Statutory Rape Law is clear, so enforce it
The repulsive death of Tiffany Wright has shed light on another repulsive fact about our community: We don't take the statutory rape of children nearly as seriously as we should.
Tiffany, the Charlotte 15-year-old shot dead at her bus stop this month, was eight months pregnant. Social workers had told police they thought she might have been raped by her 36-year-old adoptive brother, Royce Mitchell. Police did not talk to Mitchell for seven weeks, and charged him with statutory rape only after Tiffany was dead.
The lack of a timely statutory rape prosecution in Tiffany's case was not unusual. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police have investigated 312 potential statutory rapes since 2006 (as of Aug. 31). The district attorney's office has prosecuted 49 of those, or less than 16 percent.
Police choose not to take about a third of cases to the DA, either because they consider them unfounded or because they're still investigating. Of the 65 percent of cases they do present to the DA, the vast majority are not prosecuted. Whether that's because the DA's office doesn't take the crime seriously enough or because police bring the DA insufficient evidence depends on whom you ask.
The bottom line, though, is that these statistics suggest that authorities don't view statutory rape as a crime unless the victim or the parent demand that they do. That's unacceptable.
Let's be clear: there's no such thing as consensual sex with a 14-year-old. Young teens are not capable of making rational decisions about intercourse. The law defines statutory rape as intercourse or a sexual act with a person age 13, 14 or 15 when the perpetrator is at least four years older. Period. The law says nothing about consent.
The victim or her parents not wanting to press charges is no excuse for authorities not to do so. It's similar, in some respects, to domestic violence: a man should face charges if he beats his wife, regardless of his wife's desire to press them.
Clearly, these cases are complicated. If the victim is not interested in pressing charges, police may have a hard time getting evidence. The victim might not talk, and authorities might not be able to secure DNA evidence because they might not know about the crime promptly.
Still, they could press charges more often and build a case. That also would send a signal to other potential perpetrators and show young girls that they don't have to accept being a victim.
But child advocates say a lack of evidence is only part of the problem. Some authorities, they say, consciously or not dismiss the rape of a black or Hispanic child as a cultural phenomenon - as if it's OK if the girl is a minority.
That's offensive in the extreme, and if it's happening, criminal justice leaders of this community, including Police Chief Rodney Monroe and District Attorney Peter Gilchrist need to make sure it stops.
They, and the elected officials who control their purse strings, need to identify policies and attitudes that work against keeping children safe, and change them.
Search continues for missing girls, adoptive dad
Authorities continued to search for a missing pregnant girl, her sister and their adoptive father Monday, but the search has yielded no concrete leads.
Iredell County Sheriff's Office Lt. Julie Gibson said investigators have received tips about Keara Hess, 12, and her sister Sierra Hess, from as far away as Pennsylvania.
Keara is nine months pregnant and was due to give birth last week. The Mooresville girls were last seen Thursday morning, before their adoptive father Mathew Hess drove away with them. He left a note saying they were going to the store before school, according to investigators.
New information such as how many of the girls' possessions were packed has led authorities to think Hess planned to take the kids for some time, Gibson said. He is believed to be driving a faded green 1993 Ford Explorer, N.C. tag YTE-8014. Authorities previously reported the vehicle was tan or light brown, but said Monday that was a mistake.
Anyone with information should call the Iredell County Sheriff's Office at 704-878-3100.
We fail to see our own invisible, Precious girls
Oprah's touting a fall movie called "Precious," which has scooped up awards at Sundance and Cannes and is being billed as "disturbing," "overwhelming" and "unsparing."
The film explores a subject we don't like to look at or think about, on the screen or off - the deplorable lives of some poor teens. It focuses on a girl nicknamed Precious, who lives in Harlem. She's obese, illiterate and has been twice impregnated by her father.
The child's mother knows what's going on, and she doesn't care. In fact, she abuses Precious as well, in every way possible.
Why would we want to see that?
Come November, watch as we back away from the theaters showing "Precious." No, thanks. Not tonight. Let's beat it home and find something cheery on TV. Something to take our minds off our troubles.
Our troubles?
What about these teens, so invisible we don't see them even when we're staring straight at them?
Teens like our own Tiffany Wright.
She, too, was subjected, it appears, to unspeakable abuse. After her foster mother died last winter, Tiffany's adopted brother, 36-year-old Royce Mitchell, and his wife petitioned for guardianship. Before long, Tiffany was pregnant.
And why was Mitchell granted guardianship when he'd been in federal prison and was still under supervision?
Maybe Tiffany was just one more teen shuffling through the system. Maybe somebody cared. But nobody cared enough.
In late July, social workers learned that Mitchell might have raped Tiffany.
Talk about the makings of a movie.
On Sept. 14, as Tiffany, now eight months pregnant, waited for the bus to Hawthorne High, she was shot in the head and killed. Her daughter, Aaliyah, was delivered later that day and died within the week.
One day, Tiffany Wright was alive and invisible.
The next, she was dead and visible: "15-year-old shot to death at bus stop."
Another pregnant child made headlines on Monday. Keara Lasha Hess is 12 years old and due to deliver any day. She went missing early last Thursday from her home in Mooresville with her 11-year-old sister and their adoptive father.
"How many times have I seen and not seen the Preciouses of the world?" Oprah mused on NPR Monday morning. "How many times have I seen her on the corner of Michigan Avenue in Chicago, waiting on a bus?"
Or in the 6700 block of Mallard Creek Drive? Or heading to Lake Shore Middle School in Mooresville?
Girls so hungry for love, they confuse abuse with affection.
Girls so scared and ashamed, they can't ask for help.
Girls so invisible on the outside. So precious on the inside.
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Sources: Charlotte Observer, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Google Maps
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