Budding Baseball Star Jailed For Sex Acts W/minors

[SirRiff]

LINK

Charlottetown — A young baseball hopeful who dreamed of playing in the big leagues was sentenced Monday to 45 days in jail for sexual offences involving 12- and 13-year-old schoolgirls in Prince Edward Island.....

Judge Orr also sentenced Mr. Rhynes to one year's probation and 100 hours of community service.

He is also forbidden to be alone with girls under the age of 14 and has to write letters of apology to the victims in the case.

Mr. Rhynes, a catcher drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers earlier this year, admitted during his trial that he received oral sex from two girls who he believed were over 14 years of age, the age of consent in Canada.

In fact, the girls were 12- and 13-year-old junior high students.....

Now that he has a criminal record, Mr. Rhynes will be barred from entry to the United States, regardless of whether he manages to revive his chance of a career in pro ball.....

Judge Orr said one of the girls doesn't believe Mr. Rhynes should have been charged and takes full responsibility for what happened. The other, however, said in a victim impact statement that she now realizes she "was taken advantage of."

Testimony showed that the girls would arrange meetings, or 'hook up,' through Internet chat rooms and that people would meet at parties, friends' houses and in church parking lots.

ok..first the obvious...

what the hell are 12 and 13 yr old girls doing having sexual relations with anybody....???

what the hell is a 19 yr old man doing with pre-pubescent girls...???

the parents should ABSOLUTELY be charged with child endangerment.

well i want to hear responses. my personal opinion, he should have gotten more. at 19 you are considered an adult. he took advantage of this girls who are just children.

[Lost in Manitoba]

The question is was he misled? Not everyone I meet, do I ask what there age is, and typically you guesstimate age on attitude, personallity, and behavior. If these girls were 'prowling' on the internet or at parties, especially if these parties were comprised of the guy's peer group (roughly the same age) than he probably had every reason to assume the girls were of the same age(roughly). As we see, though, assuming things can be costly.

I thought a couple months would suite him better though. The parents of the girls, and the girls themselves, should also have some sort of fine or punishment slapped on them. The parents might have some sort of parenting class to go to, and the girls should see a counsellor, maybe, to be sure they are aware of the repercussions of their actions. Awareness must be raised, tolerance must be lowered, on this sort of thing. It's a harsh example he's making, but it is an example.

I have a similiar story that happened to myself while I was driving taxi as a part time job, couple years ago. I used to pick up this girl on a regular basis from a resteraunt that she worked at. It was usually around 10pm when it closed and she seemed to work full-time. Every time I pulled up, she'd be sitting outside reading a textbook. I ASSUMED she was in university. Anyway, a few months go by and she asks if I want to go for coffee. Sweet, I was thinking. Anyway, long story short, sitting there having coffee, and I find out she's 14yrs old, in grade 9. (14 in GRADE 9) Holy SH!T ! (I was 25) Needless to say the conversation kinda died and I got out of there ASAP.

To my defense: Age is hard to determine these days, with clothing style being what it is, early physical maturation and so on. And call me naive, but I don't expect 14yr olds to be holding down full-time jobs, flirting with adults, or even be well spoken enough to seem interesting to an adult. That is naive though. It's not a stretch of the imagination to see that if we went to a party instead of for coffee, that if alcohol was involved, that maybe the question of age may never have come up, and maybe things would have progressed beyond talking. Being the adult I would have to accept the responsibillity of my actions, but I would also hope that the courts would try to make sure that she was aware of the consequences of her actions (or inaction maybe) and that she would never be involved in something of the sort again.

*As another note, if I had been charged in a scenario like that, I can't even begin to fathom how I would continue with my life. My friends and family know me well enough to trust I wouldn't have knowingly done it. Public perception is different though. Who in my community would give me the chance? So many doors would be shut to me (such as crossing the border). While predators must be punished, and the laws must be harsh, it's hard to imagine the damage to individuals who might not be deserving of so weighty of a punishment.

[Hugo]

I think that's missing the point. What this says to me is that we need to take a good look at our approach to sexuality. It doesn't matter if this guy thought the girls were 18, 14 or 12, what matters is that he (and evidently, others) think it's just fine to be having sex with someone who is so much of a stranger that you can't even be certain of their age.

Not that you can legislate that kind of thing, but age-of-consent laws are basically an attempt at a band-aid solution to the underlying problem, which is a social and cultural blight. This is why STDs are on the rise, especially amongst young people, this is why the teen pregnancy rate refuses to drop no matter how much money we throw into sex-ed, and this is why stories like this are becoming almost commonplace.

[Slavik44]

well...we can argue morals all we want...morally most will deem it as wrong, morally some will find it discusting, but is it legally wrong.

I mean now a days...i can walk through my high school...and look at grade 8's who a dresse more like sluts then people who work the streets. They did say that they were 14, and the way little girls dress these days it would be easy to belive. IF they say they are 14 and look 14...then you know what...in that circumstance they should be considered 14. I mean did you ask for your wife's/girl friend's Birth cirtificate to find out how old they are? If they say they are 14 you have every right to belive them, I mena people don't normally lie about there age, especially not to make themselves older. Honestly, if they confirm they are 14, they are 14 if they tell the guy they are 14 treat them as 14...they forfiet any protection under law the moment they say they are 14. He has no way to know if they are 14 other then based on what they say.

The question people may ask is:

what kind of a world is this that we live in where you don't know the people you ahve sex with. But that my friend is a question of morals and not a question of legality. So if you want to say you are 14, and mislead soemoen into beliveing you are 14....then its a doubled edged sword you get the responsibility of being 14, you can become legaly 14, and you can get yourself taken advantage of all you want. We can ask allt he morall questions we wan't, however the only legal question is....

can a 14 year old have sex with a 19 year old and the answer is yes, if the 14 year old say's they are 14 and it can be adequatley prooven they were not pressured into saying they were 14, or they admitted freely of their own will they are 14 then i say give them what they wan't there 14...and they got screwed literaly and legaly.

[Alliance Fanatic]

Well, the guy should have definitely gotten longer jail time. I could also argue that today's approach to sexuality issues is, "Do whatever feels good, and forget about the consequences". In today's classrooms sex ed teachers talk about how to have safe oral, and anal sex, they teach this stuff to kids who are 12,13,14. It seems very normal to kids these days, and popular culture always sends a message that sex is great, and it is normal to have sex with as many people as you want. This culture finds it alright to have one nights stands, if the birth control fails, than an abortion will do the trick. After all 30% of pregnancies end up in abortions.

If I was to ever have sexaul relations with anybody it would be the person that I would want to spend the rest of my life with, and the person who I would want to marry. I think that instead of promoting safe sex, in classrooms, we should promote the idea of abstinence, and keeping sexual relationships confined to one person.

[SirRiff]

If I was to ever have sexaul relations with anybody it would be the person that I would want to spend the rest of my life with, and the person who I would want to marry

that may be right for you, and even i think thats the right way to go, but thats not reality. public policy must be based on reality, and its necessary to teach kids the realities of sex if they insist on having sex, which they do.

[Lost in Manitoba]

we should promote the idea of abstinence

We see how well that has worked for the priesthood

Not to get into the long discussion, but it all boils down to 'sex sells'. People are born with hormones, corporations take advantage of that to make money. The beer commercial, the music industry, television and movies, and so on and so on. Just as violence begets violence, so too does sex beget sex. Britney Spears, showing off the midriff, grinding in her videos, promote young girls to dress the same and act the same. It makes young boys to expect this of the girls, which also promotes the girls behavior. Viscious circle kind of thing. I'm sure everyone can think of examples of this.