I was adjudged a juvenile delinquent in Illinois for a misdemeanor sex offense. I was 16, my girlfriend was 14, and we had consensual sex. Now that I am an adult and live in Iowa the state has altered my Illinois juvenile court record for the single purpose of registration on the Iowa Sex offender registry. By alter I mean, the state has compaired the Illnois statute to a Iowa forcible felony statute. In doing this the state has given the Iowa District Court jurisdiction over an Illinois juvenile court record which is for an offense which does not constitue an indictable offense in Iowa. Iowa Dept. of Public Safety has strained the construction of an Illinois statute with an element from an Iowa statute which has nothing to do with the Illinois misdemeanor statute I was adjudged a juvenile delinquent, and this element was never proven in any court within the U.S.A.

My questions are: is this possible, legal, and constitutional?

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My questions are: is this possible, legal, and constitutional?

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That's a very good question. It looks like you need a very good attorney in Iowa to persuade the powers that be that the answer is a resounding "no".

You are not clear as to what court action is pending (presumably in Iowa), and which state (Iowa or Illinois) you mean by "the state".

I'd like to think that you can get pro bono help. Start with the nearest ACLU in Iowa. Even if they won't take this case they can steer you in the right direction.

First you must have really pissed someone off in the new state, I am being frank, normally why would they even know or be aware, since if you are not required to register under the old state, how would they know about this in the new state.

BUT... if you were still on probation, and moved and they moved your probation, the new state would have jurisdiction over you.

Again, they appear to be setting a new sentence and I would argue it is not constitutional. But guess what, there are 1000's of things done every day that is not really constitutional but local, and state courts often allow it.

So, a law suit will have to be done, and you will have to apply in Federal court under the 14th amendment that the due process and equal protection under the constitution has been violated.

Even then, depending on the political make up, if the circuit court, it may have to go to the court of appeal, and could even become a Supreme Court case.

But all of this will take 1000's and 1000's of dollars, so that is why most constitutional violations never go to court.

So yes, the ACLU is a good place to start, to see if they want to get involved in this type of case.

Ok, first I want to thank all of you for the support. Second, in response to AK Lawyer "the state" is Iowa, and the new sentence was for failure to register as a sex offender in Iowa. Third, I was never waived to adult court in either state as a youthful offender. So, I understand this as a full faith and credit violation, correct me if I am wrong! Fourth, Fr Chuck Thanks for the feed back, and I was originally required to register in Illinois as a juvenile sex offender where they to this day protect my right to privacy. Although in Iowa I would not be required to register on ISOR because the misdemeanor statute from Illinois does not constitute an indictable offense in Iowa due to the parties ages at the time the Illinois offense occurred and the mutual respect we showed each other. Yea, we are still friends and she is now married with two children of her own... LOL! Again Thank you!!!!

So what is the State of Iowa trying to do? Prosecute you for failure to register? You would plead not guilty; you were not convicted in Illinois of what would be, in Iowa, an "indictible offense" (in other words, a felony), and therefore are not required to register.

In your initial post you write that the state [of Iowa] has given the Iowa court jurisdiction over the Illinois record. That, literally, doesn't make sense, but I assume what you mean is that the Iowa statute gives the Iowa court jurisdiction to examine the Illinois record and determine on its own whether a "foreign state" conviction is for conduct which, if it had happened in Iowa would be considered an "indictible offense".

Well its truly hard to understand, but I will do my best to clarify... In Iowa if one is 16 or 17 years of age and accused of a forcible felony the Iowa juvenile court has no jurisdiction over such person. Being that the Illinois misdemeanor statute cannot be compared to any Iowa law or code, IDPS has strained the construction of this Illinois misdemeanor statue with an element from a forcible felony in comparison for the single purpose of registration on ISOR. You see in juvenile cases in Iowa the Juvenile court makes the determination requiring registration. I was not waived to adult court in either state as a youthful offender, and the Iowa Juvenile court has never made any determination whatsoever requiring registration. You see, I discovered in 2010 that I had been fraudulently registered on ISOR for my entire adult life for an Illinois class 1 felony statute. Confronting IDPS about this they then deceived me by changing the title of the charge on the website, but keeping the Illinois class 1 felony statute on the registry record for their comparison. Unknowing of all this I plead guilty to the failure to register because I was homeless and humiliated. Currently I have an application in Iowa District Court for Clinton County for Post conviction relief. My base for this relief is a 4th Article section 1 violation. Being that the state of Iowa has altered my Illinois Juvenile court record to include an element which was never proven in any court within the U.S. they have misrepresented my Illinois juvenile misdemeanor offense as an Iowa adult forcible felony offense. It's literally *&*& up! Thank you for everything!