For those of you keeping track of the mess I'm in, here is an update. Maybe some of you can give me some feedback or suggestions.
I met with the lawyer today. It's the first time I had a sit down with him since the whole mess began. Right now there are 2 pressing issues... one, the charges against me, three unregistered email accounts that they say were suppose to be registered. Two, whether further charges dealing with files on my computer were coming.
Okay. To start with two of the charges on email are utter bullshit. The lawyer agrees. One is an email that I had before I went to federal prison 10 years ago and I am sure isn't even active. The other email doesn't even exist or if it did, it belongs to someone else (why anyone would want to impersonate me is silly). The lawyer at first was going to find a way to prove the emails didn't exist, but then decided that he would turn the tables and make the state prove that they do exist and that I used them (which I didn't). So that takes care of two charges.
The third charge has to do with big closet. At first, the state was claiming that big closet was an email system. But, when the detective came on the stand, she changed her story and said it was an instant message system. Both are the same charge, but completely different beast. First off, though Big Closet is a message board, it doesn't have instant messaging (think skype, AIM, yahoo). I can't be sitting here typing the blog and receive a message from anyone. I can't even be in the message section and minding my own business and receive a message. You have to reload the page, at a minimum and thus making it non-instant.
With that said. I did tell the lawyer that I don't want to go to trial. My fear being that the first words out of the prosecutor's mouth will be "K.T. is a registered sex offender," and it wouldn't matter what else followed. People just have the belief that all sex offenders should be put in prison, and raped until they are dead (preferablly during the rape).
It's been four months and the lawyer says he doesn't think any other charges are forth coming, but i still live in fear. On the plus side, he said even if I were charged, I would be looking at probation if I took a plea and I already stated my detest at a trial. They don't play fair and would give me a million charges that losing at trial would mean life in prison.
But, hopefully this is all winding down.
Comments
my prayers are still with you
I hope it all works out, and it doesnt mean you cant stay on this site. But whatever happens, know you got a lot of support here, okay?
One thing to watch out for
BC does have the chat rooms, although I don't know how much they are used (I tend to forget they exist). I don't know if that could be used against you as an example of BC being an "Instant Messaging" service.
Again there is the argument just because they exist doesn't mean you use them. To prove that would require IT type evidence which I'm sure they wouldn't have.
Also if you went to trial, I think you have the option of jury or just judge, but I could be wrong.
I hope it all goes well and things work out for the best!
{{Hugs}}
Frank
Legal Update
Ask your lawyer and the Judge to visit Big Closet to dispel any attempt by the prosecution at mislabeling this site. As for the fear you have in going to trial, is there not some sort of injunction that can be filed to prevent the past from being used?
May Your Light Forever Shine
Legal update
I'm glad your lawyer could clear up some of your fears. It's usually not as bad as your worst fears make it out to be. I think it's disgusting that you are treated as the criminal. Did they even bother charging the guy who stole from you?
I don't suppose it's possible for you to move to a more TG friendly state after this is settled?
Good luck in your further battles with overzealous and petty authorities.
Lisa
moving
I could sell my house and move to nevada, if someone was willing to help. Nevada has a more sensible registration program where i wouldn't be posted all over the internet
Katie Leone (Katie-Leone.com)
Writing is what you do when you put pen to paper, being an author is what you do when you bring words to life
Hate the idea...
A "plea bargain" is a horrible idea. The guilty get diminished sentences while the innocent are forced to gamble. The whole notion is a perversion of justice and it seems to me that any prosecutor who offers a plea bargain is "conspiring to pervert the course of justice" just as much as some one threatening or bribing a witness.
Is there the legal concept of "vindictive prosecution" in the US? If these people are trying to "fit you up" maybe that approach woul cause some of this to reflect on them?
All I can offer is my sympathy but you certainly have that?
Plea bargains ...
are the de facto way anything gets done in the "justice system" here in the US. If everyone took their right to go to trial, the courts would come to a dead stop due to massive overload. (Not saying that it's right, just that it's reality.) You can see how easily this gets twisted out of hand, Katie is just one of many victims of a dysfunctional system here.
Here's to hoping you can get through your latest issues and stay with us here Katie.
State/District Attorneys
These people's jobs are rated by what is called "conviction rate". Unfortunately, "Plea Bargain" = "Conviction" as someone gets some sort of sentence and a permanent scar on their record. Therefore, these prosecutors are very ready to accept plea bargains as it means considerably less work they actually have to perform in order to get said conviction and, at the same time, keeps their "conviction rate" high.
I have a friend who is a little over half way through an eight year sentence for having sex with his underage girlfriend (he was 19 and she was 16 at the time). He broke up with her and she told two of her best friends that she was going to ruin his life for that. She got him drunk, took him to her home and had sex with him then told her parents that HE had gotten HER drunk and forced himself on her. The State Attorney, upon finding out the girl's two best friends were going to testify AGAINST her, realized that the case was lost. She wanted to keep her "conviction rate" up so she threatened him with a choice: take a plea on the single incident charge, serve eight years and be labeled a "sexual offender" or she would drop those charges and, using his own deposition against him stating that there had been an ongoing relationship before that one incident, and charge him as a "sexual predator" and ask for 25 years to life.
His attorney, whom his family had already paid $25,000 to, told him his best bet was to take the plea and never mentioned his fifth amendment right wiping out her ability to use his deposition against him. He got his money, the ex-girlfriend got her revenge, the State Attorney kept a high conviction rate and he got eight years in prison. Three quarters of the people are happy, right? So, what's the problem? Is this justice served? HA!
My heart goes out to you, Katie. I've seen this crap in action and I really do feel for you. Hopefully, your attorney is a lot better than the troll my friend had. Best of luck to you. Just know we're all pulling for you here.
Hugs,
Erica
If it grinds to a halt...
...then it needs attention and correction. Papering over the cracks with a morally dubious concept like plea bargening is just a meta level of morally wrong.
By encouraging of even permitting plea bargaining you allow the dysfunctional system to continue to grind the innocent into a million pieces. There is the old as about it being better that a thousand guilty go free than to convict one innocent. You do realize that a false confession is actually a crime in most places?
The offer of a plea bargain contavenes many laws and principles. Yet this is overlooked for convienience. The US has a higher percentage of its citizens in jail than any other country I know of. The system is obviously fvkkd. By permitting plea bargaining you help support that broken system by crruoting it further.
The idea of Bureaucracy is that...
It's efficient, not that it's just. Max Weber never says anything in his book in regards to Bureaucracy being just.
The irony is that the Democracy we champion inflicts this sort of Bureaucracy on us as Weber states and he's right.
For KT, fight!!! Screw that prosecutor's conviction rate, I believe in you!!!!
Oh and Erica what a disgusting and petty girl she sounds like though I never get why any man dates younger. You always want to date a woman 6-7 years older because that's on average how much longer women live then men.
Right now
I am hoping the motions go through. There is no way to prove big closet is an email or an instant message service, because it is neither. The fact that there is a chat room shouldn't matter because they have to prove that I went to the chat room on the site and I never did. Not to mention that to go into said chat room doesn't require a registered nick name, so what exactly would I register.
The real issue is that the system doesn't state what it wants. When I go to do my bi-annual registration I am given a blank form that ask my name, address, where I work, where I go to school, emergency contacts, what my charge was, etc. etc. There are also a total of 4 spaces for email addresses. 2 for home and 2 for 2 work. There are no instructions stating what constitutes an email address. There are also no spaces available for instant message screen names even though they have to be registered as well. I have 2 accounts that are IMs, one is skype (come join me) and the other is Windows messenger, which I hate and use only to contact one person and really have it because my roommate contacts the same person. To compound issues, the deputies doing the registering don't know the answers either, but finally one told me no, I don't have to register a blog. I also called the FDLE (Florida Department of Law Enforcement) and they told me no also, but the email account associated with the blog did (which it is).
I've heard of several horror stories of people falsely accused, but have seen the other travesty of people who admitted had sex with toddlers getting only probation. It pains me to know that the truly deserving get a walk and those who are innocent are grounded into a powder. In my life, I have been a victim of many crimes, not one person got in trouble. I've been raped, assaulted, robbed at gun point, robbed by morons who I trusted and no one even had to wear handcuffs. Someone used my computer in 2003 and I am paying for it every day i draw breath.
There is no justice.
Katie Leone (Katie-Leone.com)
Writing is what you do when you put pen to paper, being an author is what you do when you bring words to life