Demand Change In Vermont Law

I just heard what the Vermont Gov said and I am shaking my head. Please make sure that you catch every word of what this man says...He is so messed up.

Video included.

A New Call for Jessica's Law in Vermont



Randolph, Vermont -- July 5, 2008
Brook Bennett's murder has brought back calls for a tougher law against adults who sexually prey on children. More than thirty states -- but not Vermont -- have enacted Jessica's law, setting a 25-year minimum prison sentence for convicted child sex offenders.


Repectfully,
dark_shadows

Congress passed the Adam Walsh Act, its up to each individual state to enforce it. What Congress neglected to do was give each state the funds necessary to do the job. The states are crying poverty over children.... we should be lobbying Congress for money for each state. Take some of that money sent overseas and spend it now on the children of this country.
sorry for the rant but it drives me nuts that politicians don't react when its necessary for children because they aren't old enough to vote yet.

Beyond Belief said:

Hello,
In Vermont, this is a time of mourning, prayer and reflection, compassion for the victims and solidarity as a community. For any politician to use this moment as an opportunity to comment on any agenda, including a good one, would be ugly and disrespectful. Please get back in touch at a more appropriate time.
Senator Dick McCormack

Click to expand...

That was kind of a rude answer, don't you think?:furious:

Well if it had been up to me I would have waited until the day after the funeral. Then send a nice letter to the father , explain what Jessie's law is and ask that he come out in favor of passing it. Either way I would email the pols after wards.

I'm all for tough laws, but IMO this is the easy way out.

The real change needs to come in EDUCATING people about child abuse so that when children come forward they are believed and that juries will convict

Having a law on the books for mandatory 20 years for child sexual abuse doesn't do any good if these guys get acquitted because juries won't convict.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=69003


Brooke's blood stains Vermont

Posted: July 08, 2008
1:00 am Eastern

© 2008

The State of Vermont, its criminal justice system, its state legislators and the parents and family of 12-year-old Brooke Bennett have her blood on their hands.

Brooke Bennett is "alleged" (sometimes I really hate having to use that word) to have been murdered by her uncle, Michael Jacques. Jacques has a long history of sex crimes dating back to 1985 – when he was charged with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl about 100 times. Prosecutors eventually dismissed the case. In 1993, he was convicted of aggravated sexual assault and kidnapping. The affidavit in said case states that Jacques bound the victim and threatened to kill her while assaulting her. He was given a 6 to 20-year sentence but was released after only four years, based on Vermont's then "good time" policy.

As the former sex crimes prosecutor Wendy Murphy put it, "Vermont boasts the best sex treatment in the world – Jacques graduated in 2006 from their treatment program supposedly rehabilitated – but as we now tragically know, he was anything but.

Clinical psychologist Dr. George Zeo said, "there is a large body of research that says pedophiles cannot be rehabilitated." He added that pedophilia is an addiction – and just as a drug addict can relapse after a sustained drug-free period, so it is with pedophiles. Medication and sentencing guidelines may be able to keep their urges in check, but said urges are always there – any treatment must include keeping the pedophile away from children. That said, I submit that, in an open society, the only way to accomplish that is by life imprisonment. When they are paroled, it should be to the cemetery.

<<<<<<<<<<<more at link>>>>>>>>>

fran said:

Brooke's blood stains Vermont

Posted: July 08, 2008
1:00 am Eastern

© 2008

The State of Vermont, its criminal justice system, its state legislators and the parents and family of 12-year-old Brooke Bennett have her blood on their hands.

Brooke Bennett is "alleged" (sometimes I really hate having to use that word) to have been murdered by her uncle, Michael Jacques. Jacques has a long history of sex crimes dating back to 1985 – when he was charged with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl about 100 times. Prosecutors eventually dismissed the case. In 1993, he was convicted of aggravated sexual assault and kidnapping. The affidavit in said case states that Jacques bound the victim and threatened to kill her while assaulting her. He was given a 6 to 20-year sentence but was released after only four years, based on Vermont's then "good time" policy.

As the former sex crimes prosecutor Wendy Murphy put it, "Vermont boasts the best sex treatment in the world – Jacques graduated in 2006 from their treatment program supposedly rehabilitated – but as we now tragically know, he was anything but.

Clinical psychologist Dr. George Zeo said, "there is a large body of research that says pedophiles cannot be rehabilitated." He added that pedophilia is an addiction – and just as a drug addict can relapse after a sustained drug-free period, so it is with pedophiles. Medication and sentencing guidelines may be able to keep their urges in check, but said urges are always there – any treatment must include keeping the pedophile away from children. That said, I submit that, in an open society, the only way to accomplish that is by life imprisonment. When they are paroled, it should be to the cemetery.

<<<<<<<<<<<more at link>>>>>>>>>

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Do you have the link for the rest of this? Incredible post though. The system and her own family failed her, imo.

Jaded said:

Do you have the link for the rest of this? Incredible post though. The system and her own family failed her, imo.

Click to expand...

Sorry about that. I thought the link was there, :crazy:, shoulda' checked after I posted.

fran

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=69003

I received two beautiful responses to letters today
One from:George Coppenrath, Senator
Caledonia-Orange District
And: Sen JIM Condos

:clap::clap::clap::clap:

Beyond Belief said:

I received two beautiful responses to letters today
One from:George Coppenrath, Senator
Caledonia-Orange District
And: Sen JIM Condos

:clap::clap::clap::clap:

Click to expand...

I got this one today from Sen.George Coppenrath, thought I'd share...

I am on your side on this one. I co-sponsored a Jessica's Law in Vermont, S.283, with Senator Wilton in the Fall of '05; and worked to tighten Vt's laws regarding sex offenders; see links below:

http://www.vnews.com/sexcrimes/news-20060316.htm

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060107/NEWS/601070332/1002/NEWS01

We were successful in increasing the minimum from zero (that's right zero to life) to a mandatory miniumum of 10 years to life, with a compromise with liberals to allow a judge to go down to no less than 5 years only if he/she wrote in the record the reasons for the reduction.

I will continue to push for higher minimums.

Thank you for contacting me and other legislators,

George
George Coppenrath, Senator
Caledonia-Orange District

Thanks for your email... Even though you are not a Vermonter, I will
attempt to answer your email.
Before I go further, what happened to Brooke Bennett was a heinous,
despicable crime. Justice must be served.
I have a daughter and cannot imagine the hate and anger I would feel if
something happened to her.

I am not sure where your info came from, but over the last 4 years, the
Vermont Legislature has reviewed and changed our laws over sexual abuse
to the point where Vermont's laws are nationally acclaimed and
considered very strong.

In general...

• Vermont has a comprehensive set of laws in place to prevent sexual
violence.
• These laws are specifically designed to prevent the offender from
commiting any further acts of sexual violence.
• While serving a jail sentence, presumed to be at least 10 years, the
offender must successfully complete a rehabilitation course.
• The offender is automatically placed on the sexual offender registry,
which is on the internet and can be accessed by the public. This
registry ensures that the offender will be under supervision of the
Department of Corrections for the rest of their life.
• It is important to remember that Vermont is one of the safest states
in the nation with one of the lowest crime rates per capita in the
country.
• While it may seem counter intuitive to argue against long mandatory
minimums, these long mandatory minimums often result in the offender
bringing the case to trial. Sexual violence cases are difficult to
prove and under this process half of the perpetrators are released onto
the street having served no jail time, received no treatment, and
without their names being placed on the sex offender registry.

What do we have in place to protect Vermont’s children:

Vermont’s laws have two main components – special sexual crime
investigative units and indeterminate lifetime sentencing. Special
investigative units, with specially trained police officers and social
workers, have proven successful in Chittenden and Grand Isle County at
gaining confessions from sex offenders. The Chittenden SIU opened in
1997. New units will now come to Bennington, Franklin-Grand Isle,
Windham and Windsor counties. Through the work of trained investigators,
SIUs bring more predators to prosecution, conviction, imprisonment and
treatment. Abused children and their families receive treatment to heal
the trauma and to help break the cycle created when untreated victims
grow up to become abusers themselves.

Once the offender confesses, he will serve time in prison - presumed to
be at least 10 years. He will also receive treatment as a condition of
release, and, upon release, will become part of the sex offender
registry. If the offender refuses to take part in treatment or violates
conditions of the sex offender registry he can be pulled back into
incarceration. He is under the supervision of the Department of
Corrections for life.

During the 2006 legislative session we closed one last loophole for
violent sex offenders who were imprisoned prior to passage of our new
laws. Under this new change, if an offender who has refused to undergo
treatment comes to the end of his maximum sentence, and if he is judged
to be at high risk to re-offend, he will be subject to a heightened sex
offender registry requirement. If he violates the terms of that
tightened registry he will be re-incarcerated with terms similar to
those of our more recently passed laws.

In 2006, Vermonters told their representatives that child sex offender
sentencing was not tough enough. In response, the legislature enacted
new, tougher child sex offender legislation (widely known as the “Sexual
Violence Prevention Act”), which includes but is not restricted to the
following changes:

• An increase to 10 years as a minimum sentence for aggravated sexual
assault, unless the judge deems a lesser sentence to be appropriate and
goes on record with his reasoning. Now, anyone convicted of aggravsexual assault must spend at least 5 years in prison, and as much as
life in prison.
• Offenders must stay in jail until they successfully complete a
rehabilitation course, regardless of how much of their sentences they
have served.
• Vermont has expanded the sex offender registry, with stricter
guidelines for previous offenders. Sex offenders will now be under
supervision by the Department of Corrections, every day for the rest of
their lives.
• The public can now access the online sex offender registry without
having to login or provide personal information. All repeat sex
offenders will appear on the internet registry, as well as all high-risk
lewd and lascivious offenders.
• Special investigative unites specializing in sex crimes are now
expanded to serve every region of the state.

Prior to the passage of this law, offenders would choose to max out
their sentence rather than receiving sex offender treatment. During the
most recent legislative session, legislators again worked to improve our
laws around child abuse. After findings showed the state could more
effectively manage the way in which it handles children who either
commit delinquent acts or who are badly abused or neglected, the
legislature rewrote our laws that guide our state’s response to child
abuse and neglect. The legislation emphasized the need for family
members to be considered before a child is committed to state custody
and extra support services for families were created in cases of
reported child abuse. The legislature also obtained written assurance
from the administration that staff cuts would not reduce services to
Vermont’s children at risk of abuse or neglect.

What about Jessica’s Law?

What distinguishes our laws from the so-called “Jessica’s Law” is that
our laws are more effective at keeping our communities safe from sexual
violence.

The Vermont Network Against Sexual and Domestic Violence, a victims’
advocacy organization, supports Vermont’s laws and does NOT support
Jessica’s Law. And, that may be why the National Council on State
Legislatures has informed us that fewer than 20 states have adopted
Jessica’s Law. According to the Center for Sex Offender Management, a
program of the U.S. Department of Justice, there is no data or evidence
that high mandatory minimum sentences improve public safety.

Sexual violence is a horrible crime that we all want to eradicate from
our communities. It sounds counter-intuitive to argue against long
mandatory minimum sentences for sex offenders. But, if the accused
faces a mandatory sentence of 25 years, he is much more likely to take
the case to court, requiring a trial. Sex crimes, especially those
against children, are hard to prove. There are few witnesses and often
victims are unwilling to stand at the trial – it’s like going through
the crime all over again. As a result, generally only half the court
cases are successful. The other perpetrators go free, with no jail time
and no need to register on a sexual offender registry.

In fact, there are cases where states that have Jessica's laws are still
having sexual attacks on children. Even if we had passed the so-called
Jessica's Law in the last 3-4 years - it would not have done anything to
prevent what happened here in this case.

Helpful Facts

Child sexual abuse is a national problem, both serious and widespread.
Estimates say 1 in 7 boys and 1 in 4 girls has had some experience with
sexual abuse.

The most recent US government statistics show a rate of overall child
abuse at 11.9 victims for every 1,000 children. In Vermont, the rate was
8.4 – placing Vermont in the safest third of all states.

Nationally, the vast majority – possibly as high as 90% -- of child
sexual abuse is committed not by a stranger, but by someone the child
knows and trusts – a parent, grandparent, sibling or other family
member, a teacher, coach, clergy, camp counselor, scout leader, or
neighbor.

Vermont has one of the lowest crime ra2004 and 2005 ours was the third safest state in the U.S. Indeed,
Vermont is among the safest states in our nation for children to grow up
in and for families with children to visit.

The legislature is committed to maintaining this high standard of safety
and will continue to seek ways to further prevent child molestation in
our state and to bring offenders to justice.

Brooke Bennet Case Specifics

If Jacques is found guilty of sexual violence towards Brooke Bennet,
under the new sexual predator laws that came into effect in 2006 the
perpetrator he can be given an indeterminate sentence, which means he
will essentially be sentenced to life in prison unless and until he
completes sex offender treatment to the satisfaction the Department of
Corrections under the control of the Governor.

After being convicted of aggravated sexual assault in 1993, Jacques
served time in prison and did receive sex offender treatment. He was
and is still listed on the sex offender registry.

In ‘93 people maxed out their sentences as an untreated sex offender.
Once a maximum is served in a facility or served on parole. Offenders
were choosing to max out their sentence rather than complete sex
offender treatment. More often than not they were in denial.

Hope this helps - you don't always get the real truth from the talking
heads on TV.

Sen JIM Condos

nice letter with lots of details. a bit defensive about the laws though,none are perfect.

VT is still advocating the rehab program - which has been shown NOT TO WORK! You cannot rehab a pedophile!

Secondly, the problem with VT is that discretion is given to judges as to how to apply the law. No matter how strict the law is, if the judge is given discretion then what happened with Jacques will keep happening!

Judges always have discretion in how to apply the law and what range of sentence the convicted person gets, they are the ones who also approve plea bargains.

It sounds to me like at this point the laws in Vermont are not the problem and I am in agreement that a mandatory 25 year prison term for all child sex offenders would result in fewer convictions.

The real problem with sexual assualt is that people do not understand it and the average person's expectations of evidence are usually not met in a trial, especially in cases of child abuse.

Though I do agree that most sex offenders cannot be rehabilitated and most that go through these programs only do so to get earlier parole.

this judge owes it to the community to examine why she thought jacques was cured and the fact that she was dead wrong, not that she caused this tragedy, but that she is in a unique position to see just how difficult and dangerous these issues are.

she was sitting there looking in the face of a guy that was CURRENTLY re-offending and she told him "you are cured, you are no longer a threat".

she needs to step down from the bench and dedicate herself to examining sexual offenders and the most prudent way to protect the community from them.

liljim said:

this judge owes it to the community to examine why she thought jacques was cured and the fact that she was dead wrong, not that she caused this tragedy, but that she is in a unique position to see just how difficult and dangerous these issues are.

she was sitting there looking in the face of a guy that was CURRENTLY re-offending and she told him "you are cured, you are no longer a threat".

she needs to step down from the bench and dedicate herself to examining sexual offenders and the most prudent way to protect the community from them.

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I'm not sure its fair to say she "caused" the tragedy, but I think its fair to say that letting a violent rapist with TWO sex crime accusations on his record have anything but the maximum length of parole is INSANE.

If he's really 'compliant' then how is parole going to hurt him? Oh, poor, freaking guy, getting inconvenienced...who cares. That's what happens when you kidnap and rape 18 year old girls.

So, I agree, the judge owes the community an explanation and whatever supervisory role she might have needs to go away.

What about the numerous sex offenders who are released on bail pending trial, granted they are released on conditions, but nevertheless, in Vermont, many are released on bail.

And many re-offend while on bail and then plea bargain the charges down.

Starr58 said:

What about the numerous sex offenders who are released on bail pending trial, granted they are released on conditions, but nevertheless, in Vermont, many are released on bail.

And many re-offend while on bail and then plea bargain the charges down.

Click to expand...

This happens in every state. Bail is granted in almost all crimes including rape and murder, it is certainly not unique to Vermont and neither is criminals committing crimes while out on bail. The majority of cases are plea bargained in all states.

I just disagree that the problem is lack of tough laws on sex offenders. Everyone 100% wants the abstract child abuser/rapist to spend the rest of his life in jail...but when we get out of the abstract and look at individual cases a lot of time the view shifts, there is a huge amount of vicitm bashing in sexual assault cases, child or adult and a lot of people are not going to convict in these cases, this is shown by the low, low rates of prosection and conviction for sex crimes that are reported.

Even in this case, AR is 14, sexually active. If she had gone to police, what is her evidence? If there isn't any of Jacques DNA its her word against his. His prior sexual accusation would not be allowed in any trial [which is wrong], so all he has to say is 'she's falsely accusing me because I didn't want her having sex with her boyfriend' and I am telling you, A LOT of people would refuse to convict him. I don't think her mother would have backed her up or probably even told police about what she had witnessed.

I do agree that sentences are too light, but thats partly because the defense lawyers know that convictions are very hard so they have a lot of leverage with prosecutors in getting weak sentences. This is wrong, but until society catches up with law enforcement on understanding the dynamics of sex crimes, I can't see it changing.

I don't believe that the "problem" is going to be solved with ONLY tougher laws. There is never only one solution to a "problem".

Tougher laws, stricter supervision of probationary SO and frequent monitoring, quicker re-incarceration of offenders not abiding by conditions of release, a no bail statue for second offenses, and a commitment by Vermont to have the children of this state be the number one priority would go a long way in improving the lives of many children.