Life of an S.O.

The following was sent to us via the "Tell Us Your Story" form and posted with the users permission.

By C:
I have struggled with disabilities since birth which have caused me to be a little slower than most people and not using good judgment. That, and growing up in a small town. I was prior to and after my conviction very well known. To this day I still am, despite my status. Now at the time of my arrest almost 10 years ago, my parents said I was 26 but had the mentality of a teenager due to my disabilities. You see, when I was 24 way back in 2003, I dated a girl who was younger than I was. Of course 2 years later I was arrested and charged with 3 counts of rape of a child 3rd degree despite the fact it was consensual and never was forced. Unfortunately I was never given a plea agreement by the prosecutor and over the course of 9 months, my case dragged out eventually going to trial where I was convicted. Two months later I was given a 53 month sentence where upon instead of being sent to prison, I was given a sentencing alternative and started probation. The next 4 year's of probation of course was hell. Flash forward to 2010, I'm 2 months away from finishing probation and my p.o. decides to violate me because I was in a relationship with a woman who was 8 years older than I was, along with a couple technical violations. My probation was revoked and I spent the next 28 months in prison, releasing right before Christmas 2012. Upon release, I luckily did not have supervision again, thank God...and started to put my life back together, or at least try to. I met the most wonderful woman in 2013 and now because of my status has had to move out of state due to a custody battle with her ex husband. In 2014, someone called CPS on my girlfriend because I had been helping her babysit her daughter who is absolutely adorable. I loved her and treated her as if she was my own daughter. However, because of my status, my girlfriend now has to fight for custody of her daughter. Being an S.O. has been rough. I've lost friends and girlfriends because of my status. A lot of people who see me as an S.O. stereotype me with all the rest. And I think that was the case with CPS. They stereotyped me as well, never even interviewing me before making their finding. I think that if a person is going to judge a s.o. they really need to look at the whole picture instead of automatically jumping to conclusions. Thanks!