The Constitution Club

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DFV the Scribe

with 3 comments

Damien Veatch (the Scribe) is a lawyer and a teacher in Denver. He is currently teaching middle school English and loving it. ConClub was once described by Andre the Defiant as “Four conservatives, two liberals, and a strange, in-between writer called DFV,” a description DFV doesn’t dispute.

Written by Dave the Sage

March 12, 2007 at 6:46 pm

3 Responses

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  1. DFV the Scribe
    Kevin’s sister Kim brought your blog’s discussion of my son’s Kevin’s case and incarceration to my attention and while I am far more interested in the larger legal issues his case represents, I want to clear up some factual points that are in error raised by the several contributors. (As a caveat, these facts in no way are stated as an excuse or rationale for his situation)

    1. Kevin was 31 in 2001 when the relationship began with his 17 year old student, a senior at the time at DRHS. She was a college student at CU in 2004 when she told her therapist that she had lied to her therapist about being 18 when she had the relationship with her teacher – that she was actually 17. (Can be verified by court transcripts). The therapist gave her the option of his reporting it to the school district or going to the police. She chose the police.

    2. The crux of the case (verified by opening arguments by both prosecutor Jensen and defense attorney Truman) was the affirmative defense that Kevin did not know that she was 17. This affirmative defense piece of legislation (since stricken from the statutes by the prosecutors’ lobby) stated that it was the jury’s job to determine the reasonableness of Kevin’s belief that she was 18. There were 10 counts – the jury ruled 1 not guilty, 8 hung, and 1 count guilty.

    3. The pattern (responsible for the indeterminate sentence) had nothing to do with the two other students – they were 18 – no crime. Instead, it had to do with the one guilty count that had a 3 month time span during which Kevin admitted to having multiple sexual acts with the 17 year old.

    Believe me, Kevin is paying dearly for his bad decisions, emotionally, physically, mentally. We, his family, believe that what he did was wrong and that he should never teach again but we also believe a 11 years to life sentence is overkill. We have had our eyes opened to the way legislation sometimes has unintended consequences and the lifetime supervison act of 1998 is one of those. It was intended to protect society from those who would molest young children and serial rapists and that it does but it has also cast a wide net to include those like Kevin and others sharing his prison like Bradley (not the poster) who at a frat party had sex with one of the girls who came in a group and whose parents later had him arrested because the girl was a high school sophomore. He plea bargained a determinate sentence because of the fear of an indeterminate sentence. Changing sex offender laws is difficult because no politician wants to sign his/her name to a bill that will go easier on sex offenders. So, it is a hard one to deal with.

    I appreciate your reasoned approach to the larger issues like age of consent, when is a child a child and not an adult (note how many 17 year olds are charged as an adult when they’re involved as the perpatrator). So, keep raising the bigger questions and calling character assasination when posters resort to name calling.

    Thank you for listening.

    bobbiejean

    August 28, 2008 at 11:48 am

    Reply

  2. Mom, I was actually about to type the same things about the factual errors in this discussion when I caught your post. You said it better than I could.
    I guess we need to remember that many people do not have the same access to court records or they didn’t sit through the trial to hear all the testimony… nor do they live the life we live without Kevin each day. Most can only go on what the media chooses to report and we know how skewed that can be at times. It has to fit a time slot or space in the newspaper. It is difficult to tell the whole story when you only have so many characters or minutes.
    Like you, I do appreciate the discussion about age of consent and legislation as well as the support we have received during this whole situation.
    Thanks Conclubbers for keeping the discussion alive.

    Kim

    August 28, 2008 at 12:58 pm

    Reply

  3. Dam- What’s up? Did you get my email? I feel like I am stalking you!!! Please email me or call!!!! It has been forever. Love ya, Jana

    Jana

    March 20, 2009 at 11:11 pm

    Reply

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