Here at The State Press, we take the news very seriously. The dogged pursuit of truth and justice keeps us going.
One such truth includes the recent reports of two men who admitted to sodomizing 18 boys ranging in ages from 11 to 14. Just yesterday they pleaded guilty to charges as part of a plea agreement that will give them little jail time and no sexual assault record.
Clifton Bennett, 18, and Kyle Wheeler, 19, were charged in January with 18 counts of aggravated assault and 18 counts of kidnapping for sodomizing boys at a weeklong student government leadership camp with broomsticks and flashlights in more than 40 separate incidents.
The victims have reported being afraid to go to the bathroom and sleep at night, and have undergone sexual assault counseling since their experiences at the camp in Prescott this past June, according to their parents.
And now, Bennett and Wheeler are getting away with this.
Why such lax punishment? It may have something to do with Bennett being the son of Arizona Senate President Ken Bennett. It may also have something to do with Bennett's lawyers pleading for a lesser sentence so that he, as an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, can go on his mission in September.
But the legal reason given for letting Bennett and Wheeler off the hook is the Yavapai County prosecutors' claim that the men's actions were not "sexual in nature."
Confused? Apparently, because the men performed the acts as part of a hazing ritual as "punishment" for the boys not following rules, the acts are considered non-sexual and therefore don't count as sexual assault.
This claim came as a surprise to ASU sexual assault prevention coordinator Dena Hester. "That definitely sounds like sexual assault, and the legal definition backs that up," Hester said. "Penetration of any body part by anything constitutes sexual assault."
Hester added that sexual assault often isn't even about sexual pleasure for the perpetrators.
"Sexual assault is about power and control, it isn't really about sex," she said. "Sex is just the tool used to victimize someone to gain that power and control."
Two men given supervision of young boys at a leadership camp who choose to victimize them using broomsticks and flashlights are obviously manipulating a position of power, and should be punished accordingly.
Maybe we've been spending too much time in the basement - we didn't know that justice was being put on the back burner in the state of Arizona.
