Why, so he can be assigned to another parish?
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060513/NEWS/605130345/1002/NEWS01
Jackson pastor seeks to be removed from state offender registry
By Jimmie E. Gates
jgates@clarionledger.com
Stallworth
The Rev. Jeffery Stallworth could learn in two weeks whether he will
become one of two people to be removed from the state sex offender
registry since its inception in 1994.
Hinds County Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter heard arguments Friday on
Stallworth's request and said he would rule later or schedule a
hearing where witnesses could be called.
DeLaughter
With his 2002 misdemeanor fourth-degree sex conviction and sentence
removed in Maryland, there is no reason for Stallworth to register as
a sex offender, his attorney argued Friday.
"I don't think you can just have a guilty plea and require someone to
register," Robert Gibbs said.
But Assistant Attorney General Harold Pizzetta III argued Stallworth's
guilty plea to the sex offense is enough to require him to register.
Stallworth, pastor of Word and Worship church in Jackson, also
contends the crime he pleaded guilty to in Maryland would not require
a person to register as a sex offender in Mississippi.
DeLaughter said the matter was too important for him to make a
decision on the spot. "I'm not going to shoot from the hip," he said.
"I have a lot of thoughts running through my mind on this."
DeLaughter instructed Gibbs to submit additional briefs by next Friday
and gave the state until the following week to respond to those
filings.
Pizzetta said if Stallworth wins, there likely will be more legal
challenges by individuals seeking to keep their name off the registry.
The one person whose name was removed from the list through a legal
challenge did so based on his age.
Laws in Mississippi and Maryland differ on what constitutes sexual
battery, Pizzetta said.
Stallworth, then-pastor of Jackson's Anderson United Methodist Church,
pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of sexually assaulting the
woman during a 2001 stay at her home. After pleading guilty in 2002,
Stallworth was sentenced to two years' probation.
At the pastor's request, a Maryland judge reviewed the case last year
and removed Stallworth's conviction and sentence with one caveat:
Stallworth must complete one year of probation to have his record
expunged.
DeLaughter said that if he remembered correctly, Stallworth's guilty
plea in Maryland involved the pastor placing his hand on a woman's
private parts. In Mississippi that would be simple assault and not
require a person to register as a sex offender, DeLaughter noted.
Attorney Steven Coleman of the Department of Public Safety, which
oversees the sex offender registry, said Stallworth's offense falls
within the state's sex offender law. Coleman and Pizzetta said the
state has been stymied from getting records from Maryland about what
Stallworth was accused of initially.
Pizzetta urged DeLaughter to consider having Stallworth and the victim
testify about what happened.
The victim's Mississippi attorney, Marjorie Busching of Jackson, was
in the courtroom. Busching later said she was there to observe the
hearing.
When asked if her client would be willing to testify, Busching said
the matter would have to be discussed with her client and the attorney
general's office.
-----
Yang
a.a. #28
AthD (h.c.) conferred by the regents of the LCL
a.a. pastor #-273.15, the most frigid church of Celcius nee Kelvin
EAC Econometric Forecast and Sorcery Division
The Bush 'balanced' budget: 2 trillion and worsening
The Bush 'economic' policy: 12.5 million FEWER jobs than Clinton and counting
The Bush Iraq lie: -2437 GIs, one friend's co-worker's son and mounting
Having Bush ***** up my country: Worthless
-----
"Ahhhhhh, yessssssss, ummmmmmm - Alito, Alito, Alito"
-duke (duckgumbo@cox.net), aka PedophilEarl J Weber, 59
year old mateless, heirless biological failure
of Afton Oaks Apartment, Baton Rouge,who pussied
out of the Vietnam draft, showing his gay side
despite his avowed anti-gay bigotry
Contact duke's priest and ask
him why duke is such a racist:
http://www.stpatrickbr.org/
Father Gerard "Jerry" Martin
stpatrickbr<AT>bellsouth<DOT>net
Saint Patrick Catholic Church
12424 Brogdon Lane
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70816
.
|
