Can Registered Sex Offenders In PA Have Children?

Like many other states, Pennsylvania places restrictions on individuals convicted of child sexual abuse from being around children. This can include registration as a sex offender and a bar on the adoption and fostering of children. However, Pennsylvania doesn’t have such a prohibition for surrogacy.

The general public became aware of this exception when a Tier 1 registered sex offender successfully became a parent with his partner after the successful completion of gestational surrogacy. In response, legislative efforts began to prevent registered sex offenders from gaining parental rights through surrogate agreements.

If you’re a convicted sex offender in Pennsylvania, your parental rights could be jeopardized, whether or not you use surrogacy to become a parent. If you want to become a parent (or are already one) and are ordered to register on the Pennsylvania Megan’s Law registry, contact the LLF Law Firm Criminal Defense Team as soon as possible. There are special legal and practical considerations that can affect your present or future rights as a parent. You can speak with one of our experienced sex crimes attorneys by calling 888-535-3686 or using our online contact form.

Brandywine High School Teacher Convicted of Sex Crimes

Brandon Keith Mitchell (Mitchell) was a chemistry teacher at Downingtown West High School when he was accused of inappropriate electronic communications with a minor student. In 2016, Mitchell was charged with unlawful contact with a minor, child pornography, corruption of minors, and endangering the welfare of children. He pled guilty and became a convicted Tier 1 sex offender.

Brandon Mitchell Becomes a Father

After Mitchell married his husband, Logan Riley (Riley), a second-grade teacher from Maryland, they decided to have a family through surrogacy. Mitchell and Riley are a same-sex couple, so their primary pathways to parenthood were adoption, fostering, or surrogacy.

Pennsylvania law prohibited Mitchell from becoming a parent through adoption or fostering, but not surrogacy. Because of this, he and his husband decided to use in vitro fertilization and gestational surrogacy to become parents.

After news of this “loophole” went viral, state representative Aaron Bernstine announced plans to introduce legislation to ban registered sex offenders from becoming parents through surrogacy.

Parental Rights of Sex Offenders in Pennsylvania

When an individual becomes a registered sex offender in Pennsylvania, their ability to be a parent is severely curtailed. This is because registered sex offenders are typically prohibited from most contact with minors, such as not being able to live close to a school, park, daycare, or other location where there are likely to be children.

But how does this affect them as a prospective or current parent? The short answer is that it depends. The court will impose restrictions after taking the unique facts and circumstances of each case into consideration.

In theory, it isn’t illegal for a registered sex offender to get pregnant or get their (adult) partner pregnant, maintain custody of current children, or exercise existing parental rights. In practice, however, it could be difficult or impossible to do these things if a court concludes the convicted sex offender is a risk to children. Depending on the facts of a particular case, a court could potentially:

• Prohibit the parent from having any contact with their child.
• Allow the parent to only spend time with their children with supervision.
• Stop the parent from living in a household with someone else’s child.
• Limit the parent’s ability to carry out parental tasks, such as picking up their children from school (because the parent might be prohibited from getting within a certain distance of any school with minor students).

PA Sex Offender Attorney Can Help Protect Parental Rights

Becoming a registered sex offender doesn’t automatically mean you can’t become a parent or continue carrying out parental duties. But depending on what you’ve been accused of and if you get convicted, a court could easily make it impossible for you to become (or stay) a functional parent. This is why the moment you learn that you’ve been charged with a sex crime, you must contact the Criminal Defense Team from the LLF Law Firm. Schedule a consultation by either using our online contact form or by calling 888-535-3686.