Posted on 08/20/2007 11:32:16 AM PDT by rednesss
Judge dismisses sexual harassment charges against 2 Ore. teens
08/20/2007
By WILLIAM McCALL / Associated Press
Two 13-year-old boys accused of slapping girls' bottoms and poking or cupping girls' breasts at school apologized on Monday as a judge dismissed charges against the two, ending a six-month case that drew national attention.
The charges triggered a debate over whether such behavior in school should be considered criminal.
Four girls listed as victims by the prosecutors had asked the judge to drop the charges against Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison.
Yamhill County Judge John Collins did so on Monday, saying it was in the "interest of justice."
A number of young girls were in the courtroom during the hearing. They included at least some of the four who asked that the charges be dropped, attorneys said.
During the brief hearing, the two boys faced the girls and apologized.
"I never intended to hurt you in any way," Mashburn said.
Cornelison told the girls: "I hope we can still be friends."
The News-Register newspaper of McMinnville reported that a "civil compromise" reached by prosecutors and the defense called for both boys to apologize, to pay each of the four girls $250 and to complete a "boundaries education" program.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys said they could not comment on the newspaper report or release details of the settlement because they are confidential.
Pressure has been building on prosecutors to drop the charges, with critics saying they had blown the matter out of proportion and were overzealous.
The boys, apparently inspired by the movie "Jackass," were accused in police reports of swatting girls on the bottom in a school corridor, grabbing girls' breasts on at least two occasions, teaming up to "dry hump" girls, poking girls' breasts and engaging in what's known as "party boy" dancing mimicking sexual intercourse.
They were originally charged with felony sex abuse, misdemeanor sex abuse and sexual harassment in February. Amid growing public opposition to sending the boys to prison and putting them on a sex offenders' registry, prosecutors first dropped the felony sex abuse charges and later the misdemeanor sex abuse charges, leaving the sexual harassment counts.
The judge dismissed the final charges following negotiations between prosecutors and the defense, and discussions with the four girls about whether they wanted the case dismissed.
I haven't heard anyone say it's trivial; except for you.
The Law might be "a ass", but it shouldn't act like it.
If 13 is too young for consent, logic and reason should indicate that it's equally too young to be labeled a "registered sex offender" for life.
For precisely the same reason.
Like a typical moronic tort lawyer that operates without the facts and no need to get the facts. From the Dennis Prager show today(The show listeners and others raised $40K to help with the legal costs) :
1) Both girls and boys were “slapping butts” on Slap Butt Day. Should we charge the girls too, or does it only go one way?
2) The boys were taken to the vice-principle’s office and after several minutes of talk- This intellectual moron called the police. Was what they did moronic and juvenile? Yes. That is because they are juveniles!! Could the same effect have been accomplished by giving them detention and informing their parents? Yes. Did they really need to be charged as sex-offenders? Only because idiots like you fill the DA post.
3) The DA and this vice-principle need to be replaced. Did the boys need to be strip-searched 4 times during their stay in jail?
Just because you, a lady lawyer, think its right, does not make it so. I understand that you have an overinflated opinion of yourself but too bad. Its your type of thinking that has gotten us to were we are today.
When I was about that age I was leaning against a fence watching a baseball game after school. A girl I didn’t even know came up from behind and kicked me in the butt. I don’t know if she liked me, or wanted to embarrass me? Still don’t know, but I remember being slightly embarrassed and confused. You think I should have reported her to the police? Honestly, the idea never occurred to me. Would it have to you?
Hm. I'm sure you'll understand if I tell you that some of the posts on this thread seem to me to be doing just that. Contrary to what some on this thread appear to think, the police reports indicate that it wasn't a case of "grab ass, like all kids do." And yet that's how it's being presented by some.
I find the most instructive thing is the emulation of “JackAss”.
Perhaps parents should better monitor the crap they let their kids watch so they don’t get dumb ideas that land them all in hot (and expensive) legal waters.
Know what cultural values your kid’s are imbibing, it could save you a lot of grief and money.
Her “boundaries” are defined by who pays her ‘fee’. She’s a lawyer, ‘member?
;-)
You seem not to have read the article above, which quotes from the police reports of the incident:
The boys, apparently inspired by the movie "Jackass," were accused in police reports of swatting girls on the bottom in a school corridor, grabbing girls' breasts on at least two occasions, teaming up to "dry hump" girls, poking girls' breasts and engaging in what's known as "party boy" dancing mimicking sexual intercourse.
So, first, it wasn't simply "slapping butts."
Second, their actual behavior (from the police reports, as opposed to the inevitably wrong talk-show-ized version you apparently got from Mr. Prager) actually meets the definition of Sexual Abuse in the Third Degree, as defined by Oregon Revised Statutes 163.415 (I posted a link above).
So ... when put in context, it's a whole lot less cut and dried than you're saying it is.
Did the prosecutor go too far? Maybe so, because these kids may not have fully understood what they were doing. But what they did was very seriously wrong, nevertheless.
Its your type of thinking that has gotten us to were we are today.
Oh, I don't know.... when I was a kid, I don't seem ever to recall engaging in or even hearing about "slap butt day," much less coerced dry humping, at school. Such things were not tolerated by the public, they were handled severely by the school authoritis, and sometime kids might even have spent some time at the Juvenile Detention Facility. Maybe part of "where we are today" is result of some folks -- you, perhaps? -- being willing to give little creeps like these a pass because they're kids.
Jackass is a pretty convenient excuse ... but you pretty much have to figure these kids know how to get at online porn, too. They'll have seen it all. That's why I have a little bit of difficulty buying the argument that these boys didn't know what they were doing.
A lot of 13 year olds these days are a lot more worldly than we were at that age. I think it's a mistake to assume these boys were all that innocent in their intentions.
“That’s was the law requires.”
That corks it! Next you will have your fist in the air, screaming “Alles In Ordnung!”, jawohl?
These are kids in school, in case you forgot. Which you likely merely conveniently forgot in the delicious anticipation of more litigation due to such legal assinities, and best of all - ALL THOSE “FEES”.
While you may be female, there was once, in polite society, an awareness that no lady ever considered being a lawyer. It was the inherent issue of the lawyer being hired to argue either side, regardless of morality, ethics, or the facts.
Hence, I find your screen name to be a tad contradictory and wondered if you were aware of the contradiction?
As you certainly sound like both a lawyer and a feminist, have you considered that Liberals have caused to be such things as the hyper-sexualization of our society - this case being a prime example?
And, correct me if I am wrong, but it was lawyers like yourself, with a host of Liberal groups like ACLU, who forced our schools to tolerate such behaviors under the banners of ‘multi-culturalism, ‘diversity’, ad nauseam.
In closing, have you considered the contradiction between ‘sexual freedom’ so loudly trumpeted by the strumpets in the feminist movements and your “old enough to know better” phrase?
“That’s was the law requires.”
That corks it! Next you will have your fist in the air, screaming “Alles In Ordnung!”, jawohl?
These are kids in school, in case you forgot. Which you likely merely conveniently forgot in the delicious anticipation of more litigation due to such legal assinities, and best of all - ALL THOSE “FEES”.
While you may be female, there was once, in polite society, an awareness that no lady ever considered being a lawyer. It was the inherent issue of the lawyer being hired to argue either side, regardless of morality, ethics, or the facts.
Hence, I find your screen name to be a tad contradictory and wondered if you were aware of the contradiction?
As you certainly sound like both a lawyer and a feminist, have you considered that Liberals have caused to be such things as the hyper-sexualization of our society - this case being a prime example?
And, correct me if I am wrong, but it was lawyers like yourself, with a host of Liberal groups like ACLU, who forced our schools to tolerate such behaviors under the banners of ‘multi-culturalism, ‘diversity’, ad nauseam.
In closing, have you considered the contradiction between ‘sexual freedom’ so loudly trumpeted by the strumpets in the feminist movements and your “old enough to know better” phrase?
Given what your logon name is, it doesn’t surprise me you hold that kind of view.
I was initially sympathetic to the boys, but I thought all they were doing was slapping the girls butts. If this description is accurate, it goes beyond juvenile horseplay. Still not sure if criminal proceedings are necessary, but neither are cries of "lighten up".
“Lincolnshire Principal Darlene Teach
[a principal without principles is named “teach” - the irony is overwhelming]
and Mowen said they were unable to discuss the incident involving the Lincolnshire student.
Teach said any student, regardless of grade level, can be cited for sexual harassment.
“Anytime a student touches another student inappropriately, it could be sexual harassment,” Teach said.
The Libroids in this state deserve all the abuse this whacked out principle-less, Principal can heap on their families.
Fortunately, Liberalism is its own punishment. As they once said, “A pox upon Ye, One and All.
This is a result of feminism and their deconstruction of morels and behavior. If boys and girls are all the same, and should be treated the same, then horseplay of the boys cannot be a sexual assault because the guys were treating the girls like other boys. If however, we had the morals of the 1950’s the boys would have first been too shy to touch a girl, and would have had more respect for the differences. Women have lost more than they gained due to the socialist feminist.
You have summed up in one neat phrase why these events occur. Let’s look at your “(parents have also had to hire lawyers)”.
HIRE LAWYERS ! ! ! The magic words.
PS Once lawyers are hired, the bureaucrats, educrats, and
other assorted, sordid ‘rats can emerge from the
cracks in society and bray their stuff.
I don’t disagree with anything you have said. I don’t know what women think they have gained. Now, in the name of equality, young women are being taught to act like the fantasies of the most selfish, irresponsible men.
I went to law school precisely to oppose the things that the liberal lawyers were doing. I was on a school board, and realized that the leftists were making it impossible to run the schools in the best interest of the kids. My proudest moments were the two cases in which I was opposing the ACLU. All your assumptions about me are garbage.
If you have a group of 13 year old boys together that are at best loosely supervised, it's a reasonably high probability that if they are doing what they consider to be joking around, it is somehow sexual in nature. Arguments that this wasn't sexual in nature ring hollow to me even if it were not for the dry-humping.
Some of that is boys being boys. However, there are boundaries, and in this case they were definitely crossed.
I don’t think that sexual assault is trivial just because it was committed by 13 year olds.
I don't believe it is a trivial matter. I don't however, believe it's a matter that requires action by the criminal justice system, unless it is repeated after the school makes an attempt to put an end to it.
What I heard is that the girls did try to get the school to stop it, but the school didn’t stop it. Hence, the cops were called.
I just did a google search and read another article. It sounds like the school administrators tried to get the boys to stop, but they kept doing it anyway.
That does sound like good reason to bring criminal charges. It doesn't sound like the school overreacted and called the police as a first resort.
I still question filing felony charges against them, but I withdraw my objections to them filing the misdemeanor charges. Their actions were stupid and harmful to begin with, but when they refused to stop when not only the girls told them to stop, but the administrators told them to stop, they reached the level of criminal acts even for a 13 year old.
I’m just astounded that there are so many here defending it, and acting as if it’s just a situation of “boys will be boys.”
I think that many are assuming that the press was sensationalizing and exaggerating the situation, which is what they usually do. I find myself being skeptical of news reports on such issues because they are usually not very balanced and don't bother doing anything but repeating accusations.
However, it sounds like in this case it was more than boys being boys.
It does sound like that by the time the settlement was reached, these boys were quite aware that what they did was wrong, and they paid a price for their actions. I'm not talking about the trivial $250 cash part of the settlement, but what they went through before the settlement was reached.
As far as the legal system goes, it does sound like they got off pretty light, but hopefully that is because the parents involved were satisfied that these boys would not do this again and that the issue was properly addressed.
The kick in the butt was an assault, but not a sexual assault. I probably wouldn’t have called the cops on an assault like that, but it has happened for less.
Why the need for personal insults? Why can’t you just discuss our disagreement on the merits?
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