Innocent Lawbreakers

Dec. 13, 2006

There‘s been a lot of publicity about actress Keisha Castle-Hughes for her starring role in “The Nativity Story.” But it hasn’t focused on her performance as the Virgin Mary, who was young—perhaps as young as 13—and merely engaged to Joseph when she found out the good news.
No, much of the publicity is about Castle-Hughes herself. At the tender age of 16, she is about five months pregnant and unwed. Coincidentally her 19-year-old boyfriend is a carpenter.
So far, the press isn’t beating her up too badly, and neither is the Catholic church. As “Nativity director” Catherine Hardwicke told The New Zealand Herald: “I guess she got two out of three right—that she didn’t use birth control and she kept the baby.”
Hardwicke was compassionate in her comments—the baby will be born into a loving family. Castle-Hughes has four younger siblings and her mother just had a baby. The young actress is spiritual, soulful, and “the baby is going to come into an atmosphere of love.”
But if Keisha Castle-Hughes lived in Michigan, more than eyebrows would be raised. So would the question of prosecution.
State law says that if someone has sex with a youth under the age of 16, he or she could be convicted of criminal sexual conduct, 3rd degree, and sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.
It’s far more likely that a plea bargain would be reached for a conviction of a lesser offense—CSC 4th degree. But even so, the boyfriend’s name, photo and conviction would go on Michigan’s Sex Offender Registry for the next 25 years, side by side with the state’s most serious sex criminals.

ROMEO & JULIET
This is called a “Romeo and Juliet” type situation and there’s history behind the state law. In 1996, President Clinton signed Megan’s law, which sought to protect the public from sex offenders who pose a very high risk of re-committing another sex crime after they get out of prison. The law required all states to make private and personal information of registered sex offenders available to the public.
Michigan law has drawn a clear line on teen sex. Anyone who has sex with a teen under the age of 16 is subject to prosecution, even if the sex is consensual. Some county prosecutors aggressively pursue these cases, while others don’t. Most often, parents don’t like the relationship, can’t get the girl to break up, and pressure the prosecutor to pursue charges.
Prosecutor Charlie Koop in Antrim County is more aggressive than Prosecutor Al Schneider in Grand Traverse County. Leelanau County Prosecutor Joe Hubbell
has said in news report that he doesn’t think these kind of teen offenders should be lumped with sexual predators on the Sex Offender Registry.
In general, prosecutors will pursue a Romeo-Juliet case if there are aggravating factors such as exploitation, a large difference in age, or force.
Yet, in some cases, it is just consensual sex, plain and simple.
Gary Dechape met his girlfriend in Indian River during the summer of his junior year. They dated during his entire senior year, her sophomore year, and then he decided to join the Navy. He was 17, and she was 15. Her mother was upset that he planned to leave, and became even angrier after learning the couple was having sex. She filed a complaint with Cheboygan Prosecutor Joe Kwiatkowski, who is now a Cheboygan attorney.
Shortly thereafter, deputies showed up at the door. He was handcuffed and later charged with criminal sexual conduct, 3rd degree. He accepted a plea bargain of 4th degree and was ordered to pay fines and serve a year of probation.

UNFAIRLY LISTED
But far more devastating to Dechape was getting on the state’s Sex Offender Registry. For 10 years, he has reported to authorities four times a year, between the 1st and the 10th of each quarterly month. If he doesn’t, he’ll be charged with a misdemeanor.
The Sex Offender Registry shows his date of birth and the reason for his conviction. It would be easy to mistakenly conclude that he’s a 28-year-old who had sex with someone under the age of 16.
“I have people coming up to me saying, ‘You slept with a girl 12 to 14 years younger than you?’ That’s not true. I am not a sexual predator,” Dechape says. “I just want everyone to know that not all offenders are a threat. Yet, you ask the public to say what comes to their mind when they hear ‘sex offender,’ and they say something like baby raper, pervert, disgusting, gross, child molester.”
He has written to state lawmakers, begging them to post the date of convictions on the Sex Offender Registry website. That way people would know if it was a case of peers having underage, consensual sex.
It hasn’t happened.
Fortunately, Dechape has lived and worked in Indian River, a small town where a lot of people know his story and don’t care. Yet a coworker at a Petoskey pizza shop discovered his picture on the Internet site, after watching a segment on the Sex Offender Registry on the evening news. She and others razzed Dechape when he came into work a couple of days later—“Hey, we saw you on your list (Sex Offender Registry).
Nice website you’ve got.”
Dechape didn’t get fired — he explained the situation to an understanding boss.
But others don’t have such an easy time
of it.
RUINED REPUTATIONS
“To say my son’s conviction ruined his life is not an overstatement. He’s lost two jobs and was evicted from housing because he was on the sex offender registry,” said Barb, who runs Citizens for Second Chances, a Grand Haven-based advocacy group for Romeo and Juliet convictions. She didn’t want her last name used to protect her son’s identity.
Did he explain why he was on the registry?
“Yes he did, and they didn’t care because they had people complain because he and two others were on the registry and living in the same apartment complex. … And since then, he’s moved back home, he’s lost two jobs because of the registry. And he’s a chef. It’s not like he’s in a threatening position to anybody,” she said.
“It has kept him from getting into relationships with girls because he’s afraid. He’s afraid a girl won’t have anything to do with him once they find out. It has nothing to do with the registry, but everything to do with the stigma.”

ONE SMALL SUCCESS
Barb said her group did get a “little change in the law.” Since 2004, judges have the option to order a youth to rehab and/or jail time under the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act (HYTA) without proceeding to a criminal conviction that requires registering as a sex offender.
Also, sex offenders who were convicted between the ages of 17 and 20 may apply to get off the Sex Offender Registry after 10 years if they have behaved impeccably. Convictions for CSC 4th degree can also be expunged after five years with judicial approval. Unfortunately, the judges don’t apply HYTA in the Grand Traverse region, said attorney Gerry Chefalo.
Dechape’s name no longer appeared on the Sex Offender Registry after moving to Alanson in September, but he’s not sure why.