MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
In the final weeks of this legislative session, one Missouri senator is working to save the state's sexual misconduct law... and protect Missouri school children.
Josh Hinkle has more from the state Capitol.
Jackson County Senator Matt Bartle says the Missouri Supreme Court has placed the safety of the state's school children in extreme jeopardy.
Last week, the court overturned the sexual misconduct charges of a St. Louis elementary school counselor, previously convicted for urinating in a school bathroom in front of three boys.
In its decision, the court also ruled the state's sexual misconduct statute unconstitutional... something with which Bartle just can't agree.
The court found the statute too broad because officials could charge any man simply using a restroom in front of children younger than 14 with sexual misconduct.
Bartle's amendment would clarify the language of that law... saying a person would have to knowingly expose oneself to a child... subsequently causing alarm to that child.
SOC.
###
A former St. Louis elementary school counselor once charged for indecent exposure at school now walks free... thanks to a Supreme Court decision that's prompting one Missouri senator to salvage the state's already broad sexual misconduct law.
Josh Hinkle has more from the state Capitol.
Jackson County Senator Matt Bartle says the state's sexual misconduct law needs clarification.
The state Supreme Court overturned the sexual misconduct charges of an elementary school counselor, convicted for urinating in a school bathroom in front of three boys.
The court found the law unconstitutionally broad because any man simply using a restroom in front of a child could be charged with sexual misconduct.
Bartle says the ruling lets sexual predators slip through the cracks.
Bartle's amendment would clarify the law to inlcude a person knowingly exposing oneself to a child and knowing that doing so would alarm that child.
SOC.
###
One man's freedom is prompting one Missouri senator to clarify the state's already broad sexual misconduct law.
Josh Hinkle has more from the state Capitol.
For Jackson County Senator Matt Bartle, the case of James Beine strikes fear into his mind... for Missouri school children.
In 2001, Beine, a St. Louis elementary school counselor, landed a 12-year prison sentence for sexual misconduct when he urinated in a school bathroom in front of three boys.
But the state Supreme Court reversed his conviction, declaring the state's sexual misconduct law unconstitutionally broad.
But Bartle says, while Beine's argument that he was simply using the restroom saved him, his record should've served as a warning to the court.
Although Beine had worked as a school counselor for more than a decade before the incident, he was dismissed from the priesthood in 1977 over sexual abuse allegations.
While Bartle works to keep sexual predators from slipping through the cracks, House Education Chairman, Jane Cunningham of St. Louis County, says she's not sure if lawmakers can really do anything to help.
In it's decision, the court even questioned whether children and adults should have separate restrooms in schools for better protection.
SOC.