Loading ...Counseling Ordered for Teen Accused of Rape
A 17-year-old boy accused of raping a mentally retarded girl at school will be allowed to continue his education and athletic activities, but must be supervised and receive counseling until he is 21.
[The boy,] Eric Turner, has played football and improved in classes, the mentally retarded girl he is accused of raping at school has transferred and suffered emotional problems.
Turner, who is considered mentally handicapped and attends special classes at Largo High School, was charged last September with the rape of a classmate. He is being tried as an adult.
Though he faces two charges of sexual battery and the prosecution maintains that he forced himself on the 15-year-old girl between classes, some have questioned whether a rape occurred at all.
In fact, at Largo High School, officials conducted their own investigation and determined that Turner was innocent of the accusations and could stay in school, said principal Barbara Thorton.
“If we had a student we thought had done something like that, we would not have that student in our school anymore – we would ask that he be placed in some other program,” Ms. Thorton said.
Prosecutors maintain that Turner and a younger student threatened to beat up the victim if she did not have sex with them on two days. Because of the victim’s mental capabilities and Turner’s size, the threat amounted to force, Assistant State Attorney Doug Ellis told Circuit Judge Robert E. Beach at a hearing Monday.
But both Turner and his attorney, assistant public defender Bjorn Brunvand, say Turner never threatened the girl. They say that she kept writing Turner letters and consented to having sex with him and his friend after asking them to meet her between portable buildings before the last class of the day.
“She gave us oral sex,” Turner said. “We didn’t force her or nothing.”
The girl’s parents disagree. And they say they don’t understand why Turner has been given more consideration than their daughter.
They told the judge that Turner harassed their daughter, and that his friends stole her lunch money. They also said that when they complained to the school, they were told they should transfer their daughter.
“For the first time in my life, I saw my daughter afraid,” the girl’s mother said. “He’s gotten more help than my daughter has. . .. I worry that if he’s done this once, he’ll do it again.
“There’s no protection for these other girls. There was no protection for my daughter.”
Turner’s friend and co-defendant was tried in the juvenile system and received community control – strict supervision through the justice system, but no prison time – as a punishment, Brunvand said.
Since his arrest, Turner has been involved in counseling and a program through the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, and his defense has recommended community control with continued HRS involvement and counseling.
If Turner were 18 or older, he could face 12 years in prison. Instead, under an agreement with the state, he will probably be supervised under community control by HRS and his counselor until he is 21 years old, and he will not be able to have contact with either the girl or his co-defendant.
He could also choose to go to trial, but if he pleads no contest or guilty next week, he will be sentenced.
Judge Beach said he was willing to take a chance on Turner, but if he violates any terms of his sentence, he will wind up in the adult prison.
“The thing that bothers me the most is that this is a sentence in a serious case – one in which he doesn’t think he did anything wrong,” Beach said. ” . . . I didn’t detect any remorse on his part.”
Although Turner never admitted there was force or a rape, he did say he knew having sex with the girl at school was a mistake.
“I know it was wrong,” he said. “I wasn’t thinking.”