Child Harassment Plea: Not Harsh Enough One Mom Says

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

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.