A sex offender was sentenced this month in one of the more frightening criminal plans. Patrick James Fredericksen, 31, pleaded no contest to charges that he stole a school bus in Emery County, Utah and tried to pick up children.
Fredericksen pleaded guilty to attempted child kidnapping, reduced to a second-degree felony, as well as three counts of theft, including two second-degree felonies and one third-degree felony. In exchange for the plea, the prosecutor recommended concurrent sentencing and Seventh District Judge Douglas Thomas sentenced him to one to 15 years in prison, with two identical terms and a term of zero to five years to be served concurrently.
Fredericksen was paroled from the Utah State Prison in August 2013 following convictions for unlawful sexual activity with a minor, impersonating a police officer, forgery, theft, possession of an altered prescription, and criminal mischief.
On this occasion, people reported in April 2015 that a slow-moving, suspicious school bus driving through Emery County. Police had received reports of a suspicious man in the area matching the same description.
What is particularly chilling is that, when he stole the bus, Fredericksen found a list of names and directions for students who rode the bus and tried to pick one child up at her home. He also asked for directions to a second child’s home. The thought of a sex offender seeking your child by name and address is nothing short of a nightmare for any parent. Given the possibility (while remote) of as little as one year in jail and the strong evidence, it is somewhat surprising to see the plea. However, such offenses normally run concurrently and the prosecutors secured pleas on all major crimes (some of which might not have been secured in a final verdict). They appear to have traded away just a misdemeanor charge. As unnerving as it may be to even contemplate such a recidivist being released in a year, the assumption is that no rational board would support such a release.
I have previously discussed with parents the strange fact that we protect our children so aggressively from various dangers but stand by as perfect strangers drive away with them every morning. Fredericksen seems to have seen the same disconnect.
The problem is Obama has ignored the Constitution multiple times. He’s now making a fuss about his Supreme Court nominee, while, as a Senator, he held up Alito’s nomination.
Me
Sent from my iPad
Castration with representation.
Bill,
You cleaned that up very nicely for phillyT. His first post about the 19 year old having “consensual” sex with a 17 year old completely ignored the point of the law. The sex offender registry should be for those that are actually a danger to society but we need to err on the side of society. Zero tolerance laws seem to take any judgment out of the equation which makes a conviction a life sentence. Is there sentencing guidelines for those convicted of these crimes that would go easy on the 19 year old and hammer the 34 year old with variations in between? Or is it registry for life?
Possibly as little as one year? Makes no sense. As this is Utah, wonder if the church lobbied for lower penalties in an effort to protect their clergy?
phillyt – I certainly get your point. Believe there was a 20 year old arrested and was going to be labeled a sex offender for having sex with a 16 year old – even though the website where they met was for adults and the girl lied about her age, the prosecutor was still going to prosecute and label as a lifetime sex offender. Apparently, the girls parents lobbying on the side on the 20 year old (they knew their daughter had lied) was not going to stay the prosecution. Believe eventually, an internet petition drew enough to attention to the situation to eliminate the sex offender designation.
As a parent of an 11 year old daughter, I want to know where the sex offenders are (and do check our local database). However, loading the database with victims of fraud/lies waters down the database and hurts a parents ability to locate and protect our children from the real threats.
On the high school side, do not agree that someone that is 17 and okay one day (both being minors) is all of a sudden a sex offender for having turned 18 the next day. A waste of tax dollars. I’ve not seen a 34 year old near our schools, but they have a point in that unlikely scenario, yes, that should prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
And then there are times when comments make me laugh. So it was you that actually made me feel better. For that I thank you.
Thank you Olly. It’s always obvious on this board when you got nothing you start stringing together a bunch of LOL’s as if that’s going to upset someone. Or maybe you are just trying to make yourself feel better. I hope you do.
Thank you.
LOL! Suit yourself phillyT. Your posts and my posts are out there for posterity. You own yours and I’ll own mine. Classic!
Nicely done!
Olly, it’s very telling what you project onto me. It reveals so much more about you and your inner workings. You really should take a look inside yourself.
At NO time did I ever say I supported a 19 year old have consensual sex with a 17 year old. If you can quote me saying otherwise, please do. But it reveals so much about you that you would SAY that i did. The question is whether you purposefully misconstrued what I said because that’s how you try to win arguments, or whether you are being run by your subconscious thoughts and emotions to see things you WANT to see rather than seeing what is really there.
The one and ONLY point I had to make regarding this topic, was that in considering how we treat sex offenders, we need to be aware of the nature and background of the crime and the offenders involved. That we might want to keep an actual pedophile off the streets, while considering a possible different follow-up on that hypothetical 19-year-old. Should it turn out that the 19 year old was a predator after all, then one could revisit the case.
The fact that YOU brought in the 34-year-old and a 14-year-old says so much more about you. You should get some professional counseling and consider why you think this way. Its much more than you attacking another librul.
Olly, The dog is a famous strawman slayer.
Nice try phillyT. I’m advocating protecting ALL those under the age of 18 from predators and you come out of left field supporting a 19 year old having consensual sex with a 17 year old. This is not wordplay, those are your words. I’m just glad you’re on record as having said them.
Nicely done!
Olly, please go look up the definition of a pedophile for starters.
And seriously. if you don’t think there is any difference between a 17 and 19 year old having sex, and a 34 and a 14 year old, then please do us all a favor and stay the hell away from kids.
While this article did not state the ages or age group this guy was after, I took it from the whole school bus incident and his history to imply that he was after per-pubescent children, in the classic definition of a pedophile.
You seem to be looking for a fight, and I’m not interested in giving you one. If you have a point to make, post what you will, but I’m not interested in your semantic BS and hair-splitting. Thanks anyway.
Taking a page from another argument, the obvious solution is for legislatures to ban school busses. It is clear that licensing and registering school busses, the safety features on school busses, and licensing law abiding school bus drivers did not prevent this crime. Only a total ban will prevent this event from occurring in the future.
phillyT,
Put down the shovel already. I took your words SERIOUSLY and your words SERIOUSLY said there is a difference if an adult has consensual sex with a minor that is only 2 years different in age than a “predatory pedophile”. Do you SERIOUSLY believe a 19 year old could not be a predator of minors? What magic age in your mind does one evolve into being considered a predator? How in the world are YOUR words being misconstrued, misrepresented and misdirected?