Missouri Misery

Here’s yet another story from March of 2009 about consenting adults being prosecuted for having sex. I guess there must have been something going on that month among prosecutors.

Washington County Prosecuting Attorney John Rupp has charged a man and woman for having sex with each other.

I’m glad the reporter worded it that way. Kudos to Teresa Ressel.

According to the charge filed in Associate Circuit Court this week, the man and woman are father and daughter and they have a child together.

So what?

William Isgriggs, 46, and Kerri R. Isgriggs, 25, both of a Steelville address, have been charged with incest. Kerri Isgriggs has also been charged with second-degree assault.

The incest charges allege that the two engaged in a sexual relationship, knowing they were daughter and father. The relationship resulted in the birth of a child.

The assault charge alleges Kerri Isgriggs caused serious injury to a child by throwing the child from a standing position onto a wooden framed toddler bed. The impact caused the child to fracture a leg.

Can you spot the real crime? Yes, that’s right, assaulting a child. That should bring the law down on someone, not sex.

The criminal case and the article should have been entirely about child abuse. Whether or not consenting adults are having sex with each other should not be the business of prosecutors.