For lack of a better term? I’m not sure what to call it. I started arguing with someone who was claiming you shouldn’t help people in public because it could get you into legal trouble. Without wanting to even get into the ethics of why you should help someone regardless, I brought up good Samaritan laws. This person brought up a guy in Illinois who was convicted as a sex offender for grabbing a girl by the arm and lecturing her for jumping in front of a car without looking both ways first. According to this person, holding someone underage, even for a moment, counts as imprisonment of a minor, and automatically gets you put on the sex offender registry for life.
Now, that seemed fishy, but plausible in an awful sort of way, so I did some digging. I found several sources that mentioned this story, and learned the alleged man’s name is Fitzroy Barnaby, the incident occurred in 2001, he was convicted in Cook County in 2003, and it’s a cautionary tale against being a good Samaritan (ugh). But I cannot find any court documents, nor can I find any original sources. Every source references a since-deleted article by the “Chicago Sun Times”, and Barnaby isn’t even listed on the Illinois sex offender registry. Was this whole story just made up? Or have records been sealed and scrubbed or something?
Okay, so I managed to find a reddit comment section from 12 years ago (don’t hate me) that seems to chalk it up as most likely untrue. Not sure if there’s much more evidence to be found one way or another
https://www.reddit.com/r/AdviceAnimals/s/8rSk4VqE1P
Edit: found an alleged reply from the writer of the original story (of the since deleted original article). This alleged response is from an archive of a chat board in 2005.
"I’ve been reading some online postings in repsonse to this and understand the skepticism, given no other media have picked it up. I can’t explain that, sorry. It’s there to be read at the Appellate Court clerk’s office at Lasalle and Randolph in Chicago. More to it … well, it was a 16-page ruling and I summarized the important stuff, I thought.
He drops his girlfriend off at work, he’s driving back home, girl’s on her way to school, the near-hit happens, he yells at her, pulls around and gets out, grabs her, pulls her toward his car and yells at her, she breaks free and runs off crying, meeting up with friends. A day or two later, she’s in a car with her friend’s mom, they see the same guy, same car, she tells the mom, mom calls police, he’s arrested at Blockbuster a few blocks away, girl makes positive ID. Trial comes, not guilty on 2, guilty on 1, judge says that charge is a sex offense, he appeals, appellate court says - yes, it is a sex offense and now you’ve got to register. Guy has no priors. State’s attorney stands by push for registration, judge says he’s constrained by the law, appellate court says that’s right.
Unfortunately, there’s nothing more to it.
Steve Patterson Chicago Sun-Times 350 N. Orleans St. Chicago, Ill. 60654 312-321-2090 spatterson@suntimes.com"
Yeah, grabbing and lecturing a child AFTER the danger has passed doesn’t really sound like “helping” anyone to me. It sounds more like road rage and unstable behavior. If I were a female minor, I could certainly see it as a threatening act.
Curious, how do you lecture someone DURING the dangerous moment when they jump out in front of your car?
I assume they mean immediately after, like if someone was standing nearby already. Its a little different if you drive past them, stop the car, get out, go back ti them, and then discipline
So a sex offender for life for getting slightly mad when someone jumps in front of your car almost making you commit manslaughter.
Yep, makes sense /s
I imagine it’s the part where he grabbed her by the arm and attempted to drag her towards his car that did it. Whatever his intentions may have been, I can see how that could be taken as an attempted abduction. Idk that that should be counted as a sex crime, but I can certainly see it being treated as a potentially serious assault on a minor.
It would have been really helpful if Steve Patterson could have cited a case number or a caption or something.
Might’ve only had to be on the registry for a few years?
Anyway, here: https://web.archive.org/web/20050706062151/http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-molest01.html
It shouldn’t matter in the first place though. Such a story can happen, because, to the surprise of the internet, women are humans and individuals. If a person falls victim to such a scenario, they were just a victim to one individual, not all women in the world, let alone all people in need of help in public.
Fuck Reddit and Fuck Spez.