MacroGuru
10-20-2005, 03:06 PM
On the news this morning they had a report that a 13 year old girl and a 12 year old boy were both charged with Child Sex Abuse......for having sex with each other.....well, the girl ended up getting pregnant...the case is in court.....
Now for me, that is overkill....let me find an article on it though...
http://www.standard.net/standard/65662/
Court asked to rule on teen sex
Thursday, October 20, 2005
By Tim Gurrister
Standard-Examiner staff
[email protected] ([email protected])
The Utah Court of Appeals was asked Wednesday to rule on the legality of a case of underage sex in Ogden. Very underage.
The case involves a 13-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy, each considered both a perpetrator and a victim. The two had sex together several times. A child resulted from the intercourse and the girl, now 14, kept the baby.
Both were charged last fall with sexual abuse of a minor, a second-degree felony, in 2nd District Juvenile Court in Ogden. They were both eventually convicted.
The problem for defense attorney Randy Richards, who is appealing the girl's conviction, is that state law doesn't fully address sexual relations between participants that young. He claims his client has been treated unfairly as a result.
By statute, no one under the age of 14 is considered capable of consenting to sex, he said, so even though the two had intercourse willingly, it amounts to statutory rape because of their age.
But the law becomes uneven after that, Richards argues, raising the question of just how illegal was the behavior of his client, as well as her victim and co-defendant.
For two 14-year-olds to engage in sex in Utah is only a class B misdemeanor, he said. It becomes a third-degree felony if one participant is four or more years older than the other.
For 16- and 17-year-olds, intercourse is illegal only if one participant is 10 years older than the other, he said.
And Utah still has laws on the books, which haven't been enforced in 50 years, Richards said, that make adultery and any kind of fornication illegal, but only a class B misdemeanor.
His client, however, stands convicted of a second-degree felony.
That, Richards argues, is a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law.
"I don't think the Legislature ever contemplated a 12-year-old and a 13-year-old having sex," Richards said. "This is Utah."
The boy, he said, has apparently not appealed his conviction.
Richards argued his motion before the Utah Court of Appeals Wednesday morning, seeking dismissal of Juvenile Court Judge Michael Andrus' conviction of his client or a reduction of the charge.
The case was reported to authorities by a doctor during the girl's pregnancy, Richards said.
Richards worries that any violation of her probation, which could extend another seven years, could result in her having her child taken away from her.
"For now she has a juvenile felony record," he said.
He expects a decision within a few months from the three members of the seven-member Court of Appeals who sat for Wednesday's oral arguments. An assistant Utah attorney general argued the state's case.
Efforts to reach prosecutors for comment were unsuccessful Wednesday afternoon.
Richards teaches a class in constitutional law at Ogden High School, and he brought about a dozen of his students along for Wednesday's appellate session.
"It's a crazy case. And a good example of the issues under the equal protection of the law guarantees. I can't believe there wasn't another way to handle this case," he said.
Now for me, that is overkill....let me find an article on it though...
http://www.standard.net/standard/65662/
Court asked to rule on teen sex
Thursday, October 20, 2005
By Tim Gurrister
Standard-Examiner staff
[email protected] ([email protected])
The Utah Court of Appeals was asked Wednesday to rule on the legality of a case of underage sex in Ogden. Very underage.
The case involves a 13-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy, each considered both a perpetrator and a victim. The two had sex together several times. A child resulted from the intercourse and the girl, now 14, kept the baby.
Both were charged last fall with sexual abuse of a minor, a second-degree felony, in 2nd District Juvenile Court in Ogden. They were both eventually convicted.
The problem for defense attorney Randy Richards, who is appealing the girl's conviction, is that state law doesn't fully address sexual relations between participants that young. He claims his client has been treated unfairly as a result.
By statute, no one under the age of 14 is considered capable of consenting to sex, he said, so even though the two had intercourse willingly, it amounts to statutory rape because of their age.
But the law becomes uneven after that, Richards argues, raising the question of just how illegal was the behavior of his client, as well as her victim and co-defendant.
For two 14-year-olds to engage in sex in Utah is only a class B misdemeanor, he said. It becomes a third-degree felony if one participant is four or more years older than the other.
For 16- and 17-year-olds, intercourse is illegal only if one participant is 10 years older than the other, he said.
And Utah still has laws on the books, which haven't been enforced in 50 years, Richards said, that make adultery and any kind of fornication illegal, but only a class B misdemeanor.
His client, however, stands convicted of a second-degree felony.
That, Richards argues, is a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law.
"I don't think the Legislature ever contemplated a 12-year-old and a 13-year-old having sex," Richards said. "This is Utah."
The boy, he said, has apparently not appealed his conviction.
Richards argued his motion before the Utah Court of Appeals Wednesday morning, seeking dismissal of Juvenile Court Judge Michael Andrus' conviction of his client or a reduction of the charge.
The case was reported to authorities by a doctor during the girl's pregnancy, Richards said.
Richards worries that any violation of her probation, which could extend another seven years, could result in her having her child taken away from her.
"For now she has a juvenile felony record," he said.
He expects a decision within a few months from the three members of the seven-member Court of Appeals who sat for Wednesday's oral arguments. An assistant Utah attorney general argued the state's case.
Efforts to reach prosecutors for comment were unsuccessful Wednesday afternoon.
Richards teaches a class in constitutional law at Ogden High School, and he brought about a dozen of his students along for Wednesday's appellate session.
"It's a crazy case. And a good example of the issues under the equal protection of the law guarantees. I can't believe there wasn't another way to handle this case," he said.