This is a case about a man who was arrested on charges that he watched several young victims have sex and perform various sex acts with each other. At some point, he participated. One victim who was 15 at the time of the assaults testified. She told the jury that she was too afraid to report him because she knew he owned a gun and felt intimidated. James Kevin Pope was convicted on 43 counts of child sex abuse and was sentenced to 4,060 years in jail and fined $430,000. That number is not a misprint or a typo. Four thousand and sixty years in jail is is sentence. CBS Channel 11 in Dallas / Fort Worth Texas reports "The lengthy sentence includes the maximum life sentence for each of the sexual assaults and 20 years for each sexual performance case. The fine is also the maximum for these crimes." They also mention "Pope will be eligible for parole in the year 3209, according to Texas law."
In a different case, a 24-year-old woman from South Carolina named Alenna Ward was sentenced to 6 years in jail for sex acts with 5 boys. She is a teacher who had sex with several of her male students. This is a violation of the trust that the school system, parents and students themselves put in her. Fox News reports "Forensic psychiatrist Donna Schwartz-Watts said Ward is not a pedophile, but rather a childlike victim suffering from personality disorders and a repressed childhood. Schwartz-Watts said the minister's daughter lived a sheltered life but really was a "free spirit" who never got a chance to break away from her family." The article also says "Ward's lawyer Donald Hocker cited the psychiatric testimony in asking for home imprisonment for his client. Hocker said Ward will be vulnerable to physical and emotional abuse at the hands of other prisoners." It is interesting how the female psychiatrist (possibly a feminist) and the lawyer both try to paint a picture of the perpetrator being the real victim in this case. It is shocking how her lawyer makes it sound like jail is no place for a criminal who has sex with children. Even more so that a woman who had sex with 5 boys is specifically "not a pedophile". Lastly, compare a man who watches 3 children have sex and sometimes joins in gets a far more extreme punishment than a female sex offender who actually engaged in acts with 5 of them and has excuses.
Rocky Mountain News in Colorodo has a report of a 39-year-old woman named Irene Gomez who had sex with a boy at age 13 and conceived a child with him. She became pregnant by him again when he was 16. She reached a plea bargain with prosecutors by pleading guilty to charges of "contributing to the delinquency of a minor and attempted child sex assault." The word "attempted" is inaccurate because she was successful. Gomez received probation. From the article: "I don't think there's any question that (if the gender roles were reversed) we'd be talking about a prison sentence here," said prosecutor Amy Okubo, who had argued for a tougher sentence."
Erika Stutzman wrote an editorial for The Daily Camera in Colorado called "Exploring gender bias" where she briefly opines about how protecting children is supposed to mean punishing the offenders regardless of society's misconceptions about who the real criminals are. In addition to that, John Aguilar wrote an op-ed for The Daily Camera titled "Sentence disparity in case of female sex offender in Louisville?". Both journalists were commenting on the Gomez case and agree that she was under-sentenced.
Janet Klatt, a repeat offender, reached a plea bargain with prosecutors after being arrested for having sex with a male student. The charge is a felony. One month earlier she was arrested for having relations with the same boy. Her sentence is 30 months probation and a $500 fine.
If anyone has relevant news, please feel free to post links in the comments section.
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