Court to consider if sex offender can be alone with own kids

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Supreme Court has been asked to decide whether a convicted sex offender can spend time alone with his own children.

The Courier Journal reports that 33-year-old Ryan Scott Stone pleaded guilty to third-degree sodomy of a juvenile male relative in 2007.

In 2015, the state learned that Stone was married with two children, who are now 3 and 6. The state won an order from a family court judge barring Stone from being alone with his kids, but a Court of Appeals unanimously reversed that, saying that ruling infringed on his constitutional right to raise a family.

Prosecutor Brian Thomas says children have a “fundamental right to be free from sexual exploitation.” But the Court of Appeals said the state had failed to show the children were at risk.

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Information from: Courier Journal, http://www.courier-journal.com