Sex Offender Chooses Canada Over Jail

[AliceInWonderland]

Sex Offender Chooses Canada Over Jail
Experts Question Legality Of Exile As Option To Imprisonment


CBS News Interactive: Megan's Law
(AP) BUFFALO, N.Y. Jail or Canada? Malcolm Watson chose Canada.

In an unusual sentence that has immigration lawyers questioning its legality, the U.S. citizen has agreed to stay out of the United States for the next three years as punishment for having sex with a 15-year-old female student.

The exile starts Monday for the 35-year-old former Buffalo Seminary teacher, who was arrested in April after a mall security guard noticed him and the girl sitting in a parked car for two hours.

Erie County District Attorney Frank Clark called the plea deal "a little dicey" but said the girl's family was happy with it.

Under the sentence for sexual abuse imposed by Cheektowaga Town Court, Watson can enter the United States only to report to his probation officer. Watson already lives across the border in Fort Erie, Ontario, with his Canadian wife and three children.

But exiling a citizen is unheard of, said Robert Kolken, a Buffalo immigration lawyer.

"I don't see how a judge sitting in a criminal court in the U.S. can lawfully banish a citizen as a condition of sentencing," he said.

Cheektowaga Justice Thomas Kolbert could not be reached for comment.

Another immigration lawyer, Robert Berger, warned that Watson could be barred from entering Canada because of his new criminal record.

Even Watson's lawyer, Oscar Smukler, said he was surprised by the deal.

"We did some research on the question of whether Canada might consider throwing (Watson) out, which would make him a man without a country," Smukler said.

The alternative sentence? As much as a year behind bars.

(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
www.kcal.com

Sex Offender Chooses Canada Over Jail

I wouldn't!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
of course he's a damn mormon; they're always grooming young girls for marriage; I remember once one tried to convert me for that very purpose when I was 16! I was suprised b/c I wasn't blonde haired and blue eyed like the rest of them but I guess they were getting desperate or something...

[moomies]

Under the sentence for sexual abuse imposed by Cheektowaga Town Court, Watson can enter the United States only to report to his probation officer. Watson already lives across the border in Fort Erie, Ontario, with his Canadian wife and three children.

The wife should just kick him out and send him right back to the US of A !!!

[Grimmlok]

Well im sure we'll lock him up. That'll be good.

An update, Canada is going "Oh no you don't."

Canada's public safety minister asked yesterday for a full report about a U.S. court decision to exile a convicted sex offender and American citizen to Canada to serve three years' probation.

"And we asked for it in short order," Melisa Leclerc, spokeswoman for Stockwell Day, said. "Canada won't be a safe haven for sexual predators and criminals who committed crimes in other countries."

The request for information to the Canada Border Services Agency comes amid bafflement on both sides of the border over the recent decision ordering Malcolm Watson to return to the temporary home he shares in St. Catharines with his Canadian wife and three children.

Watson — who was fired in April from his job as a teacher at Buffalo Seminary, an all-girls' school that has 174 students between Grades 9 and 12 — was found with a 15-year-old girl in a parked car at the Galleria Mall by a security guard, court heard.

After pleading guilty to endangering the welfare of a child and sexual abuse in the third degree, Watson, 35, was told by Judge Thomas S. Kolbert, who sits in Cheektowaga, N.Y., that he could serve a year in an American jail or spend three years on probation in Canada.

As part of his guilty plea, he will be registered as a Level 1 sex offender under the federal registry in the United States.

But the controversial sentence may be rendered null if the Canadian government bars Watson entry to this country.

While Day is waiting for details of the case to decide how to proceed, Leclerc said deportation for someone in Watson's situation is not out of the question.

"If someone poses a risk to the safety of Canadians, then we can deport them for sure," she said, noting a detailed assessment will have to be carried out to determine what kind of threat an individual such as Watson would present.

Niagara Region police Staff Sgt. Chris Scotland said while police have taken measures in the past to inform the community of potentially dangerous individuals, he isn't sure what the force's course of action would be in this situation.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...2154&t=TS_Home

[twitchy]

And now Canada says "get stuffed"

U.S. sex con ordered out of Canada

NIAGARA FALLS -- A U.S. citizen serving three years probation in St. Catharines for molesting one of his 15-year-old students at an upscale school in Buffalo has been ordered deported from Canada.
But it could take years before Malcolm Watson, 36, leaves the country. An appeal has already been filed and his lawyer is vowing to take the case to Canada's highest court if necessary.
The former teacher at the seminary high school appeared for the hearing in Niagara Falls yesterday before Immigration and Refugee Board adjudicator Liz Lasowski.
Watson is married to a Canadian who sponsored him so that he could get landed immigrant status.
"Mr. Watson is a teacher and occupied a position of trust over students," Lasowski said. "Teachers have power over students and can have an influence on their lives."

Watson, a teacher for 12 years, said he was warned by the principal to stay away from the teen.
Police and immigration documents show Watson and the teen were in his car in a mall parking lot when he kissed her.
"He touched her breasts over her shirt and she touched his penis over his pants," according to a report released yesterday.
Source

I don't care much for the "But it could take years before Malcolm Watson, 36, leaves the country." bit.

[Grimmlok]

Get the fuck out and dont let the door hit your ass on the way.

Deport his molestering ass back to where he belongs.

[Biatch]

The only place he belongs is the prison -whichever the country !!

Can't they find a really rough one????

Without the gym/ pool/computer facilities and full of molester haters??

[Grimmlok]

Don't hate the molestah, hate the game...

[teforde23]

Freaking CheektoVegas when I went to school near there the cops always gave me tickets. Worst little town. NO way in hell this could be legal. And why won't his wife divorce him? I want to hear what the wife has to say