I recently visited the Capitol in Sacramento to testify in regards to Senate Bill 33 and I write this letter to the editor with a heavy heart. There is a law on the books (1203.066 Penal Code) that simply says if you rape your child or a child living in your household, you can be granted probation, counseling, and residency in the home for the same crime that would send you to prison if the child you raped was a neighbor. You can be a parent, relative or the boyfriend of the child’s mother and receive this preferential treatment. Last I heard, it was a crime to sexually penetrate, orally copulate and sodomize a child.
Senate Bill 33 authored by Senator Jim Battin would have closed that loophole. Plain and simple, it would have protected the child and other members of the household by removing the criminal from the home. On Tuesday, June 28, the Assembly Public Safety Committee killed the bill. Over the years, I have seen and heard fine rhetoric, a multitude of excuses by spineless elected officials and hundreds of millions spent on trying to fix the massive child abuse epidemic in this Country. If only children could vote…I am sure those public officials would be the first to go.
I was appalled by the arrogant, non-caring, and insensitive behavior of the Legislators, both on the Assembly and Senate Committees, towards those who testified on behalf of the bill, and its supporters. But more appalling was the insensitive manner those Assemblymen and Senators displayed to those victims who traveled long distances to testify at their own expense and who actually lived the daily terror of sexual and physical abuse.
The facts speak for themselves. Professionals say that all victims of sexual molestation will, at some point in their lives, experience Post Traumatic Stress. Statistics further prove that molestors and pedophiles are the least of all criminals that are amenable to rehabilitation.

3,244,000 – Children abused in the United States each year.
1,330,711 – Is the approximate population of Sacramento County
17,317 – Is the seating capacity for the ARCO arena.
1, 401– children are killed nationally each year by their caregivers, but we don’t
know about it because the cause of death, though a result of abuse, is listed
otherwise, consequently, we are losing these child abuse statistics. (broken
ribs=pneumonia=death)

Just Look at the Facts

• The number of children abused each year in this nation would populate the County of Sacramento 3 times.
• You would have to fill the ARCO Arena approximately 180 times to accommodate the number of children abused each year.
• Virtually all 288 (child molest) suspects are fathers, boyfriends, uncles, brothers in the victim’s household (my statistics showed approximately 90-93 %.) Over and over again, professional’s state that molesters are manipulators and instill fear in the child from telling anyone…”if you love me, you won’t tell…”
• Would you give an arsonist a match? Would you give a pedophile your child to baby-sit? Then why, in God’s name, would you give a helpless child who cannot speak for themselves, back to a sex offender?

The legacy our public officials leave may be that they have put sex offenders above the welfare of children and that housing criminals and protecting children is not a priority. Did we, the citizens, vote them into office to do just that?

It just doesn’t make sense, ethically or morally. A Family Unit does not beat, starve, burn, break bones or SEXUALLY MOLEST their children. Please contact your local Senators and Assemblemen and demand the passage of this bill that would close that loophole. Let’s protect our children.

Jane LeMond-Alvarez
cc:Assembly members



Dear Senator Migden,

I recently attended the Public Safety Committee on April 19th reference Senate Bill 33. Thank you for taking the time to discuss the issues at hand regarding this most important bill. Senate Bill 33 may be the most important bill you ever sign for it certainly determines the safety of our most vulnerable citizens - our children.

During the testimony you commented that you felt that Probation had done much in the past few years. Your statement is somewhat true, but not entirely.

I am a retired Crime Analyst with over 20 years law enforcement experience and have worked extensively with parole and probation. I also managed the sex offender program for over 1100 sex offenders when I worked with the Oxnard Police Department. Every sex offender had more than one victim with an overwhelming number of victims their own children.

I also managed the Serious Habitual Juvenile Offender Program for two years when I worked in the District Attorney's Office. Over 95% of the juvenile offenders were abused, many of them sexually abused by their own family members.

I have documented literally hundreds of cases of child abuse in my capacity as a Crime Analyst. Personally, I adopted 3 sexually abused children and have lived through their night terrors, food hoarding, rage and other behavioral problems that arise years later from their sexual abuse. The sex offender was never sent to jail and continued to molest other relative-children outside the home when his 3 children were removed. Sexual molestation of children is the most horrific crime we have. It is hard for many to visualize this horrific crime against children. I have seen them first hand.

I am writing to you to ask for your endorsement for Senate Bill 33 in the Appropriations Committee. A Probation Officer is not with the sex offender 24 hours a day. As you heard in Melissa Hammer's victim's testimony, she was pressured into counseling and threatened to be taken to juvenile hall if she did not comply. The sex offender in this case led therapists to believe that he was rehabilitated - only to sexually assault Melissa's younger sister years later. I can attest to what she said as being accurate.

I often ask people if they would give an arsonist a match. Absolutely not, they say. How about a gun to a robber? Again, No. Then why in God's would anyone give a child to a sex offender who has admitted sexually molesting them? Keeping the "Family Unit" together is a misguided effort that prolongs the victimization of the child. Statistics show that all sexually molested victims will suffer from Post Traumatic Stress at sometime in their life. I, myself, didn't tell anyone for over 20 years. A "Family Unit" does not burn, beat, starve, neglect or sexually molest their children. Please look at this crime for what it really is. We must protect our children at all costs. They are our future.

Sincerely,



Jane LeMond-Alvarez

Jane LeMOND Alvarez