A 25-year-old Louisvillian named Tony Crawford was arrested at 3:30 am today after police found him in a vehicle with a fourteen-year-old. Crawford was charged with third-degree sodomy and first-degree unlawful transaction with a minor.
The headline for the Louisville Courier-Journal story reads, “Man charged with having oral sex with teen.”
Fuck that. That’s sugar coating it. It should read, “25-year-old accused of raping child.” That’s what happened. I don’t care what kind of sex it was or whether it is not technically incorrect to call the victim a teen because she is four-teen. A child is a child.
When an adult becomes sexual with a child (or anyone who cannot /will not give consent), it is rape. Rape is rape. This is the language we must use when we talk about it with our friends and family, in the courtroom and in the media, everywhere.
I am not a legal expert by any means, but I looked up what the Kentucky Revised Statutes say about the crimes with which Crawford has been charged. Third-degree sodomy is a Class D felony, which has a minimum sentence of 1 year and a maximum of 5 years. First-degree unlawful transaction with a minor (if the minor is less than 16-years-old) is a Class B felony, which has a minimum sentence of ten years and a maximum of 20 years.
We’ll be very interested to hear the length of Crawford’s sentence if found guilty.