Chasing Gideon Read Online Free PDF Page A

A.N.J. and his father on one occasion,” according to a deposition. “According to A.N.J.’s father, this meeting lasted only five minutes. Mr. Anderson did not disagree with this estimate. About the substance of this first meeting, Mr. Anderson testified: ‘Initially, he [A.N.J.] was not agreeing with the information in the police reports.’”
    Indeed, A.N.J. had told the police that the five-year-old neighbor had initiated the whole thing, that he had climbed onto A.N.J.’s lap and that the younger child had suggested the game of Icky-Poke-U. A.N.J. said he did not want to play, but the younger child took his hands and put them down his pants.
    Anderson met with A.N.J. and his parents in court before the arraignment on August 2, 2004, for what his mother describes as a meeting “probably” lasting ten minutes. A.N.J.’s parents were “shocked” by the charges and worried about how they should proceed. Between August 2 and September 14, A.N.J.’s parents called their son’s lawyer several times, leaving messages for Anderson. Anderson did not return the calls. Then, on September 15, the prosecutor offered a plea bargain.
    According to an appellate brief filed March 5, 2005, the following occurred:
    â€œOn September 17, 2004, Mr. Anderson met with A.N.J. and both of his parents. As for the substance of this meeting, Mr. Anderson initially testified that he spent ‘well over a half hour’ explaining the Statement on the Plea of Guilty. He testified at length about each and every paragraph of the form that he ostensibly explained to A.N.J. and his parents. However, he later admitted that this testimony was false, and that he did not even have the Statement on the Plea of Guilty form at the September 17, 2004, meeting.”
    In fact, A.N.J.’s parents assert that they saw the guilty plea for the first time on September 22, 2004. In a five-minute conversation, Anderson explained that if the boy pleaded guilty, the chargewould be reduced from a class A to a class B felony, and that while he could still serve up to nine months, he could likely agree instead to attend a special sex offender disposition alternative, a series of sex offender counseling workshops. “Then, I just briefly discussed with him the fact that he would be required to register as a sex offender and it was somewhere in that range that the question came up about having this matter removed from his record,” Anderson would testify about a year later.
    Earlier, A.N.J.’s parents had asked if this would permanently be on their son’s record, if he would always be labeled a “sex offender.” According to A.N.J.’s parents, the public defender assured them that their son’s record would be expunged, though he wasn’t sure whether it was at age eighteen or twenty-one. He would check and get back to them.
    â€œI remember asking Mr. Anderson if he found out when it would be off his record, and he said he hadn’t had time to look into that,” A.N.J.’s parents would state a year later. “And then I said exactly, I remember, I said, ‘When does this come off his record?’ I didn’t say, ‘Does it?’ I said, ‘When?’ Because he’s a minor and I don’t know the law, I’m not a lawyer.”
    A.N.J’s dad recalls the lawyer’s response: “Mr. Anderson’s reply was, ‘I’m not sure. The laws change all the time. I’ll have to check into it and get back to you.’”
    Anderson never denied this, acknowledging that the charges could be removed between age eighteen and twenty-one, admitting he “did not know exactly what the law stated.” He never did get back to them with details. “Honestly, it may have just slipped my mind,” he told the court later.
    In truth, the child molestation in the first-degree conviction would never come off A.N.J’s record.
    Instead,