Judge Tells Sex Offender to Put Up Signs (around his house and on his car)

[Kadie]

Judge Tells Sex Offender to Put Up Signs

Monday, March 24, 2008

(03-24) 11:24 PDT Hudson, Kan. (AP) --

Under a judge's order, a man who has admitted molesting a boy has posted signs around his house and a decal on his car proclaiming that he is a sex offender.

The hand-painted signs reading "A Sex Offender Lives Here" are posted on all four sides of Leroy Schad's white house in this central Kansas town of only about 150 people. His vehicle has a large decal with bold yellow lettering reading "Sex Offender In This Car."

Schad, 72, was originally charged with four counts of taking indecent liberties with a 9-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy in 2005. He was allowed to plead guilty in March 2007 to a lesser charge of aggravated indecent solicitation of a child, and the original charges were dismissed.

District Judge Ron Svaty sentenced him to five years of probation and house arrest, and ordered him to post the signs during his punishment.

more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/03/24/national/a112406D83.DTL&tsp=1

[TooBigaTent]

1. Not to defend the criminal, but how much latitude do judges have for this kind

of punishment?

Is there anything they are not allowed to sentence someone to? Could he make the guy march back and forth in his yard, eight hours a day, wearing a sign that said the same thing?

[BR_Parkway]

2. Why doesn't the damn judge just put him in jail until he dies - oh wait

we've stuffed the jails with pot heads

Much rather see someone have to post a sign saying "High Grade Hemp Smoked here"

[NeedleCast]

3. Judge Doesn't have that lattitude

If the guy has a good attorney they should be appealing the sentence unless he accepted it as part of the plea, in which case he's going to have to live with it. Unless there is some sort of precident to this sort of punishment, a judge doesn't have a right to do this sort of thing...UNLESS the defendant accepts it as part of a plea.

Sounds like a case of judge wanting some media attention to me, but if the dude plead down the charges, it's his own fault.

[msongs]

4. good thing the guy was not a catholic priest! nt