Child Harassment Plea: Not Harsh Enough One Mom Says
Christopher A. Frank, 42, pleaded guilty to harassment involving an adult harassing a child, a class D felony.
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When it comes to offenses against children, many people feel the punishment shouldn't fit the crime—it should be harsher.
That can be especially true when there is a plea agreement.
On Tuesday, Patch reported that Christopher A. Frank, 42, of the 700 block of Cella Road in Ladue, pleaded guilty to harassment involving an adult harassing a child, a class D felony.
Frank received a suspended imposition of sentence, given 120 days of electronic home monitoring and was placed on five years probation.
Frank originally was charged with sexual misconduct involving a child under age 15, also a class D misdemeanor. He is owner and president of Cfx Inc., a marketing firm based in St. Louis.
After the agreement was announced, area residents expressed outrage that as part of the plea agreement, Frank will not be placed on Missouri’s Sex Offender Registry.
"This isn't even a slap on the wrist," said Brentwood mother Jennifer Horton. "I can't believe he got away with this—120 days is nothing."
Brentwood Police reported that Frank got on his knees in a restroom stall Home Depot in Brentwood and exposed his genitals to an 11-year-old boy in the next stall. Police said Frank then lay on the floor and watched the boy use the restroom.
"He needs help—this is sick," Horton said. "It very much concerns me that his business is so close to schools."
Horton said she and other mothers have followed the case closely. She frequents Home Depot and said it is hard to believe that something like this could happen in the Brentwood store.
"It's hard because my son is at that age now (9) where he is too old to go into women's restrooms with me or into locker rooms with me at the Y or the Heights," she said. "He's got to go by himself."
Prosecutors told KMOV that they did all they could in the case, because the victim's family didn't want the trauma of a trial.
Attorneys told KMOV they wanted Frank to face the sexual misconduct charge but the victim’s family felt a trial would be too traumatic for the 11-year-old.
Frank will go through probation as part of the sex offenders program, a St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office official said.
Horton said the whole situation makes her skin crawl. She used the original charge to educate her son on what to do when he feels.
"We sat down and talked about what to do if someone approaches him in an unsafe or inappropriate way," she said. "He is a Boy Scout, so we've had discussions about safety before."
Missouri Sex Offender Registry
The Sex Offender Registry was created in response to the Missouri Legislature's resolution to facilitate public access to available information about persons registered as sexual offenders.
Individuals included on the web site are included solely by virtue of their conviction record and Missouri state law. The primary purpose of providing this information is to make the information easily available and accessible, not to warn about any specific individual.
These records are maintained and updated daily by the Missouri State Highway Patrol in an effort to assure that the information on the web site is complete and accurate; however, the Patrol makes no representation, express or implied, that the information contained on the web site is accurate.
View the entire Missouri Sex Offender Registry.
For more on this story, see the following articles:
- Man Pleads Guilty to Harassing Child in Brentwood Home Depot
- Ladue Man Charged With Exposing Himself to Boy in Home Depot Restroom
- Christopher Frank, St. Louis Business Owner, Board Member Charged with Sexual Misconduct
If you have experienced or know someone who has experienced sexual violence, find resources through the Safe Connections 24-hour crisis hot line at 314-531-2003.
In This article
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Brentwood Police Department
272 Hanley Industrial Ct, Brentwood, MO -
The Home Depot
1603 S Hanley Rd, Brentwood, MO -
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T Hunter
8:13 am on Friday, March 1, 2013
So after 120 days, this guy goes back to business as usual? What clients does his marketing firm work with? Public pressure on his clients - grass roots boycott.
Mark
9:18 am on Friday, March 1, 2013
I say bravo for Jennifer Horton for standing up for what she believes in and protecting her children from predators like this. I also like T Hunter's idea, if we can't do anything through the legal system, it's time we as citizens take back our streets and start hitting these people where it hurts...their pockets. If we organize a grass roots campaign against the companies that support his business then maybe he'll get the message (he's not welcome here). Anybody know who this guy does work for? (personally, I would get my company as far away from this mess as possible)
Jnce
10:29 pm on Saturday, April 6, 2013
In this case, it was purely in the victim's hands. Their refusal to testify is the cause of this guy not being on the sex offender list, and not being prosecuted for what he actually did.
Mr. Completely
11:42 am on Friday, March 1, 2013
Looks like Sheriff Joe Arpaio picked out the shirt.
K Smith
5:10 pm on Friday, March 1, 2013
This is truly sad. We had 4 kids physically and psychologically abused by a sitter for 4 years. She was only charged for one incident to one of our sons. She did assault in the 2nd degree and child endangerment in the 1st degree both Class C Felonies. She got the same exact sentence as this sick man. No jail time at all. Our case had police misconduct in that they never did any investigation and they didn't even contact the pediatrician for the medical records. The prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County, David Pisarkiewicz was demoted for doing nothing. His response to the medical records with the statement "Non-Accidental Trauma" was "We'll, all we know is it was non-accidental trauma. He asked for no innvestigation for a total of 4 broken bones in the legs of two of our sons under the age of 3 and bruising on the ears only to both of our sons on the same day. The perpetrator got away with fracturing our son's femur requiring surgery, and severely hitting him in the ear causing a perforated eardrum and hearing loss. She even left him laying on the floor until we picked him up about 3 hours later. Not enough is done by St. Louis County to prosecute child abuse!
T Hunter
8:57 pm on Friday, March 1, 2013
Disgusting! I am truly sorry for the victims - that do not get justice.
Jnce
10:24 pm on Saturday, April 6, 2013
THunter, in this case, it is completely because of the victim that there will not be justice and this guy is free to do it again. They have refused to testify, that is why the case had to be settled. They cannot prosecute if the victim will not testify.
Vicki HEnry
6:01 am on Saturday, March 2, 2013
There are a couple of good points here. The first being this guy was not on a sex offender registry so, it didn't prevent what happened. Jerry Sandusky WASN'T on any registry either. So, a public registry serves no useful purpose except, as these enraged citizens prove, a 'false sense of security' to protect their children. John Walsh, father of Adam Walsh after who the AWA Act of 2006 was named has said the registry is not being used as it was intended and that most of the people should be removed and only the truly violent offenders tracked and monitored. There are about 750,000 men, women & children (young as 8 & 10 in some states) required to register for urinating in public (indecent exposure), streaking, solicitation, incest, prostitution, viewing suggestive or abusive images of someone under the age of 18, playing doctor, molestation, rape, consensual sexual dating relationship (Romeo & Juliet), false accusations by a soon-to-be ex-wife, jilted girlfriend, or spiteful student, endangering the welfare of a child and many other offenses.
Multiply that number by 2 or 3 family members and you can see there are over 2,000,000 wives, children and other loved ones who experience the collateral damage in these cases. Point #2, listing all this information in this article has made the family targets and your readers are describing their version of vigilante justice. What happened was wrong, he was adjudicated, don't punish the family.
Vicki
Women Against Registry
Jane
9:18 am on Saturday, March 2, 2013
Vicki - One can be against the unjust use of the sex offender registry while still insisting that the proper people be put on the list. These views are not mutually exclusive. I think the outrage here is that Mr. Frank is a clear case of someone who should be on the list, while many of those instances you cite are not. Please use the public urinator as the person you uphold publicly as your poster child, not someone like Mr. Frank. That just undermines your cause tremendously and makes you look like a defender of pedophiles.
I don't see how urging for proper justice is punishing the family. As Ms. Horton already eloquently said, Mr. Frank is the source of his family's misery, not the public who are just trying to protect their children from predators. Sorry, but my sympathy lies with the past victim(s) of Mr. Frank, not with him or his family.
Mr. Completely
12:48 pm on Saturday, March 2, 2013
Are you drunk? Don't punish the family....they should divorce his sorry ass.
As I stated before, left to themselves these types of creepy pervs only get worse. Nothing funny about the situation the family is in but they control that. The little boy in the bathroom at Home Depot didn’t have a choice. This creeper will end up perving on another kid next week, month, year or decade, it’s gonna happen. He should be locked up or jacked up.
Frida
11:13 pm on Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Vicki isn't vindicating pedophiles. She is simply saying the list is inaccurate and is a false sense of security. Don't put words in other people's mouths.
Jennifer Horton
8:23 am on Saturday, March 2, 2013
Vicki, I totally get your points given. The system we have is way from prefect, but it is all we have for now. The point that everyone are trying to get across is that we feel that Mr. Frank was not given the proper punishment or help that he needs. The way I see it, we are not punishing the family. Mr Frank did that all on his own!
Tom Sederburg
1:17 am on Sunday, March 3, 2013
Does this loser still live on Cella Road? The houses on that street back to John Burroughs... Creepy!
T Hunter
3:06 pm on Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Maybe I don't understand "electronic home monitoring", but I saw him walk into his office this morning. WTF? Can anyone explain this to me?
Jnce
7:30 pm on Saturday, April 6, 2013
This is unconscionable, but you cannot blame the police or prosecutor. Unfortunately, this is on the victim's family that refuse to go to trial. They are the one's that are assuring that this guy will do it again, because he can.
Bill Kowalski
7:42 am on Friday, April 26, 2013
The kid's been through enough, though. Making him stand as a witness, and perhaps get cross-examined on his recollections a few years after the incident, has all kinds of things wrong with it. The kid doesn't need to have this thing even more deeply imprinted in his mind.
Jnce
11:45 pm on Saturday, April 27, 2013
Bill, is it better for this guy to come back for another kid, or the same kid? That is what happens if the victim's do not cooperate. On the contrary it can actually be quite cathartic to face him and testify. It is what needs to be done, and the brave do it.
Bill Kowalski
7:40 am on Friday, April 26, 2013
This guy was offered an opportunity to plead guilty to a lesser charge to save Brentwood the costs of a trial, and to eliminate the chance he might not be found guilty, which is a possibilty for any charge. We'd all like to see some draconian punishment here, no doubt, because this offense is so revolting to a normal person. However, in our system of justice, one notably protecting the rights of all citizens, even those accused of disgusting crimes, we should be happy with "close enough".