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An appellate court panel has held that two 14-year-old boys, who admitted to a prank in 2008 in which they sat bare-bottomed on the faces of two other boys, have to register as sex offenders.
The incident occurred in November 2008. One of the boys admitted during trial that he had sat on the faces of two 12-year-old schoolmates for a laugh. The judge found him guilty of criminal sexual conduct, deducing that this conduct had been intended to degrade the victims and therefore met the definitions of a sex crime. The other teenager accused in this case pleaded guilty to criminal sexual conduct and also received the same penalty.
Attorneys for the boys appealed their convictions, saying that their actions amounted to mere horseplay and did not warrant sex offender registration. The attorneys did not appeal based on the boy’s youth. The appeal was based on their belief that the boys’ actions were not serious enough for registration under Megan's Law.
An appellate panel has now ruled that the boy's actions did constitute a crime, and that they would now need to register as sex offenders under Megan's Law for the rest of their lives. The two boys still have a glimmer of hope, however. The appellate panel has sent the case back to the Superior Court.
The New Jersey criminal defense lawyers at Helmer Paul Conley and Kasselman represent persons charged with DUI, sex crimes, drug crimes, assault, fraud and other crimes across New Jersey.
