Opinion ID: 1560059
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Defendant's Failure to Remain Current with Sex-Offender Counseling

Text: According to the testimony of Gerald Silva, who had been defendant's probation officer since April of 2004, defendant was not actively engaged in sex-offender counseling at the time that Mr. Silva began working with him as a probation officer. Mr. Silva testified that defendant was not in compliance with the terms of his probation because of his non-attendance at sex-offender counseling. Mr. Silva further testified about discussions that he and defendant had had concerning defendant's missed appointments at sex-offender counseling; Mr. Silva testified that defendant had told him he suffered from heart problems as well as from leukemia. He further testified that defendant provided him with some medical documentation that would substantiate his not being in counseling until approximately February of 2004. According to Mr. Silva's testimony, defendant also had told him (1) that he was not working and could not attend sex-offender counseling because he could not afford it and (2) that he was not employable because of his health problems. Mr. Silva testified about additional documentation that he requested from defendant that defendant did not provide to him. He also asked for documentation indicating that defendant could not attend Monday night counseling sessions, but defendant did not provide any such documentation. Mr. Silva also testified as to certain efforts he made to remedy the problem of defendant's inability to pay for his counseling sessions. He testified that he succeeded in arranging funding through the Department of Corrections, but that the approval of the funding was conditioned upon defendant's good faith effort to pay part of his debt to the counseling center. Mr. Silva testified that defendant, agreed to pay a lump sum of $125 toward his outstanding debt that he owed to the counseling center; defendant also agreed to pay $10 per week toward the remaining balance. The request for funding from the Department of Corrections was granted in August of 2004 and became available to fund future counseling sessions, but from April until August of that year, defendant had not been attending sex-offender counseling. Mr. Silva testified that defendant had been suspended from counseling during that time due to his sporadic attendance According to Mr. Silya's testimony, defendant eventually made the $125 payment toward his debt at the counseling center in October of 2004; Mr. Silva added that defendant thereby regained the opportunity to attend the center's counseling program. At that point, defendant proceeded to pay $10 per week until the day before the drive by incident. E