Kaitlyn Hunt, the Florida high school senior accused of a sex offense for a lesbian relationship with a then-14 year old girl has rejected a deal that would have required her to plead guilty to third-degree felony child abuse.
A trial is scheduled for mid-July.
Here is an excerpt from the press release by Ms. Hunt’s attorneys:
Our client is a courageous teenager who chooses not to accept the current plea offer by the State of Florida.
This situation involves two teenagers who are the same sex, involved in a relationship. If this case involved a boy and girl, there would be little or no media attention.
Our client is a model citizen. She was placed in the incubating environment—a school with her fellow classmates. They attend classes and participate in intramural and extracurricular activities together. These fellow classmates eat lunch together and play on the same sports teams. They are allowed to communicate and have contact without barriers. Then, when as is natural, relationships develop between two teenagers in and as a result of the environment created by the State, it leads (in this case) to criminal prosecution.
If this incident occurred 108 days earlier, when Kaitlyn Hunt was 17, we would not be here with our client facing criminal prosecution.
See more news coverage here.
-Bridget Crawford
