The Complex Web of Sex Offender Justifications and Family Relations

Explore the shadowy mindset of sex offenders with us, Harriet  West-Moore and my field partner, as we share our seasoned perspectives from careers in state parole services. Our latest episode promises to provide a profound understanding of the legal system's efforts against those who have harmed minors, equipped with trigger warnings to protect our listeners' peace of mind. We delve into the psyche of these predators, dissecting their twisted justifications and examining Ohio's nuanced sex offender registration system. Our candid revelations will guide you through the maze of registration tiers, with a comprehensive explanation of the grave consequences faced by these criminals.

The second half of our discussion shifts to the often-veiled relationship dynamics that emerge in families touched by sexual offences. We recount a chilling case study involving a young woman and her so-called "godfather," peeling back layers of deceit to expose a possible history of abuse. Despite the young woman's denial and the offender's blatant disregard for his parole conditions, we discuss the stringent measures law enforcement must take to defend her children from the cycle of abuse. Our conversation aims to shed light on the complex web of manipulation that perpetrators weave, with the goal of empowering our audience with knowledge to recognize and combat these harmful bonds.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

叫 Studies. Hey everybody, this is Harry Westmore with the Women in Public Safety podcast. This is a podcast where we discuss women who are on the front lines of healthcare, social worker, human services, law enforcement and corrections. I want to welcome you back to another week, and this week is a case chronicle episode. This is a case chronicle Chronicle. I said I was going to do case chronicle episodes three times a month in conjunction with our regular podcast episodes, so this is case number three. Before I get started to talk about a case study, true case for case chronicle segment today, I wanted to do a little bit of housekeeping and want everybody to hit that like, subscribe and share button on the YouTube channel. I want to try to get more people involved and I want to try to get the algorithm to keep going up and up and up as far as the stats concern. So, also, I really would like to remind everybody to please keep your comments in a respectful form. If this is not the type of a podcast or platform that you are interested in listening to, you have certainly have a choice to move on to other podcasts that may be more to your liking. I like my space to be a respectful space for everyone. Everybody can make their comments, but please keep it respectful and I appreciate that, all right.

Speaker 1: 2:12

So, without further ado, let's go into case chronicles number three, this case. I want to give a shout to my field partner, who gave me this case to talk about, and one of her many offenders that she has supervised, as well as I have, in our years in working in law enforcement as a state parole officer. Today we're talking about sexual predators or sexual offenses that have been committed by offenders who have had inappropriate contact with minors, and I want to forewarn you if this segment is a trigger for some of those who may have survived these types of crimes, you are certainly welcome to not listen to this particular case study for this week. Your mental health, your well-being, is, first and foremost, a priority. So please, if this you know some of the things that I talk about. Although I talk things in general terms, I do not get graphic, but I try to, you know talk and describe the element of the crime to where people can understand what has happened. And if it's a please, if it's a trigger for you, then please, by all means, you might want to skip this week's case study, all right.

Speaker 1: 3:54

So, with that being said, let's talk about sex offenders and their mentality overall. From the base, on our experience as a supervisor, parole or probation officer, I found because I do have a few sex offenders on my caseload and I found they are interesting, not in a good way I find that a lot of them can be very arrogant, very manipulative as part of their, that's part of their, of their pattern of manipulation and downright delusional because they will. Just if a lot of them I'm not saying all, I'm not saying all there's, you know, some who really understood and under you know and acknowledged their mistake and what they have done. But there's also others who have not necessarily acknowledged but kind of justify why they committed crimes against minors or you know, or just crimes against you know another person in an inappropriate way. You know, I've heard really disgusting reasons that from well, I didn't know that they were underage, to well they, the victim or the survivor, came on to them. Now that one, that excuse that always kind of rise me up with the hair on the back of my head, stand up because, first of all, if the victim or the survivor is 12 or younger, how can they possibly come on to you as a grown adult. But they, you know they really tried to justify that. Well, you know, either blaming on the alcohol, blame it on you know, because, oh, they came on to me again as a child. This is the dichotomy and the sickness that a lot of them have in their minds. Well, that's kind of wanting to give you a background. I also want to kind of give you a background of a lot of people may not understand and know the law as far as the each sexual offense, the tears there's three tears and I'm going to give you kind of the gist of it from the state of where I'm from.

Speaker 1: 6:48

The law is, and then it's, which is Ohio. They're one sex offenders. They are required to register as a sex offender every year for a period of 15 years. So those are usually offenses that are not felonies. I mean they're felons but however, they're not what you call they're. They're lower tier. A lot of unsexually Crime against a minor, like on-structural lawful conduct with a minor, is usually a tier one, and those usually are ones that are like a 25-year-old male may have inappropriate conceptual contact with a 15-year-old. He was clearly underage. Whether it was consensual or not, it's still a crime. So you are still charged and you still have to register as a sex offender. Every year you have to renew your registration for a period of 15 years. However, in Ohio it can sometimes be reduced if there are no additional sexual offenses or felonies have been made throughout the years of being on supervision and if the offender has successfully completed any type of sex offender treatment and again finishes probation or parole without any additional crimes, then that may be considered a reduction of registration. Again, it's very discretionary. There are Ohio convictions.

Speaker 1: 8:58

I'm reading this includes child enticement, gross sexual imposition, illegal use of minor in a nudity-oriented material, menacing by stalking with sexual motivation, unlawful restraint with sexual motivation and voyeurism. Those are considered under the Tier 1 registration law. In Ohio Tier 2 is more elevated. They have to any sex offender who has committed what we call a Tier 2, have to register every 180 days for over a period of 25 years and there's no early consideration for termination for Tier 2 offenses. And these offenses are child endangering, compelling prostitution. Let's see gross sexual imposition with a victim under the age of 13. They can be pandering obscenity involving a minor, pandering sexual orienting material involving minors and again there's no consideration for any reduction or not having to not register. You have to register every six months for the next 25 years. Now.

Speaker 1: 10:47

Tier 3 is what we call the sexual predator. They are, you know, by far the most deviant of the tiers of the sexual offenders and they have to register every three months, every 90 days, for life, no exceptions. For life you have to register as a sexual, as a sex offender, with your county and state departments, sheriff's department and with the state of all you know your state, for life, every 90 days. And these tiers are very is the highest and, like I said, they're the highest deviancy of sexual predators. These crimes conclude felonious assaults with sexual motivation, kidnapping of a minor, not by a parent, and or engage in sexual activity, murder and aggravated murder with sexual motivation, rape, sexual battery, unlawful death or termination of a pregnancy as a result of committing or attempting to commit a felony with a sexual motivation. Those are your deviant, those are your predators and those are your Tier 3, and they will be registered for life. There's no deviancy, there's no getting off or having any consideration of not registering Once you're classified as a Tier 3 and Tier 2, there's, you know, you can't, there's no consideration of not registering, all right.

Speaker 1: 12:28

So I just kind of wanted to give you a kind of a history and a background. This is, you know, for state of Ohio. Maybe each state they may have the same tiers, but each state's considerations may be different by state. So I'm only talking about my state, which is Ohio. Okay, so, with that being said, that's kind of giving you the background.

Speaker 1: 12:48

Let me talk about a case study, true case. This again was given to me, told to me, with my field partner, who had this particular offender on her case load. He was a Tier 3, so he had to register every 90 days for life, I believe. If I'm not I could be wrong, but I think that's what his tier level was. He did time in prison for a sexual offense. He did years. He got out. He let me tell you about his personality as told by my partner. He was arrogant, he was a middle class. He wasn't some low life you know off the streets, low life living. You know low income. I mean, you know he wasn't.

Speaker 1: 13:54

There's no and I want people to understand, there's no profile of a predator, of a sexual offender. They could be right next door to you, they could be in your own family, they could, they function just like everybody else. They have, they have a job, they have families, they're married or not, they're law-abiding a citizen, so to speak and I'm saying earquests for those who are listening by audio. This particular individual he was a retired from a, you know, did years, worked in the auto industry and but he was a predator because he had an inappropriate, inappropriate relationship with a minor. So he had to go to prison for that.

Speaker 1: 14:54

Well, when he got out, he was on supervision and by my partner and he was like I said, he was well off, he had, you know, he was tired, he made good money in the auto industry and so he decided to buy a house. And he bought a house, you know, to rent out. Well, you know, the part of the conditions are also that you cannot live, especially if you are registered. If you're registering as a sex offender throughout the county and state, the county sheriff's office will notify the neighborhood that a sex offender lives in your area. They that's part of the conditions. You have the neighbors. The neighborhood of where this potential offender lives has to be the neighbors has to be notified. Well, and then also, you cannot be residing near a school or daycare or a church. You have to be within a thousand feet away from these particular establishments.

Speaker 1: 16:08

So he of course was I mean he was in compliant with that part. He decided to buy a house because he wanted to rent out the house. So he purchased this house and he rented it to a one of his friends. Daughter. The daughter had, she had, she's a grown, she had two children, two girls. You know to be Pacific. So he rented the house out with with you know, to her, because then he's been a long time family friend and the young lady and her two girls needed a place to stay. As though she, he rented the house out to you.

Speaker 1: 16:59

So when my Partner would do visits, you know, one of the things that she, you know, do is check in and see or are you, have you been around minors? No, have you had any contact with minors? No, can I, you know you have to have you, you have to your phone or any type of electronic device cannot have, you cannot have any access to Internet, social media or things, or even a camera on your phone. So you, period, we have to check and make sure that they, these offenders, are in compliance with that. And my partner has said something about him and his demeanor. It just didn't sit right with her. When you do this type of work for years, you just you have to go by your instinct. You got to go by your gut feeling that something's just not right. You can't put your finger on it, so you know. But you know something in the back of your mind. Something's just not right. So she's just like, okay, I'm going to get more attention, I'm going to pay closely attention In the meantime, his friend daughter, the one that he's renting the house to the daughter's father, the daughter's father, the daughter's father, the daughter's father, the actual father of this daughter, you know, he clen.

Speaker 1: 18:36

Well, I'll put it this way, the fender knew this young lady and he think of her as a daughter. Okay so, but the actual daughter's father contacted my partner and he voiced his concerns that this offender, who was this friend, who was his friend because he was a friend of the family for years and years and years. I believe that you know something's not right with the relationship between my daughter and this offender. I've always had a this is what the father is telling my partner. I've always had this feeling that he had some kind of inappropriate relationship with my daughter, but I just couldn't prove it. And every time when I approach her or tell her or ask her about it, you know she would be denied, she would deny it. But as a father he just knew something wasn't right. So that kind of just kind of validated my partner's you know, intuition that she felt something wasn't right with him and this whole dynamic situation between his, I would say, god daughter I'll just put it as the lady being his god daughter. So she went to the home of where the god daughter and her daughters are saying, and she spoke with her, spoke with her and she asked the god daughter, if the offender is having, has had contact with, you know, her, or the girl, the daughter, the god daughter now is now an adult, she has kids of her own but has contact with her girls and you know she denied it. She denied it. And when she?

Speaker 1: 20:41

But then my partner spoke with him, the offender, and he said well, you know, I see her, you know the rent, she's renting a house from me, so it's always is renting a house, but I don't go over there. She's like a daughter to me, she's like my god daughter, you know. And so I rented the house to her. I don't see the kids. I don't go over to the house, though, but when I do, I see them in a public place. We go for ice cream or something like that, you know, or we, you know, we go out in public. So it's not like I have, um, a long contact with the girls. I just, you know, it's always in a public space.

Speaker 1: 21:31

But, like my partner had told him, stipulated, you're not to have any type of contact, I don't care who it is, uh, with minors and those girls, the little girls are minors. So but he, you know, he's trying to justify well, it's not at the house, it's in a public place. We go, I may take them for ice cream, you know, along with her mom, which is his god daughter, um, and but again she's telling him, no, you're not, you cannot have any type of contact. So she did some more background check. She spoke with the father of the god daughter.

Speaker 1: 22:21

Again, um, and the fact that he's had contact with the god daughter's daughters, um, she went ahead and violated him because he went against the stipulation of his terms of conditions that he is not to have by any means no contact with minors. So she went and told the god daughter that, um, the offender is going back, has to it being violated because he's had contact with her girls. You know, in a, I don't care if it is it's, you know, although it was supposedly in the public place which you know I, you know, we kind of doubt that, um, but the mom, the god daughter, was very upset with my partner. He's, you know he hasn't done anything. Why are you violating him? He didn't do anything. Um, so it's the mom who the god daughter is fighting against. You know, my partner, she would have to move out of that, out of his house, because he's going back to. You know he has, he's been violated, so he's been arrested and now he's waiting to go back before the parole board.

Speaker 1: 23:47

And my partner said that the god daughter was very, very upset and she couldn't understand why, does you know, the offender can't have contact. He's like a father to me. Um, he's been helping me and my girls. He allowed me to stay at, you know this, at, you know, here I have no, you know other, he's been helping me. Let me just say this about offenders this is the part of the manipulation. This is a, this is, it's clearly manipulation because, uh, he knew that this daughter, that this god daughter was probably needed a place to stay and in exchange for having a place to stay, he will have. I still have access to her and and the daughters, because it was clearly, you know, it was clearly noted that he's he did have contact, inappropriate sexual contact with the god daughter when she was as a minor.

Speaker 1: 24:56

But what's interesting is that the god daughter still wants to have a relationship with this offender, even though he had violated her as a, as a child. Now, um, she wants to. She's continued to have a relationship with this man and not only that, her two daughters are now um, are giving access to this to this individual. So, and she's very upset about that, and my um, my field partner, told her you know, I can't do anything about the fact that you know you may have, you know, um relationship with him, but I'm trying to protect your daughters. So you know, again, she denied everything, um, but she eventually had to move and when he went in front of the parole board, um, again he denied.

Speaker 1: 26:09

He tried to justify that he should still continue to have contact with this um, with the god daughter and the daughters. They're like family to me. You know it, uh, but you clearly violated your, your parole conditions. So and he flat out basically told my Partner and the parole board that you know you can lock him back up but he's still gonna have contact with her, with them, it doesn't matter. So you know, to just to have that arrogance and to have that you know, that mindset that he feels, that you know You're not gonna stop me from Having access to those girls or to her, or you know, because he, it was like a moves, like an obsession with him. He, you know it was just he couldn't understand why he couldn't Continue on that relationship when clearly he went to prison For that same type of behavior. So I Wanted to, you know, bring that out. So he did. I mean he went back to prison. I'm not sure how long he stayed and she no longer has his case, my Partner no longer has his case, so I don't know the outcome of it, but I mean it was one of those disturbing cases for her because you know not only you know he the arrogance of him and the delusion and trying to justify his actions it's the the victim slas survivor Is still attached to this person. She still want to have a relationship. Even her own father had this Suspicion that his friend was, you know, messing around with his daughter. But he, you know, as he said, he couldn't, you know, he couldn't actually prove it and you know the daughter was, you know, didn't, had denied it, but it was clearly obvious. And for him now to you know, purposely, get, you know, buy a house For this for the girl and her daughters to live in, still, gave him access to them and now, now it's passing down, you know, to To more young victims. So Sexual offenders.

Speaker 1: 28:50

There's a Controversy of whether they, you know, when you go into sex offender Under programs or treatment, can they be rehabilitated or cured. I Don't know. I mean, again, it's all, it's all in the mindset. If you understand and acknowledge what you've done, you know, and a lot of them is, they were at one time Victims and violated themselves. So they keep perpetuating the crime. They become offenders instead of, you know, they become the actual sex offenders where they were once offended and violated themselves. So but to continually trying to justify and Continue on that type of behavior, then there's no real abillitation for that in my. This is my opinion. So I, you know, I have offenders on my case load that Again, they don't.

Speaker 1: 29:55

You know, they'll try to push that envelope. That's enough as part of manipulation. They try to push it, they try to push the envelope to see how far they can go and they will ask questions what can I? If so, and so is around can I have contact with a minor? Can I? Can't? You know, this is my family, you know they're, but people would be there. You know, no means no, you can't have contact. And these are people.

Speaker 1: 30:25

We're talking about pastors of churches. We are talking about teachers. We are talking about, like everyday middle you know whatever good jobs, corporate, whether it's corporate or blue collar does not matter. We're talking about Boy Scout leaders, girl Scout leaders, youth pastors anybody has or kids themselves, older kids themselves now being offenders to younger kids. It runs the gamut and those are another hard case low to have to supervise because of the manipulation and the justification of. You know why they did what they did.

Speaker 1: 31:24

So I just want people to be aware there's no red letter mark on these offenders' forehead, that kind of you know. Let you know who they are. They could be right next to you, they could be your next door neighbor, they could be your employer, they could be your fellow church member. They could be your pastor. People don't want to, you know, admit that or, you know, acknowledge that. But a lot of the predatoryness, you know, comes in churches, unfortunately. So I just wanted to. That's another good case and I appreciate my partner, you know, sharing that with me and allowing me to tell you know the story. But I just want people to be aware of your surroundings or be and just trust your instincts. When something is not right in your spirit, then you know, don't ignore it. You know, ask questions, report it, because you're pretty much saving, you could be saving someone's life, and especially with minors, and they're, you know, suffering in science because they're afraid to tell somebody, because they feel like they're not going to be believed, and that's, you know.

Speaker 1: 32:49

A whole other issue and I think people who work in social services as a caseworker can definitely attest to this that you have a lot of sexually abused children who try to tell their parents in the parents didn't believe them. They didn't believe them, they rather have. Especially when it's single moms the girl, their daughters, try to tell the mom that their boyfriends are messing with them. Mamas don't want to believe that. They'd rather put the daughters out and keep the bastard that they're, you know that's been abusing their daughter. You know these are kind of things that we, as you know, public service and human service professionals deal with every day, and it is. It takes a toll on you mentally.

Speaker 1: 33:42

You have to kind of ask yourself, you know, how are we, how can we make a difference? Well, it starts from home. It starts, the learning starts from home. Listen to your children, listen to your kids. If your kids are telling you that something is wrong and they are being violated, listen to them. You know, don't sacrifice your kids because you want to have a man around, so-called man in a. Your man probably got with you because he wanted to get access to your, to your daughters or your sons. So you know it has to stop. And people who care about you know, our, our kids and our community, you know we're going to be the ones who's going to step up and stop it one way or the other. And if that means, you know, taking your kids out of your household to save them in some and you know, and make sure they get the help that they need, then that's what's going to have to be and, in truth, be told.

Speaker 1: 34:52

I know for a fact, as I was a brief caseworker, a lot of the mothers they don't. They rather have their kids out of the house, the girls, or remove them out of the home just so they can keep that you know male in the house, so that so the man you know, their boyfriends or whatever, can stay there. They'll put their kids in foster care. They'd rather put their kids in foster care or whatever, in order to keep that man. It's, it's sick, it's it's. It's a sick world that we live in. It's a society. But at the end of case number three, again hit that like and subscribe button and I will talk with you next week in this for episode number 13 for the Women in Public Safety podcast. Everybody be safe and I'll talk with you soon. Bye, bye.