30 years for having sex with teen

Despite what readers might think, the sentenced person is actually a woman:

Denise Harvey, 40, of Vero Beach, was sentenced to 30 years in state prison for having sex with a

16-year-old who was a high school friend and baseball teammate her son’s.

Harvey was silent Thursday as she was fingerprinted and taken away from being sentenced by Circuit Judge Dan Vaughn. Harvey’s private attorney, Robert Meadows, filed an appeal and Vaughn will hold a bail hearing next week. The date wasn’t set.

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Vaughn — at the urging of prosecutors — ruled her guilty of having sex with the 16-year-old five times during high school baseball season in 2006. The judge sentenced her to 15 years for each offense. But only two of the terms will be served consecutively, one after the other. The other three will be served at the same time as the others.

Without knowing more about what occurred I cannot say whether I agree or disagree with the sentence. However, it is good to see that both the prosecutors and the judge took the woman’s abuse of her son’s friend seriously and did not give her the more typical slap on the wrist. Hopefully the sentence will not be reduced based on some arbitrary factor like Harvey being too pretty, too old, too sophisticated or too vulnerable to serve her time.

Again, without knowing all the facts I cannot say if the sentence is fair, however, it is close to the typical sentence 40-year-old who have sex with 16-year-old girls receive.