02/14/2012
By MIKEL LIVINGSTON
A Benton County high school student serving two years on probation for a prior sex offense has been arrested following what family and friends describe as a friendly hug.
About 1:30 p.m. Friday, a junior high guidance counselor was walking through the commons area of Benton Central Jr.-Sr. High School when she saw 17-year-old [name withheld] and a 13-year-old female acquaintance hug, according to court documents filed in [name withheld]'s most recent arrest.
Hours later, police arrested [name withheld] at his home for violating his probation, which dictates he have no unsupervised contact with minors.
- He's in school, how is this possible? Everywhere he walks he'll be in violation.
[name withheld]'s probation stems from a sexual encounter when he was 15 with his then 13-year-old girlfriend, said his father, [father name withheld].
- And now, simply due to a label, from an incident where kids are being kids, he's treated as if he always has inappropriate intentions. He should not be a "sex offender" in the first place! Yep, pure insanity!
On July 30, 2010, [name withheld] was found guilty of child molesting, a Class B felony, and possession of a controlled substance, a Class C felony.
Court documents show that [name withheld] was placed on two years probation, scheduled to end July 30, 2012.
[father name withheld] said his son has acknowledged his past mistakes and is trying to move forward -- something he worries will be tougher in light of this event.
[name withheld] is currently being held at a juvenile detention center in Muncie.
"What scares me more than anything is, when he comes out of Muncie is he going to be a different person?" [father name withheld] said.
Benton Superintendent Destin Haas said he couldn't legally comment on specifics of the case but told the Journal & Courier, "The bottom line is our job is to make sure students are safe at all times."
Although [father name withheld] questions how interaction with minors during school hours can be considered unsupervised, Haas said his understanding of "supervision" was supervision by a member of law enforcement.
Complicating things, said [father name withheld], is that his son is mildly mentally handicapped. As a result, he has suffered depression that resulted in self cutting.
- And this label may push him over the edge. This is pure insanity!
According to the 13-year-old's parents, their daughter is now bearing much of the guilt for the incident. It's their daughter, mother [mother name withheld] said, who instigated the hug.
"I told her it's not her fault but she still blames herself," [mother name withheld] said. "She's constantly kicking herself."
Greg Barrera said the hug was a gesture of friendship.
"They're just really good friends," he said. "We're really tight with his family. It's just an innocent hug and now he is sitting in Muncie's detention center."
A detention hearing was scheduled for Tuesday morning, but it was postponed upon a request by [name withheld]'s lawyer. It has not yet been rescheduled.
EVERYONE should follow the link to this original article and then follow all of the posts that are being made in the Comments section. The mother of the 13-yo girl and the father of the boy have spoken out against this lunacy. I HOPE THEY SUE THE CRAP OUT OF THE STATE AND WIN MILLIONS!!!! America has gone off the deep end. We're lost!!!
ReplyDeleteSometimes it takes articles, such as this one, to open a few eyes into the the insanity of sex offender policy in our Country. Had the parents, family,or anyone warned this minor, he could have left the public school system and been home schooled until he graduated. In fact, since a condition of probation was to have no contact with minors, I believe the court should have mandated that via court order. But, they send him right back into the public school system teeming with (curious-?) teenagers. Believe me, I know the whole system is screwed-up, but maybe this can be a
ReplyDeletewarning to other families in a similar situation. Most, registered offenders never get a "First Chance" This young man, will unlikely, get a second.
It never ceases to amaze me that supposedly intelligent people could EVER willingly behave this way! In the first place, there was only a 2 year gap between these kids when they had sex. Add to that, they were both minors. How can HE be called a molester?! Just because he was 2 years older?! What kind of moron attorney did he have that couldn't point that out in court? Why didn't the court recognize that?
ReplyDeleteNow they have this kid in, for all intents and purposes, PRISON for something as simple as a hug. An act for which NOBODY is pressing charges!!
Then this idiot superintendent says that says he wants to make students "safe at all times?" What a hypocrite! Safe from whom, Mr. Haas?! The students' greatest threat at your school appears to be YOU!
God help us all!
Public education is a protected right. The courts would have overstepped their bounds had they mandated that this child could not have access to a public education The fact that the child can not go to school without being considered in violation is testament to the ridiculousness of the stipulations and, on the whole, the law. It would be better stated that if supervision is defined as by a member of law enforcement, the state or local authority should have assigned this child a supervising officer for the hours of each day he would be in school. they would see this as ridiculous and burdensome, but you can't have it both ways.
ReplyDeleteThe issue is that court's have to follow and interpret law, but thy can not make law and thus, in a situation where both persons are minors, they are both technically simultaneously perpetrator and victim. There are some cases where this has happened, primarily with photo sharing, but it speaks to how overbearing these laws, and the interpretation of them, have become. The other question to ask is why this child is on the registry but the 13yo partner he had isn't. It's because he's male.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't take a bad attorney to get swept up in these laws. It's an uphill battle from the start. Sometimes all the best attorney can do is keep the accused out of prison / juvenile once the prosecution machine starts churning.