Sex With Minors Can Have Major Consequences

When Carrie was 17 and started having sex with her 31-year-old teacher, she knew what she was doing was wrong. But she never thought it would end the way it did--with him in prison and her raising a child alone. After all, they were in love. At least she thought they were.

“Being that young is being stupid,” said Carrie, now 19. “I loved him as much as possible for me at that point, even though it was a very sick, twisted, manipulative kind of love.”

Ventura County victim advocates and prosecutors are trying to prevent girls like Carrie from getting involved in relationships with men like James Woodstock.

They are making presentations at high schools throughout Ventura County, hoping their message will lead to fewer statutory rape cases and fewer teenage pregnancies. Though the program is not new, officials are now trying to expand it.

“Our goal is to get the word out there,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Linda Groberg. “A lot of girls don’t think they are making poor choices. They don’t realize that these are not loving, caring relationships.”

Ventura County Supt. of Schools Chuck Weis said he would also like to see the program reach more students--both girls and boys.

“I appreciate the district attorney’s office doing this,” Weis said. “I think it’s very important. It’s an area of the law that young people don’t understand well, but that can have significant impact on them.”

The school presentations are part of a statewide effort to raise public awareness about statutory rape and to crack down on adult men who have sex with teenage girls. The Statutory Rape Vertical Prosecution Program aims to reduce teen pregnancy, establish paternity and financial support for children of teens, and discourage statutory rape through more aggressive prosecution and public outreach.

Ventura County has received $100,000 in state funds annually for the last four years to do its part. With that money, officials assigned a deputy district attorney, an investigator and a victim advocate to work on statutory rape cases.

This year, 221 cases were referred to the Ventura County district attorney’s office, officials said. Of those, prosecutors have filed charges in 37 cases. Officials have also made presentations at a handful of local high schools. During the seminars, victim advocates explain statutory rape laws and outline the consequences for both adults and minors.

At a recent workshop at all-girls La Reina High School in Thousand Oaks, a class of 15 teenagers listened as victim advocate Linda Finnerty explained how girls get involved with older men. Finnerty urged the girls to talk to someone if they are involved with an older man.

“You girls are more easily controlled at this age, even if you don’t believe it,” she said. “These guys are manipulative. It starts out as friends, and turns into something very different.”

During the school presentations, victim advocates and prosecutors try to show teenage girls the likely results of a relationship with an adult: pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease and emotional damage.

“It’s different for the girls and the guys,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Wendy MacFarlane. “Girls have sex and are planning their wedding. Guys have sex and plan what they are going to tell their friends.”

Actual Cases Help Open Students’ Eyes

Steve McFadden, who teaches sex education at Buena High School in Ventura, said the workshops help students realize that they are not immune.

“Kids need to be aware of what the consequences are and what bad choices can lead to,” McFadden said. “And I think it is a deterrent. When the kids hear some of the stories about how teens have been taken advantage of, it opens their eyes.”

Camarillo High School teacher Jim Steele said his students sometimes think that if a relationship is consensual, it’s legal. Steele, who teaches a criminal justice and law course, said they are often surprised to find out that it’s against the law for an 18-year-old and a 17-year-old to be in a sexual relationship.

In California, it is a crime for anyone to have sex with a person younger than 18 unless the two people are married to each other. In other words, a minor cannot legally consent to sex.

If the two people are within three years of age of one another, the crime is usually a misdemeanor. With a greater age difference, the adult can be charged with a felony and may receive a prison sentence of up to four years. And if the victim is younger than 14, the sentence can be longer.

Prosecutors often find out about the cases from the girls or their parents, or from police officers who have witnessed the couple having sex.

Some of the Ventura County cases are egregious.

In one, a 26-year-old man was sleeping with seven teenagers at the same time. He impregnated four of them. In another, a 14-year-old girl and a 38-year-old man began a relationship that lasted for four years. And in a third, a 15-year-old boy was having sex with his 32-year-old neighbor.

Other cases, such as the 21-year-old who was caught having sex with his 17-year-old girlfriend, are considered less serious.

Though the law applies to everyone, prosecutors don’t try every case. They base their decision on several factors. What is the age difference? Were drugs or alcohol involved? Was the relationship abusive? Was the couple in a long-term relationship or did they have sex once? Is there enough evidence and do prosecutors have a victim willing to testify?

“We’re not out looking to prosecute everyone who is under 18 and is having sex,” county prosecutor Groberg said. “We are looking for adult men who are exploiting young women.”

‘I Decided I Had to Stop Him’

Prosecutors sometimes have to convince the girls to testify. The girls don’t want to be responsible for getting the men in trouble or they feel bad because they consented to sex.

“They’ll tell you we’re ruining their lives,” said Finnerty, the victims advocate. “They’ll tell you they’re in love. Unfortunately, the girls don’t stop to think that the relationship is all about sex.”

Carrie was 16 and a junior at a private high school when she started having intimate conversations with the religion teacher. Woodstock, who was 31 and married, kissed her soon thereafter. The next fall, the two had a sexual relationship that lasted for about a month. During that time, she sneaked around to be with him, deceiving her friends and family.

“I really, really cared for him,” she said. “I really didn’t see what was happening until it had happened.”

In December of her senior year, Carrie discovered she was pregnant. Woodstock told her to get an abortion, or it would never be the same. Confused and depressed, Carrie tried to kill herself by swallowing sleeping pills.

A detective came to talk to Carrie in the hospital. At first, she didn’t want to say anything against Woodstock. But then she began to realize that he didn’t care about her and had been using her for sex.

“A lot of things came clear to me,” she said. “I hit rock bottom and thank God I’m still here. As soon as I figured out I was going to be OK, I decided I had to stop him and everybody else who does this.”

Woodstock pleaded guilty and received a five-year sentence for having unlawful sex with a minor, prosecutors said. Soon after, Carrie moved out of state, where she is raising her 16-month-old child and attending college. Carrie said she warns other girls to stick with guys their own age, and to get out of a relationship that doesn’t feel right.

“People who do these kinds of things could convince you to jump off a bridge,” she said. “They make it sound pretty enticing. You get caught up in it, and you can’t differentiate what is right and what is wrong.”

She said that the men aren’t people you can pick out in a crowd. “They are people who you know,” she said. “It’s so scary.”

Frequently, these relationships end with unwanted teenage pregnancies. Statistics show that most babies born to teenage girls in Ventura County are fathered by adults. In 1998, 394 girls, ages 15 to 17, gave birth. Of those, 113 of the males were 18 or 19 years old, and 134 of the males were 20 to 24. In many cases, the age of the father was unknown.

“The point is that this is not a victimless crime,” said MacFarlane, the deputy district attorney. “There is a baby being created.”

In addition to affecting the girl, her baby and her future, the relationship also affects her family.

Laurie and Ken didn’t like 21-year-old Frank Ramos from the minute he started hanging around their 15-year-old daughter. He didn’t look them in the eye. He lied about his age. He called at all hours of the night. And he had a reputation around the neighborhood for dating several girls.

Daughter Seemed ‘Brainwashed’

They tried to limit her contact with Ramos, but she started sneaking out to see him.

“We spent months driving around town looking everywhere for her,” Laurie said. “And we were always yelling and fighting.”

The teen’s grades slipped and her friends stopped coming around the house. When she wasn’t with him, she stayed in her room and cried. Laurie and Ken couldn’t believe how dramatically their daughter had changed. They suspected that he was abusing her.

“It started out subtle, and then it was like she was brainwashed,” Laurie said. “If he told her the grass was blue and the sky was green, she’d believe it. He was a manipulative person.”

Laurie and Ken went to the victim advocate, and the district attorney’s office prosecuted Ramos for statutory rape. It turned out he had also been sleeping with three other teenagers, including a 13-year-old girl. He was convicted of both unlawful sex with a minor and of child molestation, and received an eight-year sentence.

Their daughter is now doing better in school, and is spending more time with her friends. She is even dating some. But her parents are still worried. She turned 18 last month, and can now legally visit Ramos in prison.

“All we can hope is that she will meet someone that will treat her right,” Laurie said.

MacFarlane said the school workshops let students know where to go for help.

“If we can get out in the schools, hopefully we’ll have fewer of these cases,” MacFarlane said. “It’s an uphill battle though.”

FYI

For more information about victim services, call 654-3622.