A few years ago MrG and I found out one of his friends, "M,"  is on Indiana's Sex Offenders Registry.  We heard it from another friend, and when I checked, yep, M was on it.   At the time, I couldn't quite fiqure out what M was convicted for, but it wasn't rape, it wasn't child molestation.

We kinda ignored it then.  M is a good guy, and we've never ever seen inappropriate behavior from him in anyway.  He's never made me (or anyone else that I know of) uncomfortable.

I recently learned that Indiana has another Offenders Registry for other felony convictions.  I checked M out again and yep, he's there.  Shows his sentence, etc, and says he was convicted of "Vicarious Sexual Gratification."  Hmmmmm?  So any clues what that actually means?  Is M a peeping Tom or something?  Another firends says he heard of a story about how his (former) stepson and a buddy found porno tapes and where watching them and the other parents found out and got charges pressed.  Seems like if that was the case, a three-year sentence and a felony conviction are a bit extreme.  MrG thinks it's something else. 

Any thoughts?

Mmmm, don't know. It could be all sorts of things I suppose.

Does he seem like the type to do public display?

No, not really, not that I'm aware of anyway.  I do see him shirtless a lot, but he lives on a lake and has a big lake party every summer, so yeah, there's a lot of guys shirtless there.  I see him shirtless around MX tracks and such, but again, it's hot and it's not like he's the only one.

Well, here's the Indiana penal code.  There are all kinds of possible scenarios, so if you don't know what kind of felony he was convicted of (A, B, C, etc.,) then you're really not going to be able to reverse engineer what he was convicted of.

Whatever it was, he was messing around with a minor.  The bad thing is that he might have been busted for being 18 and a day and having sex with his girlfriend who would turn sixteen the next day.  That's about the lightest most "innocent" scenario I can think of after looking at the code.

IC 35-42-4-5
Vicarious sexual gratification; sexual conduct in presence of a minor
     Sec. 5. (a) A person eighteen (18) years of age or older who knowingly or intentionally directs, aids, induces, or causes a child under the age of sixteen (16) to touch or fondle himself or another child under the age of sixteen (16) with intent to arouse or satisfy the sexual desires of a child or the older person commits vicarious sexual gratification, a Class D felony. However, the offense is:
        (1) a Class C felony if a child involved in the offense is under the age of fourteen (14);
        (2) a Class B felony if:
            (A) the offense is committed by using or threatening the use of deadly force or while armed with a deadly weapon; or
            (B) the commission of the offense is facilitated by furnishing the victim, without the victim's knowledge, with a drug (as defined in IC 16-42-19-2(1)) or a controlled substance (as defined in IC 35-48-1-9) or knowing that the victim was furnished with the drug or controlled substance without the victim's knowledge; and
        (3) a Class A felony if it results in serious bodily injury.
    (b) A person eighteen (18) years of age or older who knowingly or intentionally directs, aids, induces, or causes a child under the age of sixteen (16) to:
        (1) engage in sexual intercourse with another child under sixteen (16) years of age;
        (2) engage in sexual conduct with an animal other than a human being; or
        (3) engage in deviate sexual conduct with another person;
with intent to arouse or satisfy the sexual desires of a child or the older person commits vicarious sexual gratification, a Class C felony. However, the offense is a Class B felony if any child involved in the offense is less than fourteen (14) years of age, and it is a Class A felony if the offense is committed by using or threatening the use of deadly force, if it is committed while armed with a deadly weapon, if it results in serious bodily injury, or if the commission of the offense is facilitated by furnishing the victim, without the victim's knowledge, with a drug (as defined in IC 16-42-19-2(1)) or a controlled substance (as defined in IC 35-48-1-9) or knowing that the victim was furnished with the drug or controlled substance without the victim's knowledge.
    (c) A person eighteen (18) years of age or older who knowingly or intentionally:
        (1) engages in sexual intercourse;
        (2) engages in deviate sexual conduct; or
        (3) touches or fondles the person's own body;
in the presence of a child less than fourteen (14) years of age with the intent to arouse or satisfy the sexual desires of the child or the older person commits performing sexual conduct in the presence of a minor, a Class D felony.

Well, Detective EA....that's some good info.  Nice work. *pat on the back*

That's what I would say too.  Is there an 'activation' day of when he was registered?

He was well over 18 at the time.  This happened in 1992 and he was about 33 at the time.  But the story I heard about kids in the neighborhood watching pornos at his house sorta fits then......

Thanks for the info, EA.

Sometimes, I really have a problem with these overzealous sex offender laws.  I suppose for vicarious, he'd just have to have his underage girlfriend play with herself in front of him and now, he's eighteen, and has to live being on a registry for the rest of his life.  I think it's ridiculous.

Of course, I was so scared of this stuff that I didn't even date when I was a teenager . . .

I remember there was this guy in his late 30's, drove a Porsche, which none of us from out town had ever even seen a real one before, who was an assistant coach of my football team.  He'd throw big parties in a dilapidated mansion he owned for the football team and the cheerleaders.  He'd allow the high school kids to drink and, also, there was a TV room where a lot of the kids, male and female, would watch porn, which always made me embarrassed and uncomfortable.  Eventually, someone told a parent and the parties stopped, though I don't know if any charges were ever pressed.  As it so happened, I also knew this assistant coach's brother who was involved in my youth group and I think that guy was a perve, too.  I remember we went out to someone's lake.  This guy, the assistant coach's brother, brought alcohol and took two underage girls out on a canoe, gave them beer and got them drunk.  I think he also tried to make out with one of them, or both, on the ride home.  I just remember some kind of commotion.  I was in a different car.  The brother was in his mid thirties.  His girlfriend was a volunteer for the youth group and that's how he got involved I guess.

I always thought these guys were creepy.  Maybe they did belong on a list.

Yeah...those guys do sound pretty creepy.

It's all coming back to me now.  We were driving home and the older guy had the two girls in the car with him.  He drove a POS station wagon.  At some point, they pulled over into a parking lot of a diner and so we, in the other car, did as well and waited.  The story was that one of the girls got sick and so we all waited for her parents to show up to come take her and the other girl home.  It could be that she got sick because she drank too much or, could be that there's more to the story that none of us ever learned about.  Either way, I figured that this old guy was out to score some high school chicks.  It's sad to me, but the adults who were interested in Catholic youth activities were always super damaged and untrustworthy.  I'm not saying it's like that everywhere, but in my experience . . .

MrG had lunch yesterday with M.....so I asked him later "did you ask him about 'vicarious sexual gratification?'"  Nope, he sure didn't!   Just HOW would you bring that up in conversation, huh?  LOL!

EA, that story is creepy.  I thought of that when I heard this story on the radio morning news.

Mich. camp leader charged with having child porn
Twin Lake, Mich.
Federal authorities have charged the leader of a Michigan Boy Scout camp with possessing child pornography on his computer.
Reporter: The Associated Press
Email Address: megan.bastedo@wndu.com

Federal authorities have charged the leader of a Michigan Boy Scout camp with possessing child pornography on his computer.

The FBI says Scott Herrick admitted to the allegation when he was confronted at the western Michigan camp on July 1. He appeared in federal court in Grand Rapids on Thursday and was ordered to remain in custody until a hearing Monday.

Prosecutors will ask a judge to keep the 39-year-old Herrick locked until trial. Defense lawyer Chris Houghtaling says the charge is serious but Herrick is presumed innocent.

Gerber Boy Scout Camp is in Twin Lake in Muskegon County, 40 miles northwest of Grand Rapids.