Freed Rapist Didn't Immediately Register as a Sex Offender

Mike Crow was shocked and appalled when Jared Bates, who had sexually assaulted his disabled daughter, Maria Crow, walked out of a Denver courtroom a free man after figuratively having his wrist slapped for the crime.

Now, almost three weeks later, his frustration has been compounded by Bates's failure to register as a sex offender — though he acknowledges that what he's going through is nothing compared to the emotions that Maria is currently experiencing.

In the wake of the initial ruling, Mike says, "she was crying for days. She eventually decided to try and move on, but she also kept checking the sex-offender registry and found out he hadn't even registered yet."

Bates's name still doesn't appear in the Colorado Bureau of Investigation's online database, and Ginger Delgado, press-affairs liaison with the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office, confirms that he is not registered at this time. But that could change soon.

This week, after being contacted by Westword, ACSO deputies twice stopped by Bates's current address in Greenwood Village but failed to make contact. Earlier today, however, Bates called the number on a card left at the residence by a deputy, and made an appointment to register at 11 a.m. tomorrow, August 2. If he shows up as scheduled, he'll be off the hook, Delgado says. But if he's not there by 11:15 a.m., a warrant will be issued for his arrest on a charge of failure to register.

Even if he registers, though, Maria is still worried about her safety. Mike says that a member of the Denver District Attorney's Office that prosecuted Bates advised her to "be careful of your surroundings and have a phone with you at all times.'"

At a July 12 hearing, 2nd Judicial District Court Judge John Madden (who has not responded to an interview request) sentenced Bates to 45 days behind bars, two fewer than the 47 days he'd already spent in custody: As a result, he was immediately released. However, Bates was also mandated to serve five years of probation and register as a sex offender.

In response to Madden's decision, the Denver DA's office issued the following statement: "Our office negotiated a plea agreement — that the victim approved — and which called for Jared Bates to serve up to three years in prison. At sentencing, we requested a three-year prison sentence."

Showing up late tomorrow could potentially lead to nearly that harsh a punishment for Bates. Colorado statutes require sex offenders to register "within the later of twenty-four hours or the next business day after sentencing." Felony failure to register carries a potential penalty of one to two years in prison and/or a fine of between $1,000 and $100,000 for a first offense.

The attack on Maria took place on June 23, 2018. "She was living with my son, Michael, and Jared was a family friend — someone we'd trusted," Mike says. "I'd had him to my home. I fed him. He spent the night at our house. I treated him like a son."

On the date in question, he continues, "Michael had gone to work, but Jared was still there. He told me afterward he kept trying to get Jared to leave, but he wouldn't. So he left, and Maria and Jared were sitting around talking and having some drinks — and he kept pouring her more. She told him, 'Hey, slow down, slow down. I don't want to drink all of this.' She eventually passed out."

Fortunately, Mike notes, "Michael had a gut feeling that something was wrong, so he told his boss, 'I don't feel good. Something's not right.' And when he got home, Jared was standing there over Maria. His pants were down and his genitals were showing, and she had no pants on, either. Michael flipped out and called 911."

When emergency personnel arrived, Maria was unresponsive and didn't seem to be breathing. "They had to do a sternum thrust on her to get her to breathe again," Mike says. "The judge said, 'We all agree that Michael was the hero,' and he was. If he hadn't come home when he did, she might have died. It was a blessing he came home when he did and found Jared doing this, even though it was just horrible."

As the case wound its way through the system, prosecutors asked Maria if she would sign off on an agreement that called for Bates to plead guilty to attempted sexual assault in exchange for a recommended one- to three-year sentence plus lifetime sex-offender registration. "They said it was either an agreement or a jury trial," Mike recalls, "and the agreement meant that my daughter and my son wouldn't have to get on the stand and go through the trauma of that. So she said okay."

But things didn't go as planned. At the July 12 hearing, Mike and his wife asked the judge to impose a jail sentence on Bates, "but his lawyer talked about how he was working at some job and doing good and trying to get his life together, and then the judge mentioned something about not wanting to ruin his life," Mike recalls. "It was like everybody forgot about Maria and suddenly it was all about him — this poor soul who had violently raped my daughter. It was like Maria didn't even count. The judge didn't say anything about the statements we made or tell us, 'I understand how you're feeling' or anything like that. He was totally for the defense."

The 45-day sentence so incensed Mike that he immediately began looking into starting a recall campaign against Madden, only to learn that under Colorado law, judges are exempt from such an effort. As such, his only recourse is to campaign against Madden's re-election in November 2020. "Even if I move out of Denver, I plan on being here come November to protest right out in front of the Lindsey-Flanigan building," he says of the Denver courthouse where Bates was sentenced. "I want everyone to know this man doesn't deserve to be re-elected."

In the meantime, Mike remains puzzled as to how Bates was able to remain unregistered for weeks. "We'd like some answers, so that no other sexual assault or rape victim has to go through this," he says. "Until this is corrected, it could very well happen to someone else, and we don't want that."

Update: This post has been updated with information about Jared Bates scheduling a time to register as a sex offender.