seciv: I am sorry about what's happening to your son and your family. As you said it's a new world you've been thrown into...And thank you for being so courteous and so patient over our "instruction" This sort of stuff just hits a sore spot as I am sure you understand. Enough said. Since you live there in the same area where Hoppner was released to, you and your family have my sympathy and certainly the support of all of us here. What you and your son and your family are going through is no fun but there are positive things you can do. for your own sake and for your son's. Take care. JanetM

That poor lad so obviously has learning difficulties, what a sad case. He needs to be in some kind of psychiatric unit, not prison. How awful :(

Dixon,
I was so glad to see your comment.
I read the original article, with his picture, and before I even read the article, I could tell this young man was developmentally disabled. After reading his so called offenses, I believe that he most likely has the mentality of a 5 yr. old.
So touching people inappropriately is not something he most likely understood.
In my opinion, he should have never gone to prison. He needed help. I feel really sad for him.

Is anyone any safer when someone like him, who doesn't understand, is now homeless?

I was actually shocked that the police dept. did what they did. They're the ones who are the criminals, in my opinion. I would like to know who the judge was that sentenced him.

So Seciv, I agree that the CP charges are unreasonable, but this poor sole is no monster.

Phoenixmum...you said " He needs to be in some kind of psychiatric unit, not prison." I beg to differ..."some kind of psychiatric unit is just what he does NOT need...sex offender to prison to "psych facility" is called "Civil Committment" "Facilities" which they claim are for "dangerous high-risk sex offenders" boxed and labeled "forever dangerous monsters" where men are warehoused and left to die unless they can figure out some way to "please" their evaporators and people with developmental delays (once sucked into that horrendous dead end of the "Justice system") are left there because if their delay caused the 'dangerous sexual assault for which he was labeled and imprisoned and rejected in the community ( aka grabbing the buttocks of grown women and on 15 year old girl in broad daylight) then of course once a retarded monster always a retarded monster who will never have been just told to to STOP and now will never be able to learn to "STOP" either...so of course he must be "placed in some "Civil Commitment Facility" for treatment until he dies or ages out...(they say that maybe by 50 those 'dangerous folks" will have less sex drive and be less agile and less inclined to chase grab their buttocks and bother them...ever again) Or they might even decide that since he is obviously unable to ever control his sexual proclivities that he should be made to sign and agree to being medical or surgically castrated so he will never again offend "the tender sensibilities of the women and girl he is otherwise always going to "endanger...) and once castrated...in this Civil Commitment/ aka Prison/ aka Psychiatric Facility ) maybe he can be safely released to live under a bridge somewhere...because by then he certainly will not have any Re-entry/ Release possibilities will he? And of course the cops in that little prejudiced town will be certainty claim the protected everyone and were tough on crime / right in "protecting" all those women who might have been 'bothered" in broad day light light by this developmentally delayed kid who had he just been taught in his classroom/ protected workshop ( where he might have aged out and become more responsible as his frontal cortex caught up with his sex curious gonads and impulse control as modern brain science is telling us all...But no he should be sent to prison and then sent to live under a bridge where he will no doubt be "revoked" for not reporting his residence to police to his Parole Officer (even if he never "bother's" another female...( young or old_) so then hie will be evaluated as an even higher risk of "re-offending" and maybe then he will b=just be 'direct petitioned to "civil commitment" aka prison for dangerous sex offenders forever...which should satisfy the send away and throw away the key law and order folks?
But then ...what if this kid did meet some dangerous people in prison what if he was raped or "offended" offended- against while in prison??? Just his "just deserts for grabbing the buttocks in broad day light of
some "nice 15" year old orsome older nice woman? (who should not have been bothered but what if that had been her son or her developmentally delayed grandson would she have seen things a little differently...would she now be commenting with the rest of us on Daily Strength instead of telling the cops "Well done" and been happy to pay her taxes toward keeping the justice system s=arresting and jailing and shunning and leaving us all to age out on the Registry if we were lucky enough to make parole and smart enough to avoid being revoked for d=some chicken shit something....but I digress...because the horrors of what if / of rough trip are about to play out here for this kid sliced and diced and left to wend his way through America's injustice system fort the rest of his "natural life"
And Pheonixmum...no I beg to differ (event to rant awhile here) C ivil Commitment in one of California's Civil Commitment Ppsychiatric "Facilities" in not the handy dandy answer to help kids like this it does not even help others labeled as dangerously deranged sex offenders and sent away "forever and always at
tax payer expense...NO that is NOT the "Solution" Just talk to the CoSA advocates in Cali if you need to educate or want to Advocate...or contact Charlie Sullivan at cure@ curenational.org they are trying to get some people together to advocate for people like this kid sent to the end of the line prisons called "Civil Committment / aks offender Facilitise in 29 states including Cali...Just saying OK just Ranting but
If we don't rant on don't realize, don't educate ourselves and each other and then our neighbors ...who (pray tell) will?

Sorry Phoenixmum...I didn't mean to lose it and jump all over you and all the others here who do understand...Isn't that called "Killing you side with by "friendly fire"??? It's just the more I try to learn the more I some seem see the whole picture the more rant happy I get. I'm trying to gather stories and blog a book to educate other about how this "system" Piles On and seems to become increasingly UN-Just as the conveyor belt picks up speed and goes on to deliver some to the end of the line where they are just expected to age out and die (in order to protect What?) Prosecutors who are climbing up the political ladder to become sentaors or worse? ...Just Saying...Janet Mackie

Janet, I didn't take that as 'jumping all over me', I'm in the UK, so obviously my concept of a psychiatric unit is rather different to the US version (although we've certainly got some shocking facilities over here too). I should have phrased that differently, what I meant was that he clearly shouldn't be in the criminal justice system, but that he requires medical help.

Phoenixmum: Thanks...You do not ever have to be politically correct (or rephrase) here It is part of haveing the open conversation we all need. I read back through my rant and just realized I had kind of gone OFF ...aka my dyslexic brain had obviously out run my old fingers and I hoped you weren't taking my rant at the "system" personally... "Friendly Fire" were people on the same side get "upset" (and sometime quite rightly) does no one any good...except sometimes it has shown me that smart as I think I am (and I mean this about myself here so do not extrapolate) I find out that I still harbor old prejudices against other people and I never intend to GO ON being one of the haters or hurt-ers...not if I can help myself...but sometimes we don't know what we don't know until some one raises the issue?

As far as Civil Committment in the US...People with relatives who are rightly diagnosed as paranoid or schizophrenic and are (I learned a New Word from listening to a call from Cure National about the difference between "Criminal Civil Committment Facilities" and the other mental health Civil Commitment actual health care facilities is that people who are advocating on behalf of their on loved one who has (I learned a new word here) anosignosia sp? (some one diagnosed with an actual mental illness which could be helped if they just got on their meds (or got back on their meds) but are adults and refusing medication which will allow they to go back to living relatively lives in their communities) whsee loved one doesn't realize that they are "hearing voices" and that their "voices" are not really their best guide to what to do in the real world...then these Advocates for Mentel Health services that include MH civil commitment as a component of actual Heath Care/ doctor's prescriptions etc ...need and support civil commitment...

However it seems every Label morphs here in the US and haters (who in the 1950's used the fact that homosexualaity then called the all purpose label " Pervert" just like sex offenders are labeled now anyway, homosexuallity (and homosexuals) were labeled as a for-ever uncontrollable sexually dangerous "mental illness" found labeled in the Psychiatric bible... the DSM Homosexual back then were "Evaluated" zand sent to places that have now morphed (in the US) into the Prison Civil Commitment Facilities which are not Mental Health facilities / hospitals that people who support Civil commitment mean when they suggest their loved one needs civil commitment so they can actually get better (even if today they might simply be same-sex-oriented and ALSO paranoid and off their meds!) clear as mud here? I'm sure in the UK where the haters haven't managed to morph SO into always mentally ill dangerous and criminal that this seems a little convoluted however..in the US once the labels are muddied up and morphed into Proff that "Once a mentally ill criminal SO then...always a SO-criminal in danger of repeating and so stack up the labels as they morp over the years into the NEED for a direct petition into a "Civil Commitment/ Prison "Facility" where dangerous "Offenders of every sexual orientation...must be incarcerated for ever by Evaluators gone mad who rubber stamp the pre-sentence investigation report right on to all the other "therapists and well paid hired gun Evaporators going on through the justice system and on to "Facilities" ( not labeled civil commitment Facilities) where the untreatable/ never treated/ just labeled dangerous aka "sexually dangerous must either "get better" or die...it's the end of the line in the American Justice System....sort of like end stage cancer with no one to even care that had sometime been done sooner maybe even if the "medical/ treatment community had been more educated and less prejudiced by the labels of the haters...?
Any way Label DO matter as they morph into politically correct terms but still kill people...you can see the this morphing in action when you look at the term / labels used in the story of Johnathan Micheal Hopper since (unless he was seriously damaged by what was done to him while he was in prison) anyway Jonanthan himself has not become progressively more of a dangerous sex offender than he ever was even in the beginning when the labeling first began...However since his Hater-labels telegraph that he is in fact more dangerous he has to live under a bridge...and as his life progress apace with his labeling I am certain some day someone will place him in some (prison ) and call it Civil Commitment when it is indeed imprisonment

And this Muddling of the words and intent of" what Civil Commitment" means and should (not ) be is not only and Injustice to us in Families of Sex Offenders BUT the mis-labeling / mis-direction of these labels and words by the ignorant and the HATERS among us

ALSO denies the Families of the Mentally ill access to support and resources they need to actually help their own loved ones....(many some other people in other "groups" on Daily Strength??? But good news these words don't seem to have morphed their poison in the UK so thank you hoenixmon for pushing us all into understand better all these WORDS used to MIS-label not just us but other advocacy groups...in the US

and...Seciv Who even Knew that when you asked for "Help understand all this" that you would be helping so many of us here (aka me) to understand and think about what all this "stuff" means to all of us? Thank YOU
JanetM..

My husband, was falsely accused by his daughter, due to a Hatfield's and McCoy's type family feud. She was angry because we wouldn't let her go live my permissive brother and sister-in law. They wanted her because they believed she came with survivor benefits from her mother. They live off the dole pretty much,
There was a trial, where we caught the prosecutor in the hallway coaching her how to answer a rebuttal. It was basically a circus.
He ended up with a hung-jury and the prosecutor swore next time she would do whatever necessary to keep out certain evidence in my husband's favor.
So, he took a plea to a misdemeanor of Indecent Assault, for 3 mos in jail, 3 yrs on probation, and 10 years on the registry. He went through multiple assessments as well and was found to be low-risk.
Well, the AWA was adopted a few years later, and they go by age of the accuser/victim not actual risk. So, now, he's on for life, and he's a tier 3 "high risk"

That's how reliable this whole thing is

not only that (Well, the AWA was adopted a few years later, and they go by age of the accuser/victim not actual risk. So, now, he's on for life, and he's a tier 3 "high risk") but there are variations from state to state so as long as the conviction carries the word "Child" it means whatever tier / degree of danger they say it means.

Yep, pretty much