COAST CITIES — During the first year of Chelsea’s Law, 19 people in San Diego County have been charged under the statute that toughened penalties for sex crimes against children, according to a report released Sept. 26.
The law was named in honor of Poway teenager Chelsea King, 17, who was slain by registered sex offender John Albert Gardner III, Feb. 25, 2010. Gardner also sexually assaulted and stabbed to death Amber Dubois, 14, of Escondido.
The bill was spearheaded by Chelsea’s parents Brent and Kelly King, and authored by Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, R-San Diego. The bill enforces a life sentence without the possibility of parole for forcible sex acts against minors younger than 14.
Under Chelsea’s Law, Gardner’s initial crime on the 13-year-old would have made him eligible for life without the possibility of parole, said Sara Fraunces, spokesperson for Chelsea’s Light Foundation.
Chelsea’s Law took effect Sept. 9, 2010, and since then at least one person in the county faces a possible life sentence without parole under the “one strike” law, Fraunces said.
David Joseph Lascelles, 50, was arrested three months after Chelsea’s Law was enacted and is accused of raping a 15-year-old girl.
Lascelles is currently being held on $1 million bail, and according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department he is also on a state parole hold and not eligible for release.
According to Chelsea’s Light Foundation, Lascelles was the only person of the 19 arrested that faces a possible life without parole sentence. Fraunces said that Chelsea’s Light Foundation has its interest in enforcement of the law, as opposed to providing details on each of the arrestees due to the nature of the cases and to protect the victims’ identities.
A key element of Chelsea’s Law includes the “One Strike” law for those charged with violent sex crimes against children younger than 14 and carries a life sentence in prison without parole.
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Don’t people realize that a large percentage of sexual offenders never hurt anyone at all? Many of them were 18 or 19 and had a consensual relationship with a 16 year old or so decades ago, or chatted on the internet with someone posing as a minor, or downloaded a pic of a teen on kazaa or limewire, or urinated in public, or streaked in college, or received a "sext" from their teen girlfriend, or prostituted or picked one up, or had oral or anal sex which is a felonly in any southern state or some other crime where there was no victim at all whatsoever.
Not even the 20,000 plus former murderers released every year and former islamic terrorist attempted bombers have residency restrictions or have to reregister on any form of online internet registry or face this type of scrutiny.
Violent sexual offenders like Phillip Garrido and John Gardner and John Couey loved that the registy has a million petty nonviolent sexual offenders so they could hide out amongst them to stay under the radar and slip through the cracks to strike again. These laws should only be focused on real young child molesters and forcible rapists and kidnappers and murderers who have a real victim, but they are not. Only violent sexual offenders should be monitored or on this registry in the first place. A large proportion of "sexual offenders" have never hurt anyone. The state needs to stop harassing them and let them raise their family in dignity like everyone else is allowed to. Most of them just made a mistake as a young man and would like to lead a good life but the state won’t let them.
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