Utah Senate President J. Stuart Adams (Republican) helped change a law for an 18-year-old who was charged with raping a 13-year-old girl, and then denied it, reports The Salt Lake Tribune:
Two months later, prosecutors offered the 18-year-old, who is related to Adams, a plea deal. The teen would plead guilty to reduced charges, face no additional jail time beyond a week already served, and would not have to register as a sex offender.
The new law was not made retroactive, and the teenager was not charged with the new lower-level crime it created. But in court hearings, the judge, the prosecutor and defense attorney Cara Tangaro — who helped draft the bill language that was adopted by the Legislature — all acknowledged it was pivotal to resolving the charges against the 18-year-old.
“You saw the legislative change,” Tangaro told Judge Rita Cornish at sentencing. “We all agree that’s not retroactive, but the government did change their offer based on that.”
The change in the law created a new option for prosecutors in narrow circumstances, specifically in cases that involve 13-year-old victims…
Previously, as adults, 18-year-old high school students who had sex with a 13-year-old could face a charge of child rape, a first-degree felony. A conviction on that charge generally requires registration as a sex offender, while a conviction on the newly created lesser charge does not…
The mother of the junior high school victim said in an interview with The Tribune that she was shocked to learn about the change to the law. “It was out of nowhere,” she said. “I felt like I was punched in the gut.”
She believes her child was an afterthought in both the legislative debate and the handling of the criminal case.
“I feel like a law is the law, regardless of who you are, but that wasn’t what was going on here,” she said. “I feel like [the 18-year-old] just got special treatment …and nobody was going to say anything about it.”
(Source: The Salt Lake Tribune, Image: Stand For Our Land Utah)