Yeah! What's cooler than partying with your mom? Nothing I can think of! Anyway, the so-called "cool mom" who hosted sex and drug parties for her kids and their friends is going to jail for 30 years. Seems excessive to me, considering that there are no allegations of violence that I'm aware of.
An Arvada mother tearfully apologized Monday and was sentenced to 30 years in prison for hosting sex-and-alcohol parties for teenagers.Silvia Johnson, 41, pleaded guilty earlier this year to two counts of sexual assault, and nine counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Prosecutors said between 2003 and 2004, Johnson held 15 to 20 parties at her home and gave teens alcohol, marijuana and methamphetamines. She also confessed to having sex with two of the teenage boys.
If she had been prosecuted for distributing the drugs I suppose I could support a sentence of 10-15 years, but "contributing to the delinquency of a minor"? C'mon. Of course, most of the sentence is probably due to the sexual assault charges, the victims of which were 15 and 17. Yes, that's super creepy and disgusting, but last time I checked even 15-year-olds know all about sex, and most of them are doing it.
I don't know the details of the assault charges, but considering that armed robbers and violent rapists tend to get less than 10 years in prison it's hard to see how this sentence is justified.
So if it had been a "cool dad" who was partying and having sex with 15 and 17 year old girls would you feel different?
One of the factors leading to this woman's sentence was that up until yesterday she had shown absolutely no remorse for her actions. Only justification. As little as a month ago she was again arrested after allowing a 14 year old (not even her own kid) drive her van on the highway and into a major accident while other teenagers were in the car.
It was only yesterday that she "got it".
Throw away the key!!!
Don't you think you should be more upset that armed robbers and violent rapists (isn't that kind of redundant?) sometimes get less than 10 years than the woman getting 30? I think some of that righteous indignation is a little misplaced.
And besides...maybe all 15 or 17 yr olds know about it and maybe most of them do it - that doesn't make them any less "minors", nor does it absolve her of her responsibility not to make sex that much easier for them to discover. I certainly hope, and plan to make my kids understand sex by that time and also understand that they're too young. Naive? Maybe. Too bad, it's happening anyway and I'm certainly not throwing up my hands because "everybody else is doing it." That's going to be their argument, not my justification and certainly not hers.
Eric: I think the the situation would be different if it were an adult man and teenage girls, yes.
I wasn't aware of her recently-realized remorse, and that does make me less sympathetic (not that I'm terribly sympathetic anyway).
Barry: Well, many states of age-of-consent laws below 17, and some even below 15, so the definition of the victims as "minors" is somewhat controversial on its own.
I (and the law) make a distinction of "violent rape" because most convictions for "rape" these days are for "date rapes", which are not generally violent. Perhaps "rape" used to imply violence, but that's not really the case anymore.
As for sex itself, I think all sex outside of marriage is wrong. However, I'm not convinced that it's much worse for an adult woman to have sex with a 17-year-old boy than with an 18-year-old man. With a 15-year-old is probably worse, but how much worse? 30 years in jail?