Golden, Colo. - An 11-year-old boy accused of fondling his 5-year-old sister is at the center of an international debate over when childhood play crosses the line and becomes a criminal act.
The boy, who has dual Swiss-American citizenship and is known by his first name, Raoul, was placed in juvenile detention after his Aug. 30 arrest at his family's home in Evergreen.
A neighbor had reported seeing him fondling his sister. According to court documents, the girl also told case workers of other incidents in which the boy molested her.
Prosecutors have charged the boy in juvenile court with incest, and a judge ruled Tuesday that the case can proceed, although she released him into foster care. If convicted, Raoul could be forced to spend two years in a juvenile institution or placed under home supervision.
The case has prompted angry headlines in Switzerland, where the mass-circulation newspaper Blick has campaigned for his immediate release and gathered nearly 9,000 petition signatures.
"Ten years ago, a harmless play of `doctor' was considered quite normal. But today, the prosecutors label it a crime of violence,'' Blick said Monday in an editorial. "Ten- and 11-year-old children are imprisoned because prudish and unrealistic lawyers want it that way.''
At Tuesday's hearing at the Jefferson County court, the slight, blond boy sat down beside his attorney, scribbling on a piece of paper. Several reporters from Switzerland were in attendance.
Outside, about a dozen Swiss-Americans gathered to protest.
"In Switzerland if something like this were to happen, someone would talk to the parents and would say `let's sit down and discuss this,''' Hanspeter Spuhler said. "But to make a federal case out of it, this is just unbelievable.''
The boy's great-aunt, Linda Campos, agreed, saying Raoul should be "taken somewhere where he can be loved and taken care of and be with a family member,'' she said. "What I feel is that he is the victim now.''
The boy's mother and stepfather have fled to Switzerland with their three daughters — aged 12, 5 and 3 — and have been quoted in Swiss media as saying they will get the boy back there, too, "as quickly as possible'' if he is released.
Raoul's mother said the boy was taken from his bed when he was arrested, and held in handcuffs in the patrol car. He has appeared in court in cuffs and shackles that bonded him to other juvenile offenders.
Local and U.S. officials say the boy is being treated appropriately and stress the court proceedings are designed not to punish him but to help him.
Howard Davidson, the director of the American Bar Association's Center on Children and the Law, said people in Switzerland "may regret the idea that an 11-year-old can be locked up, and some in the U.S. do, too.''
"But courts need to take cases of alleged juvenile sex offenders very seriously, because this is a time when we probably do the most good in terms of treatment intervention,'' he said.
A neighbor, Laura Mehmert, told social service workers that she saw the boy pull his 5-year-old sister's pants down while the two children were playing outdoors. When Ms. Mehmert approached the children, she said, Raoul said he was helping his sister remove something in her pants.
An affidavit filed in court said the complaint was one of several against the boy in recent months. In June, the girl told a caseworker that her brother pulled down her pants and underwear and kissed her vagina, according to the affidavit.
The girl also told caseworkers that the boy had touched her vagina while she was going to the bathroom.
October 19, 1999
Click Here to Visit our Sponsor