http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/west-volusia/2010/12/11/deltona-sexual-predator-receives-pardon.html
DELTONA -- A Deltona man listed as a sexual predator for eight years won a pardon this week after he told the governor's clemency panel he has received therapy, and the designation has kept him from finding steady work.
Gregory M. Allen, 49, must now petition the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to have his name and photograph removed from a state website listing sexual offenders and predators, said Jane Tillman, a spokeswoman for the Executive Clemency Board.
The board -- Gov. Charlie Crist and three members of the Cabinet -- granted Allen a pardon Thursday. Allen's was among 81 cases heard.
In a brief interview outside his Deltona home Friday evening, Allen and his wife said the family "just wanted to move forward" years after the 2001 arrest.
"The situation was blown out of proportion from the beginning," Allen said. "It just took time for the state to see I wasn't a threat to anyone."
Allen told the board his sexual-predator designation has made it difficult to get a good-paying job to support his wife and seven children in the home. He was remorseful about a sexual encounter with a minor in 2001, and said he's successfully completed therapy.
"Forgiveness, particularly at this time of year, is a very worthwhile message for all of us to be reminded of," Crist said after Thursday's meeting.
Cocoa police initially charged Allen with sexual battery and fondling a victim younger than 16, Florida Department of Law Enforcement records show. He entered a plea in Brevard County in 2002 to molesting a child between the ages of 12 and 16 and received probation, according to the records.
Keith Kameg, an agency spokesman, said Allen must apply to the FDLE to be taken off the registry. FDLE must review and confirm the pardon before Allen's name will be removed.
Tillman said no other information about why the board made its decision was a public record she could release.
Florida's Executive Clemency Board is comprised of the governor and Cabinet members Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, Attorney General Bill McCollum and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson.
The board rejected most of the clemency requests.
Allen, who worked for several years for a federal government agency, for an aeronautics technology company and served in the U.S. National Guard, said he has lived in his Deltona neighborhood for three years, and all his neighbors were notified of his sexual predator designation.
Allen said his 2001 arrest came after he sought therapy for what he called an "isolated incident" with a girl. Each therapist he contacted reported the incident to authorities, he said.
After Thursday's hearing, Sink expressed frustration with the state's classification of people as sex offenders even though they may have been convicted of consensual relations. She said it's an issue that needs more work by Gov.-elect Rick Scott and the three new Cabinet members who take office Jan. 4.
Copyright © 2010 The Daytona Beach News-Journal
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