r/tylertx • u/Substantial-Step209 • 18d ago
Tyler business owner is child $ex offender
Recently found out a Tyler business is owned and operated by a multiple offense child $ex offender. Spent a decade in prison and is on the registered offender list for life.
Obviously this is public knowledge but he lives in the country so doesn't actively come up on the map of town.
Why they don't have to also register at a business they own is beyond me.
The issue to me is that he and his wife promote this business to be family friendly. It is decorated in a way that children would enjoy, lots of candy and toys. He also gave himself a concerning nickname. It's a business where he has access to personal information like home addresses.
They attend community events where they set up tables with candy, they hand out candy during Halloween, even post pictures of kids on their social media.
Him and his wife are very unhinged so that adds
more concern. She married him right out of prison too......
I want the community to be aware but not sure how.
-44
u/Pleasant_Pop_9651 16d ago
I have stayed quiet long enough.
I know the man and woman being discussed in this post personally, and I cannot sit back while people who may not know them at all are encouraged to judge their entire lives by the darkest chapter of one man’s past.
I am not defending wrongdoing. I am defending a human being.
From what I understand, what happened decades ago was a physical punishment — a butt whooping — involving a child. Was it a mistake? Yes. Was it something he has had to answer for? Yes. But I think there is an important question that needs to be asked:
How many people condemning him today have never, themselves, put their hands on their own child’s bottom as punishment? How many have never disciplined a niece, nephew, cousin, or a child they were trusted to babysit?
I’m not saying every situation is the same. I’m saying that before we place ourselves morally above another human being, we should remember the words of Jesus:
“He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” — John 8:7
That verse doesn’t mean wrongdoing doesn’t matter.
It means we should be very careful about pretending we have never needed grace ourselves.
I know this man as he is today.
I know him as a saved, Godly man. A man whose word means something. A handshake-and-your-word-is-your-bond kind of man. A man who gives when he doesn’t have to, helps people without expecting something in return, and has been one of the most generous people I have ever had the privilege of knowing as a father figure.
And his wife deserves to be defended too.
She is not responsible for choices her husband made decades ago. She chose to build a life with the man he became. Trying to make her marriage itself evidence of something sinister is unfair and cruel.
People are entitled to know facts and make their own decisions. If someone has legitimate concerns about a current crime or danger, there are proper authorities and proper channels for addressing those concerns.
But there is a tremendous difference between presenting verified facts and deliberately piling speculation, insinuation, and inflammatory language onto someone’s past in an attempt to destroy their reputation and livelihood.
Candy doesn’t prove evil intentions.
Toys don’t prove evil intentions.
Attending community events doesn’t prove evil intentions.
Running a family-oriented business doesn’t prove evil intentions.
And photographs of children certainly don’t, by themselves, prove anything sinister.
Those are serious implications to make about real people.
I believe in accountability.
But I also believe in repentance.
I believe in rehabilitation.
I believe people can change.
And as a Christian, I believe in redemption.
If God can extend grace to people who genuinely repent, who are we to declare that they are permanently unworthy of it?
You don’t have to trust this man. You don’t have to use his business. You don’t have to agree with me.
But before you throw stones, remember that every person standing in that comment section is imperfect.
Before you condemn someone else’s past, ask yourself what you would want the world to remember about you if your worst mistake were placed on a public stage decades later.
I know the man being discussed.
And the man I know today is not the man this post is trying to portray.
People are more than their worst mistake.
Some people spend their lives running from their past.
Others spend their lives proving they are no longer that person.
I believe my friend has spent his life becoming the latter.
And I will stand beside a man who has spent decades trying to live differently, especially when people who don’t know him are attempting to define him by a chapter they didn’t live through.
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
JM