West Michigan orthodontist, Thomas Shannon, 43, is yet another example of how some child sex offenders, even after being given a chance at freedom, simply can’t or won’t stop. Fuck this guy and his $20,000 bond. Surprise! He continued to offend while awaiting trial.
State Audit Finds Michigan Sex Offender Registry System 80% Inefficient
State Audit Finds Michigan Sex Offender Registry System 80% Inefficient. Shocker.
— Read on newmediadetroit.com/state-audit-finds-michigan-sex-offender-registry-system-80-inefficient/
A college baseball player’s past catches up with him.
Here’s an interesting case from Idaho involving a plea deal given Brigham Young University baseball player Candon Dahle, age 22. Dahle was arrested in Utah then extradited to Idaho (Fremont County) on charges of lewd conduct with a child who accused him of sexually abusing her for five years, beginning when she was seven years old. Dahle pleaded not guilty to lewd conduct.
Dahle retained different counsel and later entered into a binding plea agreement with Fremont Prosecutor Lindsey Blake, pleading guilty to two counts of felony injury to a child, rather than lewd conduct. There is no requirement to register as a sex offender for felony injury to a child. The agreed upon sentence was 8 years probation with any violations resulting in a possible 10-year prison sentence. Judge Steven Boyce added 180 days of jail time to the sentence.
The case received nationwide scrutiny in the wake of death threats made to the judge and his family after sentencing when the case hit social media. The Idaho Judicial Branch issued a statement last month condemning the threats, the misinformation online and people’s inability to “understand the court process” in this case.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/09/12/candon-dahle-byu-judge
So how about we clarify it just a little? First, the ballplayer was allowed to plead to felony child injury instead of lewd conduct with a child. That’s on the prosecutor, who may have made this decision based on perceived weaknesses in the case. Or not. We will never know.
Second, the plea was binding which means the judge had to accept the entire deal or reject the entire deal; he could not craft his own sentence. He did add on the 180 days, which was apparently more than the prosecutor had requested.
Third, the judge was in fact free to reject the entire plea deal and during her victim impact statement, the victim asked Boyce to reject the plea agreement, stating that she did not believe that it serves justice.
“I can’t ever recall a sentencing where a victim asked me to reject the binding plea agreement,” Boyce said following her statement. “And after listening to the statements, I sat here and considered, should I do that? Should I just unwind the deal you reached? I determined not to do that, and I’m still not going to do that.”
Boyce acknowledged the difficulty of the case and stressed that it’s important for victims to come forward so abusers can face some kind of consequence, even if it’s not what they hope for.
No one should be subjected to death threats and these crimes should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Being a public servant should not subject a person to such threats or danger. The decision not to reject the plea deal was within his discretion, but his hands were not entirely tied. He could have, as requested by the victim, rejected the binding plea agreement. But that means starting over. Perhaps a trial. “Some kind of consequence” is all you’re gonna get here.
And the Idaho Judicial Branch seemingly chastising the public at large for their inability to understand “the court process,” without acknowledging the mistrust by the public when sex crimes cases involving young, white, male athlete defendants who receive this kind of a deal, seems quite tone deaf. I am not defending any of the online activity spreading misinformation about the case. But people are getting sick of exactly this kind of handling of sex crimes. They are asking for some transparency, not a drubbing for failing to understand the way the game is played once charges are filed and the deck gets reshuffled.
Make the record plain concerning the plea agreement and the sentence. Because the internet and social media are not going away. And you owe it to the victim and your voters anyway.
Again, no one in their right mind threatens a judge. Or a prosecutor. Or a defendant. It’s a crime and is indefensible under any circumstance. Outrage against the result here, however, is not a crime.
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The case of Justin Mack Butler continues to haunt me because that guy hasn’t even made it to a college campus yet, where the opportunity for sex crimes multiplies greatly. On the other side of the coin, others argue that harsh prison sentences prioritize punishment over real accountability and ignore the problems of mass incarceration, and that efforts to recall judges sentencing defendants like Stanford swimmer Brock Turner can “backfire.” Just what is “real accountability” in these cases? Where is the victim in all of this?
I don’t know what the answer is, but these cases involving high school and college white male athletes look like this to me–A white judge sees a guy like this and thinks of all the lost potential and yearns to believe there is a greater chance of rehabilitation because of his background. After all, growing up they did not want for anything. They knew how to behave, how to be charming, how to play the game. They coupled athletic gifts with hard work. They lost their scholarship! They got kicked out of school! Surely this is punishment enough and there must be a lot to work with for the future, right? This sex thing must have just been an aberration, right? Surely a one-time mistake that in no way reflects on their character or proclivities. Hey, it happens.
Except that the rape or sexual assault of a child, or rape and violent rape of adolescents and young women (both Brock Turner and Justin Mack Butler raped their victims with an object) is not a simple aberration. It is an outrage. These are depraved crimes that are off-the-charts. These are acts by men that should be punished just as harshly as those committed by others who had no advantages in life, who were granted no scholarships, who didn’t have parents who could afford expensive “sex crimes” defense attorneys who specialize in plea deals.
Of course you expect me to argue this, given that pedophile Christopher Busch was given probation in four CSC cases and may well have been involved in the murder of my brother and three other Oakland County preteens. He was most assuredly guilty of many more rapes and sexual abuse of hundreds of other kids and the creation of CSAM, before he wound up dead in his late 20s in his parent’s expensive Bloomfield Village home. The son of a wealthy and probably equally sick GM executive, he was educated at Le Rosey and had everything money could buy. Except a soul.
While some of these younger defendants may well be rehabilitated, and not end up like this defendant, https://newmediadetroit.com/michigan-man-once-acquitted-and-later-cleared-in-child-sex-cases-arrested-again-now-facing-24-new-felony-counts/, make no mistake. Their victims serve a life sentence.
I can assure you, that’s “not what they hoped for” when they crossed paths with these defendants, or when they wound up in these courtrooms.