Thanks for the resource. I saw this several months ago, printed the table of contents and one of the chapters, and mailed them to my son in prison. Seems like a very good resource.

sorry for mispelling legal.

I am a father of a 37 year old who was accused of a sex offence. I won't go into the details but even though he had proof that he was working 37 miles away on the date and time it happened, and even though two of the jurors later contacted his mother telling us that they did not believe our son was guilty but were bullied and harassed into the verdict they made. One juror said "I didn't want to put your family through another trial. He is an ex Marine with a 98% disability rating, had a wonderful job, never even had a speeding ticket, and did nothing but try and help this lady and her daughter, who turned on him. We had an appeal but it was denied. Part of it was due to the jurors and also the fact that the DA quoted the bible which the court of appeals said he was on the border line, BUT THEY didn't feel he crossed the line. Outside of the Wisconsin innocent project is there any other group that offers legal assistance? He only received 4 1/2 years so the Innocent Project can't help. It can be very frustrating when a young person can accuse someone like this and as far as I can see, you are already seen as guilty. Maybe we need to look into getting a petition going to change the laws on this crime (committed or not) for non violent sex offences.
Does anyone have any ideas?

I am also the product of a false conviction for a sex crime, so I can empathize with your situation.

When a defendant goes to trial, there must be appealable issues for him to ever get his conviction overturned. I am sure there were some errors made by the prosecution during the trial, but most states now have a “harmless error” clause, in that if the error was not so egregious that it would have changed the outcome of the trial, they will not consider it and will affirm the conviction.

Appeal courts DO NOT replay the trial or use the facts to retry the case. They are only interested that the conviction was rendered without the defendant’s civil rights being violated and no laws were broken. Appeal courts do not second guess jurors, as that is not their job.

What the jurors said after the trial was truly disgusting. After my trial, my sister spoke to one of the jurors and she said, “Well, there was not much evidence either way, but we were afraid to let a potential child molester go free.”

Any defendant is placing his life in the hands of 12 people, who usually are uneducated regarding the law, have no idea of the concept of “reasonable doubt,” are sometimes biased against an offender---especially one with a sex charge----and all too often they allow the DA to talk them into a conviction. Our criminal justice system is completely broken.

I am so sorry this happened to your son and your family.

You said, “I won't go into the details but even though he had proof that he was working 37 miles away on the date.”

If he had verifiable proof he was working 37 miles away on the day of the crime, how did this case get past the preliminary hearing stage? With proof such as that, many judges would not have bound him over to trial. But, then again, sometimes judges are reluctant to do that. They would rather a jury look at all the evidence. It is a cop out on the part of the judge, but nobody wants to make a mistake in favor of an offender.

You said, “Outside of the Wisconsin innocent project is there any other group that offers legal assistance? He only received 4 1/2 years so the Innocent Project can't help.”

The fact that he only received a short sentence is a blessing, but he should not have been convicted at all. The Innocence Project will usually not help unless there is DNA evidence to exonerate the offender.

You said, “. It can be very frustrating when a young person can accuse someone like this and as far as I can see, you are already seen as guilty.”

You are totally correct. In many cases, including those involving sex offenses, the presumption of innocence is lost. When that happens, it is very difficult for an innocent offender to prevail.

I certainly empathize with you folks. If there is any way I can ever help, please feel free to message me.

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Yes my son was 37 miles away. The only thing that mattered was during a phone conversation that this girl made to him which was taped was the fact that he had said "I'm sorry if you took it that way", and "ok, I'll be laid back from now on" He was only trying to be a father to her. She was coached by the DA.....When she would say what are you sorry for? She accused him of touching her and his only answer was "I never did that She accused him of doing this and doing that but he denied it....... Her mother didn't even believe her and said she lies a lot. I also have another son who is a police officer in another part of the state, and he had his DA listen to the tape and was told it would never have gone to court.

Here are some facts not that it matters now. That Sunday morning, he took her , her mother and a friend of hers to an indoor rink that she wanted to go to. She begged him to skate with her and her friend. After this he took all of them to a nice restaurant in a nearby town and then took them shopping. The next day, Monday morning, she claimed that he had touched her that Saturday morning around 10:00am. This is where he had proof that he wasn't there. He was asked to come down to the police station where after being told that he was not under arrest.....at the end of the conversation he was arrested.

Facts: The girl claimed to the detective on a tape interview that He (our son) was in the same position as her mothers' last boyfriend who tried to rape her in Alabama. (They never checked into that). At the trial she denied that she had ever said that saying "I would never say something that was not true" Tape was played and there it was. Reply "I don't remember saying that. She had claimed that she and her mother were homeless when they met our son. Another lie. She had claimed on face book that she was pregnant by a boy in school. Her reply....It was a joke. It was found on face book that she said she had been chocked by another student in school when another boy "saved her". Claimed she had no idea how that got on there. Claimed my son bought her a lot of skimpy clothes and undergarments. He never bought her anything but gave her mother the money to buy whatever she wanted. Her mother was always with her when she bought clothes. She claimed my son had knives, axes and swords under his bed. This was not true but regardless the police never looked to see if it were true or not. She claimed he had taken pictures of her, they had his camera and found nothing. They had her taken to the hospital that Monday to have her looked at and there was no DNA found. Her mother told the DA that her daughter lies but she would never changer her story. During the trial the lawyer asked her "if you knew he was going to come into your room why didn't you just get up and get ready for school or go into your mothers' room? Her answer " I like staying in bed as long as I can before school" Problem was, our son was the one who had to get her out of bed for school. Her mom liked to drink the night before and had a hard time getting up. At one point she called my wife and asked if she couldn't take her to school because she wasn't dressed yet. The DA here in town had spoken to this girl for over an hour alone without her mother. He was also calling her on his personal cell phone. Her mother was contacted by the school saying that a man had been coming to school and talking to her daughter and was she aware of this. Her daughter was told by the detective that if she were lying she would be in more trouble than our son. At one point she told the DA that she wanted the charges dropped. He didn't let that happen. The weekend that my son was arrested her mother made the remark that they should run out and get married. This lady already was getting money from the girls fathers social security as he committed suicide a few years before. This lady already had 6 or 7 other children from different fathers which we had found out but were not with her. She wanted the money. The DA made it clear to her that she had to play along or her daughter may be taken away from her.

I spent a great deal of my retirement for a lawyer I thought was good. I was wrong. He did little to help us. My son had a college friend stay with them for almost 8 months and he had to fly from South Dakota to be a witness. The lawyer had him on the stand for less than a couple minutes and asked nothing to help. He had my wife as a witness....what did he ask her while on the stand? "Do you love your son?" That was it. He could have many more people that new our son but didn't. He spent more time looking at his watch. The trial itself was postponed two or three times because he had other trials he had to take care of. At one point he said "you don't like what I'm doing get another lawyer. We spent over 50,00 already and that was not an option at that point. Our son each summer would drive down to Alabama to get the girls cousin so she would have family to play with. Never bothered to supine her, or another cousin who lived here in Wisconsin who also did a lot of sleep overs. Never contacted her either. Also the Saturday that my son went to work, he did so to get enough money to fly one of her step brothers here to be with her as she was going to have back surgery and he wanted her to have more family here. Funny thing is, after he was arrested, none of her other step brothers wanted to take her because of what she had done.

It is what it is but I spend every day on here bitching to ever I can about our justice system and what has happened to our son. To this day he does not blame her because she was just a kid as he says, but blames the legal system for being what it is. The system was unfair, the jurors should be more educated as to what they are going to do. You have to take a test to drive a car, but you only need a couple minutes of instruction to determine what happens to a person. Guilty or not guilty.....it doesn't matter. Once you are said to be guilty you must be. And one other thing, While waiting almost two years for the trial and sentencing my son met a girl who believes in him. A week before he was sentenced, she found out that she was pregnant. She is now 15 months old and when he calls her mom she shows her a picture of him and says it's daddy. She kisses the phone but I don't think she really knows. He has never seen her. The syic that he had seen says he is no threat, his social worker at the prison says he can see her but he has been turned down 3 times now. We even went to the judge and had a hearing to ask that he be allowed to see her. The judge agreed and changed the sentencing order, but still they say NO. Her mother just applied again now (you have to wait 6 months to apply after each denial). We are hoping for a miracle .

Again, if anyone knows who else I can write to be free to let me know, here or at my email (larryparish48@yahoo.com) Thanks

Go figure. Now you have to go to a designated site to put money into an inmates account. Cost me a $7.45 fee to do it. This is all bull shit. Just as it is to have him have to pay a $100.00 amount to be on their sex offenders list. He is still in prison. They need not wonder why so many people go of the deep end. I am almost there. Sick of the State of Wisconsin and I am sick of this country.

It's been some time since I have been on here. Nothing seems to change with how a sex offender is treated. There are thousands of Americans out there who have lost their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Those who have paid their dues should have the same rights as everyone else. The right to vote, the right to bare arms and the right to be happy. Nothing is going to ever change until enough people get together and do something about this.

Speaking of the Innocence Project. I contacted the one in Floriduh and they wrote me back, saying we had a case but because my son wasn't going to be in prison for very long they wouldn't take it. I call and wrote them after that trying to change their minds. My son's sentence lasts far longer than any jail time. This is a lifetime sentence.