Star Athlete Jailed After Being Caught With Underage Girl

[Slayerwolf]

LAKELAND, Fla. -- He was one of the best baseball players ever to come out of Central Florida and he was expected to go to Florida State University and then the major league. But now, star Lakeland High School player Eric Arce has been arrested.

VOTE: How Do You Feel About The Charges?Arce and his friend were caught by police kissing their girlfriends and WFTV learned they face felony charges because they had just turned 18 and their girlfriends were underage.Recruiters expect Lakeland High's catcher Eric Arce to make it to the pros, but his trek to the top just took a big hit.Arce and his teammate, Kyle Simmons, were arrested for lewd and lascivious battery against their underage girlfriends. The young men turned 18 late last year.According to an arrest report, Deputy David Clement saw a pickup truck on the side of the road, flashed his light inside and noticed the teens. Simmons was in the front seat with a 15-year-old girl and Arce was in the backseat with a 14-year-old.Records show the girls' parents knew they were dating Arce and Simmons and their actions were consensual, but Florida law doesn't allow sexual contact between adults and minors.At Lakeland High School, their classmates had mixed opinions about the incident."They need to understand they're 18 now and have to date someone their own age," student Nikolas Allen said.Junior Rachel Cumberlidge kissed to protest the arrests.

 

[Shai Gar]

I agree with you completely.

Personally, I was always interested in the older girls for their physical maturity compared to younger girls, or even girls my own age. But I had female friends at fifteen who were dating and fucking twenty year olds... their mothers never cared.

There are 16 year old boys on the sex offenders lists in the USA for deadly touching indecent exposure with their girlfriends who might be only a few months younger... The only record is that it was lewd and indecent acts with a minor under 16.

This shit scars a persons life.

I should be on that list because I once had my hands inside a girl who was 5 years olds panties. I was only 7, but that
Would legally make no difference.

 

[testing]

They JAILED them?

That is so not right.

I dated an 18-year-old when I was 14 myself (briefly), and I suppose that was breaking the law! But it was so commonly done... and I promise you Florida is no different. That's ridiculous. I thought there were some legal provisions in place to keep these kinds of things from happening. (???) Child protection laws are great but this is not what they were made for. This totally doesn't make sense. What a waste of money and a misuse of the legal system.

It seems like there must be something else going on. Not sure what it might be, though.

I hope you're wrong about the boys' lives being ruined. Surely anyone who knows the facts of this case wouldn't label them "child molesters" or anything like that. That's ridiculous. I know Florida pretty well and I promise you that is not the only 14-year-old dating an 18-year-old.

 

[VH]

This is absolutely ridiculous.

This law implies that if two teenagers are born one day apart, have been dating and having consensual sex for years, and have consensual sex on the older teenager's birthday, that teenager is suddenly now a sex offending felon, but the day after will not be.

Seriously?

Teenagers have sex in America. That's just the way it is. Everyone knows this. If the moral majority is so offended by this that they feel punishment is required, then slap the kids with a misdemeanor and a fine, but for crying out loud don't lump them in with child molesting sex addicts that are an actual danger to society.

This is a classic example of why America really needs to address and update its sex offense laws.

When kids (who have hit puberty) are within a reasonable age difference of one another (like 4 to 6 years) and have consensual sex, this shouldn't be a crime of any sort. This is nature. Since the dawn of recorded history humans have started having sex right around the time they hit puberty. Telling kids that it is illegal to engage in these instinctive consensual acts is just plain stupid. Making it a sex offense felony is like giving a kid a life sentence in jail for masturbating.

What makes this really offensive is that the law is telling these kids who they can and cannot love and have affection with based on an arbitrary and temporal factor. If the measures go through to where this kid does felony jail time, he will be able to legally marry the 'victim' when he gets out, and for the rest of their lives will have to tell everyone in their neighborhood he's a sex offender for making out with his wife when they were in high school. That's just plain ridiculous, and hearkens back to when it was illegal to be gay or in an interracial relationship.

Is this really the 21st Century?

Sex offender laws are in place to protect children from adult sexual predators who use their age and wisdom to victimize children. This is a very good thing, but the letter of the law and the spirit of the law are clearly coming into conflict here. When that happens, it is time to change the letter of the law to better match the spirit of the law.

Absolutely ridiculous.

 

[Shai Gar]

in court, the letter always matters more than the spirit.

It is how Egwene could become Mistress of Tar Varlon even though she was only Accepted.