We have previously discussed the continued prosecution of minors for engaging in sexual conduct under state laws. These laws have a sexist record of boys prosecuted for having sex with a minor where girls were treated as the victim, even when the sex was consensual and both were minors or close in age. There is a new case out of Indian River, Florida that is equally troubling. Kaitlyn Hunt, 18, is a senior in high school and is facing felony charges for engaging in a sexual relationship with another girl at her school. Despite an outcry against prosecuting Hunt for consensual sex, the prosecutor has refused to drop the charges of two counts of lewd and lascivious battery of a child 12 to 16 years of age. Assistant State Attorney Brian Workman has insisted that he will only agree to a plea deal where she would accept one felony conviction and a two-year sentence of home confinement. Such a plea would likely put Hunt on the sex offender registry for life.
The girls started dating when Kate turned 18 and the other girl was 14. When the other girl’s parents found out about the relationship, they called police. Police then tapped a telephone conversation in which Kate told the girl that she loved her.
Hunt’s mother believes the charges are the result of homophobia and intolerance for a lesbian relationship.
Hunt was previously selected as the “Student with Most School Spirit” and had a good record at Sebastian River High School. However, after the arrest, she was kicked off the school’s basketball team by her coach, who said that the school wanted to avoid “drama.” The school board then expelled her from the high school in her graduating year.
Consent is not a defense under the Florida law criminalizing sexual activity with a minor between the ages of 12 and 16. Bruce Colton, state attorney for Florida’s 19th circuit, has insisted that the case will go to trial unless Hunt pleads guilty. The second-degree felony charges can result in a 15 year sentence with registration as a sex offender. We have previously seen the disabling impact of such registration on young people convicted for statutory rape in consensual relations with other students.
As discussed earlier, some states like Ohio have struck down parts of their statutory rape laws.
The concern is that there are obviously many cases involving minors as young as 14 engaging in sexual relationships. Those cases are rarely prosecuted. Moreover, regardless of whether this is a homosexual or heterosexual relationship, it involved consent between two high school students. None of this condones what Hunt did. This was a 14 year old child and, regardless of Hunt’s feelings, it was clearly improper and presumptively harmful to have a sexual relationship with a 14 year old. The question is whether this could not have been handled with a restraining order preventing further contact as opposed to treating this as a criminal matter.
What do you think?
@Sling Trebuchet “The law is an ass.” On the contrary, the law is reason, free from passion.
Two things (at least) strike me about this…
Age
From background reading…
The girl turned 18 on August 18th, 2012
The pair had been dating before that date.
The arrest came on 16th February 2013, with charges relating to activity in late 2012 and beginning of 2013.
The activity appears to have been the same pre and post the 18th birthday.
What was not a crime became a crime purely because one of them turned 18 during a continuing relationship.
This is very much different to someone of ‘adult age’ predating on minors. The offence is 99%-100% technical in this case.
To me it would have been appropriate to raise any objections from the start.
The situation should call for talking rather than waiting until after the relationship technically became a crime.
Certainly, if talking failed then a warning that the 18th birthday could be a trigger from a criminal complaint would be the most reasonable (good luck with that!) approach.
.
The crime(s) and the penalty
Plea deals are an abomination.
If the girl is a predator and a danger to society, then put her on trial for all offences.
If she is such a danger, why let her off lightly?
The additional punishments that she might face in a trail are simply blackmail to save the prosecutor some inconvenience.
The additional punishments are not therefore related to any offence other than the offence of obliging the prosecutor to do his job for justice.
.
The girl appears to be facing the same charges and penalties as would a 28-year-old who had targeted one or more 15-year-old for sex.
Even the plea deal penalties seem OTT in the particular circumstances.
The law is an ass – mainly because it will always be imperfect fit and so must rely on functionaries to exercise sound judgement.
.
ARE,
We have far more in common than disagreements. However, IMHO, you are being a bit rigid on this issue. As I said before, this should have been handled with counseling and intervention by a marriage and family therapist rather than escalating it to a major felony. I say that based on statements attributed to the younger girl’s parents, such as, “My daughter can’t possibly be gay,” is a homophobic comment. At any rate, I am not condoning what went on. I am concerned about the overreaction and felony charges. There is a hell of a lot of difference between Kate’s alleged actions and a sexual predator. I used to run the sex offender treatment program at a state prison. I know about real sex offenders.
The school to prison pipeline has been written about on this and other legal blogs before. Criminalizing common teenage behavior has to stop. I will have more to say about this in the near future with weekend blog.
While I agree that Kate does not fit the profile of a major sexual predator, she did violate the law, and while watching the TODAY program one of the panelists pointed out that 90% or more of such prosecutions are for 18 year old male students doing this with girls who are under the age of consent. As I previously pointed out, if this had been a male, we never would have heard about it, and the guy would be in prison now. You may be still in favor of doing the same for the males, but the fact is that males are the ones who wind up with felonies and no outcry is or has been raised about this.
The anti-gay sentiments of the parents is of NO relevance to the commission of the crime. Bigotry against blacks does NOT void or mitigate the prosecution of a black crook who commits a crime against a bigot. It is totally irrelevant.
I know quite a bit about gays since when I moved to Houston many years ago, I crashed at the home of a gay man I knew and was friends with. He and his fellow gays would go out and cruise the Montrose area to pick up young boys who were there. There is a very large part of the gay scene which is pedophile as much as 30% or more. In fact, I also knew David Thorstadt who founded NAMBLA which thinks that any age of consent laws are wrong and that man/boy sex is perfectly legitimate. So are those guys wrong? I most certainly think that they are, but they consider consensual sex of any kind or age is OK. So are they sexual predators?
Sex laws are often simply weird and not consistent.
In my state, it is legal for an adult to have consentual sex with a 16 year old. But, it is a felony to take a picture of the act. And if before the sex, the adult asks, in person, if the 16 year old would like to perform certain sex acts, it would be a gross misdemeanor (communication with a minor for immoral purposes) but if e-mail is used it is a felony. All the communication notwithstanding, if the adult was a teacher, job supervisor, etc of the minor then the sex would be illegal. And, a person with consent of both individuals can watch the sex act through a window, but can be charged with a felony for seeing it as a movie or picture viewed electronicly over the internet.
Now how is a teenager supposed to get that all straight?
Since the woman in question did NONE of those things, I most certainly do not expect her to know all the variations. Her crime was straight forward. She is an adult legally, her partner was a minor. When I was that age we all had a word for such a thing. It is called JAIL BAIT. That is not too much to ask or know. Then you overlook the parents of the minor who objected and who she decided had NO rights at all. Sorry, but I think the DA is being reasonable under the law. You don’t like the law, change it. We don’t get to pick and choose which laws we obey.
Arthur –
I do not want 18 year old boys seducing my 14 or 15 year old daughters, and I certainly do not want an 18 year old girl doing it either. In my opinion, the mind of an 18 year old is significantly more developed than the mind of a 14 or 15 year old, and they are in a position to take advantage of the innocence of those younger than them.
Nevertheless, the law does seem extreme to make this a felony. It seems like a misdemeanor is more appropriate. Maybe an arbitration between the parties with possibly a restraining order if they cannot come to an understanding that the sexual contact is inappropriate.
I never hit the dog on the nose. Hit him on the butt with a rolled up newspaper a time or two. He was a Golden Retriever/German Shepard Cross.
Dog,
You’ve made several comments lately that could be construed as physical threats to people. Including one about pistol whipping someone and raping their mother in front of them.
Knock it off before you get a rolled up metaphorical newspaper across the nose.
Voting age, nationwide, is 18. This is by virtue of the 26th Amendment. In my view if you are 18 then you should be considered an adult. Quit acting child like. If you are not in college or trade school then get out of the house and go make a living. Up and Out. I think we should cut the last year off of high school. The adults are too old to be in there with the minors. Cut one year off of undergrad colllege too. Cut one year off law school. Cut one ear off of the prosecutor in this case.
randyjet 1, May 22, 2013 at 10:09 pm
Since you are so kind as to provide the e-mail, I will take the opportunity to commend the DA for enforcing the law. This should help in negating the rash and irrational messages that are sure to flood his office denouncing him.
——
There is no e-mail. The DA thinks you’re stupid.
This was a 14 year old child and, regardless of Hunt’s feelings, it was clearly improper and presumptively harmful to have a sexual relationship with a 14 year old. The question is whether this could not have been handled with a restraining order preventing further contact as opposed to treating this as a criminal matter.
What do you think?
_____________________________
What do you think? I think she should have been 16 years old.
I know that when I was 18 I knew what the law was about the age of consent. Most all of my contemporaries did too. So it is more than a bit disingenuous to give this woman a pass on some spurious grounds that she is not responsible for following the law.
It is also absurd to say that one can get a retraining order against committing a crime. I have heard nothing from our legal folks about this rather dumb idea. I may be wrong, but I doubt it.
Also, Brian Workman can be reached here:
Brian Workman
Indian River County Courthouse
2000 16th Ave.
Suite 329
Vero Beach, FL 32960
(772) 226-3300
bworkman@sao19.org
Since you are so kind as to provide the e-mail, I will take the opportunity to commend the DA for enforcing the law. This should help in negating the rash and irrational messages that are sure to flood his office denouncing him.
Fellow posters:
If you were wondering how to reach Mr. Colton directly to express your views, his contact info, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, is as follows:
Honorable Bruce Colton
State Attorney
411 South 2nd Street
Fort Pierce, Florida 34950
(772) 462‐1300
Fax: (772) 462‐1214
BColton@sao19.org
Assistant State Attorney Brian Workman has insisted that he will only agree to a plea deal where she would accept one felony conviction and a two-year sentence of home confinement.
The good folks living in the lovely state of Florida should only agree to Assistant State Attorney Brian Workman’s letter of resignation.
It has occurred to me, and I wonder if it has registered with the girlfriends parents. So far the news media has refrained from revealing the younger girl’s name…..but……this is the Internet information age, and her (and their) names will eventually come out. There are no secrets on the Internet, or if you have one, it is not going to stay secret very long. Do these parents realize the long term impact this will have on their daughter, or for that matter, their own lives?
This is not going to go away anytime soon. The backlash has already begun. More than one district attorney has lost an election because of overcharging a kid.
You allege falsehoods, Randy, you bear the burden of proof to prove they are falsehoods.
“anonpo It shows your case’s weakness when you have to lie about the case.” -randyjet
Lie about the case??? Do tell. I simply posted a couple of links.
??? Do tell. I simply posted a couple of links.
Sorry while you are technically correct, from your post I gather that you support the cause and the statements. Thus by aligning yourself with false statements, I take that to mean you endorse them.
We don’t care about you, nick.
We care about the forum.
The forum in which you are perpetually unable to abide by the few rules we do have.
Again, cause and effect. If you don’t like the cost, don’t make the purchase. If you sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind.
You don’t get a free pass.
Thanks for the faux concern for our well being though.
It’s funny.
“The truth is, Kaitlyn Hunt is a bright young girl who was involved in a consensual, same-sex relationship while both she and her partner were minors.”
The anonymous quote is literally true but beside the point. The allegation is that sex acts occurred when Kate was 18 (and thus not a minor) and the minor was 14. I’m not sure I’d want the police to ignore parental complaints about any 18 year old adult having sex with those parents’ 14 year old child. It seems pretty clear Kate violated the statutory rape law, although given the circumstances I’d hope for leniency.