Sex Offender to be Released
Originally published by The Associated Press, December 29, 2001
OSSIPEE, N.H. (AP) — A convicted sex offender who argued that imprisonment violates his constitutional right against self-incrimination will be released from prison after serving only half his sentence.
Carl Graf, 36, of Stoneham, Mass., is serving a sentence of up to 15 years after being found guilty of molesting a 10-year-old boy in Moultonborough in 1993.
He would have been eligible for parole, but his refusal to complete a sex offender treatment program stood in his way.
To participate in the program, inmates are required to confess their crimes and give a complete sexual history, including any crimes for which they haven't been charged.
Graf has said he is willing to get treatment, but won't confess. In his request for release, Graf argues that if he admits molesting the boy, he will be charged with perjury because when he testified at his trial he denied assaulting the boy.
Graf's lawyer has said that to continue to imprison Graf amounts to punishing him for exercising his right against self-incrimination.
Superior Court Judge Tina Nadeau on Thursday denied a state's motion to reconsider an earlier decision to release Graf. She said enough precautions are in place to justify his release.
Carroll County Attorney Robin Gordon said that decision is an insult to the victim and his family.
"Allowing a defendant to determine his own sentence or to decide when he has satisfied the penal requirements makes the system laughable," Gordon wrote in her motion. "Our justice system is designed for the protection of our citizens and the victims of crime are due no less consideration."
When Graf is released next November, he can't have any unsupervised contact with minors and must get weekly counseling.
Nadeau noted in her ruling that Graf's behavior in prison has been exemplary, and he has been enrolled in classes the entire time.
Gordon said that should make little difference.
"It is astonishing that there is an attitude by the court that he has done something extraordinary when it is no more than what is expected," she wrote.
In 1999, a judge denied Graf's request to be released from prison to care for his ailing parents. At the time, Graf offered to be "chemically castrated" in order to be paroled.
