ADA COUNTY, Idaho — An Idaho man has been awarded over $319,000 from the State after being exonerated for a wrongful conviction that happened in 2017.
Joseph LaCroix was convicted back in 2017 for failing to register as a sex offender. He was living in Bonneville County at the time. A judge sentenced him to a 7 year prison sentence.
However, earlier this year, an Idaho court vacated his conviction. They found that Mr. LaCroix never needed to register as a sex offender in Idaho.
LaCroix's original sex offense happened when he was a juvenile in the state of Oregon in 2002. Court records show that the case ended with a juvenile adjudication.
The district court says that “[b]ecause LaCroix was a juvenile at the time of his Oregon offense, and because LaCroix was charged and adjudicated as a juvenile, he was never convicted of a crime.”
Because LaCroix was never convicted of a crime in Oregon, he didn’t meet Idaho’s requirement that would legally require him to register on Idaho’s sex offender registry.
Court records show that LaCroix was incarcerated for about a year from 2017 to 2018. He was released for a short time on probation but was reincarcerated on June 20th, 2018.
That June 20th date is interesting. 5 days later the Idaho State Police sent LaCroix a letter telling him they reviewed his file and determined that he did “not meet criteria to register on the Idaho Sex Offender Registry.”
A crucial letter with a major conclusion, yet, LaCroix never got that letter at the Pocatello, Idaho address it was sent to.
Court records indicate the State of Idaho and the presiding judge in LaCroix’s case had no knowledge of the letter.
In 2020 LaCroix and his legal team moved to have his conviction thrown out, they argue Idaho never had the jurisdiction to convict him of a felony. His motion included the newly discovered letter from Idaho State Police.
In March of 2023, an Idaho court dismissed the criminal case against LaCroix, the felony for not registering, and vacated his case.
After his conviction was overturned, LaCroix filed a petition under Idaho's Wrongful Conviction Act, a 2021 law that provides for compensation when the justice system misses the mark. Lacroix formally sought a Certificate of Innocence and compensation from the state.
The state determined that LaCroix qualified for compensation under the Act. It gives LaCroix up to $62,000 per year of wrongful imprisonment. Based on the time he spent incarcerated and on parole between his 2017 conviction and 2023 exoneration, LaCroix is being awarded $319,297.74 in compensation as well as several thousand for legal fees.
In addition to the financial compensation, the court ordered the Idaho Department of Correction to provide discretionary reentry services to LaCroix to help him with the transition back to society after being cleared of the wrongful conviction.
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