Get a blow job, do ten years in jail

I find it pretty hysterical that the attorney's name is B.J.

But yeah, that's pretty fucked.

Poor kid. That's really sad. The only way I see this changing is if the national press gets involved, though. The parties with the power to end this are only gonna be interested in yeilding if it starts to look like bad PR.

As long as crap like that happens, and it does happen quite often, the USA isnt going to lose its reputation for a legal stone-age backwater.

I'm sure this would have happened if he was white.

Someone needs to tell all the public servants with their (likely quite pricey educations) that the beauty of the law system is the ability to correct mistakes. The prosecutor is simply trying to lay the burden on the accused. It's YOUR job, dick. Get it right. Are they meeting the intent of the law? Does the law do what it is supposed to do? Clearly not. Fix the law (oh, yeah, done), correct the mistake.

I imagine the teacher who only got 90 days was white.

There was a big mess up in Rome, GA regarding a similar thing. A star HS football player (who was black) had sex with a white girl who was like 3 months shy of turning 16 (he was 18). A couple of days later she claimed rape (presumably because of her father), and the kid was promptly arrested and put in jail. He had almost a 4.0 GPA and scored a 1200 on his SATs, so he wasn't some "dumb jock". It went to trial, where a jury found him not guilty, but they didn't release him from prison because the prosecutor threw in a child molestation charge to try and keep him there. After enough public outrage, they finally released the kid.

Wow, I'm so upset after reading that story. Anybody know the email/phone for the prosecutor?

Yeah, the article made mention of this distinction.

The Barker fellow really sounds like one of those religious fanatics you see screaming on the Trinity Broadcasting Network with his "they took their medicine, but he won't" bullshit. And with all his shoulder shrugging about just having to declare yourself to being a child molester would set Wilson free, it's painfully obvious that for all the money he spent becoming a lawyer, no one ever told him to read The Crucible.

Eddie Barker's office phone (he doesn't have a public email it seems):

http://pview.findlaw.com/view/1941751_1

Accepting the label of "child molester" is not "taking your medicine". I wouldn't allow that either, not if I was 17 and a girl was 15 and we performed a consensual sexual act. Especially if it meant I could not live with my little sister.

It's egregious...even two years with that label, the punishment does not fit the crime. I appreciate the ESPN headline...the story will get attention. That will lead to public shame for the refusal to do the right thing. That might lead to a bit of denial, but someone, somewhere in the state will probably force a resolution that doesn't make the state look like it's still in the dark ages.

At least I hope.

Ok, so the girl and the prosecution both agree it was consensual... and I don't see how it was a rape of any kind. I like how this guy goes to jail for really doing nothing wrong but your government leaders and big business owners and CEO's get off with dick all and get to swim around in their riches. Ten years? Without parole? What the fuck? REAL child rapists get less then that and then don't even have to register when they leave prison.

Laws, courts and most people in general are fucked up.

The prosecution conceded it was consensual, but the fact that she was just under the age of consent (aka they're not legal but they're responsible for their own actions) made it automatically a child molestation charge. Which is strange, since she's the one performing and initiating the sexual act.

I found the prosecutor's email:

ebarker@co.douglas.ga.us

I just read this story, and it is downright sickening. I'm going to send an email, and I encourage all of you to do so as well. But, be sure to keep it polite and professional. Lewd and rude just gets ignored.

God. What a fucking nightmare.

And the prosecutor is a total asshole.

By the way, I want to send an email but does the fact that I'm not from the US mean that my email is getting ignored?

Thank you and done.

I'm pretty busy today, so I just glanced through the article....but didn't the girl come forward and say she had been assaulted? Did her story change at some point? How did you become confused as to whether you consented to having sex with someone or not?

Here are the state reps as well (copy & paste):

martin.scott@house.ga.gov, wroger@alltel.net, dralston1@etcmail.com, cjxbj@alltel.net, ben.bridges@house.ga.gov, barbara.reece@house.ga.gov, katie.dempsey@house.ga.gov, rick.crawford@house.ga.gov, howard.maxwell@house.ga.gov, charlice.byrd@house.ga.gov, calvin.hill@house.ga.gov, sean@electsean.com, doug.collins@house.ga.gov,
tommccall@bellsouth.net, tommy.benton@house.ga.gov,
dwix@mindspring.com, ed.setzler@house.ga.gov, terryjohnson@cobb.net, steve.tumlin@house.ga.gov,
rteilhet@yahoo.com, repdon@donparsons.org, chuck@martinforgeorgia.com, wendell.willard@house.ga.gov, tqgrice@aol.com, kathyashe56@mindspring.com, pat@patgardner.org, carglor9@cs.com, rbruce5347@aol.com, vfludd@mindspring.com, bill.hembree@house.ga.gov,
tim.bearden@house.ga.gov, ronix2charter.net, gahouse71@yahoo.com, dlakly@mindspring.com, john.yates@house.ga.gov, robera.abdul-salaam@house.ga.gov, mikeglanton@mikeglanton.com, fran.millar@wachovia.com

wow, what a way to get my ire up for the day. I'm def gonna email this DA clown, and let him know what's up.

Seems like a clear cut case of out-and-out racism to me.

I wonder how long it takes to shut down some of these GA servers? If we found the email address, a lot of other people probably did as well.

Please remember though, everyone, be adult about your emails. A good written jab doesn't have to include the words "cuntface" and "ass fucked by a dolphin" - though it would feel good to write.

Can I call them terrorists?

Seriously though, can someone else post one of their emails so I can get an idea of where to go with mine. I'm not good at these things. I'd just end up writing a sentence and come across like an idiot. Which I am but still.

I think you had the same confusion I did on my first reading.

There were two girls being talked about... a 17 year old and a 15 year old.

The 17 year old was having sex with people, and SHE said she was raped at first.

The 15 year old was the one giving oral sex, and she never said she was raped.

At least that is how I understood it.

My understanding:

The 15 year old never said it was nonconsensual, and he was acquitted of the rape charge, but because she wasn't 16, it still fell under the definition of Aggravated Child Molestation, which is what he was found guilty of. That sucks, but when dealing with age-of-consent issues, there's going to be some arbitrary lines drawn somewhere. The real problem is the way the ACM law is written, it contains the punishment (10 without, minimum) intended for pedophiles, but the definition is so broad that it includes a lot of cases like this that don't involve actual predators. The legislature corrected this, but for reasons unclear, did not make the new law apply to old cases as they could have.

And that prosecutor is a fucking asshole. While I can't help but feel like there is more to the story about his power to put aside the sentence (even if he's pure evil, there's surely pressure from the community to do just that), his blaming the kid's pride for what happened is just fucking despicable. For a criminal attorney to publicly acknowledge the innocence of the accused and say that he should plead guilty anyway is appalling.

Someone has to initiate the pressing of charges. So who did that? A parent? I doubt the prosecutor himself walked in on them and decided to charge them, and clearly the girl didn't. Whoever tried to get the charges pressed should get therapy (and the derision of the rest of the adult and teen world) and the prosecutor should be fired for humoring them and pressing charges on such an obviously consentual case. It might technically be a crime, but when it's clearly not the intent of the law to stop this particular scenario, his discretion should have come into play and he should not have taken it to trial.

I am sick to my stomach after hearing this story. What kind of warped sense of
morality must one have to cause such an injustice? I'm currently preparing to
go to law school and it scares me to think our judicial system could be so
callous and warped.

I know injustices occur within our legal system every day, but these stories
bring it home. They make me wonder what injustices I might be ordered to
commit by bastards like you. But then I smile in the thought that I can choose
my own path, that I can dedicate my efforts to making sure things like this
never happen, and that backwater, prejudiced relics of a by-gone era such as
yourself aren't allowed to strip the life away from innocent Americans.

Forget that admitting your fallibility here would damage your pride and
your career. If you have any humanity left, any sense of decency at all you'll
do what's right. Work to right this wrong. Free Genarlow Wilson.

This case is disturbing on so many levels. One because of the race relations, the sexual politics, the backwards morals, and that if it could happen to a kid as good as this, it could really happen to anyone. I mean, how many people don't experiment with sex in high school?

I've been following this case since mid-December and it still leaves me feeling enraged and depressed.

Actually, I'm not sure that question has anything to do with the story, or the thread.....

I read the whole thread... and I have no idea what point you were trying to make with that question.

Yep, the 17 year old initiated the charges, and later dropped them. But in the process of investigating those charges they came across video of the kid (technically) committing a felony with the 15 year old. They're supposed to prosecute at that point.

How about you do all of us a favor and go back to Myspace?

Oh, Ali, thy words doth wound my heart.

He may have been referring to the ghost formerly known as Nanahara Shuuya.

Oh, baby, you know I love you. Nanahara dissappeared into the mist like the retarded ninja he is. Why do we only hurt the ones we love?!

Sheesh, fabfunk's been "gone" for all of a day, and look what has become of us.

The backwards south is such a fucking joke (that's how I would open up my letter to the DA). WHat is the guy supposed to do, refuse a blow job from a girl two years younger than him. With this dumb fuck legislation she could go on a dick sucking spree and put the other 500 guys in the school in jail for ten years.

Actually, the reason he's in there (well, one of many unfair reasons) is that he didn't plead out like the rest of the guys she blew. He had these dumb things called "principles".

Well, at least one positive thing has come from this horrible miscarriage of justice. A select got to see that rarest of occurrences: playful, homoerotic banter between a Schwartz and a Mohammed.

hey all, sent out a mass email yesterday about my feelings on this case, and here's a response I got from "dlakly@mindspring.com":

"You are a FOOL! What if your 15 year old daughter got a STD from a sexual predator? I fail to understand how bleeding heart liberals get involved in these issues. Never mind, you probably respond to the Nigerian scams on the internet! "

Never before in my life I have I wanted to punch through a computer screen and strangle the dope on the other end so badly.

Bleeding heart liberal? People still use that as an insult? What is this, the fucking 90s?

It's because of stuff like this that makes me wanna go back to bed and never leave my room.

I'm fairly sure it's a felony in some backwater state.

What if your son got an STD from some dumb slut? I don't get it.

Was that response for real? I know there are some aggressively stupid people out there, but come on. There wasn't an STD or sexual predator anywhere in the story.

If that was real, he might as well have said "you're a fool, what if your daughter got scratched on the leg by a mountain lion" and he would have been as on topic. Ladies beware, the blow job recipient bandit is on the loose, make sure you do not suck his dick because he will let you.

Check this one out:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070127/...cipal_arrested

What I like about this one is how the principal can get more time then the teacher who actually did more wrong. But you know whatever I guess...????

They're playing this story on CNN, this kid should get out in a few months.
Yes, the prosecutor is a total jerk. He told CNN he was considering cutting the sentence in half, to 5 years. What a bastard!!!

Now the Georgia State Senate is trying to fix this with a new bill.

Check this post on the ESPN forum regarding the case:

wilef: It is awful, but what those kids were doing was awful too. I'm glad he sees the wrong in how he used to behave. Hopefully he gets out of prison soon and lives a different life than he would have if he was never arrested. This could be the best thing for him.

or this: (sspecially the last part)

moorle: Sorry, but "doing what teenagers do"??? Maybe I hung out with the wrong crowd, 'cause gangbangs on video tape wasn't the sort of thing we did. I'm not saying that 10 years isn't cruel and unusual punishment, but what these boys did was way beyond "something stupid". It seems to me that giving up the right to live with your sister is a small price to pay when the alternative is living away from your sister while you're in prison for 10 years. The laws may be archaic, but having courts and juries uphold them is not.

Extremely disturbing.

Maybe it's just the internet, but this came off as sarcastic when I read it. Do you really think the prosecutor is getting the short shrift here?

Also, I've rarely wanted to inflict such pain on a complete stranger as I do on espn forum member moorle.

Uh ... no. I was just pissed that he was trying to come off as reasonable when he suggested to CNN a good deal could be to cut the sentence by half, which is still a travesty!

If I met anyone, ANYONE, who agreed with this sentence in person, I would have no qualms about punching them right in the face. Some of the assholes on the ESPN board make me sick.