LIFESTYLESFront PageNewsSportsBusinessLifestylesOpinionA&EHome>Featured Articles>Child SupportStatutory Rape Victim Ordered To Pay Child SupportDecember 22, 1996|By Erin McCormick, ...
SAN FRANCISCO — He was a 15-year-old kid with all the usual teenage sexual passions.
She was his neighbor--a 34-year-old mom, later convicted of statutory rape for engaging him in a romantic tryst that resulted in her getting pregnant.
But in a case that sets the term "deadbeat dad" on its ear, a California appeals court has ruled that the young man from San Luis Obispo, identified only as "Nathaniel J." in court records, is responsible for paying child support for the baby born of the illegal union.
The ruling by the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles--the first decision of its kind in California--leads to a number of sticky societal questions, ranging from whether girls and boys should be treated differently in cases of statutory rape to the fairness of government's increasingly aggressive pursuit of child-support payments.
"This is a really bizarre case," said Mary Ann Mason, a social-welfare professor at the University of California at Berkeley who specializes in societal legal issues. "It seems unfair that he was taken advantage of, and then he gets prosecuted for child support. He's considered a victim on one hand and a perpetrator on the other."
County and state authorities, rather than the mother, have pursued the case, seeking compensation for welfare payments the infant girl has been receiving since her birth in January 1995.
Attorneys from the state attorney general's office, which represented the state in the appeal, say the teenager should be responsible for the child because he indicated he was a willing sexual partner.
"Our point of view is that the newborn is the victim in these matters," said Carol Ann White, a lawyer who heads the attorney general's child-support-enforcement unit. "No matter what the circumstances of their conception, babies deserve to have two parents.
"And this was a consensual relationship," she added.
The youth, now 18, won't be required to pay until he has income, said Deputy Atty. Gen. Mary Roth, who handled the case.
"Say he makes $800 a month working at Burger King," Roth said. "He'll probably be expected to pay $200 a month to reimburse" the welfare program.
......................................................................................................................................................................................................... .................Im a 76 year old Nutcase.. TOMMY LOVES YOU ALL. .. I'm a committed atheist.
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