Who's The Criminal Here?
Okay, it's one thing if your 15-year-old daughter is doing it with some 26-year-old drifter from the gas station. But, a 15-year-old girl has sex with her teenage boyfriend...and he faces jail time and/or sex offender status? Just nuts. But, it's happening. From an ABC piece by John Stossel, Gena Binkley, and Andrew G. Sullivan:
In one respect, Hadley was fortunate because he wasn't put on New Hampshire's sex offender registry.Jeff Davis -- who also ran into an angry dad -- wasn't so lucky. He was an 18-year-old with a 15-year-old girlfriend, and they were having sex.
"It was the norm," Davis said. "It really was. There are a lot of teenagers these days that are having sex. We thought we were very much in love, we were in high school."
His girlfriend's father, Mark Putorti, didn't think the relationship was good for his daughter Alexis. Her grades at school had slipped and he thought Davis was a bad influence. "All I wanted was him away from my daughter," he said.
Putorti had the law on his side because Alexis was 15 and the age of consent in Connecticut is 16. He warned Davis to stay away from his daughter, or else. But Davis didn't believe him. "Thinking there was no legal recourse, I figured it was a dad who was angry and couldn't really do much about it," Davis said. But he was wrong.
Putorti went to the police, and they arrested Davis. "I was processed, fingerprints, photos," Davis recalled.
At the time Alexis was furious with her father, but today she says that her dad was right and that Davis took advantage of her.
"I don't want to say he directly pressured me, but I think that you can definitely, as an older person, put indirect pressure on somebody to do something they may not be ready to do," she said.
Branded for Life
Davis was convicted of sexual contact and risk of injury to a minor. He's on the Connecticut sex offender registry right there along with Douglas Simmons who kidnapped, sexually assaulted and murdered a 6-year-old (the details of the murder conviction don't appear on the registry because of a plea deal in his home state) and James Sullivan who sexually assaulted a handicapped woman. Looking at the registry, it's tough to know how Davis is different from those dangerous men. And, Davis says, some people look at him like he's a pervert.
"They come across as if I were sitting in the bushes in the park waiting for someone to walk by," he said. "They don't understand I was in a relationship with a girl in high school."
The police warn his neighbors that he's a sex offender and vigilantes make sure his neighbors know. "They'll print out copies of my page from the registry. They'll drive around the neighborhood, throw it out the windows," he said.
Today Davis is a volunteer firefighter. He used to dream of working full time as a firefighter, but because he's a registered sex offender, he says he'll never get that job, even though he's certified.
"I can't become a paid firefighter," he said. "I can't even apply at some places because they ask you before they even give you an application. They see it on the applications and it doesn't go any farther than the hiring process. I get put into a basket and put [by] the wayside."
Putorti has little sympathy for Davis, who he says should have stayed away from Alexis when he told him to. And, he says, having Davis arrested was just what his daughter needed.
"Wasn't something I wanted to do, and it wasn't something I'm proud that I did, in a way. But looking back on it, I don't regret having done it, either," he said. "The proof's in the pudding, really. She went back and really knuckled down in high school and graduated."
Putorti says the statutory rape law saved his daughter. "Oh yeah. No question," he said.
And Alexis agrees. "I think this is a good law for these situations. If Jeff had gone to jail, I would have thought that was way harsh," she said.
Uh, nothing a little parenting and personal responsibility on the part of these girls wouldn't fix. A guy has to get arrested, and potentially go to jail or be branded a sex offender so you can get your grades up? Just sick.
And just guessing here, but how often do you think teenage boys' parents sic the cops on their somewhat older teenage girlfriends?
And as a commenter on the ABC site pointed out, doesn't the sex offender registry violate the Fifth Amendment?
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.
Believe me, I'm no friend to actual sex offenders, but we need to reform the laws to differentiate between the real sex criminals and horny teenage boys making out with their horny teenage girlfriends.