Man Sentence to Life in Prison for Raping and Impregnating 9-Year-Old Girl

In a case that became a national flashpoint on abortion rights because the girl had to fly out of state to stop the pregnancy, a man confessed to raping and impregnating a 9-year-old Ohio girl and was sentenced to life in prison.

Gerson Fuentes, 28, was sentenced to life in prison, although his plea agreement allows him to seek parole after 25 to 30 years. He would subsequently be required to register as a sexual offender.

Judge Julie Lynch of the Common Pleas Court, who was not compelled to approve the plea arrangement, said the girl’s family “begged” her to do so. Lynch described the agreement as a “very hard pill for this court to swallow.”

“Anyone who has ever sat in this courtroom in the last 20 years knows how this court feels about these babies, these young people being violated,” Lynch said. “However, at the request of the family, this court will sentence without comment today.”

The maximum penalty would have been life in prison without the possibility of release. The survivor will not have to testify in court if the matter is settled before trial.

After the hearing, Fuentes’ attorney, Zachary Olah, told The Columbus Dispatch that his client has been cooperative since the beginning.

“He was anxious to get this resolved,” Olah explained.

According to Franklin County prosecutors, the child, who turned 10 before having the abortion, verified that Fuentes assaulted her, and Fuentes confessed to Columbus police officers. Prosecutors said DNA testing on the aborted foetus proved Fuentes was the father.

Fuentes, who is from Guatemala and was living in Columbus at the time of his arrest, had been held without bond since his arrest. If he is granted parole, he will almost certainly be deported because authorities have stated that they have discovered no evidence that he is lawfully permitted to be in the United States.

Dr. Caitlin Bernard of Indianapolis said a 9-year-old child had to travel to Indiana to terminate a pregnancy because Ohio prohibited the surgery at the first detected foetal heartbeat. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, 25 states have prohibited or restricted abortion, while many of the new laws are still being challenged.

In May, the Indiana Medical Licencing Board voted to censure Bernard, ruling that she breached patient privacy rules when she told a newspaper reporter about the case, even though she did not share directly protected information such as the survivor’s name or address.

The board dismissed allegations made by Indiana’s Republican attorney general that Bernard violated state law by failing to disclose child abuse to Indiana authorities. A plea to suspend the doctor’s medical licence was also denied by the board.

Instead, it penalized Bernard $3,000 for the infractions but did not place any restrictions on her ability to practise medicine. —- The summary of this story has been updated to reflect that Fuentes will be eligible for parole rather than probation.

Child Abuse in the United States

Child sexual abuse is difficult to quantify because it is frequently unreported; experts agree that the frequency is significantly higher than what is reported to authorities. Because CSA is not universally defined, numbers may vary. The statistics below are from some of the research on child sexual abuse.

According to the Children’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ report Child Maltreatment, 9.2% of victimised children were sexually assaulted (page 24).

David Finkelhor, Director of the Crimes Against Children Research Centre, has conducted studies that show:

• 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 20 boys is a victim of child sexual abuse;
• Self-report studies show that 20% of adult females and 5-10% of adult males recall a childhood sexual assault or sexual abuse incident;
• During a one-year period in the U.S., 16% of youth ages 14 to 17 had been sexually victimized;
• Over the course of their lifetime, 28% of U.S. youth ages 14 to 17 had been sexually victimized;
• Children are most vulnerable to CSA between the ages of 7 and 13.

According to a National Institute of Justice research, three out of every four sexually attacked adolescents were victimized by someone they knew well (page 5). According to a Bureau of Justice Statistics report, 1.6% (sixteen out of one thousand) of youngsters aged 12 to 17 were victims of rape or sexual assault (page 18).

A 1986 study discovered that 63% of women who had experienced sexual abuse by a family member also reported a rape or attempted rape after the age of 14. Recent investigations  reached similar conclusions.

Children who had been raped or tried raped as adolescents were 13.7 times more likely to be raped or attempted raped in their first year of college.

A youngster who has been sexually abused for an extended period of time is likely to develop low self-esteem, a sense of worthlessness, and an abnormal or distorted view of sex. The child may withdraw and become distrustful of adults, as well as suicidal.

Children who do not live with both parents, as well as those who live in households marked by parental disagreement, divorce, or domestic violence, are more likely to be sexually molested.

Only between 5 and 15% of children with genital injuries compatible with sexual abuse will have genital injuries in the vast majority of situations when there is convincing evidence that a child has been penetrated.

Child sexual abuse does not have to be physical contact; it can also include non-contact abuse such as exposure, voyeurism, and child pornography.

According to a study published online and in the June print issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, young males who were sexually abused were five times more likely to cause teen pregnancy, three times more likely to have multiple sexual partners, and two times more likely to have unprotected sex than those who had no history of sexual abuse.

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