Don Burdette admits he’s made mistakes.

The 42-year-old Cullman resident said during a recent interview he’s served time behind bars for embezzling, disorderly conduct, theft of property, and failure to register as a sex offender. But according to state law, he did not commit a sex crime, and he has the paperwork from local and state officials to prove it.

Still, Burdette said he has lived the life of a convicted sex offender for years, and he and his fiancé, Linda Ramsey, continue to suffer emotionally and financially as a result. During the past decade, Burdette said he has lost friends, jobs and has been homeless because he was labeled a sex offender.

Now, he says he’s trying to clear his name so people will stop calling him a rapist and a pervert.

“I’ve committed a lot of wrongs in my life, but this isn’t one of them …” he said. “I’ve lost friends over this, and we’re losing places to live. My name has been slandered.”

Burdette’s attorney, Chad Floyd, said his client’s legal problems began in late 1983 in South Carolina. Burdette, then 19, plead guilty to assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature stemming from an argument he had with a woman he was dating who was the mayor’s daughter in Westminister, S.C., about 10 miles from Burdette’s home in Seneca, S.C.

Burdette visited the woman at the convenience store where she worked, and told her he had an interest in her sister. The two began to argue, then she tried to prevent him from leaving the store, and Burdette pushed her aside, ripping her blouse, according to Burdette.

The incident cost Burdette 13 months in a youth-correctional camp. When he was 20, he paroled and wasn’t required to register as a sex offender because his conviction was not a sex offense under South Carolina law. Burdette’s legal problems appeared to be over, but he didn’t stay out of trouble for good.

He got a job with a trucking company, and eventually began to suspect the company was ripping him off. Burdette apparently decided to get even with the company, and in November 1997, was caught selling goods from one of his loads, landing him in Folsom State Prison for 18 months followed by four years of probation. After Burdette finished the term, his prison exit counselor would not allow him to leave prison unless he signed a registration form for California sex offenders. According to the exit counselor, Burdette was required to register as a sex offender under California law, Floyd said.

When Burdette got out of prison, he registered as a transient sex offender, but was later required to get a permanent address or be arrested for failure to register. According to a newspaper article published last year in The News-Register in McMinnville, Ore., Burdette was represented by James Gass the first time he was arrested for failure to register as a sex offender in Riverside, Calif.

According to the article published after Burdette was charged with failing to register in Oregon, Gass said Burdette never disputed the sex offender classification, so Gass’ main focus was getting a sentence of probation without jail time for Burdette.

“I thought it was a good deal,” Gass said in the article. “But looking back, obviously it wasn’t if he shouldn’t have registered in the first place.”

The next time Burdette was arrested for failing to register, he landed in jail, and was subject to physical violence and harassment, Burdette said. Later, he spent 68 days in jail when his sex offender status prevented him from posting bail after a drunken yelling match with his wife led to a charge of disorderly conduct. After being released from custody, he found out his wife had left him, and his neighbors didn’t want him in town.

The News-Register reported that Burdette walked and hitch-hiked to McMinnville, Ore. after beatings, stabbings and an ultimatum to leave town or die. He only owned his boots, jeans and a sweatshirt at the time, according to the article.

Burdette’s most recent arrest was in December at his Cullman apartment for failing to register. He was held in the Cullman County Detention Center for 45 days after he was charged with failing to register, then charged with theft of property.

“He bonded out on that [failure to register] charge, and once he bonded out on that charge, he received a new charge of theft of property,” Floyd said. “The theft of property was in violation of the terms of his release, so they refused to set him a bond on the old charge.”

After Floyd presented documents showing Burdette was not required to register as a sex offender, Burdette’s bond was reduced from $10,000 to $5,000, and he was released from custody.

Floyd said Cullman Police believed Burdette to be a sex offender, and had enough probable cause to make the arrest.

“They had plenty of probable cause to arrest him,” Floyd said. “[The officer working the case] did a fine job; no problem there. I was just determined to dig deeper for the guy because I believed that he didn’t need to register.”

Floyd said one reason for his client’s legal problems is that different states have varying laws regarding sex offenders and the requirement to register.

“There are 50 states, and they each are proud of their sovereignty and they each enforce their own laws the way they want to,” Floyd said. “Merely because South Carolina did not require him to register, or Oregon did not require him to register, or California did not require him to register, doesn’t necessarily make it so here in Alabama.”

Burdette was indicted on his theft of property charge, Floyd said, but additional details of that case were not available. Burdette said he was “in the wrong place at the wrong time,” regarding the charge, and Floyd said he didn’t want to discuss specifics of the case because of its pending status.

In his attempt to help Burdette clear his name, Floyd talked with the Alabama Department of Public Safety, which is the agency that determines the applicability of the state’s Community Notification Act to persons convicted of sex offenses outside Alabama. He also corresponded with the Alabama Attorney General’s Office, which ultimately determines if a person has to register as a sex offender.

Both agreed Burdette is not required to register as a sex offender.

A letter dated April 9 from the Assistant Attorney General’s Office says the state’s Community Notification Act does not apply to Burdette because Burdette’s youthful offender charge of “assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature” in South Carolina does not contain a sexual element. A similar letter from the California Attorney General’s Office was sent to Burdette’s attorney April 12 stating Burdette was not required to register.

In addition, a motion to dismiss Burdette’s indictment for failing to register as a sex offender was signed April 17 by Cullman County Assistant District Attorney Martha Williams. The document states that Burdette is not required to register as a sex offender.

When Burdette was arrested and charged with embezzling, California viewed his charge in South Carolina as a registerable offense, Williams said. But the California Department of Justice reviewed Burdette’s case, concluded he didn’t have to register as a sex offender, and removed his name from the California Sex Offender Registry.

Even under the most stringent policies, Burdette would not be required to register in Alabama, Williams said, because under Alabama law, if a person has a youthful offender status as Burdette did, then he is not required to register after a decade.