Court Opinion

ID: 9837839
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-02 03:55:49.796852+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:45:31.695153
License: Public Domain

WELLS, J.
(specially concurring).
I agree with the majority’s conclusion that the order on appeal must be affirmed. I do so because Vega’s motion was untimely and because, even had it been timely filed, it would not have provided any basis for relief. This is so because, as the majority opinion confirms, the sexual offender registration requirement is a collateral consequence of a plea and because sexual offenders like Vega by law are not eligible for relief from the requirements of section *218943.0435 for at least twenty-five years after release from confinement, supervision, or sanction, whichever is later. See State v. Partlow, 840 So.2d 1040 (Fla.2003); § 943.0435(11)(a), Fla. Stat. (2016).
I do not, however, question the wisdom of the registration and reporting requirements imposed by section 943.0435 as applied in this case or otherwise. The law (here section 800.04) makes it a crime for a twenty-seven year old to engage in specified sexual acts with a fourteen year old. See § 800.04, Fla. Stat. (2016), The law (section 943.0435) also requires a twenty-seven year old man, such as Vega, who engages in sex with a fourteen year old, such as the victim here, to be designated a sexual offender and to bear all of the burdens that go with it for at least twenty-five years irrespective of his good intentions at the time or his subsequent “good” behavior. See § 943.0435(11), Fla. Stat. (2016). More particularly, this law provides the means for giving notice to parents that this adult has a history of sexually abusing a child, so that those parents may decide for themselves whether to expose their children to him. § 943.0435(2)(a)2, Fla. Stat. (2016) (requiring sexual offenders to report to a sheriffs office “for registration”); § 943.043, Fla. Stat. (2016) (authorizing the department of law enforcement to notify the public through the Internet and other means of any information not confidential or exempt regarding sexual offenders). Rather than concern that this sex offender now bears a “Scarlet Letter,” I take comfort in the fact that the law has provided an avenue for parents to make their own decisions as to the care and protection of their children.