I know age of consent varies wildly and some states allow a 5 year “grace” period, so in this scenario pretend that it’s basically “The day before” whatever the date of consent is, and the older person is someone in their late 20’s/early 30’s.
The reason I’m asking is that I know there are some porn sites that claim to have women who “literally just turned 18” and in one case they had to take the porn down because the woman had lied about her birthday by a few months (not Traci Lords, this was a more recent occurrence). I know flat-out porn is illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to star in but was curious how the law would look onto a sexual relationship in that weird area.
Not quite the exact case, but here is a 19-year-old man charged with statutory rape for sex with a lady “just before” her 16th birthday (16 is age of consent in Nebraska, which does not have a close-in-age exception that would apply here).
Yes, but the statutory charge was probably just “piling on”. He took pictures, which for someone under 18 is illegal as heck and sure to bring down prosecution like a ton of bricks. What prosecutors do, since torture is illegal, is persuade defendants to plead guilty by piling on as many charges as possible and threatening to ask for concurrent maximum sentences for each charge, then make a deal. ( Aaron Swartz - Wikipedia - “take 6 months or we’ll ask for 35 years” )
Since the defendant was 19 and the correspondent 15, and most Romeo-and-Juliet laws have either 2 or 3 years exceptions, he’d still be liable. When it’s that close, exact dates matter.
Per the Nebraska Inmate Locator, they dropped the porn charges and convicted him of 1st degree sexual assault of a minor. (Nebraska’s Romeo and Juliet law applies only if the older person is less than 19 and the younger is at least 12, so although there is up to a 6-year exemption, it would not apply here.)
Many people are not aware of the Romeo and Juliet exceptions to statutory rape laws. They vary from state to state as does the age of consent. It is a bit complicated. So it is not always illegal for an adult (over 18) to have sex with a minor.
In Oregon the range of separation in age is three years. So a 19 or 20 year old caught with a 17 year old girlfriend, no crime. 22 years old and 17 is a big legal problem.
Before you ask, I deal with this issue in my professional capacity.
Odd. 2 to 4 years for statutory? I would assume that making child porn would carry that big a sentence or more. Sounds like exactly what I described, they charged him with everything and dropped one of the charges and settled for a short sentence in return for a guilty plea. I wonder if this includes sex offender registration?
Just to be clear. It is NOT a crime under Oregon law for an adult 20 year old person to have sex with a 17 year old minor, provided that they are not more than 3 years apart in age.
That is the Romeo and Juliet exception to the law.
There have been times where I was going 5 mph over the speed limit with Highway Patrol in the adjacent lane or behind me. Just because I got away with it doesn’t mean I wasn’t violating the law.
Back in 1988, I was a few weeks past my 18th birthday and my girlfriend was a few weeks shy of hers. We were making out in the back of my truck and getting ready to get down to business when we were interrupted by a uniformed Park District officer. While he was lecturing me, he used the words “statutory rape” and “contributing to the delinquency of a minor.” Then he told me to get the hell out of his park, which I promptly did.
I imagine if he’d tried to make a case out of it, the Sangamon County prosecutor would have declined to proceed, but still…