Plea Deals Interfering With Rehab,
Experts Say
November 13,
2006
By Zach Lowe, Advocate
Staff Writer
It seemed to be a good deal for
Robert Pentland III, considering he was charged with molesting a
10-year-old girl while baby-sitting her in Darien in 2003.
Two years and four lawyers later, the Madison man pleaded guilty in
state Superior Court in Stamford to reduced charges of unlawful
restraint and reckless endangerment, neither one an obvious sex
crime.
A judge spared Pentland prison time, instead putting him on
probation, court records show. He had to attend sex offender
counseling, but the judge mentioned nothing about registering as a
sex offender.
Experts have criticized such plea deals for years, saying they allow
sex offenders to duck the public scrutiny that comes with
registration.
But what's happened to Pentland since his deal underscores other
glitches that emerge when prosecutors let alleged sex offenders
plead guilty to non-sex crimes, experts said. Experts say treating a
sex offender becomes almost impossible if the person does not
consider himself one.
Probation officers demanded Pentland admit being a sex offender as
part of his counseling. He refused, records show, saying he did not
plead guilty to a sex crime. Pentland failed a lie detector test,
again denying he molested the girl.
The state kicked Pentland out of probation, saying they could not
treat people who deny their crimes.
Now Pentland not only faced prison time, but a judge forced him to
register as a sex offender in September. Pentland's attorney said he
will fight the move.
"It's a huge problem," said Rachel Mitchell, the prosecutor in
charge of the sex crimes bureau in Maricopa County, Ariz., a
district experts consider a model in prosecuting sex offenders.
"They've never admitted their guilt in court. Then you put them on
probation and treat them like a sex offender, and they say, 'Wait, I
never pled guilty to a sex offense.' "
Pentland's case is even thornier since he pleaded guilty under the
Alford Doctrine. Defendants who use the doctrine say they are
innocent but plead guilty because they believe a jury would convict
them.
"They are actively maintaining their innocence," said Mitchell,
whose office has a blanket policy against letting defendants use the
doctrine, "so how can we say they violate probation later if they
refuse to admit they are guilty."
Connecticut's Supreme Court has ruled that failing to admit guilt
during counseling can be a violation of probation -- even if the
defendant pleaded not guilty or used the Alford Doctrine.
"It's extremely screwed up," said Pentland's attorney, Norman Pattis.
"It's a conceptual discrepancy."
Fewer than 10 percent of sex offense cases end with these kinds of
deals, said David D'Amora, director of the Center for the Treatment
of Problem Sexual Behavior in Middletown.
The deals happen more often in some states, and D'Amora said he
worries they will pop up more in Connecticut if lawmakers pass
stricter rules for registered sex offenders, banning them from
living or working in certain areas.
Defense lawyers would be more likely to hold out for deals that
would not force their clients to register as sex offenders, D'Amora
said.
Prosecutors said they only negotiate such plea deals in cases where
winning a trial will be difficult or a victim is too traumatized to
testify. The victim Pentland allegedly molested did not want to
testify, according to court records.
"A prosecutor has to make judgment calls," said Stephen Sedensky, a
senior state's attorney in Danbury who has taught classes on
prosecuting child sex assault cases. "You have to decide if it's
better to get a conviction on reduced charges than risk a total not
guilty verdict where the person will never be supervised."
Some district attorney's offices around the country ban such pleas
or use them rarely, D'Amora and other experts say.
"We avoid them at all costs," Mitchell said.
Charles Onley, a research associate for the Washington, D.C.-based
Center for Sex Offender Management, recommended prosecutors avoid
such pleas.
"The community is safer if someone who did, in fact, commit a sex
offense is on the sex offender registry and in the right treatment,"
Onley said.
The pleas also complicate treatment for offenders such as Pentland,
who believe they should not have to admit guilt to any sex offense.
If treatment fails, the state can send them to jail.
But the judge in Pentland's hearings, Martin Nigro, said that may
not be the best way to rehabilitate a sex offender.
"I'm not sure jail ever benefits anybody," Nigro said during a court
hearing in September. "But that's the only alternative I'm going to
have."
Nigro forced Pentland to admit his guilt in open court, and gave him
more time to work with counselors. If the counseling fails, Pentland
could go to jail for two years.
His treatment is going well so far, Pattis said. But Pentland's
original guilty plea shed light on tricky issues the state will
eventually have to solve, the attorney said.
"We're giving probation officers the keys to people's liberty,"
Pattis said. "It's an extremely important issue, and a lot of people
are talking about it."
|
