Shocking Allegations Of Sexual Assault In Cleveland, Texas
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Allegations of mass rape have literally ripped apart the social fabric of Cleveland, Texas, a Liberty County community of 7000-plus people just 45 miles north of Houston. The town has never been known as a bastion of racial harmony, but the sexual assault of an 11-year-old Hispanic girl there last Thanksgiving by as many as two dozen suspects—most of whom African-American—has splintered the town’s racial coexistence, which according to some was already as tattered as the neglected American flag flying above so many double-wide trailers in small Texas towns like Cleveland.
The case has drawn the social ire of community activists like Houston’s Quannell X and politicians like U.S. Rep. Ted Poe. While Quannell X roundly condemned the sexual assault of the young girl, he directed pointed criticism at the child’s parents who, according to some reports, did not supervise the 11-year-old’s promiscuous life style which included pretenses at being older and desires to be a “porn star.” Cleveland resident Kisha Williams echoed Quannell X’s criticism, telling the Houston Chronicle: “Where were [the parents] when this girl was seen wandering at all hours of the night with no supervision and pretending to be much older.”
Addressing a group of supporters of the African-American suspects arrested in the case, Quannell X pointed out that while some of the suspects have admitted their guilt, others are probably innocent. The community activist then raised a penetrating question: “She lives in another community. You mean to tell me the only men that had sex with that girl were black men, locked up in that jail?”
Rep. Poe issued a statement calling for a “thorough investigation” and “swift justice” for the 11-year-old victim. While we agree that a thorough investigation should be done, we are perplexed, as is Quannell X, that all those arrested come from the African-American community of this small town. It begs the question: Are law enforcement focusing only on black suspects.
By her own Facebook admissions, the 11-year-old has had experience with drugs, drinking, smoking, and sex. She told Facebook readers that if they didn’t like her or her lifestyle, they would just have to “deal with it.” Does this justify adult men taking advantage of a young girl, who is mentally, emotionally and legally incapable of intelligently consenting to sex? NO. But, the prior history of this obviously disturbed child should be considered in the midst of this hang-em high hysteria that is enveloping this case.
We agree with Quannell X who logically assumes that more males, adult and juvenile alike, have probably had “consensual” sex with this victim other than the African-Americans males charged in the case. That’s why we feel Congressman Poe’s call for a “thorough investigation” should include a in depth investigation to indentify any fellow students, adult males in her community, or even family members who may have had sex with the child. We also hope that Liberty County District Attorney Michael R. “Mike” Little proceed against them, regardless of their race or gender, with the same prosecutorial vigor he has directed against African-Americans now charged in the case. As Congressman Poe’s statement said, “ … under Texas law, ignorance is no defense – especially when it comes to the rape of a child.”
In a March 9 column, Houston Chronicle columnist Lisa Falkenberg suggested that the general public and authorities should “focus on what matters;” namely, the brutal sexual assault of an 11-year-old child by a group of ravenous, irresponsible men, and not on the girl’s own Facebook depictions “bragging about sex.” Falkenberg blasted what she called the “gossip tongues of Liberty County” who have suggested that the girl’s own behavior contributed to her “gang rape.”
Falkenberg, like Congressman Poe and DA Little, however, has missed the point underlying the racial anger and outrage simmering in Liberty County over this case. All indications are this child was no novice to pre-teen sexual activity—no longer a rare phenomenon in this country which portrays explicit sexual conduct in virtually every realm of our society.
For example, in 2001 the Rand Corporation initiated a study to determine the impact of sexually explicit music on the sexual behavior of young people between 12 and 17 years of age. The study involved 1461 participants, most of whom had no sexual conduct prior to the study. The results were disturbing, to say the least: 51% of the youths who listened to songs with explicit sexual lyrics—songs that portrayed men as “sex studs” and women as sex objects—were more likely to engage in sexual intercourse or other sexual activities within two years of listening to the sexually explicit lyrics while only 29% would not.
The results of the Rand study were reported in Pediatrics (Aug. 2006), and its lead author, Steven Martino, said that exposure to sexually degrading music gave many teens a “specific message about sex”—boys learn they should be relentless in their pursuit of women and girls should learn to view themselves as sex objects. “We think that really lowers kids’ inhibitions and makes them less thoughtful” about sexual decisions, prompting many to make decisions they later regret, Martino told Associated Press in August 2006.
Martino said that the Rand researchers tried to include the impact of parental permissiveness and other factors of young people’s sexual behavior but found that sexually explicit music had the most significant impact.
In 1994 the Georgia Supreme Court pointed out that “ … sexual activity has increased drastically among young people in recent years, so few children are being prosecuted for their behavior, and exposure to sex and sex education at an early age, like it or not, has become a way of life … In a recent study administered at 32 Georgia high schools, fully 46% of the freshman girls (generally aged 14 to 15) surveyed reported they were sexually active. Furthermore, one in seven of all of the students polled said they had started having sex before age 13! The statistics make it clear that the behavior is becoming more common: one in ten seniors said they had sex before age 13, while one in six freshmen said they had become sexually active before that age. A study of child welfare recipients indicated that 35% of the children in foster care and 22% of those living at home, had had sexual intercourse before their thirteenth birthday … Another recent study shows that 20% of this country’s young people who attend church had participated in some form of sexual experimentation by age 13. Even as early as 1982, in a survey of 160,000 teenagers regarding their feelings and experience in sexual matters, 31% of the 13 to 14 year olds surveyed reported they had had sexual intercourse.”
While teen and pre-teen sexual activity is no longer a rarity in this country, the fact remains that children cannot legally consent to sex, and adults who have sex with children under 17 years of age, with or without consent, are committing rape. As we discussed last year, the Texas Supreme Court has ruled that a child under the age of fourteen cannot be adjudicated delinquent for the crime of prostitution because they cannot legally consent to sex in exchange for money.
In Texas, children under the age of seventeen are unable to consent to sex with an adult, and, therefore, under Texas Penal Code Article 22.011, consensual sex between an adult and a person under 17 is defined as a “sexual assault” (more commonly known as “statutory rape”) and consensual sex between an adult and a person under age fourteen is an “aggravated sexual assault” under Article 22.021 (or more commonly known as “aggravated rape”).
So there is no question that, under the law, all the adults who had sex with the 11-year-old girl in Cleveland last Thanksgiving, and who were stupid enough to either film or allow their participation to be filmed, violated Texas law governing sexual assaults of children and the State’s child pornography laws.
But, does this mean that all the defendants charged in the case are guilty? No.
As has been the case in several high profile sex cases, like the infamous McMartin preschool case in the 1980s and the recent Mineola Swinger’s Club, which also involved incredible, outrageous and false allegations, we strongly suspect, as Qunannell X suggested, that a number of these men are innocent, most likely having become ensnared in the political and racial brawl pervading Liberty County, where mere allegations involving sex and race can ruin reputations and end a life in the free world.
But let us be clear: our concern is not only for the innocent, but for the African-American men who have been charged, and who may be guilty by irrefutable evidence, as well. We don’t feel they should be the only ones singled out for prosecution in this case. We suspect there are a legion of other males, of various stripes and colors, who have, under the law, “taken advantage” of this young girl. They should also be weeded out from the ugly pasture and held accountable. This case will never pass the proverbial “smell taste” if only the African-American men who took advantage of the 11-year-old last Thanksgiving end up being convicted and sent off to prison. That will stink to high heaven.
Finally, each of the guilty offenders should only be punished according to their culpability and role in this terrible set of facts, not sentenced en bank, to maximum prison time, in an attempt to show an example to the “others” still out there. Some of these men will undoubtedly be “more guilty” than others. Some may have been ignorant of the girl’s young age, some may have thought she was a prostitute, some may believed she was consenting, and yes, some of these defendants may have been true sex offenders. It is the duty of the lawyers and judge involved in these cases to see each defendant case by case and prevent what is already a terrible tragedy from getting worse. As has often been said, few things in life can be worse than being a victim of sexual assault, but being falsely accused and convicted of raping a child is one of them…
By: Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair.
Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John Floyd is Board Certified in Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization