Read about it on Glenn Sacks' blog

Mom who has child by teen gets probation

By Joe Elias

The Patriot-News, 8/22/07

NEW BLOOMFIELD — A 24-year-old woman who gave birth to a 14-year-old boy's child won't go to jail so that she can take care of the newborn, a Perry County judge ruled Tuesday.

Angela Nicole Rudy of the 600 block of Lewisberry Road, Fairview Twp., York County, received probation and a suspended sentence of 3 to 18 months in prison.

The 14-year-old's mother, however, said that's a double standard.

"If she was a man, she would already be in prison," the mother said. "She's only out because she's a woman. A criminal should not be able to hide behind the fact that they have a child."

The teen's mother is not being identified to protect the identity of her son. The Patriot-News does not identify sex-assault victims.

The teen's mother compared the case to that of her 23-year-old son, who is serving a 2 1/2- to 4 1/2-year state prison sentence for his second statutory sexual-assault offense. The offenses occurred in Perry and York counties. A 15-year-old York County girl gave birth to his child in late 2006, court records said.

"I don't see a difference," the mother said. "The issue is the crime, not who will be watching the child."

Rudy gave birth to a boy in April.

"I'm not going to break the bond between a parent and an infant," Perry County Judge Kathy A. Morrow said. "That only causes more problems."

Instead, Morrow sentenced Rudy to 2 years of probation, which is within the state guidelines for the crime to which Rudy pleaded guilty in July: one count of statutory sexual assault.

Morrow had considered sending Rudy to a halfway house in Mifflin or Dauphin county, where she could work during the day and stay with the child at night. Probation officials said they couldn't get Rudy into either facility.

District Attorney Charles Chenot said he was disappointed in the judge's decision. "I certainly feel that some sort of incarceration was in order," he said.

Rudy's lawyer, Shaubot C. Walz, the county's public defender, said the sentence was what he requested.

Morrow also ordered Rudy to have no contact with the victim except to exchange custody of the baby. She also ordered drug and alcohol counseling.

The baby's father, who was not in court, has told The Patriot-News he does not believe Rudy should be imprisoned for their sexual relationship, saying it was consensual.

State law says that someone younger than 16 cannot consent to sex with someone more than four years older.

"He was a child, and you took advantage of him," Morrow told Rudy.

Tina Nixon, executive director of the YWCA of Greater Harrisburg, said as a general rule, boys are less likely to report any type of sexual assault, especially when they don't consider themselves victims.

"In a case like this, boys don't understand it's illegal," she said.

In 2006, the YWCA's crisis hot line handled 709 calls about sexual assaults, and just 10 were from boys, Nixon said.

In July 2006, Rudy drove the teen, who is a Perry County resident and a family friend, to a pull-off along Route 274 in Spring Twp. near West Perry High School. They had sex in the vehicle, court records state.

Rudy told police she was drunk at the time, records state. The teen's mother reported Rudy to the police after learning Rudy was pregnant.

The last time this topic was touched on by Broadsheet, it was to make sure we didn't punish female teachers too much for their crimes....

I think the posts here applauding women molesting underage boys are sickening.

If I had a daughter who swooned over a "hot teacher", I sure would be concerned. If you have a son who does the same, you should be concerned, too.

This shows how deep rooted the problem is.

"By and large, women who seduce or abuse young men are choosing older victims than many male pedophiles and pederasts and have a more relationshipy time of it. Often warm feelings, orgasms etc, are mutual in these laiasons, which is quite different from when men seek out teen age girls (though there may be some older teen girls with twenty something men, where there is substantial mutuality.)

When boys are old enough to seek sex and enjoy sex, they lose some of their claim to victimhood when they get with an older woman. A woman having sex with a fifteen year old vs. with a seven year old is not even remotely the same thing."

You are beyond the pale. Aren't you ashamed of yourself?

You're just as sick as neilpaul. I hope neither of you have any children.

The problem isn't with daydreaming about crushes on teachers, but the tacit approval of student-teacher relationships those posts describe, as long as the student is a boy.

If the same posts were tacitly condoning male teacher-female student relationships, there would be a firestorm of protest.

Those posts and the deafening silence of those posters who normally jump all over any mention of MRA issues, are both ver disturbing.

It would appear the hardcore feminists of BS are pretty laissez faire when it comes to relationships between boys and their female teachers.

Perhaps the brightstars and neilpauls of the world have more in common with mainstream feminists than they know....

I agree with the above post. As a concerned parent, I don't need to think twice if one of my daughters starts showing signs of an inappropriate relationship with a teacher.

Who looks out for children? We live in a society where second grade boys get labeled as sex offenders, for God's sake. The law doesn't protect them, clearly, so hopefully their families will.