Halloween season brings a flurry of warnings about keeping kids away from sex offenders, but what about people who say they are wrongful accused. The Texas Monthly tells the story of Greg Torti, who for almost twenty years has had to live the life of a convicted sex offender: monitored by the authorities, unable to go near schools or parks, forced to make his home on the outskirts of a tiny town 20 miles from Dallas.
Torti was accused of molesting a boy but later established that no sex was involved. After serving a prison term, he was released from parole in 2010. Because he was on a sex offender registry, his photo and status remained online for anyone to find, and he had to carry a blue sex offender card everywhere he went. He couldn't own a gun or enroll in college without permission from the sheriff and administrators, and his parole officer continued to visit every month. The sheriff came by every three months. He was still officially a “public menace,” says the Monthly.