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.
Oh really?! And how many prosecutions of said infraction would you imagine in the last year ? Let me make a guess... Zero!
Thats the beauty of these "making a mountain out of molehill " assault laws. Its up to the prosecutors to persue or ignore and guess who always end up getting the book thrown at them? (Deep pocketted ) White males, thats who!
Thats the typical liberal solution for everything; more and more laws, applied inconstantly, most frequently at your "enemies".
My God, man, have some decorum about you...do you want all women thinking all men will behave just like you?!?
Just another reason NOT to send your kids to government schools. We want vouchers!!!!
Amen.
You mean they don't?
Besides, isn't 'decorum' the act of wearing a g-string with rhinestones?
Stop it! That's my ultimate fantasy!!!
Exactly...
Laz, you are such a tramp...
So it is okay for a guy to tease another guy by twisting his nipple? Nothing naughty or demeaning about that?
The actions of these boys was clearly very unacceptable, and need to be shut down quickly. They deserved to be punished.
However we are talking about kids in their early teens. They sometimes do stupid things. Since these kids apparently did this a number of times it was more than a single impulsive act and should be treated more seriously, but way back when I was in school something like this would get a kid suspended for a number of days and get their rear end beaten by their father.
Unfortunately, spanking kids is now considered child abuse, and it seems like society's solution is now to throw young teens in jail rather than having the school and the parents try and change their behavior.
In this case that eventually did happen. The kids parents got together and resolved the issue.
If the boys repeat such actions and it is obvious that the parents and the school are unable to address the issue, then criminal charges may very well be necessary. However, that should not be the first course of action.
Well,if this thread is going to drift into "preferred homosexual foreplay techniques" I'm outta here...
There’s nothing sexual about it. That’s the difference.
I don’t think groping is just “horseplay.”
In Connecticut the age of consent is 13, with the caveat that both parties must not be more that 730 days apart in age.
Men all have the fantasy that they have the ability to convert certain women.
I get tired of ad hominem posts like that. It denotes a lack of thought on your part..... How much easier to call names, than to actually address her point.
First off, I wonder how willing you'd be to dismiss this, if these boys had pawed your daughter. The description of their actions denotes a bit more than the pats on the butt that of the headlines were making it out to be.
For what it's worth, I was curious to see if the prosecutor had any business hauling the boys to court in the first place.
Interestingly enough, he did: the boys' actions actually qualify as Sexual Abuse in the Third Degree, under Oregon Revised Statutes 163.415
163.415 Sexual abuse in the third degree. (1) A person commits the crime of sexual abuse in the third degree if the person subjects another person to sexual contact and:
(a) The victim does not consent to the sexual contact;...
Where "'Sexual contact' means any touching of the sexual or other intimate parts of a person or causing such person to touch the sexual or other intimate parts of the actor for the purpose of arousing or gratifying the sexual desire of either party."
I'd say that their actions certainly satisfy the letter of the law in this instance.
Now, given the age and patent stupidity of the boys, whether the prosecutor should have taken it as far as he did, is a valid question. But the case is NOT silly. Were these guys older, I'd say they definitely belonged in the slammer.
Hmmm, and I thought that was just in Kentucky.
interest of justice NONSENSE.
This is about the judge giving cover to a prosecutor that got lost in the PC la la land of zelous mothers.
consider the humiliation of these children.
The boys have learned how women are not to be trusted.
The girls have learned they are weak and only the state can protect them and when their superiors tell them, they should stop fighting.
And stigmatizing an adolescent as a sex offender for the rest of his life is an over-reaction.
How far would they have had to go, before you changed your tune on that?
tough to prove at 13.
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