... it seems that Texas has now extended their "public punishment" law not only to drunk drivers but also to those guilty of sex crimes. Now is NOT a good time to be charged with prostitution in a Texas strip club!
L A W
A New Scarlet Letter
A Texas judge forces sex offenders to broadcast their crimes
with house signs and bumper stickers
By CATHY BOOTH THOMAS/CORPUS CHRISTI
Gabriel Trevino did a bad, bad thing. Three years ago, at age 31, he fondled
the 14-year-old daughter of a friend. For this "slipup," as he calls it, he
pleaded no contest and took five years' probation rather than risk a
two-to-20-year prison term. Now he thinks prison would have been
preferable. These days, people drive by his modest bungalow house, then
back up to read the 18-in. by 24-in. sign posted by the little white birdhouse.
DANGER, it says. REGISTERED SEX OFFENDER LIVES HERE.
Sitting by the front window in his darkened living room in Corpus Christi,
Texas, last week, Trevino was at once defiant and near tears as he talked
about this public mortification. "I made my mistake, and I'm paying for it," he
said. But, he wondered, why should his wife and two stepdaughters pay too?
"I can't even go out and cut my yard. I just stay in the house...I was doing
good in therapy. How is this helping me?"
The answer is simple, says state District Judge J. Manuel Banales, who on
May 18 ordered Trevino and 13 other "high-risk" sex offenders on probation
to post the signs in their yards. "It will keep people like you, sir, honest," he
told Trevino last week after denying a request to rescind the order. "Your
neighbors will watch you and make sure you're not taking another child into
your home." Hours later, Ban ales ordered yet another sex offender--No.
15--to put up a sign on release from jail.
In the past decade, all 50 states have passed so-called Megan's laws,
requiring sex offenders to alert the community to their presence. Twenty-eight
states run Internet sites listing such criminals. In the mid-1990s, judges in
Texas, Louisiana, Florida and Oregon began ordering individual sex offenders
to post signs outside their homes. But Banales--who also mandated bumper
stickers and even temporary placards for traveling in someone else's
car--drew national attention by applying his ruling to so many at one time. His
move sparked a debate on the rights of these offenders and the merits of
public shaming. "We don't brand people in America," argues Gerald Rogen,
president of the Coastal Bend Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. "And
we damn sure don't punish the offender's family as well as the offender."
Banales' judgment, however, was in keeping with a 1999 Texas law--signed
by then Governor George W. Bush--permitting judges to impose public
punishment for some crimes. Drunk drivers in the state, for instance, are
sometimes made to stand at busy intersections with signs identifying their
transgression. Whether more conventional public notifications have worked as
a deterrent is unclear. A Washington State study found that such policies didn't
keep sex offenders from committing more crimes, though they did help police
find and arrest recidivists more quickly.
Banales' extreme version of notification is having immediate consequences for
the Corpus Christi 15, as landlords evict them and bosses fire them. One man
attempted suicide after Banales' ruling. The families also worry about
vigilantes. "I'm scared for my mother's life and myself," says Trevino's
stepdaughter Ann, 20. Lawyers for the 15 are considering filing a joint
challenge or separate ones in the 13th Court of Appeals, arguing that the signs
violate the right to privacy and constitute "cruel and unusual punishment."
Judge Banales is unmoved. From a list of nearly 300 adult sex offenders, he
chose 14 of the 15 by working with probation officers and a polygrapher to
pinpoint those who had multiple victims, were not showing progress in therapy
or had failed to show empathy for their victims. Even in court last week, for
instance, Trevino persisted in questioning the judge on why a 14-year-old
could be tried for murder, but could not consent to sex.



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