Child Services: Going too far?

[Mithrandir]

These were two posts from a different forum. I'm reposting them here because I think they serve as an interesting fuel for discussion.

A friend of mine wasn't so lucky... (I will call him John)(Not his real name)

John used to let a neighborhood kid come over all the time to play on the computers at our house. We had about 6-8 PCs hooked up in a Quake Network, and also ran Ultima Online and Everquest.

The kid was a 15 year old boy, and he had a brother who was a 18.

Well, the kid got caught at school with some weed. Which he had gotten from his brother. But his brother was already on probation for possession, and no longer a minor. So his older brother told him to lie about where he got it and he would pay the younger brother $100.

So the younger boy says he got it from my friend, John.

But... the school counselor interviewing this young boy starts running the gamut of questions at this kid. Like... Have you ever seen John do drugs. (Kid answers yes). Has John ever shown you pornography? Has John ever made sexual advances at you? etc, etc...

The angry parent goes to school to pick up his 15 year old son who got busted with a joint... and finds 2 policemen and a Childrens Services worker there, filling out forms to charge my friend John with Attributing to the Delinquency of a Minor, and Child Molestation.

Well, the parent knows it's all a lie. He even has his older son go tell Children Services that he gave the joint to the younger brother. But if you have ever been involved with Children Services you know how well they listen....

Short end of the story is that after spending $25,000.00 on lawyer fees, the court put the charges on "hold" two years later for lack of developments. They didn't drop the charges as Childrens Services will not let them. And Children Services now has a complaint in Johns file for life that he is a suspected Child Molestor.

Children Services is the only agency in America where you are Guilty even if proven Innocent. The entry and complaint stays in your file for life, and if you are found guilty they watch you even closer as their mentality is that you "got away with it". Any dealings with Childrens Services is a nightmare.

And...

Yeah if you get labelled as a sex offender it's very rough.

My brother was going to college in Boulder, when one night at a trashcan party he has sex with a girl. Shes 22. All his friends have slept with her on other nights and he's the last one to get a piece of the pie.

Anyways, she has a boyfriend. And that boyfriend walks into the bedroom as my brother is having anal sex with her. =X. So she says he's raping her. Great...

My brother is afraid to tell my folks. So he goes downtown to face the police alone, with no attorney. Don't ever do that. He gives a signed statement that he had more than one beer that night. Law in Boulder says that if you've had a beer and had sex afterward it is rape (even if your married). So he admits to rape, since he had a beer. At least in his words 'Yeah I was trashed, we were all trashed'.

So this is bad. Girls parents are on a wild vengeance, and they are rich. The don't get a private attorney though, they use the prosecutor.
Basically my brother is facing 16-32 years and the prosecutor has a very high conviction rate. Conviction rate on accused rapists is over 80% in boulder county. Things look bad, bad, bad. We don't know what to do. Don't want to see my brother spend 30 years in prison for having sex with someone who was confused about her relationship with her boyfriend.

So she drops the charges. Says it was wrong of her and he didn't rape her.
Prosecutor doesn't care, they are going to force her to testify and they won't drop the charges.

So we hire an attorney. He charges $2k an hour. Well it's going to hurt, but it's worth it you know.

So anyways this is a ruthless attorney. He would approach the cops who questioned my brother in public and be the bigges asshole you ever met. Then in the courtroom he'd be as sweet a man as you could be, but use similar words to get a rise out of the cop. Make the cop look like hes a dickhead getting all pissed off at this very nice attorney. Let out some dirt on the prosecutor to the newspapers and such.

So for the hearing our attorney walks into the courtroom and its *packed* with other attorneys. Who stand up for him as he walks in. The Prosecutor about broke her neck doing a double take, haha.
Anyways so he got a plea bargain. 4 years probation and a not-guilty sentance if he stayed out of trouble for that time. Judge was so furious she imposed 90 days, which our attorney got reduced to 42 since he knew some guys at the jail.

Well to make a long story short, it cost a hell of a lot to defend him from a confused girl who dropped the charges and the prosecutor wouldn't. Facing 32 years for that.

So he gets home to Michigan and they put him on this public sex-offender list, where anyone can see it. He's going to required therapy and he said it was so #$%&ed up. He had sex with a 22 year old woman at a party.. and he said it was some severe emotionaly disturbed things hed have to say. Some 2yr degree therapist having his ego control telling my brother he was wrong in the head and such... when in reality he was the ONLY one in the group of 8 in his session that was there for having sex with a consenting adult. Some of those guys were there for having sex with children, and i mean children.

They put him on this damnable list. Its not at all constitutional.
He gets through his probation with no offenses so he becomes not-guilty and the charges are wiped from his record, as that was the agreement.

But not Children Services. They don't give a #$%&-who about that. Not guilty my ass - you are *suspected*. And that is enough for them to place you on a public registry that anyone can look up.

Just because you were suspected. And I'll tell you what, it was VERY, VERY hard to get him off that list.

It took A LOT of cash.

I'm not saying that I don't want to know that if some guy is banging 2 yr old boy I DO want to know if he lives near me. But I cannot understand about having people who are not guilty, just being suspected on a public list.
That's communist or something awful. I just don't agree with that.

Anyways make a long story short, we spent more money than most people earn in two years - because he couldn't discriminate and just had to get some.

I think many would agree that the children are perhaps the most precious members of a society (I won't argue yay or nay on that here, but I think we can all accept that at least a lot of people feel this way). Is society perhaps being too harsh and too unforgiving in its pursuit of the protection and well-being of children? Or is this extreme diligence required and the occasional innocent prosecuted individual, while unfortunate, just a needed sacrifice for the "greater good"?