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will always be an Alyson Hanniganite
Location: In the dust of the archives
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To add a little more to the background...
Quote:
Mothers tried to keep man and girl, 13, apart
FALLS CITY, Neb. - Matthew Koso's mother warned him about prison, pregnancy and the other possible consequences of dating a 13-year-old girl.
The girl's mother says she tried everything she could think of - even a protection order - to keep her daughter away from the 21-year-old family friend.
Nothing worked.
Thursday, the women sat together in the Kosos' photo-lined living room to defend themselves and their children against a prying world.
"Both (the girl) and Matt are very strong-minded," said Peggy Koso. "When you take two young people who love each other . . . ."
"I've tried anything a mother would do, but I can only do so much," added Cecilia Guyer.
Koso and Guyer have shared a bond since the children got married - Matthew in jeans and a polo shirt, the girl wearing a red Huskers top - in Hiawatha, Kan., in May.
They are looking forward to the late August birth of a grandchild, who will be named either Samarra Ann or Dalton Bryce.
The women share another bond now that Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning has filed first-degree sexual assault charges against Matthew based on his relationship with Guyer's daughter.
Nebraska law makes it a crime for people age 19 and older to have sex with people age 15 and younger. Matthew Koso is 22 now. The girl is 14.
Bruning said the law makes no exceptions for people who are married.
"I will not stand idly by while a grown man engages in a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old child," he said.
Mary Larsen, director of the Omaha YWCA's Women Against Violence program, supports the charges. Nebraska law was designed to protect children because they do not have as much knowledge and education about the world, she said.
"Because of the huge age difference, there's something of concern going on here," she said. "When you have sex with somebody who's underage, that's rape."
Peggy Koso said people are judging her son and his bride without knowing them. If people knew them, they would realize the two are good together, that they have fun together, she said.
"The kids love each other and they want to be together and they want people to leave them alone," she said. "They want to be married; they want to be a family."
Guyer said Matthew Koso and her daughter have known each other for several years. Matthew often drove a relative to Kansas to visit the family. Later, he helped Guyer and her daughters move back to Falls City.
"They've been friends for a long time," Peggy Koso said.
The mothers first realized the relationship had moved beyond friendship last fall. "I was frantic because (my daughter) always made a promise to me it wouldn't happen until she graduated from high school," Guyer said.
She obtained a protection order against Matthew Koso, saying in an affidavit that he "needs to hang around girls and boys his own age group" and that "he is too old for early teens."
Guyer said she didn't realize for some time that the two were sneaking around to see each other.
Peggy Koso said she thought the order had been dismissed when the girl accompanied them on an out-of-town trip at Thanksgiving. It was not dismissed until May 5, after the couple were married.
"Quite honestly, can you tell me any parent who knows where their children are all the time?" Koso asked.
Guyer said she learned to accept the situation when it became clear the relationship was continuing. She said she tried to convince her daughter to use birth control. By then it was too late. In April, when Guyer took her daughter to buy a dress for an eighth-grade dance, she realized the girl was pregnant.
The couple were married a couple of weeks later.
It's not the ideal situation, both mothers agreed. But they said they don't see the sense in criminal charges either, which could send Matthew Koso to prison for up to 50 years and force his wife onto welfare.
Matthew Koso is a former special education student and has a job at a local manufacturing firm, according to his attorney. The girl, who is in special education, is expected to be back in school this fall.
"We're just being supportive parents," Guyer said. "They deserve this chance to prove themselves."
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__________________
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony
"Hedonism with rules isn't hedonism at all, it's the Republican party." - JumpinJesus
It is indisputable that true beauty lies within...but a nice rack sure doesn't hurt.
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