I was convicted in Oklahoma and was on the Oklahoma Sex Offender Registry for 14 years until I was removed last summer.

Stay away from Florida. That state is like Kryptonite to Superman, a very toxic place for sex offender registrants.

Oklahoma is better.

Oklahoma has a 2,000 foot residency restriction for schools, parks, playgrounds, day care centers, etc.

They also have a 300-500 buffer zone around schools where a registrant cannot loiter. I keep up with the court cases in this state, and I have never seen anyone prosecuted on the buffer zones as it is too easy for a registrant to prove he was not loitering.

Oklahoma has tier levels. I don't know your son's crime, but a tier 3 in Oklahoma registers every 90 days for the rest of his life.

They put a mark on his drivers license if he is a habitual, aggravated, or tier 3 offender that reads "Sex Offender" in bright red letters. Also the license has to be renewed once a year.

If he is a tier 3 offender, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections---the ones who maintain the registry----will send a letter every 90 days to his residence. He will take that letter to where he registers and they will process it and mail it back to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.

If he can get away from the more populated towns such as Edmond, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Broken Arrow, etc. the police rarely do compliance checks or bother a registrant.

I live in a rural area close to a small town and never had a compliance check in 14 years. The people down at the sheriff's office were respectful and I was in and out of the registration process in 10 minutes.

In a more rural area it is not so bad, as you don't have to contend with the residency restrictions or buffer zones and for the most part, folks leave you alone. The bigger cities are a problem.

In a rural area, he can get away from all the ignorant hillbillies and rednecks and it is not bad.

Since the Starkey Supreme Court decision, the lawmakers are letting up a little on passing laws against sex offenders. They really got burned in the Starkey decision.

Message me if you have more specific questions.

rewdiazepam

mass is agood place to live

Thanks, rewdiazepam and waterslide.

I wish he had the option of a place like Mass., but the DA wants to see a letter offering a job, and right now the two offers he has are OK (also unfortunately — right in OK City) and Florida.

The good news is that, in order to usher him out of the state, they're talking about a suspected sentence and reducing the charge (he was originally charged with enticement — which in MO carries a five year mandatory sentence) to something where he could apply to get off the registry in a few years.

My understanding was that, had he been charged with something more severe, no state would agree to take him in, so the DA was willing to reduce the charge to get him out.

You almost have to take the offer.

Tulsa or OKC is not nearly as bad as a couple of places in the state like Guthrie, Edmond, or Stillwater. The sheriff's office in those particular towns have a real habit of harassing registrants. They run these sex stings over the internet a lot in which a fake 14 year old girl entices a guy to meet him.

But he can find work in OKC, so that is a plus.

If you need to talk, message me.

rewidazepam

Sounds like it might be a good deal but since it's an enticement case there are some things I want to point out. MO refers the vast majority of enticement cases for federal prosecution. Since they aren't in this case that's a pretty big indication there's major flaws in it somewhere. Another major indication the case is flawed is the fact the prosecutor is willing to lower the charges under any circumstances. Here it's moving out of state so the prosecutor gets to score a win and the odds of the case ever being re-opened and whatever the prosecution is afraid of coming to light drop dramatically.

Things that have been achieved in Florida appear to be having a ripple effect across ICAC cases everywhere and it's quite possible many of the same issues would apply to this case and that's why the prosecutor is being so congenial

@aladdin4d the attorney has told us that this is the first enticement case he's ever seen where he feels like there's a good chance we could win in court. Seriously, there is enough spots where the police were clearly the aggressors and my son was saying things like "I'll meet you, but only in a public place and only to talk" after turning down meetings over three months, that a reasonable jury would have a hard time saying intent was clear. Still, even if our chances are 9 out of 10, it's hard to go forward when the DA seems willing to offer to bump it to no jail time, possibly a suspended sentence, and if we move out of state to drop it to a lesser charge so the other state will accept him into program.

Things could still go sour. Nothing is definite. But it's looking a lot less end of the world than it did a month ago.