After leading the charge against her husband’s female accusers, Hillary Clinton now faces another highly inconvenient and, in this case, ironic role. She’s about to appear at an event in New Hampshire where an organization trying to get molesters, rapists and other sexual abusers off the state sex offender registry will be honored.
In a nationwide effort spearheaded by the American Civil Liberties Union, sex offenders across the nation are petitioning for their names to be removed from state sex offender registries. The ACLU has argued, and encouraged its state affiliates to argue, that the sex offender registry is unconstitutional and undermines public safety by making it more difficult for criminals to reintegrate into a community.
Clinton will be headlining a New Hampshire National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League event Friday, celebrating the 43rd anniversary of the controversial Roe v. Wade decision. There, NARAL will hand the ACLU the “2016 Champion for Choice Award.”
NARAL is knowingly and willingly honoring an organization that has an appalling history of providing legal support for sex offenders throughout the nation. And Hillary will be right there to join the celebration.
The ACLU has been fighting the constitutionality of sex registries with the help of local ACLU affiliates in states such as Vermont, Connecticut, Maine, Kansas, Minnesota, Maryland, Michigan, Rhode Island, Nevada, Missouri and New Hampshire. In the Granite State, which holds the nation’s first primary, the ACLU represented a particularly evil client, one Norman St. Hilaire, who admitted abusing his own adopted daughter.
John Hardenbergh, a former criminal justice fellow at the ACLU, said on the organization’s website: “We’ve gotten used to having few friends on this issue. We’re okay with this. We didn’t get into this business in order to make friends. With the exception of the criminal defense bar, there just aren’t a whole lot of people who want to stand up for the rights of sex offenders.”
Shockingly, Hillary, like the ACLU, has a history of defending sex offenders as well. One of the most significant cases of her legal career was a 1975 effort defending Thomas Alfred Taylor, a then 41-year-old accused of raping a 12-year-old girl. According to recordings obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, Clinton herself suggested that she knew Taylor was guilty of raping the innocent girl and used a legal technicality to plead him down to a lesser charge.
In the recordings, Clinton’s satisfaction in defending Taylor was stunning.
“I had him take a polygraph, which he passed — which forever destroyed my faith in polygraphs,” she added with a laugh.
[lz_third_party includes=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2f13f2awK4″]
In a court affidavit, Clinton attacked the credibility of the rape victim, saying, “I have also been told by an expert in child psychology that children in early adolescence tend to exaggerate or romanticize sexual experiences and that adolescents in disorganized families, such as the complainant’s, are even more prone to exaggerate behavior.”
In February 2015, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled in favor of St. Hilaire, a convicted child sex offender, allowing him to petition for his removal from the sex offender registry list. The court stated that “lifetime” offenders convicted before the creation of New Hampshire’s sexual offender registry in 1994 can petition to have their names removed. One of St. Hilaire’s attorneys is Gilles Bissonnette, who is a staff attorney for the ACLU and legal director for the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union. One of the reasons St. Hilaire wanted to be removed as a lifetime offender from the registry was because it would give him access to federally subsidized public housing. The ACLU defended him knowing this.
[lz_bulleted_list title=”Where ACLU has Fought the Constitutionality of Sex Offender Registries” source=”ACLU.org and ACLU state affiliate websites”]Connecticut|Kansas|Maine|Maryland|Michigan|Minnesota|Missouri|Nevada|New Hampshire|Rhode Island|Vermont[/lz_bulleted_list]
In 1987, St. Hilaire had pleaded guilty to two counts of felonious sexual assault — but he was never charged for almost a decade worth of heinous crimes he also allegedly committed. The victim of the crimes to which he pleaded was his adopted daughter, who was sexually abused from the age of 5 until she was a teenager. St. Hilaire confessed to a counselor that he had sexually abused her for almost 10 years. The confession was reported to the local police department, but the family had recently moved and unfortunately, St. Hilaire’s confession only applied to the crimes he committed while in the new town — hence the two counts to which he pleaded guilty.
The state of New Hampshire has a “three-tiered” system for sexual offenders, with the first tier being the lowest level offense. However, third-tier offenders are the most dangerous — with convictions of aggravated felonious sexual assault including penetration of a child under the age of 13, relegating them to permanent lifetime offender status.
In New Hampshire, third-tier offenders have to remain on the registry for life, but due to the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruling, anyone on the registry prior to 1994 is now allowed to petition to be removed without any rules and without victim protections. Under the court’s ruling, victims are not notified when an offender petitions to be removed from the registry and when a judge allows the offender to be taken off of the registry. As of right now, there are no judicial guidelines. In fact, the New Hampshire Supreme Court stated that it’s up to the Legislature to determine the guidelines.
As a result, potentially dangerous sexual offenders are being removed from the registry, and in at least four New Hampshire cases, without any hearing, victim notification, or input.
Currently, there is legislation (SB 468-FN) introduced by New Hampshire state Sen. Jeb Bradley, which would determine guidelines for this new class of third-tier offenders who may now apply to be removed from the registry. The bill responds to the state Supreme Court decision by creating guidelines for third-tier sex offenders who, as a result of the decision, may now petition for removal from the registry. It also would require the court to provide notice of a sex offender’s petition to the county attorney who prosecuted the case, the victim advocate, and the victim or victim’s family, and permit those parties to be heard on the petition as well as an opportunity to be heard in court. This crucial bill has a hearing on Jan. 26, just four days after the ACLU receives their award.
According to the New Hampshire Department of Safety, there are more than 850 child sex offenders who were convicted before the creation of the 1994 registry. Thanks to the efforts of the ACLU and the NHCLU, they are now eligible to petition their removal as a result of this ruling.
It appears as though birds of a feather fly together. The ACLU and Hillary Clinton have something in common when it comes to defending dangerous child sex offenders.
The ACLU will be honored at this New Hampshire event by NARAL, an organization that claims to be a champion and defender of women. It’s the same dubious claim made by Hillary Clinton.
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