Posted on 03/27/2006 6:50:15 PM PST by Former Military Chick
NOBLESVILLE -- Laura Wilcox, an 18-year-old senior at Westfield High School, has been charged with two counts of sexual misconduct with a minor. Police say she had sexual relations with a 15-year-old boy at his home.
The boy's parents alerted the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department to the situation, said county prosecutor Sonia Leerkamp.
Sheriff's Department Maj. Mark Bowen said she turned herself in to the Sheriff's Department Saturday and posted a $10,000 bond for her release from the Hamilton County Jail. Both charges are Class C felonies.
According to court documents, the incident was reported to the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department Feb. 6 and a subsequent interview with the victim at Chaucie's Place, a child-advocacy center in Carmel, outlined the following chain of events.
On Feb. 1, Wilcox drove the victim after school to his Westfield house, and the boy invited her inside the home. The two started "making out," the affidavit says, then went to the victim's bedroom where he told officers Wilcox performed oral sex on him. When she produced a condom and asked the boy if he "wanted to," the court papers continue, the boy said yes and the two had intercourse.
It is the policy of The Noblesville Ledger to not identify victims of sexual abuse.
Unrelated to this arrest, Wilcox was a passenger in the Nov. 13, 2004, accident that killed classmates Kristin Rice and Travis Woerner near Gary, Ind. Alcohol and excessive speed were involved in that early morning crash with a steam roller that was parked on an interstate exit ramp, but the police report also says that driver Nicholas Gaunt told officers that front-seat passenger Wilcox, then 16, was pulling on his arm, which caused him to lose control of the car.
Gaunt and Wilcox were the only survivors.
The Lake County prosecutor has charged Gaunt, now 18, as an adult with two Class C felonies of causing death while driving with a blood-alcohol content of at least .08, one Class C misdemeanor of driving with a blood alcohol content of at least .08, and one Class C misdemeanor of possession of alcohol by a minor.
Wilcox faces no charges from the accident.
Wilcox also is on the WHS track team, where she was expected to throw the discus and shot put this season.
Administrators are aware of the criminal charges against her and have said they will cooperate with authorities in the investigation, said Tenna Pershing, district spokeswoman.
• Why was the story on the front page?
• Why was so much detail of the alleged sexual activity included in the story?
• Why was there a reference to a 2004 accident that killed two Westfield High School students?
Managing editor Rosalyn Demaree, who wrote the front-page story, offered this explanation to a number of readers who contacted us.
"Before that story was printed, another writer and two editors and I talked about the approach. Sadly, an 18-year-old having sex with a 15-year-old is not unusual. But the older teen getting charged with two felonies for it is. That's what made this a story. We included detail about the incident because, without it, readers would be left wondering why she was charged with two felonies and that could misrepresent the work that has been done by police officers and the Prosecutor's Office to put the case together. It is our duty to explain things to readers, not confuse them. As a writer and editor, I know that a story about two teens having sex is not an easy one to report, write, publish or read. I know when the acts become a crime, it's a story people deserve to know is happening."
Felony, wow. I have to say I would prefer kids abstain. That they choose to wait until they are married. Easier said than done but that is where I stand. Having said that, kids engage in premarital sex. It is high school. Young men, are usually the older ones on in a high school relationship. If we are going to start prosecuting cases like this we are going to have quite a few kids in jail. Perhaps more than we care to think would actually be engaging in such activities.
In the end, it appears they weren't in a relationship so to speak but it does sound like teens being teens. Perhaps there is more to it. But one has to imagine that if parents can't find a way to get kids to be more responsible than 'prison for sex" as a teen might be the deterrent.
Well it sure could have been worse. She could have bought the lucky little geezer cigarettes.
This disgusting woman is a child abuser and should be sentenced to LIFE in prison!
Most men would consider him darn lucky, but the law is the law! This disgusting woman must be charged and convicted for child abuse!
This is insane. The legislature needs to come in and model some exception or something if District Attorneys are not going to use some discretion in deciding how to prosecute these cases. When I was in High School I knew of guys that were seeing girls in this age group. There were the occasional Seniors .girls and guys, who dated a frshman etc etc. This is high school for goodness sake. To call this girl a sex offender just robs the term of any meaning.
"The boy's parents alerted the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department to the situation, said county prosecutor Sonia Leerkamp."
Or how mom ruined her son's social life for all time.
The girl is a real piece of work but two felonies..wow no way
not me..have to see her first although most guys on here dont care bout looks....she sounds like a big one
I can't imagine a father of a 15 year old boy allowing the cops to be notified.
What the heck is up with parents now a days. I dont get it. Heck my parents had beer for us at our senior party and all the parents were cool with it. If a kid showed up whose parents were not cool with it the police didnt get involved. The parents just talked about it. Nowadays, you would be lucky if it wasnt on the frontpage of the paper.
Again in this situation, when I was young it would have been a private matter. If the parents went to the cops the cops would have told them "don't you think this is a matter between yall and the other family".
B I N G O !
Oh, there was harm done to the people involved with this case. The two teens involved did not cause harm to each other, but harm has been done to them.
The adults, are then ones that I would file criminal charges against, starting with the County Sheriff!
I grew up in Atlanta Georgia during the '70s and this is how things were done. Good God, calling the police about such a thing?
After yesterday's discussion regarding the death penalty for repeat sex offender's I thought you might be interested in this little item.
I offered my thoughts on this in comment 1.
District Attorneys don't like to use their discretion like that. The last thing they need is some mother claiming that the DA isn't prosecuting someone who raped their little angel, who never would have consented to a hook-up.
District Attorneys, in these circumstances, like to try to find a low-level plea to dispose of the case quietly.
Looks like I wasn't so crazy after all to posit such a scenario, eh?
Becoming born-again in the spirit of the Lord has been a revelation for me. It has not only connected me with the God of Abraham, and the Creator of all the heavens and the earth, but it has also connected me with the spirit of the men who founded, built, fought and died for this great Republic - blessed by God. This rebirth has redefined me, who I am, and my purpose in life. My 21 year-old son, back from doing his duty as a man in Iraq, has also surrendered himself to a Holy God and been born-again. The change in him has been miraculous. Being born-again in the spirit of the Lord is God's present day miracles.
I have written before, and I still believe it, that although it is a man's world, it revolves around women. And it may indeed be the return of Godly women, who bring back Godly men.
If we are not willing to be governed by the laws of a Holy God, then we will certainly be ruled by the laws of tyrannical men.
May God have mercy on us.
This was child abuse, not rape. So my guess the kid will be badly damaged, but survive. There is so little difference between the ages I would half blame their teachers. Rape causes severe lasting trauma, child abuse just makes pretty screwed up adults.
How come this girl produces a condom that was most likely supplied by the school, who taught the kids to have "safe sex" at their early teen years, and she ends up with felony charges? At what point is the government schools forcing sexuality on young children child abuse? Last generation the things being done to children in schools would land you in prison, now it we are forced to fund it with taxes.
This article sure opens up a can of politicaly correct worms dosn't it?
Driving while intoxicated should carry a harsher sentence; with charges of manslaughter added when someone gets killed as a result.
Teenagers having sex has been around for eons.
Is this newspaper affiliated with the NY Times or WA Post? Sure sounds like it.
LaFave got off (pardon the pun) for doing roughly this same thing. She was a good bit older than this girl. With the limited access to the situation it appears to me that these were two kids that went the same school.(ie, this gal was not his teacher or anything like that)
It occurs to me that these two folks were more peers than one being subordinate to the other. Ok so this kid was fifteen...was he almost 16? Had she just turned 18?
This is a very dangerous line we approach when dealing with sexual predators. Lafave was a predator but I do not think this gal was. I base that on the peer factor.
She had sex with a child under 16 years and she should be punished for doing so. I see somewhat of a difference between this situation and the LaFave situation. This gal here should be on the probation house arrest and such, while Lafave should be fried.
This is a hard situation to make heads and tails of without knowing the folks inolved. One fact is evident, she had sex with a child and there has to be some punishment for doing so. What that punishment should be is the crux.
Maybe teen sex is something that should be handled in civil court rather than criminal court? I find it hard to justify such a thing because one fact remains. She is not a minor and she did have sex with a minor. A minor cannot legally consent. Logic leads a person to criminal court rather then civil court. Maybe both places need to be employed in cases such as this.
I know this, if a 18 year old boy has sex with my 15 year old daughter I am going to snap and demand action. I offer that my reaction would be the same if an 18 year old girl has sex with my 15 year old son.
A line has to be drawn and that line, imho is 16. I understand that 15 is almost 16 but I also understand that almost only counts with hand grenades and nuclear weapons.
This gal has to be punished but I can honestly say that I have reservations of considering her in the same light I see Lafave.
This is a tough one.
Maybe the parents of a fifteen year old boy should have had a better handle on their child's actions and maybe they could of taught him better. But in the end each person is responsible for their own actions and thinking that a 15 year old boy will turn down sex after a hummer....well that just seems like to big a burden to bare when common sense is injected.
I guess I could support some prison time for this gal and a boatload of probation/parole. Hard to assign DP to someone that was having what appears to me to be peer to peer interaction.
How do we as a society seperate kids that go to school together? How are we to expect them to consider each other equal and peers in school and then expect that not to carry over to personal lives outside of school? Seems like a bit much for a highschooler to grasp.
How do we explain that last week it is 'just kids' and then next week when one of them turns 18 it is something else? Very very difficult situation indeed.
I've been asking the same question for 2 years. What has happened to parents. Although this girl had been charged in the past for other mistakes, it's really not a pre-cursor to this situation, nor should it be used to define her character. The boy was, from the text I read, a willing participant and frankly, what high school boy would turn down the opportunity? None that I knew in high school. My experience with these kinds of parents over the past two years has been no less than stunning, and not in a good way. My 19 year old son was dating a 16 year old girl, he had just graduated from high school, she was going to be a junior, after 4 months of welcoming him into their home, the mother decided he was too old and they spent too much time together. When the daughter refused to stop seeing my son, and he refused to stop seeing her, the mother filed a no contact order and 8 months later everything is still tied up in the Court system. Legislation needs to be presented to differentiate between what is "typical teenage behavior" and what is truly offensive. Are there really parents today that believe this sort of teenage thing isn't going to happen? The punishment for this girl is a waste of taxpayer time and money, just as it is with my son. The law is being misused to accommodate some very rigid views. What happened to 4 parents getting together, talking and making decisions? When you get the law, prosecutors and da's involved things seem to spiral out of control, but it's all based on the next election, right?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.