Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Sex abuse conviction doesn’t stop Granite School Board candidate
b>Richard W. Jones facing incumbent Dan Lofgren for 1 of 3 seats on Granite Board.
Like many of the state’s largest school districts, the Granite Board of Education must balance ongoing challenges to steer its growing district of 67,736 students into the future.
Three seats are up for grabs. Candidate Connie Anderson in District 2 and Sarah R. Meier in District 4 are both running unopposed.
In the District 1 race, where a wealth of education issues could be at the forefront, one aspect continues to draw attention as Election Day nears: Candidate Richard Wagner Jones is a registered sex offender.
That means if Jones prevails in the election as the board member to represent constituents in the Holladay area over incumbent businessman Dan Lofgren, he’ll face barriers in visiting the schools he’d represent.
Jones fulfilled obligations imposed by the court after his 1990 second-degree felony conviction of sexual abuse of a child for sexually abusing a girl. He spent five years at the Utah State Prison and 10 years on probation, which ended in 2005. He remains on the sex offender registry, which, according to state law, prohibits him from going to public or private elementary or secondary schools if he doesn’t get special permission from a school administrator first.
Jones is up-front about his crime. He lists on his website, www.electwagner.com, treatment that he received in prison and includes statistics about the likelihood of sex offenders repeating their crimes once released. Three out of every five sex crimes are "crimes of confusion" in which the problem is corrected once confronted and the majority of offenders never offend again, Jones states.
He was in the elders quorum presidency of his local congregation in the 1980s and rebaptized into the LDS Church after 18 years in 2008. He’s been politically active for much of his life, including serving as chairman of the East Side Voter Forum, which has sponsored a number of debates. Still, he knows that his time in prison means some voters won’t consider his viewpoints.
"People have their baggage, and I have my baggage in this election, of course," Jones said. "We live in a Judeo-Christian society I think, where repentance is something people want to do. I’ve bent over backwards to be an example to my sons of someone who faces their problems. People who run away from their problems are dangerous."
Still, Jones’ history is a red flag to some in the community who worry that he can’t overcome past demons despite his candid remarks about his crime.
"I think there’s still consequences. How can you erase everything?" said Anderson, the District 2 candidate, about Jones’ past. "I think the public needs to be aware [of Jones’ history]."
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