Juvenile Justice
Judge Opts to Keep Teen Off Ill. Sex Offender Registry
Posted Apr 9, 2008, 06:57 am CDT
By Molly McDonough
Taking advantage of a new law giving judges more discretion in Illinois, one judge, possibly for the first time, has opted to leave a youthful offender's name off the a sex offender registry.
Kane County Juvenile Court Judge Wiley Edmondson ruled last week that a college student, who was 13 at the time of the offense, doesn't have to be listed on the adult Illinois Sex Offender Registry, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Last fall, Illinois gave judges the authority to decide whether sex crimes committed by juveniles should become public when the offender reaches adulthood.
"This gets rid of what I call the scarlet letter syndrome," Geneva, Ill., lawyer D.J. Tegeler, who represents the teen, told the Tribune.
The underlying case involves a 2002 "prank" in which the student, then 13, rang the doorbell of a 13-year-old girl. He grabbed her breasts when she came to the door. The boy pleaded guilty to juvenile aggravated criminal sexual abuse and home invasion charges and was placed on five years of probation, the Tribune reports.
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