Being ‘Wrongly Listed on Sex Offender Registry’

David Kingrea with his wife, Michelle, and their son, Dylan. Kingrea said his conviction held them back from getting assistance for Dylan, who is disabled. The Roanoke Times, File 2022

David Kingrea gets $431,266 for being listed on Virginia’s sex offender registry for eight years. Unjustly. The punishment wasn’t a big-enough payment.

Yes, that is a very large sum of money. And again, considering the moral crime against this person, it wasn’t a sufficient penalty to the state of Virginia authorities.

Positive intent or not, the state’s actions were obnoxiously, egregiously incorrect and sloppy and inflicted tremendous pain on a citizen who should not have been on that list. His loved ones suffered. I suspect there is trauma that he has had and may continue to have for years.

“Kingrea said he believes the state gave him about $55,000 for each year his name was on the registry – ‘almost equivalent to the same as being wrongly incarcerated,’” reported Emma Coleman at Roanoke.com.

Sex offenders are broken and evil and to be wrongly lumped in and associated with them can be soul crushing and make one a devalued, social outcast, which is known to be extremely overwhelming emotionally, psychologically, relationship-wise and financially.

Kingrea’s backstory: “In 2011, his life was flipped upside down when his ex-girlfriend’s son accused David of sexually abusing him,” reported WSLS.com. “We had a very bad relationship to say, but nevertheless I never would have thought that this would even never come up,” Kingrea said then. “It was their word versus mine.”

That led to 26 court appearances over the course of three years, a guilty verdict for taking indecent liberties (I will spare you the graphic nature of the accusations) with a child and a jailing.

Horrific reputation damage. But at least justice was done. Or was it?

There was a twist to this story, a big one, to come. But time had to first pass.

In the fall of 2020, Kingrea received a later from that boy, now an adult, “who accused David of sexually abusing him over a decade ago,” WSLS.com reported.

The letter writer said, “he can’t change that past but he was going to do everything that he could to change my future to get me cleared because he knew I was innocent,” Kingrea said. “The letter took back all of the claims against David, clearing his name and getting him off the sex offender’s list.”

“Kingrea and his wife, Michelle, have a 9-year-old son named Dylan, who has been diagnosed with a number of disabilities, including spastic cerebral palsy and autism,” Coleman wrote. “When Kingrea was on the registry, he said caring for Dylan was harder, as he couldn’t advocate for his son at school. He had no words for that kind of heartbreak.”

He told Coleman that is “he is grateful for everyone who has helped his family, including Delegate Rip Sullivan, R-Fairfax, his attorney Fred Kellerman and Innocence Project advocates.”

Remember that organization: Innocence Project. They care. I find them in numerous articles I read and study.

“I’m very humbled,” Kingrea told Coleman. “I’m just glad that we always stood on what the truth was.”

There was drug use in his past. That has been reported. Kingrea did not, it was shown, commit the sexual crimes that he was accused of and later punished for in multiple, painful, miserable ways.

The court of public opinion means well. It also jumps to conclusions and is quick to condemn. Crimes against anyone are horrific and society is wired to be even more repulsed and enraged when they involve children being harmed.

Yet not all claims are factual and true. Sometimes, ugly motivations lead to false accusations, arrests, scandalous media reports, intense legal suffering, firings, financial misery, being ostracized in society and jailing or prison.

The legal powers we trust are wrong and at times, corrupt, a lot more than people realize or even being able to imagine, yet society still trusts and defends those powers and people to a fault. It takes long periods of time, perseverance and the endurance to suffer wrongdoing and stand up and compete to overcome.

Not every innocent or “not guilty” person overcomes. That’s the depressing reality. Some, however, do and their stories should encourage others.

Michael Toebe is a specialist for trust, risk, relationships, communication and communication at Reputation Intelligence — Reputation Quality, assisting individuals and organizations in 1) further building those important points and 2) improving, protecting, restoring and reconstructing them when needed.

If you find yourself in need and “want” of assistance for serious, critical situations involving reputation, you are welcome to contact me personally 7 days a week, day or night at reputation.intelligence.rq@gmail.com, or through the form below or by calling 316-226-4071 (8 am to 9 pm CST).