Posted on 07/24/2007 8:23:27 AM PDT by Minn
Two McMinnville middle-schoolers facing sex abuse charges for spanking girls in the hallway probably will not do jail time or be required to register as sex offenders, the Yamhill County district attorney said Monday as the case against the boys grew into a media sensation.
The comments from Bradley Berry outraged the parents of the two 13-year-olds, Ryan Cornelison and Cory Mashburn, who with their lawyers were deluged with calls from ABC, CNN, Fox, Court TV and radio stations across the country a day after a story about the prosecution appeared in The Sunday Oregonian.
Until now, Berry has declined to discuss specifics of the case or explain why it merits criminal charges. After spending most of Monday fielding complaints, however, he elaborated for the first time.
"From our perspective and the perspective of the victims, this was not just horseplay," Berry told The Oregonian. "People may disagree, and I understand that."
Based on his experience in similar cases, Berry said it's unlikely the boys, if convicted, would be sentenced for the maximum jail time for each of the counts. "That type of sentence has never been imposed in my county or in any county that I know of for these types of offenses," he said.
Berry said he, too, was inundated with calls and e-mails from readers who complained that charging the boys with 10 counts of sex abuse and harassment was an overreaction, as their parents maintain. Lawyers for the boys say each count could bring a year in confinement and mandatory registration as sex offenders.
Berry said a judge could lift the registration requirement after it was imposed. "These youths can petition the court relatively quickly for relief from that," he said.
The boys' families said they were furious at what appeared to be backpedaling on Berry's part.
"It makes us angry that they can overcharge . . . and make us think this could happen," said Tracie Mashburn, Cory's mother. "Why would they do that and threaten us with that if they're not going to do it?"
"He's just doing damage control," added Joe Cornelison, Ryan's father. "I want to ask Brad Berry, what kind of due process is this?"
Mark Lawrence, the attorney for Cory Mashburn, said Berry doesn't understand how devastating the charges have been to the boys and their families.
Lawrence noted that Berry's office initially charged the boys with felony sex abuse before reducing the charges in May. The boys also spent five days in detention in February. Officials at McMinnville Public Schools and Patton Middle School imposed a five-day suspension on the seventh-graders.
Cornelison's lawyer, Rachel Negra, said she received calls from ABC, CNN and other media outlets Monday as the story raced across the Internet and picked up a national audience. "It feels like my phone is going to blow up from messages," Negra said.
Negra and Lawrence said the Mashburn and Cornelison families received so many offers of financial assistance that they moved Monday to set up a fund to cover legal expenses. Readers from as far away as Germany also contacted The Oregonian to comment or ask how they could contribute.
"My parents didn't teach me that that kind of activity or play was a felony, and I was raised by good parents in West Texas," said Dr. Bruce Russell, a Portland dermatologist turned businessman, who called to offer financial help. "I am just thinking this is so completely out of the bounds of common sense that it needs to be addressed."
Tony Wood, a photographer in Pennsylvania, e-mailed the newspaper Monday after he read the story online. Wood said he planned to send a check to the fund.
"I would actually send a check to these parents because I am totally blown away by this. It's like something out of colonial times or the crusades," he said. "There are real issues out there, and this is not one of them."
The families of both boys have struggled to pay their sons' legal bills; the Cornelison family's phone was turned off last week because of mounting bills.
"I am very thankful. I can't believe it," said Joe Cornelison, who is a press operator at the McMinnville newspaper. "It's been really hard. I'm behind on bills and have a hard time sleeping because I'm worried about my son, and his life has really been changed by this."
Mashburn's parents, Tracie, a hairdresser, and Scott, a print shop worker, had been preparing to refinance their home to pay for the legal bills. They said they were overwhelmed by the outpouring of support.
"I've just been crying all morning because of the way people are supporting us," said Tracie Mashburn.
The boys are scheduled to go on trial in August. The charges stem from a February incident in which a teacher's aide saw the two students swatting girls' bottoms as they ran down the hall.
During questioning by a vice principal and police officer stationed at the school, they also admitted to poking or grabbing girls' breasts in the past.
Confidential court records and police reports obtained by The Oregonian showed that other Patton students -- boys and girls -- were also slapping bottoms. Two female victims later recanted, saying they were friends of the boys and felt pressured to make false statements against them.
The original felony charges subsequently were reduced to five misdemeanor counts of sexual abuse and five counts of harassment. Each count carries a maximum one-year sentence.
Susan Goldsmith: 503-294-5131; susangoldsmith@ news.oregonian.com
I hereby sentence these boys to being publicly spanked on stage in the school auditorium until maximum humiliation occurs, then sent to stand in the school stocks with piles of rotten cafeteria food readily available.
They were repaving a road near our house one summer. I was particularly angry at my sister over something and decided to ride her bike through the tar to get the tires all mucked up. Of course, the instant I rode the bike into the tar it slid and fell over. I was the one all mucked up with tar. My mother scrubbed me with an old rag and gasoline for an hour getting all the tar off. Do you know what scrubbing on skin for an hour with an old rag and gasoline feels like?????! Yikes. Learned my lesson.
The liberals neuter the boys and the girls alike - they think “we should all just have a group hug”. Retaliation using physical force - oh, the horrors !
So what do you have against the Kennedy clan, anyway?
I hope that my son doesn't learn that smacking a girl's butt and grabbing her boobs is what it means to be a boy.
I guess law schools admit anybody.
Even Wendy Murphy thinks this is ridiculous!!!! Oh my heavens, did her forehead move this time while she expressed her astonishment? LOL.
Even Murphy is right on this one. This Berry prosecutor sounds like he is related to Mike Nifong. Pinhead.
Can’t you come up with any better discussion point than just calling me a twit for being offended that assault and battery is tolerated and winked at in government schools?
I would hope not too, but the kind of ill wishes you spoke at these boys is no different from the PC madness visited on them by the local authorities. Fathers need to set the example and correct their sons when they are out of place, not the PC feminazi crowd.
What happened here is complete and utter nonsense and is huge indicator that this society is being feminized more and more.
You sure have some unique physic ability. Do you have an agent?
Wait a minute. The VP and the LEO questioned them without offering legal representation, or calling their parents? That's troubling, to say the least.
when did a smack on the ass mean ass-ault and battery in middle school.
Lame.
“I hope that my son doesn’t learn that smacking a girl’s butt and grabbing her boobs is what it means to be a boy.”
Some how, with you as a dad, I don’t think that will ever be a problem.
He may have other issues though....
A problem with bullying in FUSD [Flagstaff, AZ Unified School District] schools is not a new phenomenon. In 1998, the parents of a FUSD high school student filed a complaint form with the federal Office for Civil Rights that said their daughter was raped inside her school.
One of the girl’s parents spoke to me recently. The parent says “Jeannie,” an attractive student, and some other female students, had experienced routine sexual harassment at school — “graphic verbal intimidation” involving “humiliating put-down language” with detailed descriptions of female sexual anatomy and exactly what the boys doing the harassment would like to do to the girls sexually. This parent describes the offending boys as “predators.”
Jeannie also says she was often pushed into lockers as she walked down school hallways. In addition, someone unsuccessfully attempted to push her down a flight of stairs.
WHY, WHY do you want to excuse this kind of behaviour?? I will grant that the DA's charge-stacking was arguably over-the-top, but the whining of these parents over the legal bills for their little hooligans is grating.
Focusing on the fact that Colorado provides public entities a degree of immunity from some state tort claims, an open letter from Colorado bishops denounced the legal “double standard” for sexual abuse claims arising in public and private schools. The letter asserted, “Nationally, the evidence is now irrefutable that sexual abuse and misconduct against minors in public schools is a serious problem, in fact,more serious than anywhere outside the home, including churches.”
“I hope that my son doesn’t learn that smacking a girl’s butt and grabbing her boobs is what it means to be a boy.”
Well,rather than just “hope” your son doesn’t learn such behavior, why don’t you teach him that there are certain types of behavior that are unacceptable and also teach him what acceptable behavior is. You are his father, aren’t you? You surely have a duty to teach him “what it means to be a boy”. I hope you do know what it means to be a man so you can teach that to him as well.
Good grief-you can’t be serious. This is extremely stupid on the part of the prosecuter and shows the dangers inherent in our legalistic justice system-common sense has gone out the window.
These kids were playing around. And then you have case like one I personally know about in Pennsylvania where a child molester (cousin of personal friend) was caught in the act with a three year old...was a boy scout leader and molested God knows how many kids. He received three years in jail.
Using your physic ability what are the girls going to grow up to be if they aren't subjected to the legal system?
Just to update you, criminal charges were filed against the *boys.
*some* of the "pooh-pooh" to the story are the *girls* who admitted to "butt slapping" the boys faced NO CHARGES.
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