Rape charges to be dropped against immigrant teens in Md. case

[DonViejo]

Source: The Washington Post



By Dan Morse May 5 at 10:25 AM

BREAKING: Rape charges to be dropped against immigrant teens in Md. case that sparked White House rebuke

Defense lawyers have said the sex acts were consensual, and text messages and school surveillance videos didn’t substantiate the girl’s claims that she had been pushed into a bathroom, where the suspects took turns assaulting her in a stall. The case attracted international attention, with White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer calling it “shocking, disturbing, horrific” during a daily briefing.

This story will update

Maryland prosecutors will drop rape and sex offense charges against one of two immigrant teens accused of attacking a 14-year-old classmate in a school bathroom stall, according to the suspect’s attorney in the case that horrified local parents, attracted international attention and intensified debate about illegal crossings into the U.S.

Attorneys for the second suspect said they had not been told of the status of the rape case against their client who is due in court Friday morning for a hearing.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/rape-charge-against-immigrant-teen-in-maryland-case-will-be-dropped-defense-lawyer-says/2017/05/05/a4806c02-312f-11e7-8674-437ddb6e813e_story.html?pushid=590c8be0fdd5491d00000011&tid=notifi_push_breaking-news&utm_term=.043713839897

[atreides1]

1. WTF

The Maryland Age of Consent is 16 years old. In the United States, the age of consent is the minimum age at which an individual is considered legally old enough to consent to participation in sexual activity. Individuals aged 15 or younger in Maryland are not legally able to consent to sexual activity, and such activity may result in prosecution for statutory rape.

Maryland statutory rape law is violated when a person has consensual sexual intercourse with an individual under age 16. Charges can vary based on the age differences between victim and offender.

[billh58]

2. Message deleted by DU the Administrators

[SpankMe]

3. Even if this is rape - it has nothing to do with the immigration status of the boys

Rape is rape. Crime is crime. It is completely agnostic to the immigration status of the alleged perpetrators. It infuriates me that conservatives try to connect the two - as if crime rates would somehow go down if there were no illegal immigrants.

How can this concept be correctly described so that people can understand?

Even if this was consensual, teen hook-ups like this are unsavory and dangerous. I don't have a huge problem with consensual, infrequent, private 'exploratory' sexual encounters between high-schoolers of the same age. But crap like gang-banging in a school bathroom stall during the day is just plain stupid and wrong. These little morons - all of them - need a slap in the head.

[Canoe52]

4. But did the bathroom correspond to the correct gender?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

5. The case was politicized from the get-go.

It was almost immediately turned from just a case on some very serious allegations into a narrative on "Illegal immigrants coming into the country to commit horrific crimes" by the Trump crowd.

Not making any comment on either the guilt or innocence of the individuals accused of the crime, or the credibility or lack thereof of the individual accusing. Sexual assault cases are frequently the worst to wade through to determine the truth.

But the way the case was instantaneously exploited by the anti-immigrant forces on the right was absolutely shameful.

[Chicago1980]

6. The Confederates are to have to change those memes I saw.

[mainer]

7. What a disturbing case. The night before, the girl sexted the boy, sent lewd video of herself

asked him to have sex in the bathroom. She was seen on surveillance video willingly walking into the bathroom with him...

And afterwards she immediately went straight to authorities to report she'd been assaulted. You really have to wonder what her agenda was.