Where should they live? What if their health and minds are failing
By the time deputies arrested Thomas Bernard Brown for failing to register as a sexual predator, he had built up a 10-year record of consistent registration in Marion County.
That’s 42 check-ins, as his attorneys and his friends pointed out at a sentencing hearing in June. When it came to No. 43, Brown, 72, who has since been diagnosed with early stages of dementia, says that he simply forgot.
“My only crime, your honor, is that I have become old and forgetful,” he told Circuit Judge Robert Hodges that day.
Why it mattersBrown is currently serving a three-plus-year sentence. He took his case to a jury, and the sentence is in line with state guidelines. While mental impairment can stand as grounds for a judge to grant a more lenient sentence than the guidelines recommend, Hodges pointed to circumstances in Brown’s case that, in the judge's eyes, suggested the excuse didn’t make that cut.
Florida counts more than 1,100 individuals on its sexual offender/sexual predator registry who are older than 80. In Marion County, 74 of the approximately 870 offenders and predators the agency tracks are 70 or older. What is the best way for law enforcement, the courts and outside agencies to work with these aging members of the system? This story provides background, context and reviews some proposed solutions.
