New York State Police charge 7-year-old boy with rape: reports
03/31/2021 12:03 pm PDT
BRASHER FALLS, N.Y. (TCD) --
A 7-year-old boy in upstate New York has been charged by state police with third-degree rape.
The unidentified 7-year-old was charged by New York State Police on Tuesday, March 23, with felony third-degree rape in connection to a sex-offense complaint from November 25, 2020, according to the Watertown Daily Times. WWNY-TV and NorthCountryNow.com said the incident was reported on Nov. 26, Thanksgiving.
WWNY reports the unidentified 7-year-old boy was taken into custody, then released to his parents last week. The case will reportedly proceed in family court.
No details about the alleged rape were given, but police told WWNY the investigation was ongoing.
"Instinctually, it shouldn’t happen that a 7-year-old -- I don’t think you even could really realize what you’re doing at 7 years old. So I think it’s absurd to charge a 7-year-old with rape. They’d have to prove he actually physically committed this act, which to me it almost seems to be an impossibility,” Anthony Martone, a New York City lawyer who works in youth defense cases, told the station.
WWNY also reports a bill was working its way through the New York state legislature that would increase the minimum age to be charged as a juvenile delinquent from 7 to 12.
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