by johnfariss » Fri Apr 02, 2010 1:59 pm
Ed, you are right in that according to the article you cited, statutory rape was not mentioned. According to it, the minister plead guilt to "felony child solicitation" and "sexual misconduct charges." As a former law enforcement officer, I tend to read articles like this between the lines. Note (1) he "plead" guilty, not he was "found" guilty. That suggests that he did not go to trial, but rather entered a plea bargain arrangement; (2) note that plea bargains are exactly that: the result of a "bargaining session," and in those, a district attorney (or states attorney, circuit solicitor, whatever the title in in the particular state) begins with the harshest charge that the evidence supports, while the defense attorney looks to lessor included offences, and the two bargain, trying to balance justice, the uncertainty of a trial, sometimes the emotional state, cooperation, and reliability of witnesses and victims, and frankly of costs--dollars and cents--in order to serve "justice" in some manner. I may be guilty of assuming the worst, but it is an informed opinion based on my own experiences; if I were a betting man (and I wasn't, even before I became a Christian), I would bet there was rape/statutory rape involved, especially as the article states, "The teen told investigators that between January and March 2009, she and Moore kissed or engaged in sex acts at least seven times."
You also said, "No where did I or any one else any thing about 'this girl' being 'out of control (sexually)'." In my comment about a class to help parents regain control of their teens I think the context will show that I had moved from the specifics of this case to possible ways to address the broader issue in a positive manner. My secondary point is and has been that by absolving all victims every where and at all times of all responsibility we compound the problem." OK, if that is what you meant. It is, however, not the way I took it based on your wording and the juxaposition of your statement, "I would also suggest some classes to help parents of teens learn to retake control of said teens" with the content of your 10:05 PM entry on 04/01. Others seemed to take it the same way too. But we all sometimes mis-speak, I ccertainly do. And in the print medium, there is not the availability to immediately clarify a statement as there is in face-to-face conversations.
John