Better Late Than Never

You know the old addage, better late than never? Well, that's about all I can say for myself. I've fallen off the face of the earth and have gotten so far behind on my posting that I am now reporting on events that took place weeks ago. But, it's better late than never, right? And with a topic like this, I don't know that it really matter how late - I mean, I will likely have the next 2-4 years to talk about LT's little incident.

Of course, I am refering to the original LT, Lawrence Taylor (aka Shark Lavay). The Hall of Fame linebacker was charged with 3rd degree rape (unlawful sexual conduct with a femal who is under the age of consent - a felony), as well as patronizing a prostitute back on Thursday, May 6th. If Shark is found guilty, he will be facing a maximum of four years in New York state prison (not quite a federal, pound me in the ass prison, but damn close).

But I'm not really here to discuss whether or not the guy is guilty. I won't even get into the fact that he is being charged because a PROSTITUTE alleged it happened or that her PIMP is supporting the claims. I won't discuss that there is absolutely zero evidence that she was actually in his room, other than her (and her pimp's) word. I don't want to bring up the fact that it's not a crime to be in a room with an underage girl and that there is no evidence (like, oh I dunno, a condom or semen, you know, the typical things you look for when arresting people) that they actually had sex. All I want to talk about is how crazy it is that this is actually a crime.

Whoa, whoa, don't start bashing me just yet. I mean, i get it: 51 year old dude has sex with 16 year old girl = bad. But, how the hell is a guy supposed to know how old a girl is? LT paid for a hooker! Sure, that in and of itself is a crime. But, do you expect the man to be checking i.d. at the door? And even if he does, the girl can easily give him a fake or someone else's. But guess what, doesn't even matter. The chick could give him an i.d. that says shes 18, when in fact her 18th birthday is in 2 days, if he is even, say 25, he could go to jail for FOUR years. It's ludacris!

The part that really blows my mind is that, despite the charges against LT, there are no pending charges against the prostitute (to my knowledge), despite the fact that the entire basis for the case against Taylor is that she committed a crime!  I just don't get it.  If the case is to hold up in court, I believe there should be additional charges against the accuser.  I understand she is a minor, but minors a charged with crimes all the time (see my junior and senior years of high school as evidence - note, I was NOT a prostitute at the time).  Further, if  there is no evidence the two actually had sex, the entire allegation goes out the window.  At the moment, the contrary is the case.  A 22 year old woman who claims to have accompanied the accuser and her pimp to Taylor's room, claims that after leaving the room, the accuser handed over $300 and said, "it was weird, we didn't even have sex."  Hmmmm, sounds like a pretty viscious crime. 

Again, I am not condoning what LT did.  I don't think it's ok to go out and hire a prostitute and I don't think it's right to have sex with an underage girl.  But I also don't think it's right that a man can go to jail for four years and register as a sex offender simply because some older-looking girl lied to him.  I don't think it's right that if a guy hires a prostitute, he gets arrested, while she stands to gain financially (without any punishment) for turning him in.  But what the hell do I know?  What do you think?  Should he be in jail, or is this case completely meritless?  Love to know if anyone agrees with me.