Statutory Rape?

We recently commented on a Killen custody case involving the adoptive parents of a young boy and the child's biological father. Even though both families have ostensibly asked that comments on the Court House and TimesDaily Forums remain civil, both web sites are currently peppered with posts that can hardly be called such.

One novice poster on the TD forum remarked we had not read the son's comments on his father's Facebook creation. No, we had not read the almost 150 comments, and after having done so, we feel that perhaps neither side is mentally, emotionally, or spiritually suited to retain custody of the child.

The biological father had indeed written six of these comments; the August 16 post in which he misspelled the child's name was particularly endearing. One comment concerning the situation was disturbing and alarming.

According to this post, the biological mother had engaged in sex while under the age of 16 with at least one of the three putative fathers who at the time was over the age of 17. This in Alabama, whether you agree with the law or not, is second degree rape. The accusation in this public post was that the adopting family had agreed to drop statutory rape charges against the young man (should he be the father) if the child resulting from the relationship was handed over to them.

Whether the blackmail charges are true or false, the charge of second degree rape should have been handled by the Alabama DHR. If any or all of these three men are guilty of this crime, they should be prosecuted, even now. Such charges should not be greeted with a wink and a nod, but deserve to be adjudicated and the guilty party branded as the sex offender he or she is.


A word on condom usage: Properly worn prophylactics do not break. Anyone who is incapable of donning a condom properly is in all probability incapable of acting as a responsible parent.

Shoalanda