GQ Breaks the Real Story Behind the Dougherty Gang

In the January issue of GQ magazine, Kathy Dobie tells a chilling and cautionary tale of how quickly things can go wrong in our hypersensitive over policed society.

Dobie's expose, The Whole True Story of the Dougherty Gang, tells a different story from the one popularized by national media of a drug crazed desperado family ravaging banks and REI retail stores on a nationwide rampage.

As Dobie found, the Dougherty problems started in the spring of 2009 when the youngest of the three, Ryan, was just 19. Ryan had met a girl online and for eight days he exchanged explicit text messages and phone calls with a girl he believed to be 14 years old. He later found out the girl was only 11, though it is unclear when he learned this fact. What is known is that on the eighth day after only exchanging texts and phone calls and never attempting to meet the girl, Ryan told the girl she was too young and to stop contacting him.

On Auguast 1, 2011 Ryan plead no contest to two felony counts of, "sending a minor harmful information" and "lewd and lascivious conduct." Ryan's attorney told him to expect 5-years probation.

At sentencing the judge said he regretted having to treat Ryan like other rapists and sex offenders, then gave him 2-years house arrest, 10-years probation, and a 15-year prison term if he violated his probation.

Ryan, now 21, was told by his parole officer after sentencing that he would have to register as a sex offender and could not have contact with anyone under 18. Ryan's live-in girlfriend, Amber, was pregnant with his child at the time and the "no contact" order would include his unborn child as well. This meant that either Ryan or Amber would have to move out of the residence they shared. In addition, Ryan, who earned less than $1000 a month doing construction, would have to pay $240 a month for an ankle monitor.

Still reeling from the sudden change in his circumstancing Ryan went home to talk with his girlfriend. At 8 P.M. that night a second parole officer came to see Ryan and Amber and told them, "Eighty percent of people on your type of probation fail, and go to  prison." The officer gave the couple some more bad news as well, Ryan had 48 hours to register as a sex offender and would need two pieces of mail to prove residency . The house Ryan and Amber lived in was in rural Lacoochee Florida and did not have mail service, it never had, the house didn't even have a mailbox .

Ryan explained that it would be impossible to establish mail service and get mail sent to the address to verify residence in 48 hours. The officer responded coldly, "That's your all's problem, I'll be back in fourty-eight hours to arrest you."

Ryan told Dobie during their interview, "People like me get stabbed in prison, we get beat to death."

Dobie's article goes on to explain how Dylan and Lee-Grace, Ryan's older brother and sister, rallied around their brother and went on the run to help him escape the country and a violent 15-year prison term. The rest is prime time history; bank robbery for cash, high-speed chase, disputed shootout.

The cautionary tale here, especially for Colorado with its harsh life sentences for even victimless nonviolent sex offenses, is that as the reality of these sentences become known, along with the scarlet letter stigma of lifetime registration, those accused of these crimes will go to increasingly drastic measures to avoid sentences and parole conditions many consider extreme.

Earlier this year, in just a two week period, two men committed suicide rather than face Colorado's harsh Lifetime Supervision Act. The first man was an ROTC instructor at the Canon City high school who was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with one of his students. The second man was Patrick Merrill, the former Fort Morgan City Manager who was accused of possession of child pornography. Both men chose death over a lifetime of humiliation and prison. Others, like the Dougherty's, have fled, deciding their chances are better on the open road than in the state's justice system.

Related News

After receiving no relief in Colorado District Court in Canon City, an inmate in the Fremont Correctional Facility prepares to file a 1983 civil rights suit in Federal District ostrich Court in Denver this month against the head of CDOC Tom Clemons and Gov. John Hickenlooper.

The case, 11-CV-03295 BNB, filed pro se. argues the following:

- The indeterminate sentence as applied by Colorado is analogous to Civil Commitment and therefore requires additional levels of due process.

- The indeterminate sentence lacks equal protection because it denies offenders earned time in violation protection because of legislative intent.

-The state exercises deliberate indifference in the arbitrary nature with which the parole board evaluates and paroles those with indeterminate sentences.

The petitioner is requesting the court assign a public defender to help litigate the case. This is the second federal suit brought against the state over the indeterminate sentence in the last month. Attorney John Pineau also filed a class-action suit on behalf of all inmates incarcerated in Colorado under the Lifetime Supervision Act of 1998.