There is a highly disturbing case out of Ohio where Richard Stephson, 55, is facing molestation charges that he allegedly abused his daughter for years. That is bad enough. However, police charge that this was the child that resulted from Stephson raping and impregnating a teenage girl years before.
In the 1980s, prosecutors allege that Stephson sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl who was staying with him and the teen ultimately bore a child. Now he is charged 10 years later with molesting his daughter during family visits and offering her money for sex. He has pleaded not guilty.
My question is how a man has a child with an underaged girl and gets visitation rights with their daughter.
Source: WhioTV
Makes John Boehner look slightly less bizarre by comparison doesn’t it? (OK, Clark County, OH isn’t actually inside Boehner’s district, but it’s just on the eastern edge of Ohio’s 8th. I’d guess that they’re culturally pretty close, though. The same level of intelligence that leads to “sure, let daddygrandpa visit with the 10 year old girl” correlates with “sure, tax cuts to the rich are deficit neutral!”)
I nominate Ohio as the honorary South Carolina of the North!
Maybe it wasn’t custody. Perhaps he is related to the original victim (uncle/niece) and he saw the second victim at family gatherings. If his parents are the first victims’ grandparent, they (the parents) may want to believe it was the his fault.
Pure speculation on my part.
This is one amazing and disgusting story. The state authorities need to look at this again. I agree with Prof. Turley. If this guy is an accused child sex offender, how can he get unsupervised visits while his case is pending?
James, It looks from the timeline like the abuse went on for a long time and the original vic. had reached the age of consent by the time she was pregnant. Even so, no judge or family court should have allowed visits by this perv. There needs to be a better news story about just how this happened.
@James: Originally I was thinking “maybe they couldn’t prove it?” But that doesn’t hold water: obviously, at some point, they DID prove it, because there was a kid, who was born before the mother had the legal ability to consent to sex, and he got partial custody as the biological father! (I think? The article says “during family visits” and I can’t think of any interpretation other than “custody.”)
Maybe he served his time, but even after that, I can’t imagine a sane judge would let a convicted pedophile near children, much less the child of the girl he raped (adding the trauma of her having to face him).
In short, there is not enough WTF in the world.
Too far south in Ohio for the Cleveland paper to pick up. But not too disgusting.
Another victory for “family values.” What a shame that some of the people who find this upsetting would be even madder if, at birth, she had been adopted by a gay couple.
(Nix the phrase “even so” from the last sentence of my last post.)
I agree with AY. If this guy was 40 when he got a 14 year old pregnant how does he not do jail time and get registered as a sex offender? (especially if he was in a position of authority over her at the time, which her staying in his home might imply) Even if he was 30 and this did take place in the 80s, it’s still outrageously hard to believe there weren’t any consequences.
There’s problems with the timeline in this story. From the original source:
“The incident started in the mid 80s when Stephson began sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl who was staying with him at his Springfield home. Soon, police learned that the teen was pregnant with his child.
Now, 10 years after his daughter was born, authorities said Stephson offered her money to have sex with him and molested her during family visits.”
So:
Mid-80s — Def. began sexually assaulting 14 year old (V1)
“Soon” thereafter — Police learn V1 is pregnant (but no charges?)
Mid-80s + 9months, V1 carries baby to term and has V2
Now the story says: “Ten years after his daughter was born” Def. began molesting V2.
Does that mean the abuse started in the Mid-90s and the Def. is being charged 15 years after the fact? Or is there a mistake in the story and V1 actually got pregnant in the mid-90s? Even so, a mid-90s timeline would mean that the abuse began 3-4 years ago.
@Mike: There’s a big difference between not punishing the child for the rapist’s actions and not punishing the RAPIST for the rapist’s actions. (Besides, letting the rapist anywhere near the child unsupervised also falls under “punishing the child.”)
“…how a man has a child with an underaged girl and gets visitation rights with their daughter.”
Sir:
You are ignoring the wisdom of Sharron Angle.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/29/sharron-angle-opposes-abo_n_629371.html
“…Sharron Angle…opposed abortion even in cases of rape and incest. A pregnancy under those circumstances, she said, was “God’s plan.”
Always look to the “higher plan.”
Just stunning, how can they let this guy have any unsupervised contact with any minor?
Perhaps we could get him an abortion, HIM, not his discharge.
My question is how a man has a child with an underaged girl and gets visitation rights with their daughter.
Unfortunately, it is the misnomer of the best Interest of the Child. I suppose it could be looked at another way, feeding the ego of the parent.
Besides castration, public sectioning and quartering, there is not much you can do about the &&&^*&^*&…..Oh, well put him in a cell with his new sugar daddy and maybe he;ll find out. Creep.