[Vision2020] Sentence Appropriate?

[Garrett Clevenger]

Paul writes:

"this law as it stands sounds to me like thought crime."


It's one thing to have fantasies about whatever, quite another to try to sexually engage with someone you think is 13.

This isn't a thought crime cause the guy actually went out of his mind and out into the real world (even if it's a virtual computer world)

This guy's a pedophile and should be locked up.

I'm not a big supporter of entrapment mostly because it's probably a waste of resources but at the same time this guy pled guilty to enticing a 13 year old.

That's dangerous and unacceptable in our wired world.

When I read this story in the paper I too thought the sentence was way to light for this creep.


I'll hesitatingly give you a Stegner story that may give you an idea of Stegner:

3 years ago, we brought our baby to a restaurant after he was born. He was sitting in his car seat in the restaurant when up walked a guy who asked if he could hold him. I said sure while my wife had a horrified look on her face.  I guess I wasn't as cautious as I should have been letting a stranger pick up our baby.

The guy walked outside with our baby. My wife ran after him and asked for her baby back.

It turned out the guy was Stegner.  His wife came up later to apologize for him and said he really likes kids.

It was one thing to want to hold a baby, quite another to leave the restaurant with him.  We were all taken back by this and wondered why a judge, someone who probably sees all kinds of creepy things, would be so thoughtless as to think leaving the restaurant with someone else's baby wouldn't freak the parents out.

I don't know Stegner, but that incident left me wondering about his judging capabilities.  Seeing his sentencing reaffirms that.

Garrett Clevenger