A Democrat running for mayor in Rhode Island is indignant at the suggestion that his child molestation record should impact voters’ view of him. The scary part is that there are enough Democrats who glorify sexual perversion and the grooming of children that some voters will probably agree with him.
Michael English, who hopes to be elected mayor of Providence next year, has referred to “immature decisions” that led to a “period of incarceration.” According to the Providence Journal, the history behind that vague comment is that, as a 26-year-old, English had a relationship with a 13-year-old. After being released from prison after a little over a year, he tried to get in contact with his teenage victim again. Instead of expressing profound regret for what he had done, English responded to exposure by bragging about his life since prison and sneering at his critics.
The Providence Journal was granted access to some court files about English. He does not appear on the Rhode Island Sex Offender Registry, as he successfully appealed that order, and his case is not easily examined, hence the outlet’s efforts to obtain the court documents.
English asserted to the Providence Journal that he did not know the age of his victim at the time of his first offense, although, since she was only 13, it seems highly spurious that he didn’t know she was not only a minor, but a very young minor.
The state Attorney General's Office alleged that English engaged in sexual acts with the victim between January and March of 1997, according to the grand jury’s indictment. He was living in North Providence at the time, and met the girl at various locations in Cumberland, North Smithfield and Lincoln, including at the Lincoln Mall…
In March 1998, he pleaded no contest to four counts of first-degree child molestation, second-degree child molestation and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. …Superior Court Judge Ronald Gagnon issued English a 20-year sentence, with 18 and ½ years suspended, also ordering English to register as a sex offender. … the judge suspended more than 90% of English's sentence. …In September 2009, the victim filed a police report stating that English had driven to her house, tried to speak with her and suggested they get coffee.
This time around, he was sentenced to five years’ jail. He served a little less than two years of that sentence in prison before spending two months on house arrest, and being forgiven the rest of his sentence.
When challenged on his criminal record, English bragged about his advanced degrees and about raising his own children. Indignantly rejecting the suggestion that people could see his criminal record, especially since he re-offended, as disqualifying him from running, he simply responded, “They’d be wrong, legally. They also should calculate what did I do from then.” He sneered, “If I’m the bad guy here, God help you all.”
English’s reaction is important. A pedophile can be rehabilitated, although pedophiles tend to have a very high recidivism rate. His only voluntary reference to his crime was to label it merely immature and something that prevented him from “liv[ing] up to my potential”. When caught by the media, he focused on boasting about himself and aggressively insisting voters shouldn’t worry about his record. He even tried to turn the argument around on his critics, condescendingly implying that he is their only hope for political salvation. He actually tried to take the moral high ground.
Let’s hope the voters of Providence take pedophilia more seriously than Michael English does.
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