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Thursday, June 23, 2005

Lolita Love & The Law

Posted by on June 23 at 8:00 AM

After reading yesterday’s thoroughly upsetting post about Lolita Love, perhaps you wondered, “How come this isn’t illegal?”

The guy behind the instigating email brings this up himself on his website:

I’m only seeking lawful, nonsexual physical contact with young girls, and reporting my experiences on this page to spread the good news of nonsexual girl love to the masses. If some prosecutor thinks that I’m sexually touching prepubescent girls when I say that I’m only nonsexually hugging and cuddling them, then good luck proving that in court (Jacko not guilty!). If anyone knows of anything I’m doing that is illegal, please tell me, because I’m not aware of it.

For an answer, I turned to my best friend from high school and beyond Mindy, who’s also a real live lawyer working in California but who was happy to help me with the Revised Code of Washington.

She directed me to Section 9 and Section 9.A, and I quickly realized the guy was off the hook for stuff like sexual misconduct with a minor and sexual exploitation of a minor.

Then Mindy suggested communication with a minor for immoral purposes, which sounds perfect, except for the lack of consensus onor even definition of"immoral purposes."

This fact is not lost on our creepy Girl Lover, who notes on his website:

"Immoral purposes" isn't defined...but case law holds that it refers to sexual misconduct and "communicates" includes conduct as well as words. Therefore, it's safest to operate on the belief that sexual contact or communication with 16 and 17 -year-olds is illegal.

What a relief.