This article answers questions pertaining to the juvenile sex offender registration laws of Oklahoma. The Juvenile Sex Offender Registration Act was added in 2001 because of a case in Oilton, Oklahoma where a 19 year old male named Robert Wayne Rotramel was charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping, lewd molestation, rape, and forcible sodomy after he allegedly kidnapped two young girls. One a 7 year-old was strangled and the other, a 12 year old was raped. This was not Robert Wayne Rotramel's first offense. Five years earlier when Rotramel was 14 years old, he forcibly sodomized a young boy, and a juvenile court adjudicated him delinquent. At the time he allegedly murdered the youngest girl and raped the older, no one had any way of knowing that Rotramel had an extensive juvenile record, including allegations of sex crimes, because of the sealed juvenile records. .
After Rotramel's charge of rape and murder, a publishing company filed a request for access to his juvenile records under the Oklahoma Open Records Act. The records were delivered to the judge, but none were released. The publishing company took the case to the Supreme Court of Oklahoma to force the trial court to release the records, and the Oklahoma State Supreme Court agreed. In Oklahoma, such records may be disclosed under certain limited circumstances where disclosure would serve an important public awareness safety. That would all change in 2001 with the introduction and passing of the sex offender registration law. On May 22, 2001, the Oklahoma State Senate released the information concerning the measure creating a statewide registry for juvenile sex offenders. .
Who is the juvenile sex offender?.
According to the Oklahoma Statutes, a juvenile sex offender is a person who is between fourteen and eighteen years of age at the time, the "qualifying- sex offense was committed. The offense had to happen after July 1, 2001, and the offender has to be adjudicated as delinquent, a youthful offender, on probation, or in custody of the Office of Juvenile Affairs to for an action that would be a felony under Title 21 (regarding sex offenses) of the Oklahoma Statutes if committed by an adult.
