Boys Face Trial Over Slapping Charges

[Kor37 9]

Boys Face Trial Over Slapping Charges

By SCOTT MICHELS,ABC News

Posted: 2007-07-25 00:47:22

Filed Under: Crime News

NEW YORK (July 25) -- Two middle-school students in Oregon are facing possible time in a juvenile jail and could have to register as sex offenders for smacking girls on the rear end at school.

 

Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison, both 13, were arrested in February after they were caught in the halls of Patton Middle School, in McMinnville, Ore., slapping girls on the rear end. Mashburn told ABC News in a phone interview that this was a common way of saying hello practiced by lots of kids at the school, akin to a secret handshake.

 

The boys spent five days in a juvenile detention facility and were charged with several counts of felony sex abuse for what they and their parents said was merely inappropriate but not criminal behavior.

 

The local district attorney has since backed off -- the felony charges have been dropped and the district attorney said probation would be an appropriate punishment. The Mashburns' lawyer said prosecutors offered Cory a plea bargain that would not require him to register as a sex offender, which the family plans to reject.

 

But the boys, if convicted at an Aug. 20 trial, still face the possibility of some jail time or registering for life as sex offenders.

 

The boys' families and lawyers said even sentencing them to probation would turn admittedly inappropriate but not uncommon juvenile rowdiness into a crime. If they are convicted of any of the misdemeanor charges against them, they would have to register as sex offenders.

 

"It's devastating," said Mark Lawrence, Cory Mashburn's lawyer. "To be a registered sex offender is to be designated as the most loathed in our society. These are young boys with bright futures, and the brightness of those futures would be over."

 

 

'Lots of Kids Do It' Cory Mashburn said he and Ryan Cornelison slapped each others' and other kids' bottoms every Friday. "Lots of kids at school do that," he said.

 

Cory and Ryan were brought to the principal's office Feb. 22, where they were questioned by school officials and a police officer. They were arrested that day and taken in handcuffs to a juvenile detention facility.

 

Court papers said the boys touched the buttocks of several girls, some of whom said this made them uncomfortable. The papers also said Cory touched a girl's breasts. But police reports filed with the court said other students, both boys and girls, slapped each other on the bottom.

 

"It's like a handshake we do," one girl said, according to the police report.

 

The boys were initially charged with five counts of felony sexual abuse. At a court hearing, two of the girls recanted, saying they never felt threatened or inappropriately touched by the boys. The judge released the boys but barred them from returning to school and required that they be under constant adult supervision.

 

District Attorney Bradley Berry has since dismissed the felony counts. The boys face 10 misdemeanor charges of harassment and sexual abuse. They face a maximum of up to one year in a juvenile jail on each count, though Berry said there was no way the boys would ever serve that much time.

 

"An appropriate sentence would be probation," he said. "These are minor misdemeanor charges that reflect repeated contact against multiple victims. We never intended for them to get a long time in detention."

 

"We're not seeking major penalties," he said. "We're seeking change in conduct."

 

'We Just Want This to Be Over' Tracie Mashburn, Cory's mother, said they will not accept plea and plan to fight the charges.

 

The arrests, critics said, reflect a trend toward criminalizing adolescent sexual behavior. Between 1998 and 2002, juvenile arrests for sex offenses other than rape or prostitution rose 9 percent -- the only kind of juvenile arrests that rose during that time, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

 

"More and more, they are criminalizing normal adolescent or preadolescent behavior," said Chuck Aron, co-chairman of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers juvenile justice committee.

 

Even probation, the Mashburns and their attorney said, would be too severe a punishment.

 

Julie McFarlane, a supervising attorney at the Juvenile Rights Project in Portland, Ore., said, "Probation for a sex offense is very difficult thing, and there's a pretty high failure rate." Failing to meet the terms of probation could mean the boys would be sent to jail.

 

Depending on the terms of probation, it's likely that the boys would not be allowed to have sexual contact with anyone or any contact with younger children, McFarlane said. For Cory Mashburn, that would mean he couldn't be left alone with his younger siblings.

 

"It's been awful," said Cory's mother. "We just want this to all be over. But it will never go away. We'll always remember it."

 

Berry, the district attorney, said the victims -- the girls who were touched -- were being overlooked. "What's been lost in this whole thing are the victims, who have been pressured enormously by these boys' friends," he said.

 

Cory, who said he now realizes what he did was inappropriate, spends his days playing video games and basketball. He said he's scared. "I could go to jail. I could be registered as a sex offender," he said. "I think it's all crazy."

 

 

Copyright 2007 ABCNEWS.com

 

When will we stop clogging up the court system with this nonsense? Sure , this behaviour was inappropriate but its something that the parents should address, not the courts. These are 13 year old boys. 13 year old boys do stupid things. It doesn't mean they have to go to jail or be classified a sex offender. The whole thing is ridiculous!

[Theunicornhunter 2]

It makes me mad when "every" offense gets someone labeled a sex offender because we then tend to think of being a registered sex offender as not being "bad" because everyone is one.

 

I think with kids this young we need to think more in the terms of "discipline" not punishment. We want to correct the course these kids are taking - not put them through a process that will make them ten to one hundred times more "offensive" to the public when they get through.

[Wishfire 2]

Okay, so let me get this straight... These boys slapped a few others in the butt, and now they face being registered for life as sex offenders, but some of their female classmates admitted that they find it normal and they do the same thing, and they don't face charges? Or the charges against the boys aren't dropped?

 

Is it an election year?

[Odie 0]

The more we try to crack down on sex offenders more children that was to protect will be found guilty under the law. The punishment does not fit the crimes these children made. Yes, 13 year old boys are still children and should not be punished for the rest of their life for just happen. Talk about a gross injustice here. I wonder why the girls are not punished as well.

[Theunicornhunter 2]

foxnews

 

McMINNVILLE, Ore. — Two 13-year-old boys accused of slapping girls' bottoms and poking or cupping girls' breasts at school apologized on Monday as a judge dismissed charges against the two, ending a six-month case that drew national attention.

 

The charges triggered a debate over whether such behavior in school should be considered criminal.

 

If you read the entire story - the boys did a little bit more than just slap the girls on the bottom as the original story suggested - nonetheless - all charges were dropped. Somehow I doubt these kids learned whatever it was they were supposed to learn from the experience.

[Odie 0]

And now for the full story...

 

Harassment charges dismissed when teens apologize

By WILLIAM McCALL

 

The Associated Press

 

McMINNVILLE, Ore. — Two 13-year-old boys accused of slapping girls' bottoms and poking or cupping girls' breasts at school apologized Monday as a judge dismissed charges against the two, ending a six-month case that drew national attention.

 

The charges triggered a debate over whether such behavior in school should be considered criminal.

 

Four girls listed as victims by the prosecutors had asked the judge to drop the charges against the boys.

 

Yamhill County Judge John Collins did so Monday, saying it was in the "interest of justice."

 

A number of young girls were in the courtroom during the hearing. They included at least some of the four who asked that the charges be dropped, attorneys said.

 

During the brief hearing, the two boys faced the girls and apologized.

 

"I never intended to hurt you in any way," said one of the boys.

 

The other boy told the girls: "I hope we can still be friends."

 

The News-Register newspaper of McMinnville reported that a "civil compromise" reached by prosecutors and the defense called for both boys to apologize, to pay each of the four girls $250 and to complete a "boundaries education" program.

 

Prosecutors and defense attorneys said they could not comment on the newspaper report or release details of the settlement because they are confidential.

 

Pressure has been building on prosecutors to drop the charges.

 

The boys, apparently inspired by the movie "Jackass," were accused in police reports of swatting girls on the bottom in a school corridor, grabbing girls' breasts on at least two occasions, and other acts.

 

They were originally charged with felony and misdemeanor sex-abuse charges in February. Amid growing public opposition to sending the boys to prison and putting them on a sex offenders' registry, prosecutors dropped the felony sex-abuse charges and added misdemeanor harassment charges, then later dropped all sex-abuse charges, leaving only the harassment counts.

[Gummy 0]

Ok, so the boys apologized. Maybe the fear of God was instilled into them, maybe not. Only time will tell.....

[Kor37 9]

Whats really ridiculous is that this trial went on for 6 months....