Word: trevinos
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...Gabriel Trevino did a bad, bad thing. Three years ago, at age 31, he fondled the 14-year-old daughter of a friend. For this "slipup," as he calls it, he pleaded no contest and took five years' probation rather than risk a two-to-20-year prison term. Now he thinks prison would have been preferable. These days, people drive by his modest bungalow house, then back up to read the 18-in. by 24-in. sign posted by the little white birdhouse. DANGER, it says. REGISTERED SEX OFFENDER LIVES HERE...
Sitting by the front window in his darkened living room in Corpus Christi, Texas, last week, Trevino was at once defiant and near tears as he talked about this public mortification. "I made my mistake, and I'm paying for it," he said. But, he wondered, why should his wife and two stepdaughters pay too? "I can't even go out and cut my yard. I just stay in the house...I was doing good in therapy. How is this helping...
...answer is simple, says state District Judge J. Manuel Banales, who on May 18 ordered Trevino and 13 other "high-risk" sex offenders on probation to post the signs in their yards. "It will keep people like you, sir, honest," he told Trevino last week after denying a request to rescind the order. "Your neighbors will watch you and make sure you're not taking another child into your home." Hours later, Banales ordered yet another sex offender--No. 15--to put up a sign on release from jail...
Banales' extreme version of notification is having immediate consequences for the Corpus Christi 15, as landlords evict them and bosses fire them. One man attempted suicide after Banales' ruling. The families also worry about vigilantes. "I'm scared for my mother's life and myself," says Trevino's stepdaughter Ann, 20. Lawyers for the 15 are considering filing a joint challenge or separate ones in the 13th Court of Appeals, arguing that the signs violate the right to privacy and constitute "cruel and unusual punishment...
...nearly 300 adult sex offenders, he chose 14 of the 15 by working with probation officers and a polygrapher to pinpoint those who had multiple victims, were not showing progress in therapy or had failed to show empathy for their victims. Even in court last week, for instance, Trevino persisted in questioning the judge on why a 14-year-old could be tried for murder, but could not consent...