11/23/2011
By Jacob Sullum
Last week the parents of a Wisconsin boy sued Grant County District Attorney Lisa Riniker for charging their son with first-degree sexual assault, a Class B felony, after he played "butt doctor" with a 5-year-old girl. He was 6 at the time. When the boy's lawyer tried to have the charge dismissed, Riniker replied: "The legislature could have put an age restriction in the statute if it wanted to. The legislature did no such thing."
According to the complaint (PDF), the girl is "the daughter of a well-known political figure in Grant County," and her brother, who is the same age, also was involved in playing doctor but was not charged. In addition to Riniker, the lawsuit names as defendants retired Grant County Sheriff's Sgt. James Kopp and Jan Moravits, an investigator with Grant County Social Services "whose regional supervisor...is the political figure's wife's sister-in-law"—i.e., the aunt of the alleged victim.
Although the boy, now 7, is too young to be prosecuted or named in a juvenile delinquency petition, Madison.com reports, county officials are using the felony charge to force his parents into accepting "protection or services" for him. The lawsuit says that once he turns 18, he will be listed as a sex offender.
I noted a similar case in my July Reason story on sex offender laws.
You have got to be kidding! This child due to the blatant stupidity of the DA's Office, may just as well be shot now. Had the parents talked to these kids and told them not to do such things, chances are they would never even remember the incident in the coming years. How truly evil has the judicial system become to do this to a child? This is also politically motivated as the other children involved have had nothing done to destroy their lives.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it going to take for incidents such as this to be looked at as they truly are? Curiosity of innocent children. There is no crime here. Just a stupid woman trying to keep her conviction record high under any means possible. I hope the parents of this young child wins and the DA has to pay for life the life she has destroyed.
This country is truly lost. We are rapidly on our way to becoming Nazi Germany!
ReplyDeleteSo much for "protecting" the children!
ReplyDeleteThis child is clearly a sexual deviant and should be brought to justice. It is well documented that a child under the age of 7 who plays doctor can and will continue to play doctor well into his double digits. The statistics state that 75% of children ages 5 through 12 play some form of doctor and should be incarcerated and placed on a registry for life.
ReplyDeleteThere is no place in this society for children playing doctor and they should be held accountable for their actions as adults.
If these children want to rape each other then put them on an island and they can rape until they die. Personally, I think they should all be shot in the head because this is sick and they are all pedophiles.
I can see now how the general public and politicians are able to spread this nonsense... it practically writes itself.
come on now growing, up we played you show me yours I'll show you mine now there crying about it what a crock
ReplyDeleteAre you serious? he is 7 years old and they want him to be a RSO as soon as he turns 18. You have to be kidding me on this. Disgusting is all I can say. Kill a child before he ever has a chance and for what? For doing the same almost all of us did as kids.
ReplyDeleteRiniker replied: "The legislature could have put an age restriction in the statute if it wanted to. The legislature did no such thing."
ReplyDeleteOMG!!
I've said it before and I'll keep saying it:
Once a badly drafted law is placed on the books, morons like this will hide behind the letter of the law for the sole purpose of subverting the spirit of the law!
Is this woman so utterly gutless that she would sacrifice this child's future just to do her job? Is her position so tenuous that she has to destroy a child? Is the "law" so sacrosanct that human rights and freedoms (not to mention common sense) have to take a back seat?!!!!
This woman needs to have somebodies' foot planted squarely up her a** so that she can get a taste of what this kid has in store for him when he's 18!
Just because it envloves a politict they want to threw a fit but yet not do anything with the girls brother way to go
ReplyDelete