LEGAL Case of rapist seeking visitation of child he fathered during assault reaches high court

[Dennis Olson]

Case of rapist seeking visitation of child he fathered during assault reaches high court

Published October 29, 2012

| FoxNews.com

The case of a Massachusetts man seeking visitation rights to the child he fathered after raping a 14-year-old girl has landed in front of the state’s highest court, MyFoxBoston.com reports.

The girl was 14 when she was impregnated by then-20-year-old Jamie Melendez, who pleaded guilty last year to four counts of statutory rape of a child.

The teen victim is arguing that she should not have to face potentially years of family court battles with the man who violated her, according to My Fox Boston.

According to the site, the youth's attorney, Wendy Murphy, argued before Supreme Judicial Court Justice Margot Botsford that the lower court judge, Superior Court Judge Thomas McGuire, essentially forced her client into a relationship with her rapist by sentencing Melendez into Probate and Family Court.

Melendez has asked a family court judge for visitation rights.

Murphy wants the sentence revised so that Melendez must pay restitution instead of child support so her client can avoid what could be years of family court hearings about various child support and visitation matters.

The next step is up to Justice Botsford. She could issue her own ruling, or refer the case to the full SJC.

A hearing to decide if the rapist gets visitation rights is set for Nov. 6 in family court, so it's expected Botsford will make a decision before then.


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[plantman]

Oh this is rich. Look for vigilante survivors of child abuse to give the judge a piece of their mind if this guy gets visitation. This is one case where even applying for visitation should be considered total contempt of court.

 

[ShadowMan]

....and this scum is wasting oxygen why???

 

[imaginative]

I am all for visitation rights in this case....if the victim has brothers, cousins and a father.

 

[Troke]

Girl went to the wrong school. There are now schools that give birth control shots to girls starting at the age of 13, in England and they don't bother asking Mommy and Daddy for permission.

 

[LightEcho]

Rape my daughter and get visitation rights.... and I will see that you visit a shallow grave.

If the judge thinks this guy has any rights as the fruit of his crime, the judge needs to be named a co-conspirator after the fact.

 

[ar10shooter]

This is sickening. Believe me it is all about control with this asshole. He victimized her once, and now is trying to do it again. He should have had is balls cut off for the rape and then his penis cut off if asking for visitation. This makes me sick. Just another case of the monster wining about his rights when he could care less about anyone else's rights.

 

[NateUSA]

It is Rape because the girl was underage. This was at one time her boyfriend and she willingly spread her legs multiple times. She was not old enough to give legal consent, but she did consent. She choose not to abort the baby and i think that is good. She then is suing for child support. If he has to pay it, he has every right to see his child.

 

[Hognutz]

This is a perfect example of why we need to go back to community justice. It was like that around here for hundreds of years. If someone in the community was assaulted, murdered, etc. The locals would have their own trial , pass judgement, and if found guilty was promptly hung on the hanging tree.

I drive right by that old tree everyday on the way to work, as it still stands. It makes me think everytime how times have changed and not always for the better.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

It is Rape because the girl was underage. This was at one time her boyfriend and she willingly spread her legs multiple times. She was not old enough to give legal consent, but she did consent. She choose not to abort the baby and i think that is good. She then is suing for child support. If he has to pay it, he has every right to see his child.

Actually, from the facts as reported, this is not true. Unless you know the people involved and know first hand the facts, or had access to his testimony, it seems like this was not a girlfriend/boyfriend relationship at all.


http://abcnews.go.com/US/massachusetts-rapist-seeks-visitation-victims-child/story?id=17349095
(fair use applies)


Rapist Wants Visitation Rights With Child Conceived During Rape
By COLLEEN CURRY
Sept. 29, 2012


A convicted rapist in Massachusetts is trying to win visitation rights to the child fathered when he raped a 14-year-old girl.

Jamie Melendez, now 24, was convicted of raping a middle school student he met when he was 17 and a foster child involved with a church youth group in Norfolk, Mass. According to the victim's attorney, Melendez went to the girl's house when he knew her mother would not be home and pressured her to have sex with him. She said she felt threatened and intimidated by Melendez.

Melendez pleaded guilty to the rape in 2011 and was sentenced to 16 years probation. Judge Thomas McGuire, who oversaw the criminal case against Melendez, remanded the case to Family Court in the Spring where Melendez was ordered to pay $110 a week in child support to the victim.

Now, Melendez has filed a petition in Family Court arguing that if he is forced to pay child support, he should have the right of visitation, a situation the victim's attorney says would be outrageously unjust.

"Once I learned that the judge ordered a rapist to go off to Family Court and pay child support, which is pretty outrageous - in a sense it decriminalizes the behavior, or frames it other than a serious crime - I got on board and filed a motion to reverse the judge's order," said Wendy Murphy, a criminal attorney and academic at the New England School of Law.

"My client is very worried she'll have to send her daughter off to this man she doesn't know, and tell her she'll be going off on visits with the man who raped her mother and created her. We're fiercely fighting against concept of even being in Family Court," Murphy said.

In August, Murphy filed a motion with the judge asking him to reverse his decision and to send Melendez to Criminal Court and ask him to pay restitution fees equaling the amount of child support he would owe in Family Court. Melendez would have no parental rights if he were sent to Criminal Court for restitution, she said.

"She wants nothing to do with this guy," Murphy said. "She doesn't want a 16 year relationship with him. He can request visitation, he can have potential involvement in the child's education, have access to the child, control where (the victim) lives. We don't want this in Family Court."

McGuire has not issued a ruling.

Melendez's attorney, public defender Larry Tipton, did not return calls for comment on the case. Neither did Judge Thomas McGuire.

Murphy is also asking the Massachusetts Supreme Court to rule on whether criminal courts can send rapists to Family Court at all in Massachusetts.

"Can a Criminal Court judge create a Family Court litigation out of rape? Does he have the power to do that?" Murphy said to ABC News.

The state's high court is now considering taking on the case, she said.

 

[mzkitty]

He should pay child support period. He has no rights.

If you steal a diamond ring, say, do you expect to visit it when you get out of prison?

He STOLE from her.

Sheesh!!

 

[NateUSA]

Actually, from the facts as reported, this is not true. Unless you know the people involved and know first hand the facts, or had access to his testimony, it seems like this was not a girlfriend/boyfriend relationship at all.

Nope missed that info in other stories i had read. This does change my opinion.

 

[willowlady]

This is a very common misconception regarding the law:

If he has to pay it [child support], he has every right to see his child.

WRONG

Visitation and support issues are totally separate and distinct under the law. You are not allowed to buy the rights and obligations of a parent vis a vis child support payments under the law. This creep should have to pay child support and NOT be allowed to see the child. Because he exerted the animal function of procreation in a criminal act, he should be obligated to support the child; in no way does that make him a fit parent. Again, visitation and parenting are completely separate issues under the law. There are two separate Acts that deal with 1) Custody and Jurisdiction, and 2) Support.

 

[Richard]

presume this will be chucked out

 

[ShadowMan]

Never presume anything in this day and age. However the resolution of this problem is very simple.....

He fathered the child....he pays child support (50% of his take home pay) for her until she reaches adulthood. If the court so finds he also could be forced to pay for her college as well.

He raped the mother....he forfeits any and all rights of visitation, contact and anything else with the mother, daughter or anyone else their family. He should be forced to wear an unremovable ankle bracelet that will notify the mother and the local police if this clown gets within fifty miles of either her or her daughter. If he violates that restraining order....hang the bastard!! Oh and if this clown tries to remove the ankle bracelet....hmmmm......have it blow off his leg...yeah, that would be righteous.

Now that is justice.

 

[bw]

Actually, from the facts as reported, this is not true. Unless you know the people involved and know first hand the facts, or had access to his testimony, it seems like this was not a girlfriend/boyfriend relationship at all.

Or perhaps it WAS a girlfriend/boyfriend relationship, and to preserve the girl's reputation (as they see it) the parents are characterizing it as stranger-rape. The girl is not in control of how it's pleaded in court; she's a juvenile and under the control of her parents.

Too many layers here for an outsider to say what happened. It may well have been young lovers and outraged parents. It may have been a rape and a manipulative and sadistic rapist.

But everyone seems to have their mind made up.

 

[bw]

Because he exerted the animal function of procreation in a criminal act, he should be obligated to support the child; in no way does that make him a fit parent.

She's 14 or 15. She's not automatically a fit parent either, willing in the act or not. But here's a child, and someone has to raise it.

 

[Siskiyoumom]

BW, God protect your daughter from a predatory male teen. Sadly the few girls who cry rape who were not raped set the stage for those who were in a very bad light.
Actually the girl is protected by the juvenile justice system that in turn prosecutes the man who forced her four time to have sex. The teen pleaded guilty to all the counts of rape. He was sentenced to sixteen years of probation. Not a light sentence. I wonder how many other young girls he has raped. He was a foster child who was part of a church youth group. He took advantage of knowing when the young girl's Mom was not at home. He will be forever marked as a pediphile/rapist. He does not want to pay for his crime. God protect the child and the teen mom.

 

[willowlady]

sixteen years of probation.

!??!

No actual jail time? He'll do it again. Indeed, God protect the child and the mom, because the "system" clearly wont.