Boston sex offenders now have one more thing to worry about.
The city is the first in the USA to dedicate a police officer to the U.S. Marshals Sex Offender Investigations Branch. Their goal in teaming up together is to coordinate their efforts to track down convicted sex offenders who are unregistered with the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board (SORB).
The new program is unprecedented, and the Boston team has high hopes for its task force, who want to find sex offenders who are unregistered and not in compliance with SORB. Failure to register as a Massachusetts sex offender is a serious offense, and the U.S. Marshals Office plans on tracking down unregistered sex offenders, many of whom travel freely in and around different cities, towns and states.
Someone accused of a Boston-Dedham sex crime — be it rape, statutory rape, aggravated rape, or indecent assault and battery, as just a few examples — always faces a harsh penalty: the convicted defendant must register for life with the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registration Board (SORB). Massachusetts sex offenders also face the possibility of lifetime community parole supervision. The offender’s name will be altered forever, and prospects for a normal life will be forever damaged. All of these things can happen, even if the defendant did not commit the Massachusetts sex crime he was charged with.
As a Dedham-Boston sex crimes attorney, I hope that the U.S. Marshals, with this new program, do not get too aggressive, and wind up arresting people who simply happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, who will prove to be unjustly accused of a Massachusetts sex offense. I’m sure that most reasonable people want convicted sex offenders to obey the requirements of Massachusetts law on this subject, and register as sex offenders as required under the law. Let’s just be careful that the new program doesn’t ensnare innocent people as part of this effort.