Posted on 05/15/2009 9:36:47 AM PDT by VeniVidiVici
SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. -- A child rapist who admitted to preying on nearly 20 children is now a free man. Kareem Merthe was released during a hearing in Seminole County Friday morning. His mother collapsed outside the courtroom and later died.
Officials say his mother went outside to get some fresh air when she collapsed.
The 26-year-old preacher's son had been locked up for nine years and as a young teen, Merthe admitted to preying on children as young as 4 years old. He told investigators he raped them at his father's church in Sanford.
Kareem Merthe had nothing to say to reporters once he left Seminole County Courthouse.
(Excerpt) Read more at wftv.com ...
ping
A preacher’s son named Kareem?
What contribution will be be ready to make to society? These people should just be executed. A good, fair trial; perhaps an appeal afterwards; and if considered guilty, an execution. Done.
Dead eyes.
Change his last name to "Merde" ... it would fit.
nine years for raping 20 kids? something is very wrong here, but then again it’s flori-DUH!
KAREEM????????? Where’s the “PREACHER” father??? At the MOSQUE?
“”The 26-year-old preacher’s son “”????
Is that supposed to be “the 26 year old, son of a preacher?”
Is that pronounced like “Murtha”?
I agree - yesterday there was a thread where this 25 yrs old got 100 years for raping 4 prosititues at knife point - they all testified against him. He got 25 years for each prostitution. He was a white guy in CA.
I don’t really care for that Flori-duh crap. FL is the third largest state by population. What do you expect, perfection?
What is your catch-phrase for the people in Minnesota and Mass? Those are the flake states. At least in FL you can carry.
i reckoon that in florida, the virture of children is worth less than the virtue of prostitutes.
Mr. Summerville's client is a sociopath who had the "doctors" figured out within one or two sessions and over time learned what to say and do to manipulate those doctors and get himself turned loose.
I work closely with people who call themselves "mental health professionals" and at the risk of offending someone, I have not met up with a much more gullible and dumb group of people in my life.
This pedophile will leave prison, and, once he is comfortable with his surroundings, will begin raping children once more. Count on it.
Wonder how many parents at that church felt safe because nobody at the church was on the sex offender registry?
It APPEARS (and I'm only guessing because the article doesn't say) that because he was a juvenile at the time of the offenses, and he apparently wasn't tried as an adult, he could only be held under the Juvenile Code until he turned eighteen, UNLESS under a statutory exception he was found to be a highly dangerous sex offender and could be held in a mental hospital past the age of majority.
So you've got a series of problems here: (1) he should have been tried as an adult, but most state's laws allow only for juveniles to be transferred to the adult system if they are accused of very serious crimes like murder, kidnapping, agg assault and so forth. Child molestation if not aggravated may not qualify under FL law. (2) he was never found guilty, only delinquent, so he could only be held until majority. (3) FL has apparently enacted a stopgap statute to continue to confine juveniles past the date of majority under certain circumstances. It's an exception and it's construed strictly and construed in favor of the defendant, so if he no longer meets the criteria then the judge really HAD to let him out.
That's my best read of the situation. In GA you are no longer a juvenile as of your 17th birthday, so here he would have been tried as an adult.
never gave minnesota much thought, to be honest, but in neighboring MASS they’re often referred to as “MASSholes”;-).
and yes, in florida one can carry, like in CT (where its’ concealed carry), and in Florida one can shoot if threatened, but some of us remember how things came to be - I remember AAA telling tourists to stay away from florida.
but the 2000 election circuis has permanently sealed the epithet for floridians - apoligies to the smart one.
There is another fact left out of this report:
While in a juvenile detention center for these crimes, he assaulted a 15 year old boy.
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