Little Texas Girl Charged with Rape for Playing Doctor with Little Boy

69.28K

Neetzan Zimmerman

08/26/13 03:48PM

Filed to: WTF

Police in Houston have charged a 10-year-old girl with aggravated sexual assault after she was allegedly spotted playing a game of "doctor" with a 4-year-old boy near her house.

According to Fox affiliate KRIV, the incident, which took place back in April, resulted in "Ashley" (not her real name) spending four nights in the Harris County Juvenile Detention after charges were filed against her in June.

Ashley, who was nine years old at the time, had been playing "doctor" with a bunch of children in the courtyard of the apartment complex where she lives, when a neighbor reportedly saw her touch the private parts of the 4-year-old boy and phoned the child's mother.

Two months after the initial complaint was filed, HPD officers arrived at Ashley's home and arrested her on suspicion of rape.

"I was crying and they took me to the car and I didn't want to get in and I was crying and I was moving and trying not to get in the police car and my Mom told me to calm down," Ashley told My Fox Houston.

Quanell X, a family friend and the leader of the local New Black Panther Party chapter, says he was shocked to learn of a child this young being charged with such a serious crime over a game of doctor.

"In fact this was nothing more than inappropriate horseplay that has now lead to a child that is ten years old being charged with aggravated rape," he said.

Ashley was due to appear before a judge last week, but her hearing has been re-set for October.

[screengrab via Fox 26]

The following replies are approved. To see additional replies that are pending approval, click Show Pending. Warning: These may contain graphic material.

49

saucisson Neetzan Zimmerman 08/26/13 03:52PM

Children who are sexually precocious should probably get the attention of whatever local DFS has jurisdiction to see if they're being exposed to things in the home or other close environment that is inappropriate or dangerous. Sometimes its nothing, and sometimes its like the son of a close family friend who molested his sister as a child, sexually assaulted a staff member at the boarding school he went to for emotionally-disturbed kids, and then grew up to rape a close family member. Meaning, sometimes its something and it pays to do a little observation.

46

Corlin saucisson 08/26/13 03:55PM

How in the world is it in a child's interest to have her taken away by big scary policemen? How is that not an insane use of resources? At most her parents should have been told to bring her down to social services for a talk with a nice non-scary person in a room full of stuffed animals.

15

ad infinitum saucisson 08/26/13 04:00PM

I think it depends on what you mean by "sexually precocious." Playing doctor isn't necessarily sexually precocious; it's a very common phase children go through. On the other hand, a 10-year-0ld "playing" with a four-year-old definitely gives me pause—while both are children, there's a huge difference in maturity and power there, and it's one your average 10-year-old is old enough to understand and exploit.

sugarhil Corlin 08/26/13 04:04PM

In my experience working with childhood victims of sexual assault with DCFS they do actually interview kids in rooms like that (i mean, they are not FAO Schwarta, but its not an interrogation room). I would bet she was talked to by social services, not a cop.

2

MisterHippity Corlin 08/26/13 04:04PM

If 10-year old boy was seen touching a naked 4 year-old girl's genitals, do you think that having a comfy chat with stuffed animals would be appropriate?

8

MisterHippity Neetzan Zimmerman 08/26/13 03:57PM

It sounds outrageous on the face of it, but when you click through to the original story, it becomes clear that all the "facts" cited come from the girl's (and her family's) version of events.

There appears to be no mention of any other first-hand source for the charges against her, or what exactly she was accused of really doing. All the story says regarding law enforcemnt is: "A spokesperson for HPD says they're not commenting on the case because it involves a juvenile...." Normally you can get a copy of the arrest report in many criminal cases, but perhaps it's sealed in this case? The story makes no mention of it, and cites no facts from it.

Just because the girl is 10 doesn't mean she may not have actually sexually molested this boy. "Playing doctor" sounds like a pretty standard alibi. That may be true, or it may not be.

14

MisterHippity MisterHippity 08/26/13 04:02PM

And I agree with Saucisson that — if what happened really did amount to more than an innocent game of "doctor" (which she's a little old for, you have to admit) — this could be a red flag for potential abuse in this girl's life/household, sadly.

2

sugarhil MisterHippity 08/26/13 04:06PM

Yeah. This sum up is very misleading. Of course her family is going to say she was playing doctor. She may very well have been but I wouldn't take their word for it if someone in the community thought it was sexual enough to involve authorities

1

aismo MisterHippity 08/26/13 04:06PM

What your saying is valid but probably not the case. Unless she was jamming a pinecone up this poor fella, understandable. Again: Some random person saw this. The kid would have probably told his parents if he was in distress... if shes a tall 10-yr old it would be pretty easy to see something sketchy and just call the cops, since most people try to save kids from being molested.

4

Peterpieper MisterHippity 08/26/13 04:07PM

First of all, the girl was 9 years old, not 10. Under the law, she's too young to form criminal intent, which includes sexual assault. I can't believe you're accusing a child, who is now just 10 years old, of forming a "standard alibi." She is a child. She is not an adult criminal. A 9-year-old white child would not be arrested by the cops and treated as an adult criminal in this situation.

5

EasttoMidwest Neetzan Zimmerman 08/26/13 04:39PM

There are two issues here: The potentially inappropriate actions of the girl and potentially inappropriate reaction of law enforcement. These are two separate issues.

A nine year old should NOT be touching a four year old. A nine year old should know better, for one thing.
A nine year old should also not be tossed into prison.

The fact that they're charging her with aggravated assault, and after waiting for two months, is indicative of a more severe incident than the one described. (Which could be the result of cops not knowing how to handle child interrogations; this can also lead to false positives, a la the day-care hysteria of the 90's.)

It's also not surprising that she was interviewed without the mother present, since she would have been asked about any potential abuse she may suffering.

foolyoo EasttoMidwest 08/26/13 04:50PM

There are other issues at hand also, we don't know the developmental age of the 9 year old, what the deal with supervision was, what happened with this doctor play, and pretty much what went down. There are far too many factors that will no be released to the public. But I can agree on the fact that juvie was completely inappropriate. What the hell is that going to do so far after the fact? Is her family a flight risk? Shouldn't a forensic interview be done rather than traumatizing a 9 year old of any developmental age with lock-up? How are you going to get accurate/lawfully attained info out of her now?

1

EasttoMidwest foolyoo 08/26/13 04:57PM

Good point about her development, etc. Regardless of what happened, it seems most likely that she has been failed by adults.

megatlaw EasttoMidwest 08/26/13 09:02PM

"The fact that they're charging her with aggravated assault, and after waiting for two months, is indicative of a more severe incident than the one described,"

Not necessarily. In my experience, in the jurisdictions where I represent kids, the DAs will charge what the can. For example a boy pulling down his pants in a bedroom and exposing himself to a sister and telling her to give him a blow job could be an attempted sodomy and attempted sex abuse (bith high level felonies requiring sex offender registration and not something that can be removed from the child's record) or private indecency (a misdemeanor, non-registerable offense that is expungable). The DAs will often charge the most significant crime and we work to negotiate to a lower level crime that is more fitting of the conduct taking the totality of circumstances into account.

EasttoMidwest megatlaw 08/26/13 09:58PM

Isn't aggravated assault very specific in meaning, though? Penetration seems to be a given in the statute: http://law.onecle.com/texas/penal/22…

Peppermint Neetzan Zimmerman 08/26/13 06:00PM

... I was under the impression that you couldn't charge anyone younger than ten (and charges are based on when the crime was committed) in a criminal court. You just send the kid back to their parents, maybe get social services involved, and sue the parents civilly for any damages.

Is it a different age in Texas?

momofpeanut Peppermint 08/26/13 06:13PM

Not true. Children are diverted to juvenile court if they are too young.

Peppermint momofpeanut 08/26/13 07:00PM

Yeah, I was in juvenile court a lot this summer (observing it), but where we were the government couldn't start a criminal proceeding against you unless you were at least ten.

momofpeanut Peppermint 08/26/13 08:00PM

Oh, you wouldn't expect those Southern states to let them go, would you?