What is the name of your state?NC
7 years ago, I was raped at the age of 14 by a man who was almost twenty. In a nutshell, my constitutional rights have been violated, the D.A are saying that because it has been seven years, too much time has lapsed and they are not going to try the case, evidence was not the issue because as you will read, I have a seven year old child by this man, who he now has temporary custody of(and that alone is frightening).
When I investigated the statue of limitations, I found that there were no limitations on felonies. This included that of statutory rape. N.C.G.S. § 14-27.7A(b), which provides:
A defendant is guilty of a Class C felony if the defendant engages in vaginal intercourse or a sexual act with another person who is 13, 14, or 15 years old and the defendant is more than four but less than six years older than the person, except when the defendant is lawfully married to the person. But I have received some disheartening information that because of length of time, that justice will turn a blind eye to a crime that was committed against me during my youth that caused some major life changes.
My name is Alvetta, I am 23 years old and I was born in Harnett County. I was an honor roll and principal’s list student from since I was a young girl; until around November of 1996.
This is when I met, my statutory rapist who worked at a grocery store Market. My offender was born on in the fall of 1977. The first intimate thing that happened between us is when I saw him my fifth time when I was casually shopping in the store. By this time he knew my age, and my name, and where I went to school. When he was filling up the ice bins in the front of the store, he noticed me and came up and started to engage in kissing all over my face and my mouth. At this point I was somewhat confused at what was going on, but he told me that everything was all right.
He was then commence to have me call him and let him know when I was going to be at the laundry mat right across from the store. When I would go see him after the kiss, he would take me to the back where he would fondle my breast, my buttocks, and my genitalia. This happened on numerous occasions. On many times he would ask me to have sexual intercourse with him, and I wouldn’t because I was scared, and he knew that.
On or around March 13, of 1997, right before my 15th birthday I went to visit him at the same store and he asked me again to have sex with him in the bathroom of the store, I told him again that I was afraid, but he told me that if I truly cared for him, I would do it. He took me to the bathroom and commenced to penetrate me vaginally with his penis. He had me straddle him, performed approximately three painful thrust (because I was a virgin, this was extremely painful for me) and he removed me from his waist and told me he would talk to me soon.
After a month I felt a decline in my health and thought it would be in my best interest to take a pregnancy test. It was positive. I called him and told him that I was pregnant; he said that I should get an abortion, because he could not take care of a baby, and he was scared because of my age and the fact that I was so young. After this attempt. It was extremely hard for me to get in touch with him, or he kept telling me he was busy and would call me back later; he never did.
When a DNA test was requested, when my daughter was 4 months old the result came back just as I had known, that he was the father of my now 7 year old daughter. My father who was then my guardian at the time wanted to get a consent order written up by his attorney so that he would have to pay child support. Because of the trauma that I had been through I was completely oblivious to what I should have did about the situation. Later, however, my father agreed between him, his lawyer and my father’s lawyer about primary custody and visitation. Since I was a minor, I could not sign any legal papers on my own accord. When this took place though I know something wrong had happened to me, he and family told me that there was now nothing I could do about it and have been told this for years. I do understand that a district judge signed my document, and I still wonder why that judge did not notice my age of 15 and his age of 21, and my needing a guardian to sign, and take action, that was the first instance of my justice being denied.
I had to deal with the fact that a GROWN MAN took my innocence and because of my minor age, that I would never be legally able to do anything about it.
At the end of 2004, when I was going through an emotional phase, and reliving the painful memories of my past, I look up a website that offered a national number for sexual abuse victims. I talked with a worker who informed me those things like statutory rape had no statue of limitations, and that I should seek justice whenever I had talked it out with one of their counselors. But she said that justice could not be denied to me because time has passed. .
He has been agitating this situation and bringing back past memories and the only way I see myself getting over this is for justice to prevail and for him to have to answer for what he did to me. So though fearfully, I decided to file my first report at the Dunn Police Department about the events that had taken place seven years prior. The officer on duty comforted me and let me know that as I was told when I called the abuse hotline that there was no statue of limitations on this and since it has only been four years and the child that was born should be valid evidence, we filed a police report.
On September 12, 2005. I was informed that because of the length of time since the event occurred the D.A. office was choosing not to file statutory rape charges against him. Also because they said it “seemed” like it was more of revenge issue than the actual event-taking place.
For the above, you will see that this is not why I reported this. This man totaled my life by engaging in sexual activities with me when I was too young to consent to such an act, which is even stated in North Carolina law. He has emergency temporary custody of our minor child, which frightened me because I know to an extent how his mentality operates.
But because of time being passed, the D.A.’s office is basically telling me “It happens.” And “Get over it.”
So what does one tell the man whose wife has been murdered and he is just finding her killer, “Get over it?”
What do you tell the 10 years old that was raped by a 30-year-old man, because he wanted instant gratification? “Get over it?”
What do you tell the now men who were molested by Catholic priests and who now are JUST having the courage to report the things which happened to them. “Get over it?”
A crime against nature, and a felony is just that. No lapse of time will make it go away, or make the situation better. The only solace the victims get, is the fact that the law stands up for them and justice is served; and obviously I am even being denied that, and the only reason the judicial branch of our state can tell me is because too much time has past, and that they “think” its being done out of revenge.
When did it ever become revenge to report a crime that actually took place and there is flesh and blood evidence.
Is the D.A’s office in place to protect the criminals or the victims? Because now a days the answer is not always so clear, and it should never be that way.
Alvetta
7 years ago, I was raped at the age of 14 by a man who was almost twenty. In a nutshell, my constitutional rights have been violated, the D.A are saying that because it has been seven years, too much time has lapsed and they are not going to try the case, evidence was not the issue because as you will read, I have a seven year old child by this man, who he now has temporary custody of(and that alone is frightening).
When I investigated the statue of limitations, I found that there were no limitations on felonies. This included that of statutory rape. N.C.G.S. § 14-27.7A(b), which provides:
A defendant is guilty of a Class C felony if the defendant engages in vaginal intercourse or a sexual act with another person who is 13, 14, or 15 years old and the defendant is more than four but less than six years older than the person, except when the defendant is lawfully married to the person. But I have received some disheartening information that because of length of time, that justice will turn a blind eye to a crime that was committed against me during my youth that caused some major life changes.
My name is Alvetta, I am 23 years old and I was born in Harnett County. I was an honor roll and principal’s list student from since I was a young girl; until around November of 1996.
This is when I met, my statutory rapist who worked at a grocery store Market. My offender was born on in the fall of 1977. The first intimate thing that happened between us is when I saw him my fifth time when I was casually shopping in the store. By this time he knew my age, and my name, and where I went to school. When he was filling up the ice bins in the front of the store, he noticed me and came up and started to engage in kissing all over my face and my mouth. At this point I was somewhat confused at what was going on, but he told me that everything was all right.
He was then commence to have me call him and let him know when I was going to be at the laundry mat right across from the store. When I would go see him after the kiss, he would take me to the back where he would fondle my breast, my buttocks, and my genitalia. This happened on numerous occasions. On many times he would ask me to have sexual intercourse with him, and I wouldn’t because I was scared, and he knew that.
On or around March 13, of 1997, right before my 15th birthday I went to visit him at the same store and he asked me again to have sex with him in the bathroom of the store, I told him again that I was afraid, but he told me that if I truly cared for him, I would do it. He took me to the bathroom and commenced to penetrate me vaginally with his penis. He had me straddle him, performed approximately three painful thrust (because I was a virgin, this was extremely painful for me) and he removed me from his waist and told me he would talk to me soon.
After a month I felt a decline in my health and thought it would be in my best interest to take a pregnancy test. It was positive. I called him and told him that I was pregnant; he said that I should get an abortion, because he could not take care of a baby, and he was scared because of my age and the fact that I was so young. After this attempt. It was extremely hard for me to get in touch with him, or he kept telling me he was busy and would call me back later; he never did.
When a DNA test was requested, when my daughter was 4 months old the result came back just as I had known, that he was the father of my now 7 year old daughter. My father who was then my guardian at the time wanted to get a consent order written up by his attorney so that he would have to pay child support. Because of the trauma that I had been through I was completely oblivious to what I should have did about the situation. Later, however, my father agreed between him, his lawyer and my father’s lawyer about primary custody and visitation. Since I was a minor, I could not sign any legal papers on my own accord. When this took place though I know something wrong had happened to me, he and family told me that there was now nothing I could do about it and have been told this for years. I do understand that a district judge signed my document, and I still wonder why that judge did not notice my age of 15 and his age of 21, and my needing a guardian to sign, and take action, that was the first instance of my justice being denied.
I had to deal with the fact that a GROWN MAN took my innocence and because of my minor age, that I would never be legally able to do anything about it.
At the end of 2004, when I was going through an emotional phase, and reliving the painful memories of my past, I look up a website that offered a national number for sexual abuse victims. I talked with a worker who informed me those things like statutory rape had no statue of limitations, and that I should seek justice whenever I had talked it out with one of their counselors. But she said that justice could not be denied to me because time has passed. .
He has been agitating this situation and bringing back past memories and the only way I see myself getting over this is for justice to prevail and for him to have to answer for what he did to me. So though fearfully, I decided to file my first report at the Dunn Police Department about the events that had taken place seven years prior. The officer on duty comforted me and let me know that as I was told when I called the abuse hotline that there was no statue of limitations on this and since it has only been four years and the child that was born should be valid evidence, we filed a police report.
On September 12, 2005. I was informed that because of the length of time since the event occurred the D.A. office was choosing not to file statutory rape charges against him. Also because they said it “seemed” like it was more of revenge issue than the actual event-taking place.
For the above, you will see that this is not why I reported this. This man totaled my life by engaging in sexual activities with me when I was too young to consent to such an act, which is even stated in North Carolina law. He has emergency temporary custody of our minor child, which frightened me because I know to an extent how his mentality operates.
But because of time being passed, the D.A.’s office is basically telling me “It happens.” And “Get over it.”
So what does one tell the man whose wife has been murdered and he is just finding her killer, “Get over it?”
What do you tell the 10 years old that was raped by a 30-year-old man, because he wanted instant gratification? “Get over it?”
What do you tell the now men who were molested by Catholic priests and who now are JUST having the courage to report the things which happened to them. “Get over it?”
A crime against nature, and a felony is just that. No lapse of time will make it go away, or make the situation better. The only solace the victims get, is the fact that the law stands up for them and justice is served; and obviously I am even being denied that, and the only reason the judicial branch of our state can tell me is because too much time has past, and that they “think” its being done out of revenge.
When did it ever become revenge to report a crime that actually took place and there is flesh and blood evidence.
Is the D.A’s office in place to protect the criminals or the victims? Because now a days the answer is not always so clear, and it should never be that way.
Alvetta