Judge Reverses Decision to Place Loudoun County Schoolboy Guilty of ‘Forcible Sodomy’ on Sex Offender List

A Virginia judge has reversed her decision to place the skirt-wearing schoolboy who was found guilty of “forcible sodomy” in a girls’ bathroom in a Loudoun County school on the sex offender registry.

The 15-year-old boy who was convicted of sexually assaulting female classmates at two separate high schools — Stone Bridge High School and Broad Run High School — will no longer have to register as a sex offender, according to a report by WTOP News.

Judge Pamela Brooks had initially ordered the teen be placed on probation, placed in a juvenile rehabilitation center until he turned 18, as well as added to the adult sex offender registry.

Now, the boy will instead remain on supervised probation in a locked juvenile treatment facility until his 18th birthday.

Defense attorneys reportedly argued that prosecutors failed to provide a written motion that they would seek to have the Loudoun County boy placed on the sex offender registry before the judge made her initial ruling.

The judge agreed, and gave prosecutors a chance on Thursday to file a written motion and argue that the teen be placed on the registry.

Loudoun County Commonwealth Attorney Buta Biberaj argued that the boy being forced to register as a sex offender “would keep him safe — he’d know where he can go and cannot go, and also keep the community safe.”

With regards to the teen being 15-years-old with a still-developing brain, Biberaj said, “I can’t rest on it being immaturity.”

But the boy’s probation officer, Jason Bickmore, argued against requiring him to register as a sex offender, saying that studies show teenage sex offenders forced to register have a higher rate of re-offending.

Biberaj then requested the teen be placed on the sex offender registry until he is 30-years-old.

One of the boy’s lawyers, Caleb Kershner, argued that the teen found guilty of forcible sodomy is a victim, claiming he was being penalized and scrutinized because his case was at the center of “a national media outcry.”

Kershner described the teen as remorseful, and claimed he has been “cheated” by the “failure of the system.”

The lawyer questioned the manner in which Loudoun County Public School handled the case, in which the school system transferred the boy to Broad Run High School after he was arrested for the first sexual assault at Stone Bridge High School.

“We are setting him up for failure,” Kershner claimed. “We’ve never concentrated on [the boy] — we’re not even giving this young man a chance.”

In announcing her decision, Judge Brooks said, “This court made an error in my initial ruling. The court is not vain enough to think it’s perfect, but I want to get it right.”

“Perhaps this will provide some additional information for the national conversation,” the judge continued, adding that “adolescent brains don’t stop developing till age 27.”

“I decline to grant the commonwealth’s motion,” to require the teen to register as an adult sex offender, Judge Brooks said.

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