Disabled Man on Sex Offense Registry Pardoned by Illinois Governor

In 2012, when Adam Nesteikis was 25 years old, his friend told him to pull down his pants in front of a young girl. Adam did exactly that.

Adam is intellectually disabled, which means he didn’t realize he had done something wrong. He also didn’t understand what it meant when, after a trial, he was placed on the sex offense registry. He just knew that for some reason, he lost the job he loved wiping tables. He could no longer participate in the Special Olympics. And he couldn’t scuba dive—his very favorite activity—because the club practiced in a high school pool and he was no longer allowed to be near young people.

Thankfully, this injustice has finally been remedied: This year, he received a full pardon from the Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D–Ill.). His record will also be expunged.

“My husband and I were elated,” says Carol Nesteikis, Adam’s mom.

Adam and his parents live outside Chicago. He grew up happy and social, with serious developmental limitations. He stopped wetting his bed at 16. He always had to be reminded to brush his teeth and, later, to shave. He was friends with a neighbor—a younger man—who, it turned out, had been molesting him.

It was that young man who told Adam to expose himself. Both Adam and his neighbor were placed on the sex offender registry as a result.

Registrants are not allowed in any forest preserve or public