Mountains And Molehills

Prosecutorial discretion be damned. Why have all that power if you're just going to let it sit around?

Two seventh-grade boys facing criminal charges for swatting girls' bottoms have received at least 250 letters and more than $15,000 in donations to a legal defense fund, part of a national outpouring of support over the past two weeks.

Many of the letter writers and donors are critical of Yamhill County District Attorney Bradley Berry, whose office initially brought felony sex abuse charges against Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison in February.

As the money for the boys' defense poured in, so have four complaints to the Oregon Bar Association accusing Bradley of overzealous prosecution. An attorney for two of the five alleged victims in the bottom-slapping case said last week his clients do not want the boys to be criminally prosecuted.

"We never instituted this thing, and our position has always been this should have been handled internally by the school," said attorney William Brandt. He said he decided to go on record about criminal charges now because the Aug. 20 trial date is approaching.

"Now is the appropriate time for us to weigh in," Brandt said.

Brandt notified the McMinnville School District in the spring that he intends to sue officials at Patton Middle School, claiming they failed to protect his clients from "assault and battery in the form of sexual touching." District officials, who suspended the boys, say they acted swiftly after a teacher's aide noticed the behavior.

Neither Berry nor his deputy, Debra Markham, who is prosecuting the case, could be reached for comment. The boys each face five counts of misdemeanor sexual abuse and five counts of harassment in a case that drew national attention after a story two weeks ago in The Oregonian newspaper in Portland.

Cornelison and Mashburn, both 13, were originally charged with felony sexual abuse after declaring "slap-butt day" at Patton and swatting several girls in a school hallway in February. Police reports obtained by the Oregonian showed that other students — including some girls — also had admitted to swatting one another.

Since the story spread on the Internet and other media, a flood of checks — $10, $20 and even $500 — has streamed into a legal defense fund from sympathizers in Florida, California, Pennsylvania, Texas, Minnesota and Colorado.

The boys said they are stunned by the outpouring of support.

"It makes me feel a lot better because the DA is trying to tell us we're sexual predators and all that," said Mashburn, who, along with Cornelison, is writing thank-you notes to everyone who has contacted them. "I think it's crazy this many people are supporting us."

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the Oregon State Bar said a preliminary inquiry is under way in response to four complaints against Berry, including one that also names Markham.

Mashburn and Cornelison spent five days in juvenile hall after being arrested at the middle school.

The school district suspended the boys for five days. If convicted of the criminal charges, they face as much as 10 years in juvenile detention and a lifetime on the sex offender registry.

This video is heartbreaking.

The hiring package for District Attorney and Assistant D. A. really should include some sort of psychological testing. Maybe these people's lack of common sense and willingness to completely ruin a couple of little kids lives over nonsense would have been picked up on beforehand.