Ohio Teen Jailed for Not Testifying Against Man...

[High Plains]

who is accused of having sex with her. The girl says nothing happened and refused to cooperate with prosecutors, so they threw her in jail "for her own protection."

Comments?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/16/AR2006051600222.html

The Associated Press
Tuesday, May 16, 2006; 4:50 AM



AKRON, Ohio -- A 14-year-old girl who ran away to avoid testifying against a man accused of molesting her has been jailed for a week and denied access to an attorney, officials and court records said. The girl failed to show up May 8 at the trial of 20-year-old Galo Sanchez-Pesantes. She was taken into custody a day later when her mother found her and called police.

Prosecutors said the teen is a material witness. They wanted her girl jailed "so that she is not on the streets where we can't find her or she's doing things she shouldn't be doing," said Mary Ann Kovach, who heads the Summit County prosecutor's criminal division. Common Pleas Judge James Murphy ordered the girl held indefinitely. The girl has requested a lawyer, according to court records. But jail officials said she isn't permitted contact with anyone unless county prosecutors approve.

Sanchez-Pesantes, of Akron, is accused of having unlawful sexual conduct with the teen in January. He is free on bond and had a pretrial hearing scheduled Tuesday. Defense attorneys said the girl denied having sex and would not write a statement for police. They have asked that his case be dismissed and say the state has "effectively kidnapped" the girl.

"When you take a child and put her in jail and deny her access to counsel because she refuses to be labeled a material witness, essentially it's an abuse of power," attorney Alex Folk said. "I don't think the state has the right to put a 14-year-old in jail without due process. And in this case, there has been no due process."

[lindisfarne]

1. There's already a thread about this.

[High Plains]

2. Oops, my bad. Where is it?

[lindisfarne]

4. Sorry; I don't have time to do a search to find it but you're

supposed to do that before posting!

but I actually just found it so here you go:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1202869
(Please do this in the future!)

[mrcheerful]

3. Yeah, this is what you get when the public is in fear and protection

mode. The state scares kids into testifying even if the person has committed no crime. Am I saying the 14 year old is lying to protct the guy, who knows, the only thing we can go by is what we know for sure. 1) the state is trying to convict the man on child molestation 2) the victim says she wasn't molested, end of case in most crimial cases. Except for sex crimes then its do whatever it takes to convict and the hell with small things like no crime has been committed. This is common practice used by police and prosacuters every day, they tell young people that if they don't tell on the accused then they will be punished. I know someone that was accused and the cops did everything they could to get the children to say the guy molested them. It went on for 3 months before the cops left the children alone. The mother of the kids was the one who told cops that this guy molested her kids, mom was made at the guys son for leaving her.