Teen Plays Football Team Prank, 70 Criminal Charges Ensue (Update)

May 5, 2016 (Mimesis Law) — There isn’t much dispute over whether Hunter Osborn’s decision to partially expose his genitals during a Red Mountain High School football team photo was anything but a stupid teenage prank. The biggest dispute in Hunter’s home town of Mesa, Arizona are the seventy criminal charges he faces as result of his juvenile antics.

The team photo, showing a brief glimpse of part of Osborn’s penis, made its way into the school yearbook and Red Mountain High School football programs. It’s now landed Osborn in court, with questionable charges and public outrage over one more step in criminalizing silly teenage behavior.

Police said Osborn is facing 69 counts of indecent exposure in accordance with the number of students and staff who were present when the picture was taken. He was also charged with one count of furnishing harmful items to minors.

Indecent exposure in Arizona does involve the exposure of one’s genitals according to the Arizona statute. Osborn’s publicly admitted to flashing his penis during the photo, which isn’t the smartest move legally. You can’t expect teens to know the laws regarding “illicit” photos, though. That’s a truism repeatedly demonstrated across the country through numerous “sexting” cases.

The questionable element of the charges isn’t just the volume. There’s serious legal and logical gymnastics in play when a photo garners a 19-year-old 70 criminal charges. One wonders if this is a case where prosecutors piled on enough charges to see if Hunter and his family will take the “easy” route and grab a plea deal. The prospect of reducing sixty-nine misdemeanors to one charge sounds appealing to the layperson. Adding on a questionable felony, though, makes the situation thoroughly stink.

That questionable felony, “furnishing harmful items to minors,” is head-scratching at best. From the language of the statute, it’s hard to present a credible argument how Hunter Osborn’s participation in a prank constitutes recklessly furnishing, presenting, providing, making available, giving, lending, showing, advertising or distributing the photo disseminated in Red Mountain High School’s yearbooks or football programs. The reasonable “culprit,” if any exist, would be those who failed to notice the “inappropriate content” and allowed publication of over three thousand yearbooks and countless football programs. The school can’t accept responsibility for that conduct, though. It’s “reprehensible,” which mandates issuing a statement and starting an “internal probe.”

The district is dismayed by the actions of the students involved in the photograph. Their behavior does not reflect the values of Red Mountain High School or Mesa Public Schools….The school and district are conducting an investigation to determine what actions might have prevented the publication of the photograph, so appropriate safeguards can be put in place going forward.

Mesa public schools may not support Hunter Osborn, but the public apparently does. A change.org petition pleads with prosecutors to look closely at the teacher who oversaw the yearbook’s publication. Yet another, called “Free Hunter Osborn,” asks Red Mountain High School officials to issue an apology for taking this to police instead of privately disciplining Hunter. There’s even a creative hashtag, “#FreeHunter,” championing Osborn’s cause on Twitter. All the public support is great for morale. None of it, unfortunately, changes Osborn’s suffering or the potential consequences of prosecution. That suffering, and the potential consequences, are the take away points worth considering when examining Hunter Osborn’s misfortunes.

Those consequences include Hunter’s arrest, publication of his name in countless news outlets, attorney fees, court costs and potential time with a probation officer. If Hunter pleads or loses his case, he’ll step foot on a college campus with a criminal record. That’s assuming a university decides to admit sex offender, even if it’s just someone with an “indecent exposure” charge. With the current hysteria of “rape culture” on college campuses, if Hunter is admitted he’ll be branded a “serial rapist” before his first college class. An Arizona editorial penned by E.J Montini recognizes the difficulties this situation presents, and acknowledges this absurdity.

[We] all know high school boys are asinine and short-sighted. Legally, Osborn’s an adult, but none of us is so old that we’ve forgotten what dopes we were at his age. Still, it doesn’t excuse his behavior and whatever consequences Osborn suffers – no matter how severe or life-altering – they are his own stupid fault. Second, the consequences he’s facing actually are too severe and life-altering. And that’s our stupid fault. We need to slow down and think this through.

No one slowed down and thought through the significant of piling seventy criminal charges on Hunter Osborn over a stupid high school football prank. It was easier to contact police, let them handle the situation, and then maybe consider the consequences after the fact. This isn’t a revelation to those who’ve worked in or taken part in the juvenile justice world. That the general public has taken this long to realize criminalizing every thoughtless childhood action is a product of secrecy, deference to law enforcement authority and continually escalating “zero tolerance” policies bordering on insanity. That deference, instead of disciplining Hunter Osborn in-house and reacting sensibly, is the new normal. Changing it requires a shift in public perception that will take time and continued reminders that treating a classroom like a cop’s beat carries “adverse reactions” for children.

Red Mountain High School could have just as easily disciplined Hunter Osborn without wasting further taxpayer dollars or subjecting Osborn to criminal charges. They didn’t, and now the new normal of childhood criminalization continues its perpetual cycle. Montini outlines the absurdity of these practices with two notable lines in his editorial, reflecting the injustice with the twenty-twenty vision hindsight offers.

What this kid did was indecent.

His punishment should not be obscene.

Update: Cooler heads prevailed in Mesa, Arizona. Hunter Osborn, as of yesterday, faces no criminal charges. Mesa police closed their case once the sixty-nine “victims” declined to press charges for “indecent exposure.” Maricopa County’s District Attorney’s office announced yesterday Osborn won’t stand trial for the felony charge either. It’s a far better end to Hunter’s story than it could have been, but it doesn’t excuse the prickish behavior of all the “adults” who started this mess.

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