Should a famous football player be punished for paying to have sex with an underage minor? Definitely, yes. But just how severe should his sentence be?
Lawrence Taylor, NFL Hall of Fame linebacker, was sentenced on March 23 to six years of probation for having sex with a 16 year old identified only as “C.F.” Taylor is also required to register as a sex offender. But, the girl, now 17, appeared at the sentencing and expressed her feelings that Taylor should have been sentenced to prison time, not merely probation.
Taylor pled guilty arguing that he did pay $300 to have sex with the girl, but claimed he was unaware of her age. According to Taylor, the girl told him she was 19.
“I asked her age. She told me she was 19. It is what it is,” Taylor told Fox News in an interview after the sentencing. “You can only ask. I don’t card them,” he also said.
The girl, however, denies being a prostitute and claims that her meeting with Taylor was set up by an abusive man named “Rasheed.” She said Taylor should have noticed how young she was and that she was being abused.
How was Taylor to know that the girl wasn’t really 19, but instead underage? Of course, Taylor, a married man, should not have been soliciting a prostitute in the first place. But he wasn’t tried for soliciting a prostitute. Taylor was originally indicted for third degree rape but the charges were lowered to sexual misconduct with a minor. Why should he be forced to serve jail time, as the girl claims, when he was apparently unaware of her age and the crime was not a rape?
It seems more that the girl should have been aware of the consequences of her own illegality (prostitution) and should not be trying to further profit from her client. Taylor’s agent believes the girl may soon file a civil suit.
The court’s sentence for Taylor was fair. Six years of probation may seem light, but when paired with a mandatory sex offender registration (which remains on the offender’s permanent record), the penalty seems heavy enough to deter Taylor from continuing his solicitation of prostitutes but not so severe that girl’s behavior as a prostitute was condoned.
