Dtwclipper From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 4 days ago) and read 1475 times:
I used the quotation marks because you really need to read the story.
The press originally jumped on the "Sex Offender" aspect, but the real story is even more pathetic.
Murdered, decapitated, stigmatized
November 14, 2007
BY BRIAN DICKERSON
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
Last Thursday, police found a headless, burned body on a vacant lot in Northville.
The following day, Michigan's largest newspaper reported the death of James and Kimberly Sorensen's only son under this headline:
Burned, headless man is
ID'd as child sex offender
Other news organizations carried similar accounts, identifying the slain Daniel Sorensen variously as a "sex offender," "a registered sex offender" and "a man convicted of criminal sexual conduct."
Police weren't yet speculating about possible motives, but if you are an amateur sleuth like me you probably leaped to the same conclusions I did:
Revenge killing.
What goes around, comes around.
Well, he'll never rape anyone else's kid.
These were reasonable deductions -- based, as we say in my business, on the best information we had at the time.
They were also dead wrong -- and as monstrously unfair to Daniel Sorensen as the way he died.
The real story
So what, exactly, did the "child sex offender" known as Daniel Sorensen do to earn the label that haunted him unto his grave, and even beyond it?
Tuesday, I called the man who prosecuted Sorensen to find out.
The facts, according to Tazewell County, Ill., State's Attorney Stewart Umholtz, are these:
In August 2000, when he was an 18-year-old working at McDonald's, Daniel Sorensen moved in with the family of a 14-year-old Illinois girl he'd corresponded with for some time.
The arrangement didn't last long. By September, Sorensen had moved out and secured a personal protection order against the girl; in a legal petition, he claimed she was stalking him.
Two days after the protection order was issued, the girl's mother went to police, alleging an illicit sexual encounter in which her underage daughter had submitted to "digital penetration" -- what used to be described, in less hysterical times, as heavy petting.
"There was no allegation of coercion. The charge was based entirely on the girl's age," Umholtz told me by phone Tuesday.
Nobody in Tazewell County worried that Sorensen posed a threat to other underage girls, the prosecutor recalled. "He certainly didn't fall into what most of us would consider to be the predator realm."
Sorensen pleaded guilty to criminal sexual abuse -- a misdemeanor -- and was sentenced to 12 months' probation.
Sorensen's best friend, 32-year-old Shawn Hammon of Westland, said Sorensen and his underage victim reconciled after she turned 18 and even discussed getting back together sometime in 2003 or 2004, when Sorensen was sharing a house with Hammon and his wife, Jennifer.
But under Michigan law, Sorensen was still required to keep his address current on Michigan's public Sex Offender Registry, an online face book of convicted sex criminals.
Had he lived, he would have remained on the registry another 18 years.
767Lover From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 1, posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 4 days ago) and read 1440 times:
I do think the whole "Sex Offender" thing has spun out of control.
NOT THAT I AM ON THE SIDE OF PEOPLE WHO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OTHERS FOR SEXUAL GRATIFICATION...but the broad label of "sex offender" just leaves too much open to interpetation.
Plus, I think the rules on where they can live need to be relaxed a little. With all the stipulations and distances from bus stops, schools, etc. it is virtually impossible for a registered sex offender to find a place to live in an urban environment.
So if they are not really dangerous people, they end up having this huge impediment to housing and work-- with little benefit to society, since setting a distance of so many yards isn't going to necessarily stop something from happening.
Oddly, two guys who used to work with my husband were arrested on sex charges, in unrelated incidents. This is a small company of about 150-200 employees.
Fumanchewd From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 2, posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 3 days 18 hours ago) and read 1329 times:
I think that one of the tragedies of our criminal justice system is minimum sentences. Each case should be looked at arbitrarily using guidelines in sentences, not mandatory sentencing. Registering 18 years as a sex offendor is BS.
Mir From United States of America, joined Jan 2004, 19708 posts, RR: 56 Reply 3, posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 3 days 18 hours ago) and read 1321 times:
Quoting 767Lover (Reply 1): I do think the whole "Sex Offender" thing has spun out of control.
There are certainly some very sick people out there, but there are also a lot of decent average people who make a mistake and have to be lumped in with the real sex offenders. And that has to stop.
-Mir
7 billion, one nation, imagination...it's a beautiful day
KiwiinOz From New Zealand, joined Oct 2005, 2029 posts, RR: 5 Reply 4, posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 1280 times:
Public reaction to sex offenders in all circles is spun out of control and exaggerated, in many ways because the stigma is very strong. Sometimes, even in these forums I get the feeling that the strong reactions are an overreaction purely for show.
There is very little rational discussion about this sort of thing, mainly because people consider the rationalising of these people's actions to be pandering. I disagree. Society's treatment of sex-offenders, and, probably more importantly, non-offending sexual deviants, is clearly misguided. We are worse off for these people's actions than we ever were. It would appear that tides of public outrage and calls for castration just drive the problem underground.
Where in society do we put the guy who is attracted to children but never acts on this urge out of social concience? Do we still blame his character for having these urges, or do we applaud him for considering the greater good and resisting? Should there be support groups for him? Should he be ashamed of this, or proud of his abstinance? If this group was accepted by society, would we have less offending overall?
A bit general in relation to the topic I know. As far as the story of the guy being killed, that's a symptom of this ridiculous direction we take with these guys.
Doona From Sweden, joined Feb 2005, 3707 posts, RR: 14 Reply 5, posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 3 days 8 hours ago) and read 1189 times:
Quoting Fumanchewd (Reply 2): Each case should be looked at arbitrarily using guidelines in sentences, not mandatory sentencing. Registering 18 years as a sex offendor is BS.
Especially in this case where even the prosecutor feels that the guy didn't "fall into the predator realm"...
I have to say that lists and facebooks of sex offenders, IMO, are violations of privacy, and counter-productive. Hopefully, the person does his/her time and gets out, rehabilitated and is able to function in society. That's the reason we don't lock criminals up for good, because they (at least sometimes) can be reintroduced to society. They've paid their debt, and IMO should be left alone. I wouldn't mind a more advanced parole system for these offenders, but we can't have witch hunts and vigilantes.
Cheers
Mats
Sure, we're concerned for our lives. Just not as concerned as saving 9 bucks on a roundtrip to Ft. Myers.
Luv2cattlecall From United States of America, joined Sep 2007, 1648 posts, RR: 2 Reply 6, posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 3 days 2 hours ago) and read 1144 times:
This reminds me of those cases where two people of age are dating, and if it ends on bad terms, the female finds some way to press sexual harassment charges....even though she'll likely lose, the damage is done and the male will have that stigma stuck to them for some time (I had a female coworker at my old job who did that and couldn't stop "bragging" about how she got him back for looking at her phone call log and finding out that she was cheating on him). The sad part is, eventually it'll be the whole "Boy who cried wolf" thing and people will stop taking the truly pathetic cases seriously.
When you have to breaststroke to your connecting flight...it's a crash!
ORFflyer From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 7, posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 3 days 1 hour ago) and read 1136 times:
Quoting Mir (Reply 3): Quoting 767Lover (Reply 1):I do think the whole "Sex Offender" thing has spun out of control.
  There are certainly some very sick people out there, but there are also a lot of decent average people who make a mistake and have to be lumped in with the real sex offenders. And that has to stop.
A guy down the street from me is on the registry. He was 18 and a senior in High School. His girlfried was 16 in the same school. Mom and Dad catch them playing hide-the-sausage, and presto, he's all of a sudden a convicted sex offender.
Dougloid From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 8, posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 3 days 1 hour ago) and read 1129 times:
The whole thing IS carried too far.
I've got a client who's a registered sex offender. He went to a party at a frat house at the University of Iowa a couple years back and he was in the john taking a leak and some woman opened the door. He waved it at her and asked if she wanted some.
He's got to register for the next ten years and was on intensive probation, charged with failure to register by a vengeful compensating PO. It took some work to get his probation discharged because it was way past bullshit. He'd served 95 days in one county, 108 days in a second, and had served 150 days on the initial charge which was not a felony. It was indecent exposure.
It did me a power of good making his PO look like an idiot in front of two judges in two counties.
Falstaff From United States of America, joined Jun 2006, 5671 posts, RR: 29 Reply 9, posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 2 days 17 hours ago) and read 1072 times:
The entire sex offender registry is stupid. It really doesn't do much. It doesn't mean anything if the pervert in question was never caught. Most times real sex offenders commit multiple crimes before they ever get caught. I would also think that people who have been caught and punished are less likely to do it again. A person who has never been caught will keep at it until they do.
I don't like the idea of continuing to punish people after they served their time. These people are punished too. Imagine not being able to live where you wanted or could afford to live. If I were a sex offender I couldn't live where I live or at my parents house because they are too close to schools. An 18 year old who did his 16 year old girlfriend is no danger to children. I had sex before I was old enough and so did a lot of people. Does that make me a criminal? My mother was looking up sex offenders in her city and found a man who was on the list who lived down the road. If you looked at what he did and the date of conviction and his age you can see it was probably an 18 year old having sex with his underage girlfriend.
At the school where my mom teaches they have a student's dad who is a sex offender. He can come to the school with his PO if he is attending a function with or for his daughter. He cannot pick his daughter up from school because he is normally barred from the property. His crime had nothing to do with children.
It is a slippery slope, who is registered next? If we keep punishing people after their jail term is up we will just have more people going back to prison because they can't find a decent place to live or get a decent job. If people go back to prison we have to keep paying for them. I once worked with a convicted murderer. He served 30 years. He was a great guy and a great worker. He was happy to have a job. He was very loyal to the company because he knew how hard it was to get and hold a job with his record.
Quoting Dougloid (Reply 8): I've got a client who's a registered sex offender. He went to a party at a frat house at the University of Iowa a couple years back and he was in the john taking a leak and some woman opened the door. He waved it at her and asked if she wanted some.
Last week I had a student take a dump in the shop sink. He was suspended from school and ticketed with disorderly conduct. The police could have busted him for indecent exposure and or lewd conduct, but the administrators and I asked for disorderly conduct to keep him off the sex offender list.
Scbriml From United Kingdom, joined Jul 2003, 11361 posts, RR: 50 Reply 10, posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 2 days 17 hours ago) and read 1067 times:
The term "sex offender" is taken too far, but in other cases is fully justified.
There's a separate thread running on this, but a guy in Scotland is now on the sex register after he was caught "simulating a sex act" with his bicycle in his own bedroom! The Mechanics Of Having Sex With A Bicycle .... (by Gordonsmall Nov 15 2007 in Non Aviation)
Falstaff From United States of America, joined Jun 2006, 5671 posts, RR: 29 Reply 11, posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 1056 times:
Quoting Scbriml (Reply 10): There's a separate thread running on this, but a guy in Scotland is now on the sex register after he was caught "simulating a sex act" with his bicycle in his own bedroom!
There was a rumor going around the school about a gearhead student who performed sex acts with his tachometer. The student claimed the rumors were true. I would say in both cases the individual is more of a weirdo than a sex offender.
LTBEWR From United States of America, joined Jan 2004, 12333 posts, RR: 12 Reply 12, posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 1049 times:
So many have become so overprotective of their children or female spouse becoming a victim of a sexual assault or of underage sex, that many politicians have found it to their best advantage to get votes for them to demand extreme penalties for any 'sex offender'. Then you have local prosecutors who are looking for easy and popular convictions or guilty pleas that can be offered in sexual offenses.
In the past, everybody in the neighborhood were told to 'stay away from that pervert' or didn't put themselves in such positions for sexual situations. Problem is that now we don't know our neighbors so such practices won't work due to anonymity of many areas we live and that we are more open, perhaps to much so, about sex.
767Lover From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 13, posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 1040 times:
Quoting Dougloid (Reply 8): I've got a client who's a registered sex offender. He went to a party at a frat house at the University of Iowa a couple years back and he was in the john taking a leak and some woman opened the door. He waved it at her and asked if she wanted some.
Wow, I absolutely detest the use of the C word but I think it describes this woman perfectly.
Quoting Falstaff (Reply 9): If I were a sex offender I couldn't live where I live or at my parents house because they are too close to schools.
There are elementary schools practically on every block around here. And where there's not a school, there's a park, or a bus stop, or a chuch that operates a day care center.
Falstaff From United States of America, joined Jun 2006, 5671 posts, RR: 29 Reply 14, posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 1033 times:
Quoting 767Lover (Reply 13): There are elementary schools practically on every block around here. And where there's not a school, there's a park, or a bus stop, or a chuch that operates a day care center.
Same here. I don't want to live next to some pervert either, but people have to realize that these people have to live somewhere. If the laws make it too hard for them to live somewhere they will just ignore the law and live there anyway. I know that happens. If we make it too hard for these people to get jobs they will just go back to prison and we all have to pay for them.
AirCop From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 15, posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 2 days 15 hours ago) and read 1006 times:
Quoting Dougloid (Reply 8): The whole thing IS carried too far.
As someone what worked as a probation officer supervising a sex offender caseload for two years, I have to agree with you. I had a caseload of sixty and thirty or so were not real sex offenders, just kids have sex with their girlfriends, and one of the parents getting pissed, or the eighty-four year old guy that gave a Playboy that he found in his mail box to the 16 year old neighbor, and don't get me started on divorce cases, where the wife will make a unfounded charge to try to get full custody. As such probably 85% of my time was spent with the real SO, unfortunately some state legislators want everyone treated the same. Studies (mostly out of Canada) have shown the hard line approach with these quasi SO doesn't work.
In this era, getting labeled as a sex offender is the same as getting a scarlet letter. These residence requirements will only cause SO to register as homeless, or go into hiding. Nothing will get accomplished. Common sense needs to be in the equation so that the criminal justice personnel can spend their time wisely protecting the community from the real sick sex offenders.
Fumanchewd From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 16, posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 2 days 14 hours ago) and read 1002 times:
Quoting Falstaff (Reply 14): I don't want to live next to some pervert either, but people have to realize that these people have to live somewhere.
Some have to be homeless because there is nowhere to live. In San Francisco some claim themselves as homeless because the regulations won't allow them to live anywhere in the city. Some are actually homeless, but some are under the radar because of broad umbrella restrictions.
BR715-A1-30 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 17, posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 1 day 7 hours ago) and read 950 times:
I got lucky... My best friend was 16 when I met her and I was 20. We never did anything even remotely illegal due to the consequences that would have come about. We both knew better. All we ever did was hang out and watch movies. However, her parents, convinced that I was having sexual relations with her, went to the police anyway. Well, seeing as how there was no proof, and my best friend herself told the police we had NOT done anything, they just told me to stay away from her. Now she is 18, and she is my best friend (with benefits).
I even told her parents that until she turns 18, she and I will remain only friends.
Luv2cattlecall From United States of America, joined Sep 2007, 1648 posts, RR: 2 Reply 18, posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 1 day 1 hour ago) and read 921 times:
Quoting BR715-A1-30 (Reply 17): I got lucky... My best friend was 16 when I met her and I was 20. We never did anything even remotely illegal due to the consequences that would have come about. We both knew better. All we ever did was hang out and watch movies. However, her parents, convinced that I was having sexual relations with her, went to the police anyway. Well, seeing as how there was no proof, and my best friend herself told the police we had NOT done anything, they just told me to stay away from her. Now she is 18, and she is my best friend (with benefits).
I even told her parents that until she turns 18, she and I will remain only friends.
See, that's what's dumb about these laws though... that you have to refrain from doing what comes naturally in order to avoid legal consequences.
When you have to breaststroke to your connecting flight...it's a crash!
Leezyjet From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2001, 4041 posts, RR: 55 Reply 19, posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 1 day ago) and read 902 times:
Quoting BR715-A1-30 (Reply 17): I even told her parents that until she turns 18, she and I will remain only friends
You live in one seriously f'd up country !!!.
You can drive a car at 16 - and potentialy kill people.
You can buy a gun at 18, actually in some states you don't even need to be 18 - and potentially kill people - !!!.
But you can't shag your 16y/o g/f without being labelled a sex offender or drink a beer until you are 21 !!!.
Thank f'k I'm not American !!!. I'd have been locked up along time ago !!!.
And alot of your fellow countrymen think the rest of the world is jealous of y'all !!!. ha ha !!.
Sorry, not trying to start a flame fest or anything, just looking at some of your crazy laws from outside !!!.
"She Rolls, 45 knots, 90, 135, nose comes up to 20 degrees, she's airborne - She flies, Concorde Flies"
Falstaff From United States of America, joined Jun 2006, 5671 posts, RR: 29 Reply 20, posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 1 day ago) and read 893 times:
Quoting Leezyjet (Reply 19): You can buy a gun at 18, actually in some states you don't even need to be 18
I am an FFL holder and you have to be 18 or 21 in every state to buy a firearm. Oddly enough in Michigan you can be 18 an own a handgun if you bought it from a private individual and you have it registered with the local police. To buy a handgun at a store you need to be 21, pass a background check, and still register it. Doesn't make any sense does it.
Quoting Fumanchewd (Reply 16): Some have to be homeless because there is nowhere to live. In San Francisco some claim themselves as homeless because the regulations won't allow them to live anywhere in the city. Some are actually homeless, but some are under the radar because of broad umbrella restrictions.
Leezyjet From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2001, 4041 posts, RR: 55 Reply 21, posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 23 hours ago) and read 881 times:
Quoting Falstaff (Reply 20): I am an FFL holder and you have to be 18 or 21 in every state to buy a firearm. Oddly enough in Michigan you can be 18 an own a handgun if you bought it from a private individual and you have it registered with the local police. To buy a handgun at a store you need to be 21, pass a background check, and still register it. Doesn't make any sense does it.
Yep, your right. I was looking at the report below,
"• A 12-year-old in North Carolina needs parental
permission to play Little League Baseball,
but not to possess a rifle or shotgun. In
Texas and five other states, there is no
minimum legal age requirement for gun
possession."
but still, it is really really crazy !!.
"She Rolls, 45 knots, 90, 135, nose comes up to 20 degrees, she's airborne - She flies, Concorde Flies"
Sponsor Message: 
From , joined Dec 1969, posts, 
There are certainly some very sick people out there, but there are also a lot of decent average people who make a mistake and have to be lumped in with the real sex offenders. And that has to stop.
From New Zealand, joined Oct 2005, 2029 posts, 
From Sweden, joined Feb 2005, 3707 posts, 
From , joined Dec 1969, posts, 
From United Kingdom, joined Jul 2003, 11361 posts, 
From , joined Dec 1969, posts, 
Printer friendly format 
