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Bill O'Rights · 07-27-2005, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Nebraska charges man for having sex with 14-year-old wife

LINCOLN - Matthew Koso thought he had done the responsible thing by marrying his girlfriend after getting her pregnant, according to his attorney.

It didn't stop Attorney General Jon Bruning from filing first-degree sexual assault charges against the 22-year-old Falls City man.

The charges are based on Koso's sexual relationship with the 13-year-old girl he later wed.

"They are married, but it doesn't matter to our effort to file charges," Bruning said. "I will not stand idly by while a grown man engages in a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old child."

Koso was charged under a law that makes it a crime for anyone age 19 or older to have sex with anyone age 15 or younger. The penalty ranges from 1 year to 50 years in prison.

Koso was 21 at the time of the alleged offense. The girl, who was 13 at the time, has since turned 14.

But Koso's attorney, Willis Yoesel of Falls City, called the charges "silly" and unwarranted.

"What is the objective of the prosecution?" he asked. "It's not going to benefit her. It's not going to benefit their child, it's not going to benefit anyone."

Yoesel acknowledged that Koso did the wrong thing by having sex with a 13-year-old. But he said the young man stepped up and took responsibility when she became pregnant.

The two talked with their parents, as well with Yoesel and the judge in Hiawatha, Kan., who wound up marrying them May 2.

Kansas law allows people under age 18 to marry with the consent of their parents. The statute sets no minimum age, but case law has established 12 as the minimum.

Bruning criticized that law.

But Yoesel said Bruning acted without knowing the couple involved or the specifics of the case.

"Not only was he (Koso) not a predator, he had no prior sexual experience," the attorney said. "The problem is we have two young adults, both with limited capacity. . . . (They and their parents) decided this was the best thing they could do."

Yoesel said Koso, a former special education student, has a job at AirLanco, a local manufacturing firm. The girl, who is in special education, finished eighth grade this year and is expected to be back in school this fall, after the expected August birth of their child.

The two live with his parents but hope to get their own place soon.

A woman who answered the phone at the Koso home referred calls to Yoesel.

Bruning said his office learned about the situation from Falls City residents "who were sickened by it. Everybody in town knew this 14-year-old was in a sexual relationship with a 22-year-old."

Koso was released Monday on bail. A preliminary hearing was set for Aug. 17 in Richardson County Court.

Bruning said he will act on any case of adult men having sex with underage girls that is brought to his attention.

Earlier this year, his office filed sexual assault charges against a former deputy Cheyenne County attorney. Greg Lauby, 57, pleaded guilty last month to having sex with a 13-year-old Colorado girl whom he met on a telephone chat line.

Lancaster County attorneys charged two Iraqi men in 1997 with first-degree sexual assault based on having sexual relations with the 13- and 14-year-old girls they had married. They pleaded guilty and were sentenced to two to six years in prison.

"This is important," Bruning said. "This is about how we treat our children. These kids have a problem that they're going to have to live with for the rest of their lives."

OK...so, hurray...he married her. It's still statutory rape, is it not? One thing that I noticed is that there is not much said of the parents that gave their consent for their daughter to trapse across the border, to Kansas, in order to take advantage of a legal quirk in their law. It sounds to me as though the "kids" aren't the only ones suffering from "limited capacity".