When people in Maryland are convicted of a crime such as child sexual abuse, it can have an impact on them for the rest of their lives. When that person is relatively young, it can mean that the shadow of being a convicted sex offender and having to register as such can last for decades into the future.
This is the situation facing a 19-year-old man from Charlotte Hall. He was convicted of the molestation of a 2-year-old girl stemming from an incident last May. While the man will be eligible for parole after five years of his 10-year-sentence, he will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life due to his classification as a Tier III sex offender.
The severity of the sentence was due, at least in part, to the age of the victim and the testimony of the girl’s mother about her subsequent behavior. The girl seems withdrawn and scared of people, especially men, which differs from her fun-loving personality before the crime took place.
At the man’s sentencing hearing, he said that he too had been molested as a child; however, he said there were never any charges filed in the case. He says he is committed to getting better; to that end, the judge in the case said he would recommend that the man serve his time at the Patuxent Institution, where Maryland inmates can receive psychotherapy in the hope of rehabilitating them.
As this case demonstrates, sex crimes convictions in Maryland can have lasting implications. An experienced defense attorney might be able to intervene in a case in order to give someone facing charges a less harsh result.
Source: Southern Maryland Newspapers Online, “Sex abuser gets 10 years for crime against toddler,” Lindsay Renner, Jan. 8, 2014