Former Acadiana Priest, Child Molester Arrested After TV Series Airs

[Ian David]

Black Collar Crime

Former Acadiana Priest, Child Molester Arrested After TV Series Airs

A former Acadiana priest and child molester is behind bars in Texas. All this week, KATC has been following the story of Gilbert Gauthe since he left the Acadiana area years ago.

Sources in the Lone Star State tell KATC, Gauthe is in jail in La Marque, TX, charged with violating the state's sex offender registry law.

Our sister station, Houston ABC affiliate KTRK aired a series of reports about Gauthe, which we also brought you. After the stories hit the news, police say, Gauthe moved to a state park in Galveston to avoid media attention.

In making that move, officials say, he broke the law.

More:
http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=8212495


So, to protect his privacy from the TV news people, he went and hid someplace... which was illegal... and now he's back in jail. I hate to admit it, but I have mixed feelings about that.

[rurallib]

1. There is something like 10 threads on religious leaders having

illicit sex today. What the hell is going on? Methinks that there is simply a large amount going on, some is just leaking out.
Using a position of authority for one's own profit or gratification is really running rampant in this country. And it really hurts those in those positions who are trying to do their jobs right. Of course the biggest scofflaw is Bush.

[Ian David]

2. It's a typical day. n/t

[Dogtown]

3. I am against the Register.

I feel that it creates a "pariah for life" status that is a very dangerous precedent
At what point do we stop, mandatory forehead tatoos? And where do we draw the limit for the authorities to label us? CHILD MOLESTERS are bad people. So are TERRORISTS!!!11!!
AND WELFARE MOMS!!!!!!!

Secondly, the example I gave above typifies the skewed emotional response; *not all sex offenders are child-molesters*.

Seriously, even people that consider themselves serious kinky are revolted by child abuse. *MOST* of the crimes included in the register are minor taboos:

Urinating in an alley becomes "Public exposure of the genitals" and the typsy college kid is a SEX OFFENDER for life.

A teenager rounding 2nd in a car can be found guilty of "public indecency" or "public nudity".

If there is a 2 year age difference between the daters, there can be a conviction for rape, or molestation. It's happened here in Georgia, recently.
The "rapist" was black.

Two men kissing outside a bar can be arrested for "Lewd and Lascivious behavior". How often do you think homophobic police officers have punished other men for the rest of their lives because they were threatened by their affection?

I fear the lynchmob mentality. While I share the outrage at the sexual assaults committed in our society; puritanical, biblical punishments are not the answer.

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. Many, if not most, registry proponants would be more than happy if

sex offenders would oblige them by just committing suicide.

Never mind that the recidivism rate for sex offenders is no higher than any other crime, or that most registered offenders are, as you pointed out, guilty of offenses that fall far short of what the public imagination says a sex crime is.

Yes, there are some dangerous individuals out there. But they are the vast minority.

[varkam]

5. Moreover, the registry doesn't do a whole lot to make anyone safer.

In fact, there's evidence to suggest that the registry actually makes the problem worse in that (1) the majority of sexual crimes are comited by family members, friends, or acquaintances of the child and (2) the registry actually drives up recidivism by isolating offenders from educational, occupational, and therapeutic opportunities as well as social support networks by banishing them from urban areas.

But, when it comes to politics, retribution seems to be the order of the day.