Florida Couple Faces Jailtime, Lifetime on Sex-Offender Registry, For Having Sex On a Beach

[Newsjock]

Source: The Stranger
By Dan Savage

So... back in 2008 a British couple was sentenced to two years in prison for having sex on a beach in Dubai, and that was held up as an example of the insanity of sharia law—and crazy, repressive sex-negativity.

On Monday an American couple was found guilty of having sex on a beach in Florida:

A jury Monday found a couple guilty of having sex on Bradenton Beach after only 15 minutes of deliberation. The convictions carry a maximum prison sentence of 15 years. Jose Caballero, 40, and Elissa Alvarez, 20, were charged with two counts each of lewd and lascivious behavior for having sex on a public beach on July 20, 2014.... Both Caballero and Alvarez will now have to register as sex offenders. A sentencing date was not announced, but Assistant State Attorney Anthony Dafonseca said they will pursue a harsher sentence for Caballero than Alvarez, since Alvarez has no prior record and Caballero has been to prison for almost eight years for a cocaine trafficking conviction. The state will ask for jail time for Alvarez and prison time for Caballero. Dafonseca said due to Caballero being out of prison less than three years before committing another felony, he's looking at serving the maximum time of 15 years.

Pamela Geller would be shrieking about this on CNN and Fox News right now if it was happening in Saudi Arabia or Dubai.

The judge has no discretion in sentencing—the state of Florida is sending Caballero to prison for fifteen years for having sex on a beach. Or looking like he was having sex on a beach, as it wasn't established definitively that Caballero and Alvarez were actually having sex. Witnesses did not see "genitals or penetration."

Read more: http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/05/05/22168382/florida-couple-faces-jailtime-lifetime-on-sex-offender-registry-for-having-sex-on-a-beach

[hr]
Previously on DU:
Couple arrested for doing it on the beach (July 2014)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/11038459

[fadedrose]

1. How silly

This must be a place where more criminals are needed to justify having a police department.

[In_The_Wind]

2. Times have changed. Ya can't do everything under the sun in Florida.

[RKP5637]

3. This is insane, and the witness that called sounded like a fool, they are also

not even sure without a doubt, as I've heard, that they actually had sex, it just looked like it. While what they did was really stupid, it certainly does not IMO deserve a prison term, and putting them on the sexual offender list IMO is also ridiculous.