If you are charged with a sex crime in Florida, you run the risk of being designated a sexual offender or sexual predator.
Aside from a felony conviction, prison time, and the potential for involuntary civil commitment (Jimmy Ryce Act), a sex crime conviction AND withhold of adjudication will require that the sexual offender or sexual predator tag be assigned to you.
This designation is for life, but can be revisited by a petition to the State after 25 years. A sexual offender/sexual predator designation can determine where you can and cannot live, which jobs you may hold, and where you are permitted to travel.
You must also register several times per year (depending on whether you are an offender or a predator). Failure to register is a felony of the third degree. Even if you travel, you must notify the local police of your presence.
It is a humiliating designation. Your identity as a sexual offender/sexual predator is public record.
That is why it is imperative to do all in your power to avoid the sex offender designation when pleading guilty to a sexual offense. A good criminal defense attorney may be able to negotiate a resolution that would entail a change of the charge. In other words, rather than pleading guilty to sexual battery, you could plead guilty to aggravated battery, which would not carry the mandatory sex offender designation.
Talk to a criminal defense attorney about your options if you are facing a sex crime in Miami-Dade, Broward, or Palm Beach.
Attorney Eric Matheny represents clients charged with sex crimes in Miami-Dade County, Broward County, and Palm Beach County.