Sex offenders in S. Lake accused of other crimes
A check of sex offenders to make sure they were complying with the law led to four arrests in South Lake Tahoe on April 29.
Officers went to six residences and made contact with four people. All four were arrested.
Gary Meyer, 68, on charges of not living at his registered address. This is a felony. Charles Langley, 47, faces felony charges of possessing prescription pills and methamphetamine, as well as a misdemeanor charge of possessing a meth pipe. Merlin Griffiths, 28, was taken into custody on a misdemeanor charge of unlawful possession of weapons and a misdemeanor violation of probation.
During the search of another sex registrant’s residence, who was not violating any laws, 31-year-old Jose Mariscal allegedly attempted to obstruct officers from completing the search. Mariscal was arrested on charges of misdemeanor resisting, delaying or obstructing officers.
Officers said the compliance checks prompted two additional sex offenders to report to the SLTPD to update their information.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
JOB WELL DONE LTPD
You know, real sex offenders disgust me as much as anybody. But I question the validity of that particular crime classification causing a person to lose all their civil rights forever because of a conviction. I mean, the last arrest sounds like they were looking for any excuse to bring the guy in. And you qualify as a sex offender for an enormous number of “crimes”. An 18 year old boy with a 16 year old girlfriend qualifies. That could ruin his life forever? I think some of our laws and how we enforce them are a bit over the top.
Peeing in public is a sex offense apparently. Maybe listed as a crime against nature. On the sex offender websites there will be a listing of what they got convicted of. Look at how many got convicted of doing something to a girl 13 or younger.
yep Dog…the distinction should be made …with appropriate sanctions based on the crime.
@Perry…what are those websites, please?
Actually, that is not necessarily true Dogula. My son will be 18 his entire senior year so we did a little research. Just to make sure he wouldn’t get himself in trouble. Depending on the age of consent, and whether or not your state has a close in age exemption it may be fine of an 18 year old to engage in a sexual relationship. Nevada for example has an aoc of 16 so as long as the older of the two was not over 19 it would be fine. AOC is 18 in California so the close in age law could only reduce the charge to a misdemeanor.
So it depends on your state and your prosecutor. . .
Still, I think the ‘scarlet letter’ designation is overly broad.
It is both sad and, for society, tremendously disruptive, when crimes that are presented in a way that might seem unconscionable to the general public are prosecuted with an eye to the politics rather than real justice.
District attorneys are elected. They are charged, by law, with justice based prosecution. If we elect a DA who makes decisions based on the politics of the issue rather than the justice often hidden in the investigative reports, then we’ve elected nothing more than a shill.
On the other hand, as citizens we need to give our prosecutors room to prosecute as the facts require. And admire them when they avoid responding to the craziness of the internet “experts.”
Pull up the Megans Law website for California and request to see who your neighbors are in zip code 96150.
These people were not convicted of minor crimes against children. There are several of them who are violating both State and City code by living too close to playgrounds.
Is this who you want to be close to your children?
Why are they allowed to live in violation of these distance restrictions?
http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/registration/offenses.aspx?lang=ENGLISH
You cannot be listed as a registered sex offender for “peeing in public”. Like someone mentioned above – go see what crimes they have been convicted on Megan’s Law, we have SERIOUS sex offenders in town, not people who pee in public. And these are crimes they were convicted of – not charged with – many sex offenders plea to a lesser crimes during the process.
Good job SLTPD!!
Many of you are wrong on many points. You can commit a crime that victimizes children and yet be classified as a Tier 1 offender. Mistakes are sometimes made regarding a classification. Also, some offenders were sentenced before more strict guidelines were put into law. A guy who possessed over 100 thousand images of child porn was classified as a tier 1 offender and thus did not make it onto Megans Law. About 25% of offenders do not make it onto Megans Law. That same child pornographer, got out of prison and provided a false address and violated his probation in a number of ways. Providing false statements to probation, being where children frequent, etc, etc. The man was also grooming children and attempted to lure a child.
So you see, the issue is diverse and not all circumstances apply. Too many grey areas. Never assume that a Tier 1 offender is being harassed or shouldn’t be watched closely because of a non violent and non contact offense. For example, had the man been successful in luring that child, we might be talking about a child who was found dead, or missing or needing intense therapy for years.
When it comes to crimes that involve violence and children, sorry, you need to spend the rest of your life complying for the safety of the innocent. As for the latter, it’s unfortunate and lives have been ruined over laws that do not reflect the intent or act properly. I.E, young boys who date minors. Peeing in public, etc….
“When it comes to crimes that involve violence and children, sorry, you need to spend the rest of your life complying for the safety of the innocent..” I respectfully disagree. Death Penalty sounds about right to me…if the crime is proven to be true.
No doubt I’m gonna take some heat for this, but I’m gonna say what’s on my mind. I have known too many people who were molested as children, or raped as teens or had children who were sexually abused by a person who was ‘trustworthy’ that I have a different opinion: bikebum says …”When it comes to crimes that involve violence and children, sorry, you need to spend the rest of your life complying for the safety of the innocent..” I respectfully disagree. If the crime is proven to be true…say the person admits guilt and/or there is incontrovertible forensic evidence and the person is a repeat violent offender why not just impose the death penalty instead of incarcerating them for the rest of their life or (sneer) paroling them and then and ‘trusting them to check in’. Talk about putting innocent people at risk! There I said it.
By the way thanks for the Meghans law website info. Couple of of the people mentioned in the article didn’t show up on the site, but I believe I met one them once….nasty little creature.
Hmmmmm. To your point, I think on one level you’re right; you cannot reform a child molester. It’s how they’re wired. And because of that, it’s true that you can’t ever fully trust them. But I can’t accept the idea of the death penalty for a couple of reasons, as much as I’d like to murder them with my own bare hands in weaker moments. Mainly, it’s murder. We don’t know if that evil human being might some day do some great good in the world. Or even find his own salvation. Who are we to make the decision to cut that life short? I think life imprisonment is fine, because no, you can’t ever let them have the opportunity to ruin more lives. This silly system we have of letting them out into the community with restrictions is a joke. It doesn’t protect anybody, and it does hurt people who fall under the state’s classification erroneously. There has to be a better way.
@Dog….I don’t know, I agree it’s challenging….seems that Religion, ESPECIALLY Christianity, has a long history of ‘murdering’ people and then letting God sort things out. Wasn’t it an accepted method of determining the ‘truth’ one’s being a witch to throw them in the water and if they drowned they were innocent and could be buried in the Church cemetery? Of course if they floated/swam they were guilty and could be burned at the stake. And of torturing people to get them to admit to cavorting with the ‘devil’? It’s a tough call, but if there is incontrovertible proof…Besides, we make that decision all the time for people far more innocent than pedophiles, though in a more benign fashion. Here’s a quote for you…”the hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality.’-Dante. Hah, and me not even a Christian(Which, by the way, has nothing to do with Christ’s Presence and everything to do with the Christian barbarism! and don’t get me started on pedophile priests) Contradictory, I know. Didn’t the courts recently refuse a man on death row’s request to have his organs donated? Can you imagine the poor guy whose heart was given to Dick Cheney waking up in whatever afterlife and being told where his heart was transplanted(poor guy)? Lastly, life in prison sounds akin to cruel and unusual punishment-torture in fact…far better to be done with it and get on to the next thing. Just my opinion.
Avoiding Christianity because of all the hypocrites is like staying away from the gym because of all the un-fit people there.
Sure, lots of bad done ‘in the name of God’ by most religions. But that’s no reason to condemn all of Christian faith.
Just sayin’.
When i was a kid one of my grandparents would say “if you lay down with dogs(no offense to your screenname) you get fleas.” my approach to Spirit has come through long consideration, careful thought and deep meditatioon coupled with an inner remembering and an interest in quantum mechanics and astronomy. I will not try to dissuade you from your faith…(though i will take a potshot at it once in a while). Please afford me the same courtesy. Christ is a presence that is real to me, as i’m sure it is real for you. But i do not seek him in a church or in a book. Christianity and christians-for the most part…are petty and mean-spirited-something you, my friend, like to accuse me of being-and shallow and hide behind their bible, which due to its narrow scope and interpretation is attractive to shallow narrow people…think ted cruz or pat robertson or sarah palin. Such is my opinion, and no offense is meant towards you at this time in my voicing of it. Blessed Be.
Good discussion, but what’s missing is the effect that the practice of plea bargaining has on the system. Law enforcement is overwhelmed, the District Attorney’s office is overwhelmed, and the courts are overwhelmed. And a defendant, perhaps guilty of a horrific crime, perhaps guilty of simple foolishness, perhaps guilty of very little at all, sits in jail, or, having bailed, looking at horrific legal fees, while the system encourages him (or her) to make it all go away by accepting a “deal” that looks pretty good from the confines of a jail cell, or, if he’s bailed, the huge financial destruction that paying for justice will entail.
Registration seems great to most of us while it seems pretty minimal to the guy facing financial destruction if he continues to defend himself in this process.
I know of no real objection to registering serious sex offenders for the rest of their lives. But, like so many other complexities of life, the devil is in the details. And I can say with certainty that some folks are required to register because they plea bargained their decision to pee behind the bar. Case law says that even an “indecent exposure,” pretty much the bottom rung of sex offenses, has to have sexual connotations. But if it doesn’t make trial, adherence to case law is strictly up to the prosecutor – not always a reliable advocate of justice.
@Copper….the devil is not just in the details, but to use Christian sentiments-it is within those who are sexually predatory. How are we as a society going to balance the tension between an individual’s freedoms and community’s responsibility for the safety of it’s members? The old freedom to vs. freedom from question pops up again…and will do so more and more as more as population increases and limited resources are spread thinner and thinner.