Advocate2,

It wasn't overturned because the stepdaughter didn't recant until well after his sentence was done. Once the sentence is complete it's extremely difficult to get a conviction reversed.

The stepdaughter from his original conviction is now 24 and is the daughter of his first wife. He remarried after serving his sentence and the custody battle over his six year old daughter is with this second ex-wife. The stepdaughter is a part of his life now and and has been helping him.

17 is not 11, faerydark. At 17, I think you are old enough for things to be consensual, especially when your boyfriend is that close in age to you.

I tend to agree with the 15 year age limit, but I am not sure I do totally. The only reason being that we do not live in a culture where 15 year olds can easily get married. Of course, I am also not an advocate of sex outside of marriage, either, but that is an entirely different issue. If a child/teen/youth cannot live independently on their own, they are always subject to the adults in their lives. They are dependent upon them for their very sustenance. That tips the scales of balance way in favor of the adult. That is one reason that adults get away with some of the things they do. They can tell the child/teen/youth that their parents will reject them and kick them out if they tell...and a variety of other stories.

Aladdin and Advocate, thank you for the extra info. NOW, it makes sense! And good for the stepdaughter stepping forward and fighting for him! I really hope that they DO somehow push for this to be reversed...or expunged or hidden or whatever they can do to keep it from affecting him on an ongoing basis.

In fact, adding to that, I would like to see him be able to sue his ex for what she did. She stole years out of his life and ruined his reputation.

i agree - I was young when I had my first encounter and my boyfriend was 18 but I was not forced - and I have never regretted it - we were in love (at the time anyway LOL.

Well I hope true justice is done soon and his conviction is overturned!

Hats off to you Derek, he was definately a target the whole time. I appreciate how he remained polite and tried his best to convey the disparities of the registry and how society has a knee jerk reaction to the term sex offender. I am sure he will have other opportunities in the future and this can be a learning experience for all of us. Instead of allowing the debate to proceed, they all got STUCK on his specific offense. That is why I think he is very brave and sincerely appreciate his willingness to face the lions. We have all done things we are ashamed of, but how would any of us like to have 5 very rude people attack us for our sins on a public forum. I believe it would help if there were always someone along side our brave spokes person who can lend moral support and interject some sanity into the discussion when needed. It is tough to be attached like that. Knowing that attacks will certainly come, it may be wise to avoid going it alone at least until the media learns some manners.

Isn't it predictable that all the other participants pretty much represented the general view of society, name and shame. Derek's voice was the only one trying desperately to reveal to the public some unknown truths about the registry. The deck was stacked 5 to 1. Dr Drew set that up and Dr Drew gets a thumbs down from me.

Oh I totally agree Deena 11 is not 15-16...in fact we had a situation with my step-daughter where a 23 yr old cousin (through marriage) molested her when she was 13. She was convinced she was "in love" with him. We reported it. The incidents took place at her Aunt and Uncle's house. He was prosecuted (it was his 3rd incident with a minor under 16) It wasn't long after that she accused her dad. We had diary entries that stated she would do what she had to in order to go live with her Aunt and Uncle who would let her 'date" who she wanted. We had witnesses from her school that told us that she tried out her story about her dad, tweaking it here and there so it would sound better. None of that mattered or made it to the jury.
Anyway, I'm getting off topic, sorry.

That is sad, faeryedark.

linacarl, I agree that it was very brave of Derek to be willing to go on there. And it is sad that it took the turn it did.

Tell me, something, everyone...am I the only one who also heard a bit of empathy out of the some of the others. The woman in the lower left even gave kudos to Derek for his willingness to be there. Let's be careful not to paint others with the same broad brush that none of us or our loved ones want to be painted with.

I too detected some kudos coming from the lower left. The whole panel completely got off topic by focusing on Derek's offense though, including the somewhat empathetic one. She was actually the one who asked him what his offense was. The topic was whether a sex offender can be a good dad and whether there should be a blanket rule that removes the right for sex offenders to have custody of children. The topic of the discusion was lost because of their focus on Derek. The interview lasted less than 5 minutes and this is just not enough time to discuss the issue. No easy answers.

Yeah, I agree. They never did address the question at hand. It appears just to be a set up to attack Derrek. They should have allotted more time to actually discuss the question at hand. And as the moderator, he should have brought the discussion back on track.

Yeah...it did not see the topic being addressed at all. And five minutes? That isn't enough time to discuss almost anything, and especially not a topic that has so many variables and depths to which it could go. Bad moderator.

Also, how could you go up against a bunch of women with lots of make-up, fancy hairdos, and possible bikini tops and feel like this was a serious conversation? Dr. Drew is a joke. He wants you to trip over your own feet.

One thing we need to keep in mind is that HLN is the home of such notables as Nasty Disgrace and Piers Morgan(An America hater who has gotten rich in America)..Let's not forget that Joy Behar was on it, and now, let's get to DR(cough) Drew Pinsky, formerly of 'Loveline' with Adam Carolla, who I like, he is funny.(Ironically,Adam Carolla is a Conservative)....Pinsky is as much of a hack as DR(puke in my mouth)Phil...

Derek...
I give you credit for going out there,I wouldn't, but you might have been better going on Bill O Reilly, at least you would have known you would be attacked.....

hell back in the day when dr drew did love line you always had kids calling in late at night asking for sex advice and they always lied about there age now lets talk about Billy boy don't care for him as a a news anchor but will say his good when it comes to stand up comedy

Coastie – I agree with your assessment of most of those folks – of course can’t stand Nancy or Bill. But I tend to like Piers – he usually sticks up for the little guy and has an open mind, in my opinion.