suburbanchicagonews.com (Illinois) : Man wrongly ends up on sex offender list.
Scott Ibarra had no idea he was wrongly listed as a sex offender until a pal pointed it out. A year later, the local cops still won't tell him how it happened. Ibarra's name, the address of his Joliet home and his physical description were placed in the state's sex offender registry under a charge of aggravated criminal sexual assault for a month and 10 days in 2008. In fact, Ibarra, 37, said he only learned he was on the state's list of sex offenders after a police officer he is friends with alerted him to it exactly a year ago, on Oct. 14, 2008.
Since that time, Ibarra has attempted to find out how he was wrongly branded a sex offender, but says he has been frustrated at every turn.
Other mistakes on list
While Ibarra eventually found out from a friend that he was on the sex offender registry, it was a full 39 days before he learned he was listed. Ibarra's wife, Tracy Ibarra, finds this particularly troubling. "I said, 'Scott, if they've done this to you, they must have done this to someone else," she said.
Compton did not have statistics for the number of people incorrectly placed on the sex offender registry. He said that while the number varies, there are more than 24,000 listed.
Ibarra admits he is speculating, but wonders if being mistakenly listed as a sex offender caused him trouble and misery during the 40 days he was on the list.
"The day I ended up on the Web site I lost my job, coincidentally," he said.
Ibarra said he is fighting for justice, but does not know how he can be made whole. "People look at that site all the time, and I don't know who saw it," he said. "Once you ring a bell, you can't unring it."
