UNITED STATES V. DODGE, 08-10802, (January 14, 2009.)
The defendant pled to a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1470 for transferring obscene material to a person he believed to be a minor. Over the period of a year, the defendant interacted on internet chat-rooms with persons he took to be young girls aged 13-14 years old. On at least three occasions, Dodge either emailed photographs of himself totally nude and/or masturbating or provided a link to such photos. As part of his 18 month sentence, the district court ordered a three year supervised release and ordered Dodge to register as a sex offender “for up to life” pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 16911(7)(I).
The Eleventh Circuit reversed the district court’s sex offender registration requirement finding that under the facts of the offense, this was not “by its nature a sex offense against a minor.” While Dodge’s actions may have been “offensive and deplorable” they lacked “any element of an unwanted sexual assault, offense, or other violation that contacts or opposes a minor’s rights.”
