The Vintage & Handmade Market About your April 14 editorial regarding the proposed Chelsea’s Law: I don’t usually write or respond to media I disagree with, but this time I had to because of how close this hits home for me and our family. My daughter, Candice Moncayo, was the girl that monster John Gardner attacked on Dec. 28, 2009, and some of your facts are incorrect. Your magazine is an alternative one, I get that. But come on, really?
Here’s my first problem with the article. “Incidentally, if this law were in place when John Gardner, the man accused of killing Chelsea King, was convicted of his first crime—lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 14—he would have qualified for life-time parole, but it’s far from certain that he would have been sentenced to increased prison time. The proposed law doesn’t change the fact that he was a first-time offender and prosecutors were trying to avoid putting the victim on the stand, leading to a plea deal.” That’s just incorrect. Under Chelsea’s Law, there wouldn’t be a plea deal or parole, because when The Monster badly beat this poor girl, he would have been in prison, because it would fall under the One Strike Rule of Chelsea’s Law for violent sex offenders.
Next, “As we’ve written before, the danger to children posed by strangers is relatively rare. Child victims almost always know their attackers, and nearly half the time, the offender and victim are family, according to the state Attorney General. Recidivism is far lower among sex offenders than the general criminal population, and there are plenty of studies that refute the claim made by Chelsea King’s parents that sex offenders can’t be treated. While treatment won’t stop all re-offenders, behavioral therapy has been shown to reduce recidivism among numerous classes of offenders.” Did you omit specifically violent sex offenders in your research? Because this class of offenders are proven to almost always re-offend. The fact that the offender knows or is related to his victim has no merit if they’re violent. Violent offenders re-offend and their violence increases; Gardner proved it.
Finally, I have an issue with your concern about the cost and how “most among us would sacrifice the freedom of some offenders who are treatable if it might spare the life of even one child.” As for the cost, my thoughts are that if we can spend trillions of dollars to bail out banks that first stole from us, and then, when we bailed them out, they won’t loan us the money we bailed them out with, we can surely find the money on our real future, our most important things in life, our kids. Violent sex offenders are the highest re-offenders of them all. They are not sacrificing their freedom, because if they’re violent sex offenders, they deserve to lose all their rights the first time based on research. If that doesn’t work for you or others, think for just one second of being Amber, Chelsea or my daughter in their moments when they were attacked. Is money really the first thing on your mind? I can assure you, it’s not.
I agree with you—Chelsea’s Law doesn’t solve the bulk of the problem, but we have to start somewhere. Until this happened to my daughter, I was unaware of how little there was on the books to keep our children safe. I assumed this was so obvious that they were already in place both on the state and federal level. Now I know our kids’ safety has been compromised by the demands of big business. This is unacceptable. While Chelsea’s Law may not solve all the problems, it’s a great start. We have to do something—this can’t continue to happen. I have three daughters, and I am willing to get involved to keep them safe—because that’s what we’re supposed to do as parents; it’s our job.
Recent press in San Diego shows that kids are having to fight back when they’re attacked because it’s obvious we haven’t put protection in place. This is just sad and makes me angry. Our kids shouldn’t have to be afraid to go outside and play. They’re kids. It’s the responsibility of all adults to make sure kids have their time just being kids. It’s an investment into our future and you can’t put a price on it. Only when we band together, as we have with Chelsea’s Law, will change come about. Sadly, change that should have already been in place many years ago. As my mother used to say, “When you know better, you do better.” Let’s do better by Chelsea, Amber and all child victims of violence by letting them know it’s finally safe to go be a kid.
Rancho Bernardo
