Charges dismissed against behind-swatting boys
It’s over. A judge dismissed charges today in the insane case of two boys in Oregon charged with multiple counts of felony sexual abuse, banned from school and forbidden any contact with their friends after being accused of swatting the behinds of fellow classmates.
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.
Four girls listed as victims by the prosecutors had asked the judge to drop the charges against Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison. Yamhill County Judge John Collins did so on 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,” Mashburn said. Cornelison 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.
Seems to me that the individuals who need “boundaries education” are the officials who allowed this case to progress as far as it did.
Nuts.
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Abso-freaking-lutely nuts, Michelle.
The “boundaries education” raised my eyebrows as well.
But at least they won’t be felons and sex offenders.
I’m not sure the boys needed to apologize, but that’s only a philosophical point to me. Getting the case dismissed is the most important thing for them, so if just an apology would help do that, fine. Kudos to the girls for sticking up for them.
Crazy story. The ‘free at last’ pic is pretty classic. You can tell who the ringleader is. He made the bookworm an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Oh Oregon Oregon. Sigh.
isn’t there some pre-vert running around naked by a schoolyard in oregon??? why don’t they toss him into the clink instead of wasting the taxpayers dime on this nonsense?
Something about the 250 dollars”paid to each girl” rubs me the wrong way.It almost seems that the judge is saying that the boys behavior is justified as long as the girls are paid to allow themselves to be degraded,or that the girls saw a way to collect some “easy money”.I believe the boys behavior was inappropriate,at the very least,though not so bad as to warrant felony charges.The most disturbing thing to me is the money paid to the girls.Does this teach these children that any interaction is acceptable as long as money is exchanged,or that the redress to offense is court ordered payment,as in frivolous law suits?
The $250 sounds wrong also.
What does it tell the so-called ‘victims’? Also what does it tell their friends, ‘oh, I get swapped on the but, I get $250!’ (Remember these are young teenagers).
Not sure, but maybe this was just to make a final example of the kids. I’m sure that a lot of parents across the country pointe to this case and said “you have to be careful not to do this in school.”
A valuable lesson learned nonetheless.
Apology is totally in order.
Embarrassment on a national scale? I don’t know.
Still confused why they felt money should be included.
I think for the opposite reason though, blues. The message could be interpreted to young people that they could complain about things in court and then get paid for it.
palladin, we’re on the same wavelength. LOL
Something is not right here. If a girl can get $250 by court order for getting slapped on the tush, how much can she get for going all the way in keeping with this legal precedent?
About time lefties lose again
Having observed this INSANE case (thanks MM) and the “adults” involved… judge, prosecutors, defending attorneys, principal, all the parents… I believe it is obvious what went so terribly wrong with these boys. There isn’t an adult to be found in the State of Oregon.
The money aspect is terribly disturbing and may set a precedent for future fake cases, just so somebody can make some money out of it. It was a foolish decision to include payment to the girls.
Oh, the little darlings.
What’s EVEN more pathetic are the lawyers who made mega bucks on this case.
Seems there are traps everywhere in OUR LEGAL system to exploit citizens and sugar coat attorneys’ bottomless pockets.
Has anyone noticed this trend?
When I was that age - of these boys - this was a sign of how they flirted since social skills are immature.
Girls were flattered…we’d blush and giggle.
Darn. I’d be rich by now if paid $250 for cheek slaps!
If I had to pay $250. for every stupid or inappropriate thing I did in Junior High, I’d still be making payments on it 30 years later.
I’m kinda on the same page regarding the $250 going to each girl….
I think a better remedy would have been to take that $2000 ( $250 x 4 girls x 2 boys ) and have that ‘fine’ go towards awareness literature or perhaps donated to some charity.
Seems to me that the girls don’t think they were ‘wronged’ - so why give them a monetary award?
Arkansasmike… LOL…..
Brings new meaning to the term ’school loan’.
Forgive my coarseness, but it seems the justice system is proceeding on a course that is half-arse backwards. Time and resources of the justice system wasted on what could have solved by some parental discipline. The fact that a court date was even scheduled is simply stunning.
See, I fought the urge to celibrate this announcement by swatting someone’s ass…
…
But I didn’t think AJ would take it the way it was meant.
What a colossal waste of time and money in the Oregon justice system. How does this type of case even get this far in the first place?
uh who? lol..
Um, swatting people on the behind and cupping and fondling breasts is sexual assault. Granted, these are 13-year-olds, but I am shocked that people are downplaying the severity of the crime.
Someone was sexually harassing my neighbor when she is in 5th grade by fondling her breasts against her will. I was pretty pissed when the offender was only suspended for a week.
Now, obviously there was some question over what really happened with these kids. But if these two knuckleheads were fondling girls’ breasts against their will, they should absolutely be expelled. Hopefully these felony charges will scare the kids straight.
What’s up in the Northwest? They can plaster these kids photo’s everywhere but gee don’t print anything the FBI may need you’re help for on National Security. geez.
Only in your confused little mind.
They swatted a couple of gals on the butt.
I don’t know where the hell you grew up bucko, but if at age 13 you never horsed around with a girl in any way you must have had a pretty damned boring childhood.
The GIRLS in this case said it wasn’t CRIMINAL. They were COERCED into making accusations by the investigators.
Lemme guess. You think STB is a paragon of truth and virtue, right?
This is insane girls and boys have been doing this since the beginning of time. It’s up to the parents to teach the boys about what acceptable touching and what isn’t. The same with girls if they touch inappropriately. It sends a message to the girls that everytime they THINK they were touched inappropriately they can complain sue and get paid (the reason I said THINK is because now they can cry wolf and get away with it). It sets a very bad precedent to make these boys pay the girls a fine maybe but, not directly to the girls. I swear this country is going to hell in handbasket. Where does this nonsense end?????
Inappropriate touching happens with younger kids. I don’t consider 13 younger. They know what sex is and they should know what’s right and wrong. Swatting girls on the behind and feeling them up against their will is assault. Is a felony charge a bit much, yeah. Are the charges of coercion serious? Of course.
But lots of you seem to think its ok for a teenager to touch girls in private areas without permission? Hell, even with permission is a bit dicey.
At what age does it become inappropriate? 16? 18? Teenagers should know better, period.
As I mentioned before, this happened to my little brother’s friend, my next-door neighbor. Maybe if you saw her tears after she was felt up against her will, you would understand. She was physically and sexually intimidated. But they were only 12, so I guess that just makes it horsing around, right?
It is somewhat ok to have this type of behavior at age 5 or 6, but as a parent of a girl I can tell you that I would never have allowed this to go to court at this age. My reaction in the past is to personally confront the kid with my daughters brothers in tow and inform him of what he could expect if it occured again. It works much better than the court system.
No-one here said that rusty re-read the story. This entire “incident” should have been handled in the principles office with perhaps a letter to the parents, sheesh.
They would not chalk it up to a loss…. thats why the boys were forced to pay the $250 and attend a “boundaries education” program. Its so that the loons can still let themselves believe that they had a victory and that a reasonable punishment was handed down. They were never really looking to put these two boys in prison, just to have some sort of small moral victory for “womens rights” and to make an example out of them. And boy, I can now sleep soundly at night, can’t you? (Sarcasm)
I hope the voters get rid of this DA, but seeing as how this is Oregon I am going to guess they give him a raise instead.
I hope the voters get rid of this DA, but seeing as how this is Oregon I am going to guess they give him a raise instead.
Great news! At least there is some sanity left in America.
Makes you wonder why they don’t go after muslims for the way they treat girls/women. If a slap on the butt warrants felony charges, what’s the penalty for beatings, forced to wear a bag over their face, FGM, honor killings in the name of Allah?
Nothing? Oh it’s respect for religious freedom? I see. /sarc
Stupid, stupid people.
I am pretty sure that if a woman was beaten or stoned to death in the Pacific Northwest, the authorities would be all over it.
“…to pay each of the four girls $250 and to complete a “boundaries education” program.
Oh brother.
This is what you get when you have childish adults using childish “zero tolerance” rules to treat childish behavior by children.
These boys should have been swatted by the principle, their parents informed and the whole matter dropped.
But in our feel good every one’s a victim society, that’s a bit much to ask for.
I dont know what it’s all going to come to. We have al Queda trying its best to infiltrate the country and kill us and people are obsessed with two teeenage pranksters.
Granted they never should have touched the girls, but it’s not a felony either.
Just wait. The instructor for that class will be one of those teachers that likes screwing students, negating the entire exercise…
#20 the answer to your question, even if the question was rhetorical, deserves an answer. Because we have incompetent’s running our school systems and governments at all levels in America now days. Ever hear of liberals? another rhetorical question. It’s based on feelings not fact and truth.
Rusty, no offense intended but what are you drinking? Did you not see the story about the boys…newspapers all across the country and t.v. interviews, for what, being overly zealous by swatting a school mates butt and some groping? Not to be tolerated for sure, but it’s not a mater of national security…like maybe 2 suspicious looking Arabs, but the paper keeps the info from the public(who ever reads that fish wrap anymore). Would you feel better if the boys were label sexual perverts and sexual offenders the rest of their lives? And before you answer that, in your mind remember the girls were not objectionable to their actions.
Now about the money judgment…I think the judge just opened a new can of worms. Watch some single, man hating, single mom will use this to acquire a few $, watch. There’s always a lawyer that would take the case, precedent set.
I take exception to that.
I’ll be the first to bow my head in shame for living in what my father called “The Arkansas of the West Coast” - and but for that state’s unleashing Slick Willy and
EvitaHillary upon us all, I’d say he was being unfair to Arkansas.But not everyone in Orygun is a loon. Politically and socially it’s a sea of red surrounding a few islands of deep, deep blue (the Portland Metro Area, Salem, Eugene). Trouble is, those islands have significantly more than half the state’s population.
One day I’m going to escape from this jerkwater and go back to Monterey, but until then… one just grits his teeth.
As for the two punks in question, I’d suggest a different kind of bottom-swatting exercise:
The lad was bad at school, you see, to his dad took things to heart;
He took the lad across his knee, and there he made him smart!
rightisright,
No, they shouldn’t be labeled sexual offenders. Even the felony charge was a bit much. I’m not even saying this was handled properly.
I am just angered by the “boys will be boys” stuff I’m reading here. “Boys will be boys” is a stupid excuse for pawing at girls in their private areas without their consent.
rightisright-
Look at the Duke Lax fiasco last year, and what Crystal Mangum, Nifong and et al did to a group young men. A false accusation, desire to get money and a false accusation of a race-hate crime equals this sort of madness.
My heart goes out to every true victim of sexual assualt and every guy that has been maliciously accused of a sex crime. These are the true victims, not a group of teeny boppers, and a school system looking to make a name for themselves.
What they did was wrong, and it requires punishment, but charges aren’t the right way to go- at all. Now, if the parents didn’t care, then you could justify even an extended suspension in my mind, because sexism isn’t something that should be permitted or disregarded, but by now any value that punishment might’ve had for these boys (if it wasn’t just innocent to begin with, which it could’ve been) is nill.
So, chalk this whole mess up as wacky and idiotic.
True Rusty, but I think this was a case of both girls grabbing guys butts, and guys grabbing girls butts - like group flirting gone beyond the boudaries. It needed parental discipline and some apologizing in my opinion. If it were a couple of 13 year old guys feeling an 8 year old - whoa, that’s a whole ‘nother thing.
Pay the girls $250.00 ?????? Thats either extortion or bribery…you make the call..
Clearly this was an overreaction by school and law officials. But Rusty is absolutely right. This was a little more than a quick slap on the butt. These girls were grabbed and felt up by boys well old enough to know better.
The girls were victims. And despite the fact that:
1.) It is pretty clear these were not just made up charges; and
2.) the girls never seemed to want to push this issue and asked the judge for the charges to be dropped,
a lot of snide comments here, looking at you gunslinger, are being directed toward them. Mock the school. Mock the legal system for over-zealously prosecuting. Leave the girls alone and don’t throw out flippant unsubstantiated remarks about how they were trying to score a quick buck or somehow bring these boys down.
And how much did this farce cost us taxpayers???
More male bashing in the public schools. The charges filed by the DA are just like the Duke Lacross case.Over zealous prosecution with no facts.
Felony Sex Charges???
This DA, Bradley Berry,should be disbarred.What planet is this guy from?
For those of you that have not read Dennis Prager’s article on this I urge you to do so.http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57249
The kids were interrogated,arrested, spent 5 days in jail and were not allowed to talk with their parents for 24 hours!
“And it gets worse. The seventh-graders were not permitted contact with their parents for 24 hours, they were brought into court in shackles and jail garb, and they were strip-searched four times.”
There was no crime here of any kind but a silly unacceptable school prank….Period.
Check out Mark Steyn
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/butt-one-mashburn-1789340-counts-cornelison
(sorry for the long link, my browser is set not not allow scripted windows)
Rusty and chaputier, it wasn’t appropriate but it wasn’t a sex crime. Good thing Oregon doesn’t have a professional football team, they’d all be in jail for butt-slapping.
Aloha,
And I think we are pretty clear that we agree with that. I think our point is that, in the rush to condemn, rightfully, the overreaction of school and law enforcement, some here, not all, seem to be:
1. minimizing the inexcusable behavior displayed. For example you state
You really don’t think that is equivalent to what was going on here do you? I think that was said mostly in jest, but if the 13 year old daughter of some of the board members here came home and said that some boy in their class was pinching and cupping their breast (which none of you seem to want to cite, just the “butt-slapping”), do you think they would dismiss that behavior so cavalierly as they are here?
2. making not so subtle implications about these girls (i.e., comparing the situation to the Duke case) when it is pretty clear they are just caught in the middle of this nonsense.
This crosses the line with minors and adults. If a 13 year old actually kills another person, would they be charged as an adult? Up until age 17 or 18, children are in JV courts. Parents are responsible for their behaviors. How young does this go? Two year olds rolling around in the playpen end up on top of another… sexual assault?!! Insane femiNAZIs.
RZ, calm down. 17 and 18 year olds are treated as adults everywhere for felonies. I hate the hypothetical family member argument, but others have mentioned that if their daughters were assaulted like this, they’d be read to throw punches.
Comparing toddlers to teenagers is the stupidest thing I’ve read on this site.
Rusty & chapoutier
IMHO you are so brainwashed by liberal indoctrination you cannot see the forest for the trees.
When did an innocent touching of a female child by another male child become a Felony.
This is nothing more than another example of creating the victim mentality the liberals have been successful in creating in the minds of Americans.
From reading your posts you suffer from it too.
Boys=Bad
Girls=Innocent Victims
You keep citing things that did not happen and start talking about cupping breasts ect.
Innocent touching? The girls claimed that they were touched against their will on the breasts and buttocks. That isn’t innocent!
And 13-yr-olds should be given the benefit of the doubt, but to call them children is ridiculous. They aren’t babes in the woods. They’re teenagers who should have an idea of what’s appropriate.
ScottyDog,
Seriously do you even bother reading the articles? A direct quote from the actual article, not MM’s spin on it:
Was there something else you feel I cited that was factually incorrect? Please say what that is because right now you are 0 for 1.
Should this be a felony? No. Which both Rusty have said. Is this “innocent” as you put it? No. It is incredibly inappropriate behavior by boys old enough to know better.
So IMHO you should probably not post unless you have something intelligent to say.
What you fail to realize is the quote says; “ACCUSED”.
Was that before or after the police coached the females on their statements?
I urge you to read Dennis Prager and Stein who have written extensively on the shenanigans that occurred during this blown out of context fiasco.
Stein said:
“A society that looses the state to criminalize schoolroom horseplay is guilty not only of punishing children as grown-ups but of the infantilization of the entire citizenry.”
You guys just do not get it.
Not so fast, Sparky. You never argued that the two were falsely accused. You argued that what they were accused of a felony for “innocent” behavior. I’d hate to be your kid if this is your attitude as to what is “innocent”.
Again I ask you to cite that either Rusty or I wrote that was factually incorrect after you claimed we did, but the crickets are still chirping on that one.
I agree with most everyone here that it was a “blown out of context fiasco.” What I, and I believe Rusty, take issue with is that many here are getting so caught up in criticizing the overreaction of the school and law enforcement on this that they are excusing the “alleged” behavior of these boys (which btw they confessed to and apologized for) and demonizing the girls involved, who by all accounts were not the driving force behind this prosecution and in fact wanted the charges dropped.
Please please please for the love of all that is holy learn to: 1) read an argument 2) determine what is actually being said and then 3) apply facts RELEVANT to what was just argued to either support or refute said argument.
It is agreed that this entire episode has been blown entirely way out of proportion. The point to my comment, and others of a simuliar vein has been that there was more to this story than has been reported.
I agree that what the boys did was wrong and should have been punished. However, look at what they went through and compare it side-by-side what the girls went through.
Boys stripped search four times-Girls none.
Boys not permitted to speak to their parents for 24 hours-Girls able to talk to their parents.
Boys held in jail for 5 days-Girls not in jail.
Of course this could go on.
My clashpoint is: Be careful on what standard is going to be applied, because that same standard will be measured against you.
When I was in middle school-we had some girls doing a simuliar game, but it involved pinching guys pectorsalis muscles. The pinches hurt, and after the guys told the girls to stop it, the girls continued until one guy slapped a girls hand. She complained, and guess who got in trouble and sent to detention?
If you guess the guys-you are correct!
gunslingerpatriot
I could not agree more!
chapoutier
“I agree with most everyone here that it was a “blown out of context fiasco.”
You keep saying that then you support the punishment of only the boys. 18 Girls were involved and walked with no dicipline.
Nice Try and spare me legal logic lectures, this is a forum not a court room.
I’m on the side of the boys. Filing charges against little kids is another way of shirking your responsibility as a parent. Instead of teaching your kids how to deal with situations, you teach them to take the litigious route. The reason they can’t drink, drive a car or enlist for the army is because they haven’t matured as far as having good judgement BECAUSE THEY’RE CHILDREN. My nephew was recently charged with assault by someone’s parent because his kid and my nephew had a glowstick fight. My nephew had marks on him, and so did this other kid, but they quickly took photographs of him so they could bilk my brother and his wife out of as much money as possible. I’m sick of lazy parents expecting the courts to do their job.
You had them - now do your freakin job and raise them. Don’t expect the government, the courts or society to do it for you.
The “behind-swatting boys”? What about the “breast-poking and cupping” boys? Okay, so it’s not felony sexual assault when done by a 13-year-old kid who’s beginning to notice girls, but it’s clearly inappropriate and deserves some disciplinary action. But school officials couldn’t think of anything less than felony sexual assault charges? Branding two 13-year-old nerds as sex offenders for life is not the answer. Teaching them to keep their hands to themselves is certainly an improvement, but will “boundary education” do the trick? Developed by whom? The folks who want to teach sex ed to kindergarteners?