See that is where the law is misleading. Most people think no problem they are turning a felony into a misdemeanor. The catch is only on the first offense. The kicker comes when the second or subsequent arrest is still treated like a felony, and on top of that you have to register as a sex offender. Registering as a sex offender is where the heavy is . There are plenty of ladies out there right now that already have their first offense on the books, so another arrest is a felony just like the first, and on top of that now they are a sex offender, and that is some heavy shit to deal with and it is all about money. The monitoring device you have to wear you pay like $235/month to wear it, and then you have to pay another $35 a month to a parol officer in what ever jurisdiction you live in that is responsible for tracking where you have been, like I said earlier a offender can not go around a school, park, day care etc. then you have to stay registered for 15 years, so its not a short term deal.
I work with a guy that stopped to take a piss on the side of the road and a sheriff deputy passed. He was cited with indecent exposure, now there are 2 different catagories of indecent exposure one is sexual, and one is simple public nudity but each has a different code number. The cop when writing the citation put the code for sexual instead of simple public, not knowing the difference he pleaded guilty figuring he did it, got caught, and just wanted to pay the fine and get it over with. He paid the fine thinking it was over, and 2 days later was contacted by the sheriffs office about coming in to register as a sex offender. Obviously he was outraged when he found out the cop wrote the wrong code down and he pleaded guilty to a more serious offense. His only option was to hire a attorney and file a motion for judicial review which he did, and eventually a judge ruled to correct the citation, but the guy still had to register as a sex offender for 8 months until it was cleared up, and he is the one that told me all the hell you have to go through.