Child molester hasn't served single day of 43-year prison term
(CNN) -- For nearly two years, the South Florida middle school art teacher forced the boy to have sex in a classroom supply closet.
Aaron Mohanlal, here in his sex offender registration photo, was allowed to stay out of prison on bond.
Sometimes, Aaron Mohanlal would call in sick to work, take the boy to his home for sex and drop the seventh-grader back off at school at the end of the day.
To keep the abuse secret, Mohanlal bought the 13-year-old a cell phone and created nicknames for their genitalia. When police arrested him, the teacher was caught on hidden video trying to destroy letters threatening the boy if he ever told.
Last summer, a Broward County jury convicted Mohanlal of 13 counts, including child abuse, molestation and lewd battery, and a judge sentenced him to 43 years.
But a year later, Mohanlal has yet to spend a day in prison.
"I want to move on with my life. I'm trying to graduate high school and forget about this," the victim said. "I try not to think about it, but it's hard because all I can think about is what if he's out there around other kids?"
Weeks after the trial, Broward Circuit Judge Marc Gold, who presided over the trial and sentenced Mohanlal, granted the teacher a rare bond that allows him to remain free while his case is tried on appeal, a process that could take years.
During the two months CNN has investigated this story, Mohanlal has been working a construction job in Broward County and spending time at a house in Sunrise, Florida, 15 miles from where the boy and his family live, according to the Broward County Sheriff's Office.
He resigned from his teaching job in 2005 after his arrest.
"The idea of that monster being that close to my family again is outrageous," said the boy's father, who is often so overwhelmed with rage and sadness that he drives to a park, leans against a tree and sobs.
"What did we go through a trial for?" he said.
A man who identified himself as Mohanlal hung up on a CNN reporter who called his home in Port St. Lucie, Florida, his address on record with the state's sex offender registry.
Mohanlal's appellate attorney, Tom Odom, refused to comment on the case beyond saying, "Everyone has a right to a first appeal."
Gold gave Mohanlal the right to live, work, travel and attend church in South Florida, according to numerous interviews and documents CNN has obtained. The judge ordered Mohanlal to wear a GPS device, register as a sex offender and surrender his passport.
He stipulated that Mohanlal cannot contact the boy and his family, but did not order him to stay away from children, according to a transcript of the July 2007 bond hearing.
Mohanlal was allowed to post the $610,000 bond using his relatives' properties as collateral, the transcript shows.
Post-conviction bonds are rarely given in criminal trials, but judges occasionally grant them if there was a procedural error during trial that would make a conviction reversal at the appellate level likely, legal experts tell CNN.
But there were no procedural mistakes during Mohanlal's trial, both prosecutor Anita White and defense attorney Steve Rossi told CNN.
Under Florida statute, defendants without prior felonies are eligible for post-conviction bond unless they have committed first-degree murder or sexual battery. Mohanlal wasn't convicted of first-degree sexual battery. He was convicted of second- and third-degree felonies, and he had no prior felony record.
Gold refused to talk on record about why he granted the bond. He would only give this statement: "The simple truth is that I had to rule based on what was presented to me during that hearing. And I took everything into consideration and felt a bond was appropriate."
"For a judge to delay jail is highly unusual, but it's especially unusual when you have someone convicted of a serious crime like sexual molestation of a child," said CNN legal analyst.
A dozen legal experts, including criminal attorneys based in Florida, said they agree with Bernstein. None could recall a single case of a violent offender receiving the same kind of treatment.
Last year, the boy's family won $300,000 from the school district after a civil claim that the district failed to protect the student.
Other students in Mohanlal's class testified that their teacher handed them fliers, with the boy's picture and phone number, that falsely accused the teen of having sex with animals. Caught on surveillance camera at a grocery store copying the fliers, prosecutors say Mohanlal had become a disturbed lover scorned when the boy entered high school and began rejecting his advances.
And there was evidence that Mohanlal was grooming other children. One middle-schooler told police that Mohanlal rubbed his arms and back during class; another testified at trial that his teacher gave him his cell phone number, money and hair conditioner.
The investigator learned that Mohanlal was released on bond when he randomly searched for him on the state's correctional Web site.
"I was astonished, flabbergasted," Armiento said. "I called the state attorneys office to see if it was some kind of mistake. I don't see what would stop him from doing this to other kids."
Mohanlal's GPS device is monitored 24 hours a day by the Broward County Sheriff's Office, meaning his location appears on a computer screen. Otherwise, there is no police agency watching him.
But 70 days of itineraries from March to June that CNN obtained from the Broward Sheriff's Office are not detailed; for example, some say Mohanlal intends to leave his home at 6:30 a.m. and return at 9:30 p.m., but do not say where he will be or what his plans are.
"We are confident that he is doing what he's supposed to be doing," Gulick said. "We have had no reason to think otherwise."
Because Mohanlal was required to register as a sex offender, he must provide the Florida Department of Law Enforcement with his home address. That home is in Port St. Lucie, about two hours from Broward County.
"This guy has all the reason in the world to take off," said Florida state criminologist Tom Blomberg, who conducted a 2006 study of sex offenders who are monitored by wearable GPS devices. "He's looking at prison for the rest of his life, and child molesters are almost always victimized in prison. He has to know that."
Convicted Child Molester STILL free!!
Discussion in 'Other News' started by smurf-316, Jul 23, 2008.
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This really chaps my ### that this sorry piece of trash is STILL walking among other kids. that sorry ### no good judge should get the same thing the child did!
cat 500 Thanks this. -
WHO THE HELL ORCHESTRATED THIS TRAIN WRECK??!!!

"Gold refused to talk on record about why he granted the bond. He would only give this statement: "The simple truth is that I had to rule based on what was presented to me during that hearing. And I took everything into consideration and felt a bond was appropriate.""
What do we need to do to get dipsticks like this off the bench?smurf-316 Thanks this. -
I say we follow Iran on this and stone his ##* to death... That's what he deserves...
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I saw this story the other day and it made me mad! Of all people who don't deserve bond! Or, maybe he is a great candidate for bond. My question is, how has he managed to live freely for a year? Now that this story has broken, hopefully his days are numbered. He is not allegedly a sicko, he is a convicted sicko and someone will dispense their own form of justice upon him.
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Well being he likes little boys
I say we spray him with some perfume and throw his sick ### over the wall at a maximum security prison!
all night long! >>> :smt058
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Gruff prisoner: HEY! Looks like you dropped the soap thar! Why don't you be a good lil boy an' pick it up?
smurf-316 Thanks this. -
he may pitch or he may catch.
either way he's gonna play the game.
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LOL thats bad -
It's my guess that he is gonna be squatting behind home plate....if you catch my drift.
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Aaron Mohanlal, here in his sex offender registration photo, was allowed to stay out of prison on bond.