Friday, December 21, 2007

Louisiana Police Can't Count


Casey Aldridge's uncle went down to the Kentwood Sheriff's Department and provided documentation to show that Casey is just 18 years old, and not 19 as earlier reported, including by me. The sheriff's department in Kentwood, Louisiana confirmed that no complaint had been lodged against Spears' boyfriend and that "no criminal investigation is currently underway".

The lack of investigation appears to be valid in regards to any possible felony charges against Casey, BUT, unless Casey is declining in age daily, he should still be guilty of a misdemeanor in both Louisiana and California.

In Louisiana, the relevant portion of the penal code is:

Misdemeanor carnal knowledge of a juvenile is sexual intercourse with consent between someone age 17 to 19 and someone age 15 to 17 when the difference in their ages is greater than two years

Casey is at least two years older than Jamie Lynn Spears. His birthday is later than hers and 18-16 = 2 + the extra days. I guess that the investigating officer in Kentwood must be missing some fingers or toes.

In California, the relevant portion of the penal code is:

1. If the minor is less than three years younger than the defendant, the offense is a misdemeanor.

I'm not saying here that I agree that this should be a crime. What I am saying is that the law is a strict liability law, and that under the law, if applied equally to all people, Casey is guilty. Strict liability means basically that there is no excuse under the law. There doesn't have to be intent, and believing someone to be older than they actually are is no excuse. Strict Liability just says, if this happened, you are guilty. I'm sure there are plenty of guys who have been convicted of this sex crime who had sex under the exact same age difference as happened here. If Casey walks, don't you think they might be just a wee bit pissed.


10 comments:

  1. since his bday is later wouldnt it be 2 years minus a few...im no mathematical genius but...

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  2. About time they sorted out those messy and inconsistent laws. Over here, the age of consent is 16 for straight and gay sex, and I think thats about right. (The only exceptions to this are teachers etc)

    I bet these laws are ignored, just like the drinking laws are. How many Americans wait until they are 21 for their first drink?

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  3. Oh my god, consent laws are ridiculous.

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  4. Anonymous10:05 AM

    vamp: you're right. If his birthday is later in the year (her birthday is 4/4/91; say his was June or 6/4/89). In June he would be 2, and she would be 2 months old, the age diff being 22 mos ( or < 2 yrs).

    I went about this trying to prove entie right, and ended up proving him wrong. Sorry entster.

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  5. Anonymous10:47 AM

    Oh, and according to this his birthday is 4/29/89.

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  6. i don't why this is even an issue at this point. it was a consensual relationship between two people over the course of 3 years.
    they need to get over it already.
    sending the kid to jail for getting his gf knocked up? people have too much time on their hands..if her parents aren't concerned neither should anyone else.

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  7. I think they should send her parents to jail, if anything. They just do NOT pay attention to their kids.

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  8. please..around here there is a huge bible belt community where the parents are super strict and send their kids to private Christian school..even with all that they still have the highest teen pregnancy rate of all the school including public.
    guess what? sometimes kids/teens fuck up. it's not always the parents.

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  9. That's the problem with two extremes. There IS a way to parent a kid that falls between super strict and doesn't give a shit.

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  10. So it looks like the difference in their ages is less than 2 years, which isn't addressed in the Louisiana penal code, meaning no crime has taken place.

    Enty, put on your defense attorney/prosecutor hat for a sec. Even if this was criminal behavior, isn't this the kind of crime the authorities ignore because 1) they have better things to do; 2) the families are on top of the situation and 3) her family {and his for all we know} has significant financial resources to assure the baby won't grow up to be a drain on society?

    I don't think the Spears family embarrasses easily but maybe this will keep them quiet for awhile.

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