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Yeah, by the letter of the law....but sentence seems steep

motorhead
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life
Interesting case in Michigan.

http://reason.com/blog/2015/06/16/male-t…

19 boy meets 14 year girl on the Internet "Hot or Not" website. She lies about her age. Claims to be 17. They meet up and have consensual sex. He's charged with statutory rape. Agrees to a plea deal hoping for a lenient first time offender sentence.

Judge seems to have a vendetta. Sentences the boy to 99 days in jail, 5 years probation and 25 years as a registered sex offender. Even the mother of the "victim" made a plea for leniency. While on probation he can't use the Internet or have a smart phone. He was a scholarship computer science but with no computer access thats gone.

She's 14. That's young. I get it. But she lied. In 20 states that would have gotten him off the hook. But not Michigan.

13 comments

Latest

shadowcat
•
9 years ago
That is a miscarriage of justice in my opinion. It seems that judges in the U.S are making sentences too severe for the offense. More than in other civilized countries. It shows by the over crowding in the jails and prisons.
rockstar666
•
9 years ago
This is why I posted in another thread that America doesn't have the infrastructure to have a rational justice system when it comes to sex crimes. This boy is not a criminal. Yet his life is ruined because of our misguided attitudes towards sex.
mikeya02
•
9 years ago
Sounds more like a crappy judge than peoples attitudes
Diva1975
•
9 years ago
What a waste of time. Let's focus on bonafide child abuse cases, not young puppy love
warhawks
•
9 years ago

Sometimes I'm beginning to think the whole legal system is a huge scam to get more tax dollars allocated to it. Lock more people up and the prison system asks for more money. The more people they have in prison the more money they can ask for.
I've grown very cynical about it.
I TRUELY believe it's all about how much money they can get by locking more people up for drugs and non violent crimes.
mikeya02
•
9 years ago
^^^ You'd think they made enough off of parking meters and parking and speeding tickets
rockstar666
•
9 years ago
I also see our legal system as a scam, although I'm not an anarchist. I just see politics trumping common sense way too often, and the only way to fix it is term limits. Term limits would not only balance the budget, but would bring national health care and a rational criminal justice system.
jester214
•
9 years ago
The judge comes off pretty badly on the given information.
rh48hr
•
9 years ago
Way too harsh a penalty. Had a friend in college who hooked up with the 15 year old sister of one of girls in his dorm. Girl came onto him and sucked and fucked him. But I was the only one who knew about it so nothing happened to him. His life which is now a good one (hes rich) would have been ruined for something teenagers do all the time. He had just turned 18 a few months prior, so a couple months is the difference between sex offender and not knowing any better?
shailynn
•
9 years ago
Can you appeal a plea deal?

That's horrible, a sentence way to steep.
motorhead
•
9 years ago
In another more detailed article I read, the prosecutor, who seemed to be all for a lenient sentence and had agreed to the plea deal, for some bizarre reason during trial reminded the judge that the judge had previously rejected two similar plea bargains in earlier cases. The defense attorney says that may give him just cause for appeal.

Also, apparently there is a case up before the Michigan Supreme Court later this year that involves the victim falsely stating her age. Similar to this case so it could have some bearing on the appeal.
ilbbaicnl
•
9 years ago
What they should have done is gotten 30 people who were called for jury duty (not on this case) to look at the girl and guess her age. If they guessed high enough on average he should get off. Although I guess in some insane states, he'd still be guilty as long as she was under 18.
crazyjoe
•
9 years ago
That is rediculous. Colorado is really bad too with that kind of stuff. If a cop catches you pissing outside you have to register as a sex offender and will have probation etc.


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