In McMinnville, Ore., it may consist of fanny-patting in school hallways by seventh graders. Following a public outcry, Yamhill County D.A. Bradley Berry has now dropped the felony counts — the resulting status as registered sex offenders might have followed the youngsters through life — but he still wants to have Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison at least given probation on misdemeanor counts. (Scott Michels, “Boys Face Sex Trial for Slapping Girls’ Posteriors”, ABCNews.com, Jul. 24; Mark Steyn, “Swat somebody’s butt, and yours belongs to the D.A.”, Orange County Register, Jul. 28; Jeanine Stice, “Gene’s right about The McMinnville Two”, Salem Statesman-Journal, Jul. 24). Update Aug. 22: charges dropped.
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The prosecutor is beneath contempt and rivals Durham dodo-nimrod Nifong for vacuous villainy. Is this proto-CroMagnon running for some sort of PC proxy-office? Or just a headline hog? And why are these kids names being published when here in bocaland, illegal immigrant murderers under 18 are protected via anonymity? Maybe the state of Organ is different.
This prosecutor is an idiot. First of all, he is not charging all of the kiddos who have admitted to doing this–thus, there’s the lightning strike aspect. Second of all, and more importantly, why in the world would anyone want to ruin the lives of 13 year old children over this? It just seems like cruelty to me.
This sort of action is almost guaranteed to weaken, not strengthen, the stigma of being a sex offender.
On a side note, in googling the DA, I noticed an interesting side issue. I will restate it as a q:
If a person is diagnosed as a sex offender by a prison psychologist, is that designation now a matter of medical privacy and therefore cannot be made public or shared with others?
What makes this story even more bizarre is that the girls were also engaging in comparable behavior. Meaning, everyone involved (and I mean everyone) was acting like thirteen year olds.
My first question is what happened to detention, suspension, and expulsion as punishment for misbehavior in school?
Ok Ras,
I’ll bite, what is it you think you found on the DA, and what is the web page?