(Joshua Paladino, Headline USA) The unnamed 15-year-old boy who raped at least two girls in Loudoun County‘s public schools will not have to register as a sex offender, the Epoch Times reported.
The Loudoun County Juvenile Court found the teenager guilty of forcible fellatio and forcible sodomy last October, and Judge Pamela Brooks then ordered him to register as a sex offender on Jan. 12, the Epoch Times reported.
Brooks reversed that decision on Jan. 27, stating that she made the initial decision in error.
The Loudoun County prosecutor’s office made an oral motion that the teenager register as a sex offender, which Brooks accepted, but she never approved a written motion.
Brooks said placing the rapist on the sex offenders registry would harm his rehabilitation.
She agreed with the teenager’s defense lawyers, who submitted evidence that adolescent rapists rarely reoffend after completing rehabilitation.
The judge also announced that the teenager has been accused of raping a third girl, though she has not identified herself.
Brooks described her dismay at reading his mental evaluation.
“Yours [mental evaluation] scared me for yourself, your family, and society in general,” Brooks told teenage boy. “Young man, you need a lot of help.”
One of the victim’s fathers, Scott Smith, said the judge should have forced the rapist to register himself.
“What happened today was horrific. Hopefully, he doesn’t offend again,” he said. “If he does, it’s not on me, it’s on them. I fought to the bitter end for this.”
Smith mixed his charitable desire for the rapist’s repentance and recovery with his desire to keep the community’s girls safe.
“I want him to become better in the future instead of sitting in jail for the rest of his life, but I also want him marked as a sexual predator.”
In a written statement, the Smith family said that Democratic Loudoun Commonwealth Attorney Buta Biberaj and the court failed the young girls and the community.
“The person who committed these horrible crimes against these three young women will not have to bear the shame at being known as a lifetime registered sex offender, as he was originally sentenced,” the family wrote.
“Rather, we are now concerned more than ever that this change in his legal status may put other parents’ daughters at risk of harm in the future.”
