The Predator | The Sex Offender

In 2008, I pled guilty to a felony: MCL 750.145D2F, Computers-Internet-Communicating with Another to Commit Crime-Max 15 Years-Life.

I spent a little over a year in prison and another year-and-a-half on parole.

I do not remember every detail clearly, but I remember enough to know that none of the surrounding facts excuse what happened. I was extremely unhappy with nearly every aspect of my life. I was using drugs and alcohol daily. I was searching for something, the way I thought some of my heroes had. I was distant from my family. My friends were in a similar state.

Those facts explain context. They do not erase responsibility.

I did not have to register as a sex offender.  On October 29, 2025, I mailed the necessary paperwork to the Michigan Department of Corrections to request a pardon from the governor. The application had an estimated delivery date of November 1, 2025. As of July 7, 2026, I had received no response—not even an acknowledgment that the paperwork had been received. On July 11, 2026, I received a notice from the Michigan Parole Board, dated June 3, 2026, informing me that my request had been denied. 

Eighteen years later, I still find myself having to go back and relive this experience.

Maybe, rightfully so.

The question becomes: am I a predator?

I live across the street from an elementary school. Should those parents be afraid of me? That is not a question I get to answer for them. They are entitled to their judgment. What I can say is that I have lived eighteen years with the consequences of what I did, and I have fought to become someone very different from the person who committed that crime.

But if society is going to speak seriously about harm, danger, and protection, then it has to speak seriously about all systems that damage people, including the ones that are legal, profitable, normalized, and defended by institutions.

Added sugar is not an essential nutrient. It is empty calories with no biological requirement and no benefit. Yet a system can present a high amount of added sugar as a daily-value calculation, package it, normalize it, sell it, and call that lawful. The point is not that one harm cancels another. It does not. The point is that labels often determine where outrage is permitted, while other forms of damage are absorbed into ordinary life.

You can label me however you like. I cannot control that.

What I can control is whether I tell the truth, whether I keep building, and whether I let a label replace the full account of a life.