It's official. I. HATE. PEOPLE.

As an aside, I want to beat whoever did that tagline,
it's nothing shy of disturbing. Then again, what about this
story isn't??

Man convicted of sex crimes sends cards to child victims

The Action News 5 Investigators are on the case of a man convicted of sex crimes against children, who just won't stop contacting those children.
I’m sorry, but “The Action News 5 Investigators are on the case …” sounds like a couple of five-year-olds playing detective. Then again, one might draw the parallel to TV news stations doing just that.

Alright, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system … a man convicted to sex crimes against children won’t stop contacting them. Seriously, how is this possible?

He does it through the mailbox.
What? He hides in their mailboxes and reaches out to fondle them when they get the mail? Isn’t he in for a surprise when Mom and/or Dad get the mail?

"Happy birthday, I hope you have a wonderful day and following year.  I cannot believe my little tot-tot is already a teenager.  You might be tired of me writing this but I can't get over how fast you are growing up," read Donna Turner with the Tipton County Sheriff's Department.

Turner was reading from birthday and Christmas cards sent from by sex offender from jail to his young victims.
O.M.G.

*retch*

That is just so freakin’ sick. Is he going to get his victim’s names tattooed on his chest next?

"In child abuse cases, it's something you deal with for the rest of your life and this card has put them back to the very day it all started...the very first time they were abused," Turner said.
Thank you for that news flash. We know he’s not doing this out of the kindness of his heart. He’s doing it to make their lives miserable. I’m so glad we have you to tell us that. Their psychiatrists could probably also tell us that.

Terry Bernard McConnell is the convict who sent the cards, convicted of rape of a child and aggravated sexual battery involving two female victims. He's locked up until 2019.
You know, or until they decide that the fact he’s so sweet and sends Christmas cards and birthday cards to his victims that he’s definitely rehabilitated and he walks.

"As of now, he is not a registered sex offender," Turner said.
Then register this dude. Now. Yesterday. Last year. Get it done.

And that, investigators say, is the problem.
You freakin’ think?

"There is a law that says if you are convicted of a crime against a minor and you are a registered sex offender you are not allowed to have contact with that minor," Turner said.
Well, yeah, and obviously there’s a loophole you’re about to tell us about since he’s not getting in trouble for the contact.

McConnell is not on the sex offender registry because he was convicted prior to 2007, the year Tennessee law changed giving local jurisdictions the option to register sex offenders between conviction and sentencing.
Ohhhh, so that’s it. Damn you, Tennessee.

I don’t understand the wording of the law here … “giving local jurisdictions the option…” There shouldn’t be an option. There should be registration immediately upon conviction. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. DO. NOT. SEND. BIRTHDAY. CARDS. TO. VICTIMS.

Unless the law changes again, McConnell won't be registered until he's released from prison.
Then change it. Seriously, if politicians can get whatever tripe they want passed through some backdoor politics after everyone thought the bill was dead, then surely this can get passed – and quickly.

Oh wait, I bet they’ll do some stupid thing about how he’ll be grandfathered out because he’s already convicted and in jail and he’d have to endure a second trial first, and being that we have laws against double jeopardy. Man, seriously, I hate the law sometimes. It’s more important to protect these kids than it is to protect this scum.

And, might I add, since he is a convicted felon, HE HAS NO RIGHTS.

"The reason for the registry is to let the public know where these sex offenders are living, and if they're in prison, everybody knows where they are," said TBI spokesperson Kristin Helm.
Just because we know where he is (in jail), doesn’t mean these kids are safe – obviously. Just because he’s not physically touching them does not mean he’s not still abusing them. There’s a whole lot more than just knowing where they are. While we’re talking about places … there’s a special place in hell for people like this too.

But Tipton County investigators say if McConnell was already on the registry they would have more ammo to stop the cards.
Elitist reporter note: But wait, I thought the point of the registry was just so you knew where they were. Obviously a contradiction to what the TBI spokesperson just said. Congrats reporter dude, you just discounted your own credibility by running contradictions in your own story.

"He would be facing a felony instead of a violation of a court order," Turner said. "If he had been put on the sex offender list, it would have resulted in an additional charge, a new charge, even though he's in prison. However, that is not in place in this case."

Of the 2,921 inmates locked up in Tennessee for sex crimes right now, only 801 of them are on the sex offender registry, either because they went to jail before 2007 or because local jurisdictions decided not to register them before sentencing.
Alright, so, why didn’t all those sex offenders in jail before this law went into effect get grandfathered in to be included on the sex offenders registry? Did someone miss the boat on that one?

AND … Megan’s Law passed in 1994, why did it take 13 years for Tennessee to get on board with their own registry? (This is really not a dig on Tennessee specifically, because it seems a lot of states took their sweet time about getting a registry in place. And why? Had they done this immediately, old dude wouldn’t be doing this and we wouldn’t have this icky story and we wouldn’t have this mundane blog entry.)

That makes stopping this kind of contact difficult, despite a no-contact order.
Obviously.

SO FIX IT!

Action News 5 asked the Department of Corrections why they can't just put a stop to McConnell sending the cards, and why they don't have someone inspect his outgoing mail like they do his incoming mail.
Good questions, Nancy Drew.

A DOC spokesperson told us their authority to review outgoing mail is much more restricted, and there's simply not enough staff to monitor what goes out.
Come off it, now. It has nothing to do with outgoing mail being restricted, it has to do with the fact you don’t have the manpower to do it.

Now look, let’s see if we can kill two birds with one stone. You create a job – it can be part-time (just a couple hours a day) so you don’t even have to fork out benefits. This guy’s job is to flip through the outgoing mail and look for this creep’s handwriting/name/address of his victims. (Yes, I add that just because I’m sure this guy would figure it out and get someone else to write it out for him. So, we must cover all bases.) And when you see that, pick it out, rip it up, burn it … do something to make sure it doesn’t get past the walls of the prison. It’s a win-win … these poor kids can stop dreading their birthdays (because honestly, after awhile, you know it’s coming and it can’t be fun to expect that card every year) AND a new job is created to help with the unemployment rates.

"Obviously he is going to blatantly do what he wants to do to have some kind of initiated contact with these children," Turner said.


Unless you do something about it. Put him in solitary. Break his hands. (Or cut them off for all I care.) Monitor his mail. Don’t let him have cigarettes so he can’t barter with Red to get him a box of birthday cards. Make someone (preferably a mean nun) sit with him day in and day out who will smack him with a ruler if he starts writing these love letters to these kids. 

And that means cards like this could keep coming.
Unless, you do something about it. (Wait, I have the strangest sense of déjà vu.) Someone, quick, get me to a nunnery!

The public defender who represented Terry McConnell in 2003 said his services stopped after McConnell's conviction, and that he was unaware of a no-contact order.
Come on, of course he’s going to say that. Like he’d be like, “Yep, I’m still representing that scumbag, and we know there’s a no-contact order, but, you know, since he can get away with it, I told him to go ahead and do it until he gets out and has to be registered. Take advantage of the loophole while you can, buddy.”

The Tipton County Sheriff's Office met with the D-A's office this week to discuss possible charges against McConnell.
Hope the DA was more useful than old dude’s public defender.