Fox News The case of a Massachusetts man seeking visitation rights to the child he fathered after raping a 14-year-old girl has landed in front of the state’s highest court, MyFoxBoston.com reports.
The girl was 14 when she was impregnated by then-20-year-old Jamie Melendez, who pleaded guilty last year to four counts of statutory rape of a child.
The teen victim is arguing that she should not have to face potentially years of family court battles with the man who violated her, according to My Fox Boston.
The girl was 14 when she was impregnated by then-20-year-old Jamie Melendez, who pleaded guilty last year to four counts of statutory rape of a child.
The teen victim is arguing that she should not have to face potentially years of family court battles with the man who violated her, according to My Fox Boston.
According to the site, the youth's attorney, Wendy Murphy, argued before Supreme Judicial Court Justice Margot Botsford that the lower court judge, Superior Court Judge Thomas McGuire, essentially forced her client into a relationship with her rapist by sentencing Melendez into Probate and Family Court.
Melendez has asked a family court judge for visitation rights.
Melendez has asked a family court judge for visitation rights.
All children need a father.
ReplyDeleteAnd if he pays child support, he certainly has a right to see his child. Otherwise don't take his money.
A child isn't a pet, he has a moral obligation to support it without respect to any considerations about whether he is fit to be in the child (or the mother's) life.
DeleteSo her choice is: the extreme poverty of a single mom or the forced interaction with the depraved and violent man who raped her. Either way she will be victimized her entire life.
DeleteAt least money would alleviate her poverty, even though it can't give her back her childhood or a lifetime of opportunities.
In this case its not child support, but rather compensation for damages.
Stop thinking of support as "rights".
The sex was consensual on the woman's part. It wasn't rape.
DeleteLegally he was prosecuted since she is underage.
This is the prime example of why underage sex is considered rape and can NEVER be consensual: her immature, probably manipulated, decision has ruined her life. You write "consensual on the woman's part" - but she wasn't a woman. Just a foolish, confused, vulnerable girl. Society MUST protect our children.
DeleteIn such a case, the father should pay child support and should not be granted visitation RIGHTS. If the mother of the child wants her child to have contact with him, she can still allow visitation without him being entitled to it. So definitely the family court should grant no RICHTs whatsoever to this abuser.
ReplyDeleteIt is not quite clear, from this newsreport, what the mother of the child or victim of statutory rape thinks. they only report her parents' opinion. Since she was 14, any sexual relationship with her would be deemed rape, even if it was consensual.
Midas Sdom.
ReplyDeleteLike the guy who'd murder his mother and then pleads for clemency that he's an "orphan"!
The guy should be castrated and kept away from all young girls and defenseless females.