Ricky and Amanda met at an Iowa  teen club on a Saturday night in December of 2005.  Ricky was 16 and Amanda told him she was nearly the same age.  They got to talking, learned they were from the same town outside the area and hit it off.  They started dating and had sex on two occasions, definitely not the right thing for kids that age to do, but not uncommon.  It ended when Amanda told Ricky's mother she was only 14 and asked her not to reveal this to Ricky.  Actually, she was 13. 

Several months later Amanda ran away from home.  At the urging of the friend she was staying with, she contacted the police and told them she was afraid to go home.  The police picked her up and took her home.

Ricky was questioned by police and acknowledged that he did have sex with Amanda on two occasions but that this ended when he learned that Amanda had deceived him about her age.  Ricky and his mother met with Amanda's parents to discuss the situation.  Given the circumstances, Amanda's parents weren't interested in pressing charges.  But the District Attorney had different ideas.  On May 3 Ricky, now 17, was arrested, charged with two felony counts of third degree sexual abuse and found himself in jail.

The public defender that represented Ricky made it clear that going to trial could very well result in a 20 year prison term for the sexual abuse felonies he was charged with.  Ricky was advised that if he pled guilty to one count of lewd or lascivious acts with a child, there would be a deferred judgment, he would not have to state a felony conviction on job applications and he would not have to register as a sex offender.  But minutes before the plea hearing, Ricky was informed that the laws in Iowa had just changed and that the plea deal would include the requirement that he be registered as a sex offender for a period of 10 years.  He wept at this devastating news but decided to take the plea deal anyway to avoid the possibility of a long prison term.  A deferred judgment was issued on the charge of lewd or lascivious  acts with a child and Ricky was sentenced to two years probation and was registered as a sex offender.

Ricky's family left Iowa and returned to Oklahoma where they had previously lived.  Because of the three year age difference between Ricky and Amanda, Oklahoma law required that Ricky register as an aggravated lifetime sex offender. Shortly thereafter, in response to federal incentives created by the Adam Walsh Act, Oklahoma adopted a law requiring Ricky to be registered for life with tier 3 predator status, which is reserved for the most dangerous sex offenders.  When the Oklahoma authorities became aware of Ricky's sex offender status, he was removed from high school.  He's prohibited from being in the presence of children other than his younger brother.  He can't go near schools, day care centers or parks.  His brother, age 11, can't bring friends into their home.  (If his brother had been a girl, Ricky would have been removed from his home.)  His social life has been destroyed.  He's been ostracized, taunted, harassed and videotaped by neighbors and members of his community.  He flees when spoken to by girls his age.  His identity has been devastated.  He's lost his sense of security, his expectations for any kind of normal life and his ability to trust.

Prior to this tragic series of events, Ricky had planned to join the Navy and ultimately to pursue a career in law enforcement.  With the assistance of an Oklahoma legislator, he was given the opportunity to earn his GED.  His life now consists of studying online at home for a college degree and caring for his mother who has recently lost all of her vision.  Despite the obvious obstacles, Ricky now hopes to someday become an Attorney.

Lawmakers have taken a "get tough" stand on sex offenses.  The resulting polices have had serious unintended consequences.  We as a society feel very strongly about protecting our children from sexual predators, and we should.  But when this public zeal crates political incentives to enact policies that create the kind of tragedy we see in Ricky's life, we are reminded that popular outrage is not a reasonable foundation for  sound and effective legislation.   We as citizens of this nation must look more deeply at the complete set of implications that go along with legislation, considering not only the strength and toughness of the laws we adopt, but the justice that will or will not result when these laws are applied to the real situations that occur in our society.  Society pays a price when we recklessly overreach in creating tough laws on hot button issues.  Most of us pay none of it, but bask in the sense of security it brings.  The price is paid by a small minority, in denominations of human lives.  There isn't a single politician who's worried about losing the votes of people like Ricky and his family.  When the broader community fails to rise up against such injustices, we ensure that they will persist.  In this democracy it is we, the people, who are ultimately accountable.

Please consider signing the petition below.  It is a call for legislative action to change the laws that have done such great harm to Ricky and others like him.  When we unite in encouraging our legislators to act responsibly to correct these injustices, we pay the just price for our freedom.

Please also share this petition by email with 10 or more people.  THIS IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN SIGNING IT.  If each of us shares it with enough people to get more than one person to sign it, it will sweep the nation.

SCROLL DOWN TO SIGN THE PETITION

 

  

ABC News 20/20 "Age of Consent"
To watch the video, click here.
More on the subject from 20/20 here.

Minnesota Public Radio Presents Ricky's Case
To listen, click here.

Los Angeles City Beat Covers Ricky's Situation
"Being labeled a sex offender has completely changed Ricky's life, leading him to be kicked out of high school, thrown out of parks, taunted by neighbors, harassed by strangers and unable to live within 2,000 feet of a school, day-care center or park."  Read more of Is Ricky Really a Sex Offender here.

When Getting Tough Backfires
Dan Gunderson of Minnesota Public Radio interviews North Dakota Senator Tim Mathern, criminologist Lisa Sample and Patty Wetterling, mother of an abducted child about effective, fact based policies.   Listen here. 
Read more here.

"It's clear most sex offender legislation follows a crime against a child and the resulting public outrage."

Lisa Sample - Criminologist, University of Nebraska

"These public policies have to be discussed, and the citizens have to start influencing their legislators to use facts, to use research, to use an approach that actually works, not an approach that just gets more votes.  We have to make sure that we aren't shooting ourselves in the foot by being righteous but making things worse."

North Dakota State Senator Tim Mathern

"We're trying to get pedophiles, not teens in a consensual relationship."

Oklahoma State Representative Gus Blackwell

Human Rights Watch: No Easy Answers - Sex Offender Laws in the US     View the site here.  Listen to the audio and view the PowerPoint presentation of conference call with Sarah Tofte, the author here.

"Everybody wants to out tough the next legislator.  It's just anger driven, anger and fear.  It just doesn't make sense.  We have to treat juveniles differently.  We're setting up an environment that's just not healthy."

Patty Wetterling - Mother of an Abducted Child

"We tried so hard to make this just for serious sex offenders."

John Walsh, host of America's Most Wanted
 Walsh lobbied for the Adam Walsh Act, named for his murdered 6 year old son.

"In December 2005, my son age 16, went to an Iowa teen club for 16-20 year olds. There he met a girl while playing pool who told him she was almost sixteen. They began dancing and hanging together and realized they both were from the same town outside the area.  They began dating."

 To read the rest of Mary's story, click here.

Ricky's mom can be reached by email at rickyslife@windstream.net. 

Donations to help cover the $1700 in fines still owed by Ricky are very much appreciated and may be made by PayPal (even if you don't have a PayPal account) by clicking on "Send Money" at the PayPal site.  Please enter rickyslife@windstream.net in the "To" box.

1. To enact legislation recognizing the differences between pathological sexual predation and non-coerced sexual activity between willing young people reasonably close in age.  This legislation should be based on the clear recognition that lifelong registration in state and national sex offender registries is profoundly damaging and is inappropriate in some instances when age of consent laws have been violated though non-coerced sexual activity between willing young people of similar ages.

2. To educate families and teens about the profound, lifelong consequences for sexual activity between young people close in age but on opposite sides of the age of consent boundaries.

3. To give Ricky and others who face similar situations a fair chance in life.

  
 



Call for Legislative Action

The signatories below agree with the following principles and encourage the legislators of Oklahoma, Iowa and America to enact rational, fact based legislation in support of these principles.

"Our society is greatly concerned about the safety and well being of our children.  Protecting them from sexual predation is of the utmost importance.  But it is now clear that the laws and policies that have been enacted to achieve this goal have had unintended and often profoundly damaging consequences.  In particular, the lives of many young people have been ruined when they have been required to register as sexual offenders after engaging in sexual activity with a boyfriend or girlfriend reasonably close in age. 

Age of consent boundaries are vital to the well being of society and serve multiple purposes.  They protect children from sexual predation and exploitation.  They also act as a deterrent to teen sex and the negative consequences that go with it.  We recognize the need for these boundaries.  We also recognize that there are fundamental differences between pedophilia and sexual activity between teens two, three or four years apart in age.  We believe that penalties imposed on teens violating these boundaries should be appropriate for the circumstance and the act.  When violations involve non-coerced sexual activity between willing teens close in age, sexual offender registration and removal of offending teens from their homes, families and schools are seldom appropriate as such punishments are in many cases ruthlessly cruel and unusual, grossly excessive and socially counterproductive.  We believe that legislation must be enacted to resolve this serious pattern of injustice and that it should be crafted in a manner that allows past injustices of this type to be rectified."   

To sign the petition please enter the information requested below. Your first name, last name, email address, phone number and zip code are required.  We do not sell or otherwise use or divulge your information for any purpose other than the stated purpose of this petition.  Your statement may be forwarded by email or other means to Oklahoma and Iowa legislators and to other state and federal legislators.  THANK YOU for participating.
Please complete the form below.

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