Lucky kid

Hope Jacoby, a 24-year-old personal trainer, was caught having sex with a 16-year-old boy. However, this time the judge decided to go easy on her and gave her "only" three years of informal probation along with 240 hours of community service.

Why? Because it was a totally consensual relationship from both parts.

Jacoby admitted to having sex with a 16-year-old male student in her car and at her home on several different occasions throughout 2008.

[...]

All of Jacoby's offenses are considered felonies, but were reduced to misdemeanors on account of what Judge Jones considered "a totally consensual relationship." Judge Jones described the student as a "willing participant" and "somewhat enthusiastic" about his relationship with the defendant. He also noted that the student "engaged in deception" in an effort to have the relationship continue for as long as it did.

In which case I don't have anything against the judge's lenient ruling, either. I suspect the judge only sentenced her because he legally had to; otherwise he'd probably just laugh it off, as he should. Seriously: the kid wanted it, and he even did all he could to make it last as long as it did. I don't think he was traumatized unless "he sprained an ankle as he was being carried off on the shoulders of his friends", as Balko put it so well. If anyone should be punished, it should be him – though that's probably the case with his sexual partner in the news now. You also gotta be amused at the prosecution's warped reasoning in their attack against Jacoby:

"Women expect to be treated equally and expect equal rights, and we believe that if you perpetrate the crime, you should do the time," said Susan Kang Schroeder, the public affairs counsel for the DA's office.

What the hell do women's rights have to do with anything in this story? She was let off easy because she wasn't doing any harm (other than it's just illegal) and the kid wanted (and obviously liked) it just as much as she did, not because she's of feminine caste. Really, that's just stupid.

(via The Agitator)