Location: TX, Montgomery County
A little over a year ago my sister's husband was caught and charged with five counts of promotion/distribution of cp.
Eventually he was convicted of: Possession with Intent to Distribute CP Statute: 43.26(g)
He was only sentenced to 8 years and has already been up for parole, which was denied.
Last night my underage nephew received a call from Harris county, where BiL is facing another charge that he was being transferred for. He unwittingly answered and was prompted to accept a call from his dad. My sister was able to intercept and accepted the call. She silently listened while he attempted to talk to my nephew, telling him he would be seeing him soon.
My main question is if he can be further convicted for attempting to reach out to a minor. It's my understanding that as a sex offender he is barred from doing so. Second, we are fairly certain he was able to get my nephews number from his sister. Could she face any legal ramifications for providing the number of a minor to a convicted sex offender?
Thanks ahead of time.
Edit: this seems pertinent. My sister is actually in the process of divorcing my BiL so there is the issue of his parental rights being still intact.
I am not a lawyer, but I do work with SOs...
In Texas, being a convicted sex offender does not automatically bar someone from contacting minors, including their own children. Any restriction has to come from his judgment/sentence, parole conditions, a protective order, or a CPS/family-court order.
It would only be a criminal issue if his paperwork (his judgment and commitment papers) specifically prohibits contact with minors or with his child, or if there’s a protective or CPS order barring contact.
Edit: it is very unlikely your sister could face criminal consequences unless she knowingly helped him violate a specific court order.
Agreed, usually the cases I see state that at worse the defendant have “no unsupervised” in person contact and don’t restrict phone calls to one’s own family and no contact with any other minors outside the family unless there is a victim. If there is a local victim, no contact at all may be ordered. Most likely he did not take the pictures or video and didn’t know the original victim in the media.
Those are restrictions are usually set as a condition of parole. If the judge didn’t order that as part of his sentence, then he can contact whoever he pleases. Assuming they are already divorced she can make go to family court and try to get sole custody. This would be especially prudent if the child will still be a minor when his sentence is served, because it’s likely he could enforce his parental rights. It’s no guarantee that it will be granted though.
This was my suspicion. Before this whole ordeal I didn't realize there was something like a "severity scale" for this kind of crime, but the content he was consuming is considered... the most graphic/obscene. He also had a massive drug/alcohol problem that's reflected in his criminal record. I think it would be a terrible oversight by any parole board to grant him any access to his kids but I have very little faith in the Texas penal/judicial system as it stands. He is definitely a psychopath so it is pretty disturbing to imagine him regaining any autonomy, much less as a parent.
Thanks for the response.
I’m not sure anything can be done NOW, but it would behoove your sister/his wife to seek divorce and sole custody AND a protective order for the kids asap.
NAL/NLA… just what I would do if I were in her shoes
Since that is his own child he can’t legally suffer repercussions for contacting his own child. He’s able to talk to his own child. The only thing you can do is to I guess monitor the conservations between them. His parental rights would remain intact unless he willingly gives them up