (step daughter), two boy’s ages 5 and 3 and another daughter is 5 months old. I am active duty military which means that OSI has done their own full investigation and have found no reason to charge (they actually did an investigation, go figure?) but a “plea” would force their hand to discharge me anyway. After 17 years of honorable service (3 years from retirement) I just can’t take that chance.
I also have heard some numbers, like the conviction rate for these kind of cases is 84%. Doesn’t that include “pleas”? But how accurate can those numbers be when 98% do plead out. What I would like to hear are some good numbers of how many acquittals occur when the falsely accused call their “bluff” and force them to trial? That would be an interesting study?